The Last Stop

The Creation Museum was our last real stop on the way home. It was nice, except for the minor accident when Andrew was attacked by the metal dinosaur as pictured far above. ;) Another thing that struck my funny bone was the signs. For instance, "thou shall not touch, please" and in the bathroom, "this stall is currently out of order, we do live in a fallen world, we will try to restore order here as soon as possible." We not only got to see the exhibits, we got to walk the botanical gardens. It was a good stop. Many thanks to my science teacher who provided the passes!!

Where we stayed

We camped at the Kentucky Horse park! It is the home of the Rolex and also where Breyerfest is held. Of course we missed it by a day... sigh. I am an avid collector myself. Anyway, it was nice to be there. We didn't actually tour the whole premise, but we did look at some of the statues and plaques that you could reach without paying, we are dutch after all! Plus, we were in a hurry to get to our next and last stop...

Four Days into the Trip...

Monday, we actually visited the college. I got to talk to the English Professor and the Art Prof. It was a really nice campus, though some dorms were nicer than others. All in all, I liked it a lot. Will I go there? Don't know. I've still got a lot of life to live before then.

After the College we saw the Inclined Railroad, then it was off to the road again, we had to make the campsite by evening. Which campsite? Tune in tomorrow to find out! A hint, it's something I like a lot...

Third Day

Sunday, we went to a Church (PCA) down in Tennessee. After that we went up to the Appalachian trail. It is gorgeous out there! The pictures this time speak for themselves. Except the one of Andrew and Dad by the hole in the rocks. Andrew thought it would be a good survival shelter for Bear Grylls. Another cool thing? Our water bottles compressed with the change in altitude.

The Second Day

The college vacation continued on Saturday. We drove to Kentucky, dropped off the trailer, and picked up both North and South Carolina for our map of "States we've vacationed in."

In Carolina, we saw this lovely butterfly, I took a few close-ups of it's pretty wings, this one's blurry, but it shows the color best. It's amazing what you can find at gas stations.

Down where we vacationed there were these weird climbing plants that made normal trees look like sculptures. I liked it!

My last few unexplained pictures were in Tennessee. It was loud down there with all the bugs and birds and cicadas and such. These pics are of Andrew and Janelle by the "Happy Camper". It looked like it was smiling. You can see it better on the close up nearer the bottom.

Day One

We're back! it was a really nice trip, and because I have so many pictures, shutterbug that I am, I will spread this vacation over several posts. Day one, we drove all the way to Kentucky. That was a long drive, but it was fun. The first campsite had a wii! It was free (lucky for us frugal dutch men) so we gave it a try. We played guitar hero (just the clean songs they offer, don't panic). We even got Mom and Dad to give it a try. They did good. The pool was really fun, though I sat on the sideline a lot and read my book Shipwrecks and Survivors on the Great Lakes. It's a real page turner. I am beginning to realize I may have read too much at one time, though, whenever I got splashed or heard a ring from Dad's cell, my first thought was abandon ship! We're going down! We slept to the lovely sound of Kentucky crickets.

Scottish Highland

Some friends introduced us to Highland Dancing. Wow, is it tiring! It used to be only Scottish men could do it because it is so physically demanding. I am learning that dancing is an art you can always improve on. We finished learning the Highland Fling! I can now stumble though an entire dance! Yay! Anyway, it's been good exercise and I am getting into much better shape. I am the over exuberant dancer in the far corner, hey, they say to jump high... don't worry, this is the beginning of the class, my jumps are much lower by the end. ;)

My Summer

Once upon a time, before I had a blog, school let out and several interesting stories began the summer with a bang. What a pity I didn't have a blog then, but I can fill you in now. However, there are too many pictures to choose from, so here's the tire swing for your enjoyment. Isn't it a picture of a blissful summer?

Well the family reunion at Ludington was cancelled in June because of the fact that there was flooding and power outages at the park, not to mention the sewers were backed up, so we had to make quick plans to stay elsewhere. We did have a nice time where we did camp, but I do miss that side of my family!

Another misadventure was the "Welcome Summer" party. Of course, it rained! We ate inside on picnic blankets until the sun came out just long enough for some swimming.

And for all the pet sitting nightmares out there, the last thing you want to realize when you are in charge of animal's life is that you don't have the key to the house! The best plan is to hope they have nice neighbors!

Now imagine mowing a lawn that hasn't been mowed for two weeks or more. It's so thick that you can only make two rows before needing to empty the bag. Now picture it in the middle of a thunderstorm. Add the fact that this rain is clotting the grass and causing your mower to clog. Put in some allergies. Now imagine you stop the mower to empty the bag and when trying to start it, the starting chord breaks and you realize you are in for an interesting night!

Well, there's my summer misadventures. I hope your summer is going equally well...or hopefully better :)

Hidden Flower

Bright spot of yellow on a blanket of green

Lives a meager year and is never seen

Not destined to be woven in a dreaming child's crown

Not meant to be admired, Not meant to be found

None stand above it but ancient, towering trees

None stop to touch it but pollinating bees

What could be the purpose of a flower hidden away

That rises known to no man, and wilts in heat of day?

What could be the purpose of a flower, oh so small

It's to bring glory and pleasure to the ruling king of all

Who takes delight in knowing millions of things

Unknown by greatest scholars and uncontrolled by earthly kings

Orange Julius

This was a great drink for a hot day! It's called Orange Julius and it's not too hard to make. Mom and Janelle can do it in the time it takes me to swap outfits, not that I'm quick as a whip choosing which outfit to wear next, but it's not too long. ;) Here's the recipe if you're interested.

1/4 C. Frozen Orange Juice

4 tsp sugar

1/3 C. water

1/3 C. Milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

4-8 Ice cubes

Put ingredients into blender and blend on high. You can make Popsicles out of the left overs- they're good too! It's like orange juice in smoothie form with little pieces of ice floating around in it. Yum!

Speed Racers

What a lot of fun can be in a cereal box! Because of that new movie, Speed Racers, we found a car in our Cinnamon Toast Crunch. We built a ramp with an empty cereal box on the table and then launched the car with a placemat when it reached the floor. Why? Because we can. It gave us a morning of enjoyment- all for free! Here you can get in on the action.

A poem I wrote for English

The Library: An extended comparison

A library is like a coral reef
Some divers explore it thoroughly
Earnestly
Searching for hidden treasures among the rocks

Some visitors are more like bright little fish
Flitting happily among the coral for the sheer joy of it
Nipping little bits here
and there
When it strikes their fancy

Others drift aimlessly about
Indifferent of oblivious to the rich beauty around them
Doing nothing not deemed necessary for survival
Having no desire to go deeper than they have to

Which visitor are you?

Well, here's the new fad around my house. I introduced Andrew to this series called Artemis Fowl (It's a sci-fi fantasy sort of thing. It involves fairies, so you'd think it would be a fantasy, but the fairies are so high tech you'd think they were from another planet, so who knows what genre it is.) Anyway, Andrew was inspired by the paranoid computer genius centaur, Foaly, who wears a tin foil hat to prevent his mind from being read. Andrew decided to make a tin hat of his own. He's on his second now. Here he models it with Janelle by a brick wall. After seeing the wonders of tin foil, she decided to make a tin hat of her own - Sherlock Holmes style. (If anyone knows where to get a real Sherlock Holmes hat, I'd be glad to know). She recently finished the Complete Sherlock Holmes, volume one and two. They were really thick and I'm so proud she got through them. A reader after my own heart! Here's to all the fashionable readers out there! ;)

A backyard beach

So what does my family do when it's a Sunday evening with no evening service? Build a beach in the back yard, of course! Well, that's what we did tonight. We had a kiddie pool we got from a rummage sale, so we dug a space for it in the sandbox and filled it up with water. A few beach chairs and towels, and we were in business! But my favorite touch was my idea - ocean sounds! Rolling waves with seagulls I had loaded on to my ipod. With the help of Andrew's speakers, you could almost feel the salty breeze. We grilled hot dogs and roasted s'mores (Also in the grill) for the end of one of the most relaxing evenings I've had in a long time. *sigh*

What a nice fourth of July! I will tell the story of my day from finish to start. Why? Because that's the order in which I loaded the pictures. And I can. The last thing that happened was the fireworks, which were, of course, what we had been looking forward to all day. The top picture is a firework, believe it or not. This is zoomed in and my "fireworks" setting is a sort of time lapse so you can see it spreading across the sky. A little unusual, but aren't the colors beautiful?

The flag in the next picture behind the hosts is not British, it is American. (And it's upright thanks to the blog-savvy lady standing in front of it, thanks again!). It's called the Grand Union, I believe. It was an early flag. There was a competition who could name that flag, but you had to name it correctly, just Bob or Sally wouldn't do. ;)

The people whose house we went had a great pool and we enjoyed it immensely. Stephanie and Joanna came a long way to be there and I am glad to have seen them - it's been awhile since we watched Caspian when it came out! We gave Deborah dolphin rides. Perhaps I'll post a video pf Stephanie's impression of Flipper the dolphin some day soon...

Even before that wonderful party, I went to another graduation party. This time for Sarah. I got to celebrate with her and work the crowd. Ashley came too, and I was glad to see her as well, even if it's only been two weeks since school let out... I already miss my friends!

There was plenty of food both places, so we started and ended the day very satisfied! Sarah is by her dogs' son in the bottom picture with my family enjoying the plentiful food in the background.

This was a great Fourth of July. Though sometimes I think we forget why it's a holiday, it's because of our country, so even if we don't have such a good time, there's still reason to celebrate. We have our freedom. May the fireworks continue to raise year after year and may God bless America and give it's leaders wisdom.

Well, my friends are graduating whether I want them to move away or not, and I am certainly proud of them. Of course this adds up to a lot of graduation parties. I went to Nicole's recently. It was Hawaiian themed, and it was great! At least I get food out of all this graduation stuff ;)

The top picture was her display. She made the pink Homecoming dress herself! I was pleased to see that lots of the pictures on her slide show were taken by yours truly! No wonder she calls me her paparazzi.

The next is the graduate herself (sideways cuz I can't figure out to rotate it.)

The next is my Father. This is payback for how often he messes up my photos. I have the misfortune of a camera with two flashes, between the first and the last he changes position. You have no idea how many empty doorways and strange faces I have collected in my photo archives!

Of course Andrew was most interested in the motor bike (or dirt bike, who knows the correct term). He and Nicole's brother had a good time too.

Congratulations Graduates!!