Flowers

We went to Dalia Hill as a family once, then again a second time because for once, I hadn't brought my camera!!! Yeah, it scared me too. It just solidified the truth of one of Sam's lines in The Lord of the Rings "I knew I'd want it if I hadn't got it." I think I've learned my lesson now, but weren't these pictures worth the second trip? Of course, that place is so beautiful it's hard to get bad shots. ;) Thank God for his variety in flowers.

Survival in the not-so-wild

So what does a boy do when he wants to build a bonfire and survive in the wild, but you live in the middle of a suburban neighborhood? He builds a small pan fire in the driveway with the help of his dad and some neighborhood friends of course! It was actually a fairly attractive little fire. The way the pine needles turned from black to white reminded me a little of Cruella Devil.

Baseball

What's a more classic way to spend a summer evening than to have a hamburger grill and then head out for a baseball game? We had a bunch of people from Church over to our house before the game. Of course, we left before the helicopter came to spread money and Indy apparently rode away with our team mascot, but we did have a good time nonetheless.

A few of the funniest moments were, first off, when I slipped into engineer realm, which has happened to me more and more often recently.I wondered where the sprinkler system was and mom laughed and said Dad was rubbing off on me. At another point Dad was sitting and my friend behind us climbed down beside him. "Came to sit by me?" Dad asked. "No, I can't see around your head," he answered. ;) Fun times. Lots of other great stuff happened, and the game was good. Now I know why the pass time of baseball has survived all these years.

Good friends

I had the privilege of spending some time with my friends this past week. Ash, Nicole, Becky and I all went to the mall together. They're going off to college, I'm really going to miss them. It's been a good friendship. Sarah too is off to college. Here she is with a few of herself. We were doing thank you cards for her graduation party. Each of the cards needed a senior picture, so there were a lot of her staring at me! It was a good time. Thanks to all of you gals who hang with me, and write pirate stories with me. Though the chapter may close, the story must go on. Farewell, sister ships!

Swimming with the neighbors

It

Last Sunday was the time for the annual swim with our neighbors. They've got a fabulous pool. It is cold, but the hot tub is nice and hot, so we can keep an all around balanced temperature. Of course, something had to go wrong and the light came out in the hot tub, but with two Dads, it was fixed in no time! The moms had a nice time chatting, and the kids had fun swimming with the dads and eating. Thanks for the good time!

Creations

Top change: Janelle and Andrew stand in our tree house. Janelle added the burlap curtains and the room divider. Dad made a new roof after a branch punched through the old one. He even added a skylight we can open! What a great guy.

Middle Change: Andrew and our neighbor made a go-cart from boards, lawnmower parts, string, and a church seat we were going to get rid of. Of course, it has no motor, so someone has to pull. Still a good time.

Bottom pic- apologies to Joanna whose picture is not here. Don't use this device as a projectile in anger please. Anyway, we had a writers party, I provided comic relief and Stephanie and Joanna provided music, ideas and a setting for the first ever Everwick Sisters conference. Writers unite!

Guess Who

Strange things happen when the kids are left for the afternoon. We were bored, and so pulled out the old collection of webkinz and did everything imaginable that would make an interesting pic or video. The top photo is all our WK's poised to be shoved down the stairs in a flood of plush. The other one is one of my sibs buried under them. Guess Who! Whoever guesses right gets a great prize, they win! Other ideas included putting a littlekinz into a gumball dispenser, thus rendering it a webkinz dispenser, balancing them on top of doors and slotting them between each stair rail pole and pushing them out in succession. What a fun afternoon!

Fair Fun

Hooray for the fair! It's one of my favorite events each year. Ashley and I have gone together for the last three years and I've been going with my family for much longer than that! This year my sibs brought friends too. You can see them all in the top photo. The boys were good sports and agreed to let me put that great photo of them on the merry-go-round on my blog. I took several pictures while rides were in motion. We also saw the produce and horses, all very nice for those invovled. But my favorite part of the day was when we went out for dinner afterwards. Andrew dropped his fork when the waitress was trying to ask him if he wanted a refill on his orange juice, and she kept getting answers like, "It's okay, it didn't poke me" and "My fork is fine."

The Last Day!!!

The last day, what a packed two weeks. Not relaxing, but fun and educational definitely! We stopped at the Eerie Canal museum. That was a very good stop, quite interesting and educational. A well-thought-out museum. It was in the last weigh house left. That's where they used to weigh boats to find out the toll. They had a model of how they'd do that, and Dad and Andrew had "fun with levers" figuring out how it worked. Engineers... There was a cool mock-up boat in the weigh house the you could walk inside. The saddest thing, I thought, was that it has been filled in, the street is where the canal should have been. People gave their lives for the canal and then, poof! Something better comes along and all that work is left to be filled in. Just goes to show that whatever you try to do in life, it will fade. Someone will inherit your money if you become rich, someone will build a bigger bridge, someone will make a better movie and yours will collect dust on a shelf, BUT WHAT YOU DO FOR THE LORD WILL STAND, and only that is what remains: what we do in love.

Getting back to lighter topics, we stopped at Niagara falls. Why is there not a picture of me in a poncho, you ask? Because I do not like ponchos!!! I refused to have my picture taken looking like I'm in a plastic bag. ;) Though one or two were sneakily taken, you can be sure of that, even some guy from Florida took a few of me with my camera, he though it was funny, and you can trust Andrew's shot will turns up somewhere unexpected. The rest of the family looks so cute in them though! And that last shot of Niagara, don't tell me pics from the bottom aren't ten times better. That is my last breathtaking shot of that wonderful trip. The sun lighting up the falls and creating a dazzling rainbow, even as storm clouds gather in the background.

Family Travels, Vermont

Driving, driving, driving. We drove a lot that day! Only two short stops. One to see this the longest covered bridge and another to see where the Appalachian trail is up here. Remember, we walked a part of it on our last visit to Georgia! And it continues up there. It's a long hike.

Family Travels cont.

From where Paul Revere began to where he ended. We were at Concord on that Tuesday, exactly a week from when I am writing this. We saw monuments for all the wars. The top one is for the Revolutionary battle that took place there. Below is the Manse house. Emerson's grandfather lived there, and later Emerson himself wrote poetry. I though it was really cool that Hawthorne lived there too.

Boston at last! The first stop was the swan boats in the garden, then on to the duck tours! we saw a lot of stuff, and it was all humorous as the guide explained it. Did you know there was a molasses flood once? Some people drown and elevated train tracks were destroyed in Boston when a huge tower of molasses burst. What a mess! They say when the breeze is right, you can still smell it today! I really liked Boston, it was a wonderful city.

Pictures, top to bottom: Us in Old North Church, (we sat where Roosevelt did), Statue of Revere, Where the tea party was, (of course they're ripping up the old dock and modifying it), pretty building, my family checking directions in the shelter of the science museum, duck tour boat, Bridge, Swan Boats.

Sunday, finally a day of rest! We worshipped with a local PCA Church. It was very friendly, but I miss my Church Family, it's nice to be back!In the morning we saw Plymouth Rock and a nice monument, but after Church we hit the beach at Cape Cod. They have some great waves! Andrew and I tried body-surfing, but there are some sharp rocks on the bottom. We left with wounds to prove our bravery, but it was all worth it.

Family Travels - 5

We did a lot of driving on that rainy day. States include Conetticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. We stopped in Rhode Island to tour a mansion. It was in a neighborhood of mansions, and they were all gorgeous!! However, we only had time to stop a Marble House. It had a lot of, you guessed it, Marble! Different types imported from different countries. It was very extravagant. They had audio tours for a house, imagine having audio tours for a house you'd lived in! The sad thing was that the designer of the house got it as a gift from her husband and was all for women's rights, but was very hypocritical. While she fought to let women vote and do what they wanted, her daughter was bossed around with very little freedom, marrying whom her mom chose and many female maids toiled in the kitchen beneath her feet.