Our summer.....

Well, once again it is time for school to start and summer has gone by in a blur.  I have very few pictures to show for it too. The older the kids get, the more they dislike Mom's camera so I don't remember to get it out like I should.

Here are some highlights from July & August....

- In July, we all went to Hartville, Ohio, to our church conference.
- Darryn was gone for about 10 days to Alaska visiting his cousin, Kayla.
- In August, the other 4 kids were away to a camp with our church youth.
- With Darryn in Alaska and the rest at camp, Lyn & I had 4 days at home with no kids here!
- We took 3 days (in a row) to do some day trips for a little vacation this year with a few pics to prove it.

The first day we went to Chincoteague Island.  Dwight & Devan had been camping with friends for a few days down in the southern tip of the penisula.  Driving to Chincoteague was about 2/3 of the way there so it was a good place to meet the boys.  We had lunch at a "hippie" lunch stand.  The kids thought the hammocks in the trees were pretty cool.

We did spend about an hour sitting on the beautiful beach before we met up with the boys.

And then for the evening we went to a dirt racetrack which is near the southern DE line.  Some friends met us there so that made it more fun even if it was a bit too loud to talk the whole time.

The second day we drove about 2 hrs. to the west side of D.C.  Someone told us about Great Falls National Park which we had never heard of.  It is only about 10 min. off the D.C. beltway and the Potomac River runs through it.  There is a "waterfall" area and some nice hiking trials.  We would like to go back again sometime and hike the other side of the river which has a separate park entrance.

We had some extra time so we stopped in at the Smithsonian National Zoo on the way home.  I got pictures of the 2 most interesting things we saw.

A mouse-deer type of critter

A lion king that stood up and gave us a couple of loud roars

By the end of the day, the kids were getting silly and were having fun running around and posing by the animal statues.

On the third day everyone was ready to sleep in and we had laundry to catch up on.  In the afternoon we headed for the Cowtown Rodeo in New Jersey which is just over a hour drive.  On the way, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for supper.  Someone had given us gift cards.  That turned out to be a bad experience.  It took them forever to wait on us.  Finally half of us got food and it was lukewarm.  They were mostly done eating before the others got their food.  We had gotten in traffic earlier and then with the slowness at the restaurant, we were running late and afraid there wouldn't be any seats left at the rodeo.  We took the last meals mostly to go and thankfully found some seats.  Once we were seated about 7:10, we realized the rodeo started at 7:30, not 7:00, and we could have breathed a little easier.  On the plus side, Cracker Barrel did cut our bill in half!

I know I took my camera to the rodeo.  I guess it must have stayed in my bag because there is not one picture from it!  Aaagh!!!

The next day was Darryn's last Sunday here at home so he and Ericka invited a group of friends over to play volleyball, swim and eat.  The rest of us hung out down at the pond with them.  It wasn't really the same as getting away for vacation, but it was ok for this year.  And we got to check out some "new" things for us not too far away from home.