Spring Break Road Trip 2012, Part 2: North Carolina

This picture was taken minutes before we headed to our truck and started our drive home.

After hooking up the lawn mower to our truck in WV, we headed back down I-81 and U.S. 29 towards my sister's house in central North Carolina.  I blew through her place -- stopping overnight in each direction -- driving to and from NY last summer, but this time we get to spend a few days in the area...and this was Dave's first trip back since we moved away in July 2008.

My sister and I always have great times when we get together.  We often stay up late and talk talk talk until we're falling asleep on each other!  We discuss books, movies and music and catch up on gossip.  I didn't take any pictures, we sat at her kitchen table and folded origami cranes while we talked.

The kids take off like a pack of wolves and only need grownups' attention when they're hungry or hurt.  It's actually rather relaxing, believe it or not.

My dear sister made us a cake!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at a new park in Hillsborough.  Several of us took runs around the 2/3-mile-long track that circles the park.

The little ones played on the playground.

Swinging!

Running, complete with iPod!

Dave liked this park: check out the view he had of this NC Amtrak train!  He on the small hill on the right side of this picture, also photographing it.

Wouldn't you know it -- we had scooters and helmets in the truck!  The kids took turns riding around.

Time for an iPod break.

Soccer!

My sister's boys have a trampoline on their property. My boys couldn't get enough of it!

My sister kept the boys while Dave and I had a morning to ourselves to browse Trader Joe's and Southern Season in Chapel Hill.  Money was spent.

Southern Season: These are just jams and jellies!

Dave was enjoying the fun wine section.

Cake decorating supplies!!!!  I bought some non-pareil cows.  I don't have immediate plans to make a cow-themed cake, but you never know....

I've taken enough pictures of Trader Joe's -- I feel like a dork when I do it.  But I did photograph this beer that we used to get.  We elected not to attempt taking alcohol across NC/SC/GA/AL/FL.

Before we hit the road on Saturday for a partial drive home, we enjoyed watching my oldest nephew's soccer game in Mebane.

One more post is forthcoming about last week -- all the other friends we had a chance to see on this trip!  Stay tuned!

Spring Break Road Trip 2012, Part 1: West Virginia and a Circus

Last week was the kids' Spring Break.  The family headed up to West Virginia to visit my parents, thanks to their offer for us to take their riding lawn mower.  My Dad bought it 1-2 years ago, but they don't use it much.  I guess they felt sorry for us with our larger-than-necessary lawn...which I discussed last year when I measured how many miles I had walked to cut my lawn with our 22" wide mower.

We drove a VERY long day on Saturday.  Thanks to some Choice Hotel loyalty points, we got a free hotel room in Roanoke and were at my parents by Sunday at lunchtime.

My parents had arranged a nice surprise for the boys: a trip to the circus!

This is a circus that set up in a gymnasium.  Small, but for the kids, it was a lot of fun!

The Walker Brothers Circus travels around the eastern United States.  It's a very small operation, with the ringmaster taking our tickets at the front door, and the acrobats selling concessions when they aren't actively performing.  The entire event is very small, unlike the larger Ringling Brothers circuses, so there were several chances to personally interact with the performers.

Ever see those free tickets at local grocery stores?  That's the type of circus we went to.

The boys enjoyed the bouncy house before the circus, and the assorted acts.  My parents got them cotton candy and toy light sabers.

Waiting for the show to start.

He loves cotton candy!

The ringleader blew fireballs!

This is Gianni -- balancing on tubes. 

A hula hoop act.

I was having a hard time with the camera from the distance we were sitting, so I stopped after this point.

The rest of our visit, we relaxed and hung out.  Dave and Timmy went to the Baltimore area to visit one of Dave's friends' train stores, and he met a friend for lunch.  Jacob and I spent a day shopping with my Mom, which was fun.  Jacob desperately needed some new running shoes, so he was stuck with us girls for the day.

We also drove out to the Washington, D.C. suburbs to visit some friends for dinner, but that's for another post.

Timmy and my parents all got sick during our visit.  That was pretty icky, unfortunately.

Mid-week, we loaded my parents' lawn mower on a U-Haul trailer and made the drive down to North Carolina, where we visited with my sister.

Parked at a Cracker Barrel on the way down to central NC.

Apples to Apples -- What Fun!

Jacob received several gift cards for his birthday.  Unfortunately, things were so hectic after his birthday, between my two reserve tours and then Dave's surgery, we sorta forgot about them.

With Grammy and Grampy Vollmer visiting, we made a trip to Pensacola today so Jacob could visit Toys R Us and spend his gift card.  Jacob immediately chose the game Apples to Apples Junior and I am so happy about this choice.  He said they play it at school and he really enjoys it.

Tonight we played and it was SO MUCH FUN!  The winner is supposed to have won the round 5 times, but we just played still we didn't feel like it anymore, so the winner had won 23 times.  Dave and I had played the grown-up version with friends in Nebraska and this version is tailored to 9-12 year olds.  There's still some GREAT humor in the game even for this age group.

Over the past few months, Jacob and Timmy have been really getting good about playing card games, board games, and even chess together!  They typically will last a good 30 minutes before one of them either gets bored or else doesn't get his way and stomps away mad.  I'll take 30 minutes!

Veteran's Day Deals for 2011

My military spouse blogger friend at Wife of a Sailor has published a thorough list of military promotions for Veteran's Day.  This list had circulated among currently-serving servicemembers' e-mail accounts this past week.

Check out the list here!

You'll see that many businesses actually offer their promotions year round (such as Anheuser-Busch theme parks, Lowe's, and Home Depot) and the National Park Service's Veteran's Day weekend promotion is for everyone.

Fall 2011 Cub Scout Family Camp

This past weekend our family headed to the Spanish Trail Scout Reservation near Defuniak Springs and had a weekend campout.

The scout council here calls it "Cub Scout Family Camp" and it's a great weekend.  Three weekends in October were made available expressly for Cub Scout-friendly activities.  Any Cub Scout families could register for any of the weekends they wanted, but our pack in Navarre elected to go as a group to the Columbus Day weekend event.

Last spring I had to leave the camping one evening early so I could run that half marathon, but this time I got to enjoy the Saturday night bonfire and skit show.  What fun!!!

I made a cherry-dark chocolate dump cake (similar to this recipe that I did back in June, but with "dark chocolate" cake mix) on Friday night and was a hit with the families in Jacob's den.

Jacob took a fall from the stack of palettes sitting behind our campsite (you'll see them pictured below).  A group of boys was playing and too many boys ended up on the palettes and Jacob fell into our camp chairs.  There are suspicions that he was pushed, but no one saw for sure so there's little we can do about that.  He got bruised up, but we had the doctor check him out earlier this week just for good measure.  All is well.

The members of our pack who came on the Saturday morning group hike.  Jacob's on the far left, Timmy's in orange.

There's a "monkey bridge" across a creek.  Miss Chris (one of the den leaders) is in the water playing spotter.

I'm so glad neither boy fell into the water...although Timmy dunked his shoes into the water later on after crossing the bridge.  He had some closed-toe Keen sandals that he wore the rest of the weekend.

At the BB Gun range.

Dave helping Timmy.

Timmy was able to earn his BB Gun belt loop this past weekend (and Archery too!)

Timmy with some other Tiger Scouts (and a soon-to-be Tiger).

Dave making dinner.  We're glad we brought the shelter, it did sprinkle on us some Saturday night. Note the palettes stacked behind us (they're for Boy Scout summer camp).  Note the kid standing on them on the left right.  Note the Dad with the laptop -- listening to the Virginia Tech game (it was a SQUEAKER!)

Getting ready for the evening skit.

Nice photobomb, Timmy!

Fried potatoes and onions -- can't go wrong there!

I made tacos for Saturday evening dinner.  I never thought to do it on a campout before, but it's amazingly easy -- all you have to cook is the ground beef!

This is the evening bonfire, the kids are dancing around it.

My only glimpse of Timmy -- and my phone's battery died after that.  Not bad...it stayed alive for about 40 hours.

Howie - Our Photographic Challenge!

Photo by Fotomom.

While Maryann AKA Fotomom was here visiting last week she took a really sweet picture of Howie in our kitchen.  After she got home this week, she took some time to dress up the picture and wrote a lovely blog post about him and how she made the great picture!

Photographers have been challenged many times with Howie.  Here are a couple of the not-so-great professional family pictures with Howie.

November 2002.

October 2005.

Howie does a good job with sitting still and letting the camera do his thing (hint: just say the magic word, "WALK?" and he'll look right at you attentively!), if only he showed up better-looking...Maryann got it right by taking advantage of the white-colored setting.