Jason

Archived Posts from this Category

Thu 22 Jul 2010

The Desert

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Holidays and Vacations , Jason , Mason , Whitney
No Comments 

One of the highlights of every trip to Idaho is the trip to Craters of the Moon. We have been going there for many years and always have fun looking at the rocks and playing in the caves. This year we made a slight detour to EBR-1, which is where nuclear power was first used to power a lightbulb (which is still on display). It is a lot of fun and the kids had a good time there. They got to play with the manipulators and pretend they were handling radioactive waste. It was a pretty interesting place and fun to go to when there aren’t a lot of other people there.

Finally, we finished our trip by eating at Pickles Place, where you can get deep fried pickles. I made the kids try them but neither were terribly impressed, which I was OK with because then (more…)

 

Fri 16 Jul 2010

Camping at City of Rocks

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Holidays and Vacations , Jason , Mason , Whitney
No Comments 

On our recent trip to Idaho, the first activity after arrival and resting was to go camping at City of Rocks. We had never been there before, but Steve and his family go all the time and they really like it. Both Mason and Whitney like to rock climb–or at least practice rock climbing–and were dying to try the real thing.

We got there and got set up and then went to work having fun. Mason and Seth and Caleb tried to stick smoking sticks down vole holes in the ground to “smoke them out” and very few square inches of skin got burned in the process.

We climbed up to the top of a big pile of rocks, where I was sure that at least one broken (more…)

 

Sun 7 Mar 2010

Great Falls Park, Maryland Side

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Jason , Mason , Whitney
No Comments 

A few weeks ago we decided to go on an expedition. We have been to the Virginia side of Great Falls National Park several times but had never been to the Maryland side before. So we took a day and drove up.

The weather was pretty nice; it wasn’t too hot or cold but was kind of windy. We walked down the path by the canal and by several locks. Eventually we veered off the path and down into the rocks by the river. The kids (we had Abby that day so there were three kids) had a lot of fun climbing and scrambling on the boulders.

Eventually we found Billy Goat Trail. It is almost 5 miles long, and can be quite tricky in places. Of course Mason loved it, but the girls did pretty good as well. Whitney had a pretty bad fall when she was heading down a slippery slope of rock, tripped and almost went facefirst into a rock but somehow she stopped herself.

We ate a little lunch while taking a break about halfway through the trail and made it back to the car, which was about 1 miles too far away, cause they kids were really dragging. Between the Billy Goat Trail and the other trails we went on it was a lot of walking even for me. Pictures follow the break.
(more…)

 

Tue 10 Nov 2009

Jason and Heidi’s Cruise

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Holidays and Vacations , Jason
No Comments 

Me and Heidi decided to go on a cruise for an anniversary vacation. We had gone on a cruise before, and had a very good time, but the last time we cruised out of Orlando so had to drive all the way down there and all the way back. This time, we found a seven day cruise out of Baltimore for about the same price as the other cruise a couple years ago.

We started out on the first day, Sunday, in Baltimore and started heading south. Our first stop was in Orlando, but we wouldn’t be there until Wednesday morning. Full PostSo we spend the first two and a half days at sea. The water was pretty choppy at first, but it didn’t make either of us sick. We had a very good time all the way down. Our boat was the Carnival Pride, which is a very nice boat and we had a balcony, which we slept out on one night. The food was really good, and we each bought an all you can drink pop card. I figured out how many pops we needed to drink each day in order to break even so I drank at least that many each day.

We got to the beach in Orlando, which is very nice but would be a lot better if (more…)

 

Wed 14 Oct 2009

Camping at Belle Isle

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Holidays and Vacations , Jason , Mason , Whitney
No Comments 

Over the Columbus Day weekend, we celebrated the discovery of America by discovering a new camping spot, Belle Isle State Park, or “Bell Al” park as the natives would say. We set up our camp in good time. The kids both brought capes, so they each had assistance from capes. We went on several hikes. The paths at Belle Isle aren’t very difficult; they are mostly tractor roads. But they are quite deserted and scenic.

Sunday night a fellow camper gave a presentation on astronomy, and brought along a powerful telescope. We all got to see the moons of Jupiter and a galaxy that is the farthest object visible. Mason was hoping it was the Star Wars galaxy.

We also went out along the river bank and on the way back found a copperhead snake that had recently been run over. So, we did what Columbus would have done and ate it. Seriously, we ate roadkill. At least (more…)

 

Mon 21 Sep 2009

Trip to Arboretum

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Jason , Mason , Whitney
No Comments 

This past weekend we got kind of bored and decided to do something fun. We had never been to the National Arboretum, so thought it would be interesting. I figured it would be good for a couple hours. Once we got there I was surprised by how cool it was. I was kind of worried that the kids would think it was just like a zoo, only a zoo where the animals didn’t move. And where they were actually plants. So not very cool. So the fish were a welcome diversion, but they loved the plants as well. We spent most of our time in the bonsai tree section, which really entertained the kids. But even beyond that, they liked the other sections as well. Overall it was a well spent afternoon and we definitely could have spend more than just a couple hours there. Lots of pictures after the break. (more…)

 

Next Page »