Whitney


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…)

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…)

Whitney has had long hair for a long time. She has been trying to grow it out to donate it to Locks of Love and finally decided the time had come to cut it off. She spent some time on the Internet to find a style she like, and the had someone come cut it. She actually would have preferred it to be a lot shorter, but we figured she should try this first. She really likes the haircut and is excited by how well it turned out.

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.
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This is a pretty old topic, but the pictures are funny. The kids wanted to build gingerbread houses, and Heidi and I helped them. We had girls against boys, and I think if you look at the pictures it will be easy to tell who built which ones. Me and Mason started off relatively normal, but we soon felt the need to make certain additions. We stuck a giant beetle on one side, built a face on the other (and made the face eating someone, complete with blood) and then made other animals and Lego people surround the house. We had an “M” for Mason on the roof and a vicious dog.

Whitney and Heidi’s was more traditional, with a beautiful blue lake and a cute dog and lots of pretty icicles. It also had a very nice wreath over the front door.

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…)

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