Water Country USA

Our purpose for going camping this weekend was to go to Water Country USA in Williamsburg, VA. Each year, Anheuser Busch gives military families (up to 4 members) one free entry into one of their parks. This is called Salute to the Heroes. We have been to Busch Garden roller coaster park and Sea World in the past couple of years. The kids were so excited to be going to be on water rides ALL day. Fortunately, we picked the perfect day to go. It wasn't too crowded and the weather worked out wonderfully.

Looking at the park map, it didn't look like we would be there all day. To our surprise, we didn't leave until almost 8:00 pm. We learned that we need to invest in a water-proof camera to be able to take cool water pictures. Needless to say, we don't have any good pictures.

DW, DD and I had a blast ALL day. DS decided to wait until early evening to have fun. Once he decided he enjoyed the fast ones, we had a hard time keeping him off of them. I don't think I have ever climbed so many steps in one day. I guess you need to go up for gravity to work properly.

It turned out to be a good weekend, except for sleep (see earlier post for explenation).

Free TV!!

I was reading my friends at 50 Toes blog and read about another blogging site giving away this free TV. You can check out the TV at this website. It is called 5 minutes for mom. It looks like a neat site that I will read more about. Best Buy is funding this free 37" flat screen HDTV. It looks nice and would be great for upcoming football season!

Our tv works fine too, 50 Toes, but someone must win!

Food Service Update!

Well, Carrabbas was the highly reccommended dinner choice for Friday night. After the LACK of service we had at Sonic and Cracker Barrel, our expectations were high that we would break the trend. We were able to call ahead for seating and still had to wait several minutes for our seat (I was OK with that). Once we sat down, we weren't given a kids menu, so I went to ask for one. They were all out, but were looking for some. We sat, and sat, and sat until I was probably getting red, so DW went to ask "WHERE IS MY SERVER!!!!". I guess, there was some miscommunication and we were finally being helped. The girl was nice and appologized for the delay. There were a couple of other issues we had, but they were minor. When it was all done, we had a delightful meal. If you ever want good service, I suggest not going to dinner with us. It seems we are jinxed. The service at Le Gough has been WONDERFUL as well as the food (the main chef keeps asking for larger tips, but I refuse).

As for the trains, we quit counting after Friday night. Within 1 hour, we had 5 go by. I can sleep through a lot of noise, but I had a hard time with those trains. We came home from church today and all took naps. I sure needed it.

TRAIN UPDATE #2

During the hours at the camper, we had several trains pass again. I think I would adjust to the noise, but when my "house" shakes, I feel like we live in earthquake central.

2045
2230
0145
0210
0225
1015
1700
1710
1720

That covers Thursday evening through Friday afternoon. I was told that there are 4 coal trains each night (2 full, 2 empty). There was also an Amtrak that just went by. Seems to be a major train "highway".

We seem to be having major issues with food service since being here. First was the Sonic a couple of days ago. Today, we went to one of our family favorites, Cracker Barrel, and didn't have very good service. We are going to try one last time tonight at Carrabba's. Hopefully, this will be much better.

TRAIN UPDATE!

0215- Short one
0600- LONG ONE
0845- Medium one

More updates to follow

We found one!!!!

We decided this weekend to take advantage of the Anheuser-Busch Salute to the Heroes. On Thursday, we are going to Busch Garden Water Country USA. So reservations were made at Anvil Campgrounds in Williamsburg, VA. It is a small, clean campground, BUT, the back of our camper is RIGHT NEXT to a train track. As we have been sitting here for the past 1/2 hour or so, there have been 3 trains. One was pretty long (almost 2 minutes of camper shaking), but the other 2 were not TOO bad. We will have to see how our sleeping goes.

While driving to the campground, Alec shouted out "Hey, there's a SONIC!" We unhooked the camper as fast as possible and headed out to get great burgers and drinks. Excitement was in the air and expectations were high when we pulled in. Unfortunately, we did not have the blissful experience that 50 Toes seems to have. The girl on the other side of that noise box was not very friendly and didn't take our entire order. I proceeded to push the red button, and she cut me off a couple of times. FINALLY, we were able to put the rest of the order in. As I was finishing with the order, the first part got brought out to us. We waited for the rest (and waited, and waited, and waited). Eventually, I asked someone about our order, and they had no idea we didn't get our food. Then there was major confusion with what was delivered to us. Finally, the manager came out and took care of it. Once we were able to eat, it was WONDERFUL. I can expect to see that place a couple of more times while here.

We will try to update the train situation later.

Why mommies don't take sick days!


You will have to click on the picture to see it, but we know SEVERAL mommies that this applies to.

Toby Mac

Our family has become Toby Mac fans. He is a christian rap artist. Alec & I discovered he is going to be nearby in Virginia in September. Tickets went on sale this past Sunday for the Awakening Music Festival which Toby Mac is headlining. We secretly bought tickets...the day of the concert is Rich's birthday. I'm terrible at keeping secrets, so I told him against the kids wishes. He was very surprised. The concert is located at a national park which you can camp at, so we are going up the night before to camp and hopefully be at the beginning of the line when the gates open. Everyone is very excited, especially Alec. (hey 50 Toes, wanna join us?)

July 4th

We spent the 4th in DC. This has become a family tradition. This was our 4th year to go and we've been rained on three out of four years. :) This is our third year to go with the Kendigs. We added the Delgados and Bill Darden this year. It was great! We stake out our spot and set everything up, eat lunch and then take off on bikes (or feet). The ladies walked part of DC this year. The weather had been very mild for about a week prior. This day marked the beginning of rising temps. It was quite humid, but not as bad as years past. The fireworks were some of the best we've seen. It was the best in DC out of the four years we've gone.

The police biked passed the trails a few times talking of rain and tornado watches. We had a contact we called every couple of hours to check out the weather for us. It appeared we were in for a dousing, so we loaded everything up around 5pm and headed for the cars. It was just beginning to sprinkle. The guys found a large tree nearby and set up grills underneath. By the time the food was done, it was pouring! We ate in the vehicles. We were able to head back out around 7pm. We played games and ate smore's until time for the show. Here are a few photos:

Welcome Aboard Mr. President

We made the long trek to Columbus, OH to meet my dad and step-mom for the weekend. We have been trying to get together for a couple of years and go to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB . I was pretty impressed with their displays. Got to see the YF-22 up close as well as EVERY airforce plane made. From the main hangar's, we ventured on base to the Presidential Aircraft display. We got to walk through the plane that Kennedy's body was brought back on. Alec said that when he is elected, he will have it brought out and flown again.

In the hanger adjacent to the Presidential display is the X-Plane display. I have watched many documentaries on ALL of the planes in there, but never have seen them in person. I was really impressed with the XB-70 Valkyrie. What a massive plane. None of these planes were roped off, so we could touch them. I was able to touch the Bell X-1B, which is similar to the plane Chuck Yeager used to break the sound barrier for the first time.

It was nice to be able to spend time with my dad doing something we both enjoy. He and I used to watch the show WINGS (not the comedy) all of the time.

Alec was extremely impressed with the B-52. They had it up on stands with the bomb bay doors open, so you could see up inside it. We stopped by the gift shop on the way out, and Alec decided to by a B-52 model. He has the list of paints that I need to go get so we can start building it.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we are making our journey to DC for biking, burgers, friends and fireworks. We went with the Zoo a few years ago for the first time, and now we are hooked. Maybe we can all make that trip back up there someday.

Have a GREAT 4th of July and enjoy the freedoms that people like Scott are out defending right now.

Ohio

Longaberger Home Office---building 7 stories and handles 3 stories.

We left for Ohio on the 27th, with our trailer, without the dog. We knew we wouldn't be around the trailer much and Tora would have to be left alone for many hours, so we left her in good hands.

We met Rich's dad and stepmom in Ohio. On Thursday, Rich, his dad and Alec took a road trip to Dayton to the air museum at Wright Patt. They had a blast! (I'll let Rich post those pics with his descriptions). Rich's stepmom, Kaitlin & I went to Longaberger. We had all been before, but it's still fun to go. We spent one whole day at the Homestead. We hit the shops, toured the factory, made a basket and found some good bargains (really!!). You get a whole new appreciation for the baskets when you go to the factory to see how they are made. (still a bit pricey, but neat).

Mel and Kaitlin inside the home office.

Kaitlin weaving Mel weaving

Mel & Kaitlin with our instructor Jodi. She was great! She has been a weaver for 24 years. She made each of us a flower out of the weaving materials, just for fun.

On Friday, we waltzed through the little town of Dresden. They have lots of shops catered to Longaberger. They sell retired items and some knock-off items. We had lunch at Popeye's. It's a diner that Dave Longaberger (former CEO) worked at as a teen. He also bought the place a few years ago and is now run by Longaberger. That was a neat place for lunch.

Popeye's Restaurant

The next day, we hung out at the trailer for a while, trying to slowly put things away for our return trip on Sunday. We found a park with hiking trails nearby. We took a two mile hike through the woods. It lead us by a gorge. It was a neat walk. The weather was superb. It had rained while we were there and was a bit chilly during the night and early morning. The kids enjoyed running through the woods. I'm not sure how we all escaped Poison Oak.

Later that day, we drove back to the Longaberger Homestead. They had an afternoon and evening of kids activities planned followed by fireworks. We stayed for the fireworks, it was some of the best we've ever seen (perhaps as good as D.C.--they definitely lasted longer).

Sunday was a long day getting home. We were all worn out. It took a few hours on Monday to unload the trailer and put everything away. We had a great time and the kids enjoyed it too.

Girl Scouts


Kaitlin recently attended Girl Scout camp. She was invited by a friend at school. The friend's mom is a troop leader and was going to be the girls camp leader. I volunteered two days just to see what they do and to hang out with Kaitlin. She had a great time. It was a day camp, so when she came home for the evening, she was wiped out. They were able to ice skate, swim, paddleboat, go rock climbing, cook a meal, arts and crafts, hiking and geocaching. It was neat to see her interact with other girls and get to know them. It can take Kaitlin a while to warm up to people, but by the end of the week, she was very comfortable.