Mowing the lawn

It's been 10 years since we've owned a lawn mower and had to cut our grass.  Penny let the girls help him with the lawn this past week.  They missed a few spots but generally did a nice job!

Another year or so and the girls will be able to do it all by themselves.  (Mead was still wearing her soccer gear after practice, but the cleats gave her a good grip in the grass!)

Oh, and I got to drive by my mom's alma mater the other day.  Kind of fun to see where she went to college, though it looks pretty different from when she attended.

Smith Mountain Lake State Park

This is our last week of summer, so I decided to take the kids on an overnight trip for a quick get-away.

About an hour from here is Smith Mountain Lake State Park, and they have a nice beach, along with lots of hiking, camping, and other things to do.

The kids were eager to play in some sand, now that we live closer to the coast.  Though we didn't drive all the way to the ocean, this was a good "beach day" to get us started.

We spent two days playing at the beach and swimming in the lake.

We spent the night at a lake house that belongs to a family in our church, so we only had to drive a short way from the beach.

The kids enjoyed swimming at the lake house too - especially jumping off the top of the dock, which is about 15 feet up!

At first the jumps were just a drop to the bottom - a big enough feat in itself!

But then the kids got more daring and began doing turns so I could catch them on the camera.

Laine jumped once, but Mead and Cole were my more daring ones into the lake.

It was a great, short time away before school starts.

Annual Lake Day

A few families in the church own lake houses at nearby Smith Mountain Lake, so every year the church has a lake day at one family's house.

There was a good turn out this year, with probably about 60 people in attendance.  Boats were used to give rides on tubes (Laine, Cole, and Mead are on this tube, from right to left).  And lots of water devices were available for use.

Laine got in two different kayaks, and she did really well with paddling around the dock and cove area.  She was a natural - makes us want to let her get in the water to kayak more often!

We had a good time at the lake and are so thankful for opportunities to do things like this with new friends from church.

First Family Hike

One of the most popular questions since we moved to Roanoke has been, "So, do you like to hike?"  After a month and half, we decided to take the family out and give it a try.

We took the kids (and we had our friend, Michael in town, too) out to Roaring Run Falls in Eagle Rock, VA.

The hike was about 1.5 miles long, and it went long a creek most of the way out to the falls.  It was a beautiful day and a great, shorter hike for our family.

The kids loved hearing and seeing the water.  

We didn't bring any swimming shoes or clothes with us this time, but if we hike this way again, we'll take time to get in the water and slide down a few of the rocks.

Happy Birthday Laine!

Laine started her birthday morning with our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast.

The kids each wanted a picture with her before they headed off to VBS.

Laine looks a little groggy here, but she really was excited about her birthday!

After dinner we celebrated with some cookie cake - Laine's pick for this year.

I love this picture of Laine - she's so beautiful!

Happy Birthday, girlie!  Enjoy being 10!!

DC trip - Day 3

The last day of our trip we just had the morning in DC, since we drove back to Roanoke that afternoon. 

We got to the city a little earlier than we realized, so we first went to the Smithsonian Castle while we waited for the other museums to open.  

Our next stop was the Museum of Natural History.  This was a really cool museum that I hadn't spent much time in before.  Laine loves animals, mummies, and stones, so we visited those exhibits.  They were really well done!

Next we took the Metro up to the White House.  We went to the Visitor's Center and watched a nice 20 minute movie about the White House, as well as looked at a bunch of paraphernalia from the White House over the years.

Then we walked to the south side of the White House and got a few pictures.  We couldn't get as close as normal because of extra security restrictions.

That night we drove back home, and my mom headed out the next morning.  It was a fun time together!

DC trip - Day 2

The second day of our trip to DC we visited all the memorials and monuments.

We walked a lot, but we also used the Circulator buses around town, so that saved our feet some and gave us a moment of air conditioning.  Would definitely recommend using those buses to anyone visiting DC!

The monuments really are amazing, and the city is just beautiful!

Laine loves American history and has learned quite a bit through school and books she's read, so she was excited to see all the monuments.

It was a beautiful day outside - couldn't have asked for nicer weather, even with a little breeze.

This was my first time seeing the MLK, Jr. memorial - it was really neat, with tons of quotes written on the walls surrounding this one piece.

And the FDR memorial is well done too.

This is the spot where MLK, Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" Speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

My mom and Laine enjoyed their time together - especially since my mom had fun stories of growing up in DC.

The Korean war memorial

The WWII memorial

We ended the day by going to the American History Museum.  Amongst other things, Laine wanted to see the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, which we recently let the kids watch.

It was a full, fun day in Washington, D.C.!