Keeping Busy...Little Boy Style

When it's stinkin' hot outside and there's no extra money for "paid entertainment", what are little boys to do?  Well if they are my little boys, plenty!  Here are this week's top two ways to keep entertained in the heat and on a budget!

What's more fun than building a really long train track?

They were especially proud of this one!

Now if they would only share the train cars nicely...

Big brother helped them build this really cool fort in the basement with lots of hidden doors and storage areas

Lots of room for everyone!

A Day Out with Thomas

On Thursday morning we got up bright and early and headed down to Lancaster County to the picturesque Village of Strasburg and its famous Strasburg Railroad.  We had heard that Thomas the Tank Engine was in town, and he is a pretty popular icon in our home.  Sabastian was on a missions trip, so it was Jonathan, Benjamin, Nathaniel, and I on this particular adventure.  We also met up with my mom there, which was a treat.  We had to park a little ways away from the railroad itself, and the first excitement of the morning for the little boys was their very first school bus ride!  Jonathan, of course, was less than impressed since he rides one every day of the school year!

After getting our tickets, we got in line to wait for our boarding time.  I love this photo of Nathaniel waiting so expectantly to see Thomas!  What a change from last summer when he was scared to death on the steam engine ride in New York...what a difference a year makes!

Finally Thomas appeared and we could board for our 22 minute ride!  We had a beautiful day for this adventure, and the scenery around Strasburg is some of the best in Lancaster County.  We couldn't have asked for a better day!

Here are a couple of photos from inside the train.  The family next to us was gracious enough to take our photo for us, which we then reciprocated.  Jonathan and my mom sat together on one side of the facing bench seats in the beautiful restored coach, while I sat with the little boys on the other side.

After the ride, we ate a picnic lunch that we had brought, and then the little boys went on the little crank cars three times in a row!  They were pretty good at it!  By the time that was done, Nathaniel was getting a bit cranky himself, so we called it a day.  But what a fun day it was!

What a Week!

Last Friday feels like an eternity ago!  I have accomplished a lot this week on the adoption front, but there is still a lot to do.  The last day of school for Jonathan and Sabastian was Tuesday, so they are officially on summer vacation now.  Benjamin was done two weeks ago, so he's already in summer mode!  Nathaniel is adjusting to having everyone around all of the time again, and I am adjusting to being home with four boys all the time again!  There's always something to adjust to in life!

We don't have any real vacation plans this summer, but the boys and I sat down yesterday and made a list of all of the day trips we would like to take, and the activities we would like to do this summer.  We'll see how far we make it on the list!  The older boys have camp and summer missions trips to look forward to, and Jonathan is also working for a couple of weeks at a camp.  My full time job is just keeping track of our crazy schedule, it seems!

Next week should be a calmer week, so hopefully I can get more accomplished around the house and more accomplished on the adoption to-do list.  Summer is here, but will go quickly, so I want to make the best use of it that I can!  Here's to enjoying my family and life for the next couple of months!

A Few More Random Photos

Here are a few more photos from our anniversary trip to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The first two were taken in St. Michael's, and the last three were taken on Tilghman Island as we walked around the area near our B&B. Enjoy!

Happy (Very Belated!) Anniversary to Us!

With so much busy-ness in our lives these days, I have not had the time to blog as much as I would have liked. But I'm trying to do better. So, I thought I would share some pics from our trip in late December to the Eastern Shore of Maryland...Tilghman Island, to be exact.

On December 29, Dave and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. For Christmas I told Dave the one thing I really wanted was to go away, sans children, for our anniversary. He said that was fine, so I began looking for a place to visit. I checked out all of our usual haunts...D.C. NYC, the Jersey Shore...but nothing was working for us. I then went on VRBO, which had been a great resource for our FL trip in November, and I started to see some areas in MD that looked interesting. Tilghman Island kept popping up, so I did a Bed and Breakfast search for Tilghman Island and The Chesapeake Wood Duck Inn was on the list.

Dave and I used to love visiting bed and breakfasts before we had children, but they are not too kid-friendly, so it had been quite awhile since we had stayed at one. The Chesapeake Wood Duck Inn had great reviews, and was running a "Winter Escape" special. I sent an e-mail early on Christmas week asking about the weekend right after Christmas, and thankfully, they had availability. In fact, we ended up having the whole place to ourselves! The innkeepers, Jeffery and Kimberly, were wonderful, asking about all of our food preferences for the four course dinner for two that came with the special offer, and sending us detailed directions and such on very short notice.

After spending Christmas day at my parents' house in DE, we left the kids in their care and my sister's care, and we took off for MD on Saturday morning. It wasn't a bad drive at all from DE, and we made really good time. There was a fire burning in the fireplace upon our arrival, and we quickly made ourselves at home with the XM radio and wireless computer connection. Dinner was absolutely incredible, as Jeffery is a gourmet chef, and his recommendation of filet as our main dish was superb. Saturday night we had our dinner, and then we enjoyed two gourmet breakfasts the next two mornings which were out-of-this-world amazing. The innkeepers were very easy to talk to, and very helpful with directions and information on the island and surrounding towns. The Eastern Shore is very busy during the summer, but quite void of tourists in the winter, so we enjoyed the solitude and stark beauty of this unique landscape in winter. I would highly recommend The Chesapeake Wood Duck Inn and a trip to the Eastern Shore and we hope to visit again soon. Enjoy the photos!

a side view of the inn...the 1890 structure was used as a guest house originally, and was refinished by the current owners

a view of the back of the inn and the big yard

LOVE these adirondock chairs...unfortunately, it was a bit chilly to use them!

this is the view from the backyard of the inn...it is the working marina with fishermen coming and going all day long

one of the many fishing boats in the marina

thought this was pretty cool!

another view of the marina and the fishing fleet

Overdue Vacation Pics - Part One

A few weeks ago (although it seems like a lifetime ago now!) our family, my sister's family, and our parents took a week long trip to Orlando, Florida, for a mini family vacation. We rented a beautiful house with a pool that more than accommodated all 14 of us (that would be six adults and eight kids!) and ventured out and about each day to various area attractions. The first night we were there we went over to one of my favorite places in Orlando, Downtown Disney. The following pictures are from the Lego Imagination Center there...more pics will follow from other things we did that night and later that week, but I have so many pics, I need to chunk them into groups to keep the posts semi-manageable! Enjoy!

the wall of single Lego bricks you can buy by the pound

I love the sky behind these two pics of the boys!

my happy two year old!

attempting to climb a mini climbing wall

cousins working together on a Lego creation

one of the few decent pics my teen allowed...and he's actually helping his brother!

Benjamin's finished product...he wanted a picture to remember!

Dave and the younger boys enjoying the beautiful scenery and weather!

Vacation Photos...Part 3!

Here are the photos from our ride on The Arcade & Attica Railroad. You can read the original post that I wrote on the day of our excursion here. It was quite the trip! Nathaniel was pretty scared on the first half of the journey since we were right behind the noisy engine, but on the return trip he just chilled. Our friend, Ruth, went along...you will see her in the photos, too. It really was a lot of fun and a day our younger sons will never forget!

Vacation Photos...Part 2!

One morning, while Dave and Sabastian were out fishing, the younger boys and I went on a little walk around the grounds of Odosagih. The conference center is located right on Lime Lake in Machias, New York, a deep, spring-fed lake used for recreational water activities of all kinds. Our friends, Matt and Ruth Stephens, have been coming to Odosagih for many years. They opted to stay in a cottage right on the lake so that Matt could fish 24/7 if he wanted to (and he wanted to!). Benjamin, Nathaniel, and I walked over to their cottage and went down the stairs to the lake and walked for a ways around it. These are some of the photos I took that morning...