Pink Power #3

This might be my favorite race picture ever!  My first time I've gotten to cross a finish line with the kids!!  This was my 3rd year for Pink Power - with almost no training at all I managed to do better than my first year and only 5 minutes slower than last year.  (Last year I trained A TON.)  It was a great race and I had so much fun!!  The 2nd half of the run is just awful with lots of small hills and 1 final BIG hill.  I was so excited to get to the top of the hill and look for Rob and the kids.  They were waiting right there on the field and I waved to them to come finish with me.  Claire held my hand the whole way and Fielder sprinted!!  I managed to place 7th in my age group (out of 46) and 52nd overall (out of 296.)  Not bad!  After the race I got a free massage and 10 minutes with these leg compression things on, then I was ready to go home and REST!!

I said "show your muscles"  - I guess Fielder wants us to check out his sweet abs ;-)

Another one in the books!

The Barnes Family Goes Glamping

Rob and I took the kids on our first camping trip!!  Well, it really wasn't camping.  We were in a cabin and cooked all our meals inside in our kitchen, but still.  :-)

I'd been wanting to do it for a long time and one day at work I looked up Jellystone and we just decided to go for it and booked it!  We had picked the one in Natural Bridge, VA because there is a drive-through safari nearby that we wanted to go to, but we actually never even went there because the kids enjoyed the campgrounds so much!

I took Friday off and at lunchtime we drove to Natural Bridge.  We were able to check into our cabin, get unpacked, and explore everything.  There was a pool area with slides, a splash pad, a giant slip n slide into the lake, a "Wibit" in the middle of the lake, and all kinds of kid activities like bubble parties.  Then we had dinner on our little screened porch!  That evening they had free smores and an outdoor movie.  Fielder could barely stay awake and we called it a night about 15 minutes into the movie.

We let the kids take turns sleeping one night in the bedroom with Daddy and one night in the loft with Mommy.  It was really a very cute cabin!  We had a TV, but sadly the wifi didn't work.  As much as I'd like to fuss about how the kids "couldn't live" without their wifi, I have to admit I was having withdrawals too!  I just wish I had at least brought a book or magazine with me.

Saturday morning we were able to be a little lazy.  The kids were up early, but after breakfast they were happy to watch TV and play non-wifi games on their kindles while we could sleep a bit more.  Then we headed back out for the pools, lake, lunch, and more pool/lake time!  Late in the afternoon we wandered down to the river area and found a gorgeous spot to wade out into the river (really shallow) and sit on the rocks while the water flowed over us.  I'm so mad I didn't bring the kids water shoes!  Rob and I loved it - if only we had a couple floats and a rope to tie us up to a tree.  The beach is my #1, but after that, the view of the river and mountains behind it was as perfect as it can get!
Oh, and they also had these awesome jumping pillows - so fun!

After a round of (free!) mini golf, we went back to the cabin for dinner.  Unfortunately our oven was broken, but the staff made up for it by giving us a free pizza delivered straight to our cabin.  Then we made our own little campfire - I didn't really want one to last a long time so we just gathered up enough sticks to have a short fire, roast marshmallows, and eat smores!!  Then the kids had fun throwing in some newspaper. 

Sunday morning I took the kids back to what might have been their favorite spot - the old arcade!  We played our last games and went to turn in tickets.  It was the most run-down rinky-dink thing, but they each got 3 pieces of candy for all their tickets.

After clearing out our cabin and checking out, we were able to spend another couple hours playing before driving home.  The kids really loved the lake!  Rob was pretty grossed out by it - and at times I was a little nervous they would get hurt, but it was very fun to them!

All in all, I'd say we had a very successful first "camping" trip.  I can't say it's what I would choose to do again, but kids are ready to go back every summer.  I wish I had more pictures of our adventures, but most of the time down by the lake or pools, I didn't even bring my phone. 

Just Peachy

We visited Carter's Mountain for their peach festival this year.  It was our first peach-picking experience.  We were happy to leave the rain behind in Richmond and try something new!  It was beautiful in the mountains with blue skies and no rain at all!  I didn't enjoy it as much as apple picking - you have to be really selective and they weigh more than apples so they add up pretty fast.  We each picked our favorite 6 or so.  They also tried peach cider and peach ice cream (well, Claire had vanilla!) 

After peaches, we were going to try and find a park somewhere to eat lunch, but my gps on my phone wouldn't work and we ended up getting completely lost in Charlottesville.  When I saw a sign for 64, I figured we should take it and just eat lunch in the car!  It was an adventure at least :-)

I thought we'd make more recipes with peaches, but we enjoyed eating them so much they were gone pretty quickly.  I did try a peach salsa (with shrimp and scallops) and it was pretty good!  Our final 2 peaches were sliced up and put in the freezer for a smoothie.

Fielder's Mimi Day

Fielder got to have a special Mimi day last week and boy, did she keep him busy!  First, they went blueberry picking

Then went to the zoo:


Then stopped at the pool to cool off

Fielder also got to spend the night - he *might* have been a little tired driving to Mimi and Papa's house

Looks like he even helped make dinner

Mimi texted that he played Uno and had a lot of fun with Papa!  The next morning they went to visit Lewis Ginter before coming home.  Fielder is very interested right now in plants so he was excited to go to LG.  Mostly he wanted to see pitcher plants which we've been reading about at home.  They also made a little book so he could keep track of all the plants he'd seen.

Thanks Mom for keeping this boy busy!  (And Claire got to enjoy a brother-free night!)

Barnes River trip

After our Hulcher river trip, we had to work Thursday/Friday, then off we went to the Piankatank for a weekend with the Barnes crew.  We were looking forward to cousin-time and getting to see Jake and Ali!  

Here's Fielder meeting Jake and Ali's new pup, Buddy:

 Terrible picture, but one of my favorite moments of the weekend.  Fielder and Jenna took turns giving each other foot massages!  Then they later played hospital and Fielder took good care of the sick patient.  They were adorable playing together.

Believe it or not, it was pretty chilly at the river!  With the breeze, I did not want to get wet, but it didn't stop the kids from jumping in for a swim.  It wasn't the best idea though with a fairly strong current and the boat drifting quickly....we eventually got everyone back on the boat and headed home.  They were able to play on the beach and swim a little more for the rest of the afternoon.

We had a nice dinner together, played with sparklers, and then we headed to the man cave to sleep!  (Gotta make it work for that many people to stay at the river!)  Sunday morning was beautiful, sunny with a breeze.  I went for a run and then we all headed back to the beach area to play and ride the jet ski before we had to go home.

Always nice to get everyone together!!  And so glad Alison is there to take these great photos!!

4th of July NNK

What a blast this year was at the river!  The kids were completely spoiled!  Since the 4th was on a Wednesday (bummer!) Mom took the kids Tuesday morning, then Rob and I joined them Wednesday morning.  Since they were having so much fun, Mom let them stay with her one more night while we headed home for work Thursday.  Rob and I had a wonderful time during our short visit, but the kids really had the best time ever.  I am so thankful for everyone for pitching in and helping with my kids and keeping them so entertained!  I have no idea how to narrow down from all the pictures but here's what I have so far!

Rob and I arrived just in time to help decorate the float for the annual parade.  They did an awesome job of putting it together and having the kids all ready to go!  Fielder loved his blue hair :-)

 

And we won a trophy again!!!  Fielder just KNEW we were going to win!

One of my all-time favorite river photos!  Love this!

When I say the kids were spoiled at the river, I am not joking!  They really pulled out all the stops for us this year!  All the kids seemed to really love just jumping off the pier and swimming in the river - they even had a slide set up to slide right into the water.  There was "Tandy island," the jet ski, a couple boats to choose from, a slip n slide in the yard, a bounce house, corn hole, tubing, water skiing (for me and Patti!!!) and fireworks Wednesday night.  These kiddos played HARD.  It really meant so much to me to watch everyone playing together and showing Claire and Fielder the BEST time.

After dinner, Rob and I had to head home.  Everyone else took the float for another spin, this time with all the lights on!  The pictures look awesome!  After "parading" one more time, they came home to watch the fireworks a couple houses down and Clay set off some big ones too.  I can't believe the kids were able to stay awake after playing ALL day long!  I was so happy that they didn't have to leave and miss out on the fun.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the Hulchers and Masons for an awesome 4th of July!