County Fair

Rebekah and Emma loved feeding and petting the animals at the county fair today.
I love checking out the weird looking chickens.

By far our favorite part was watching the 4H girls and boys compete in different horsing events. Emma was mesmerized.

Hershey Park

Welcome to Hershey Park! One of the things I love about this park is that they have all the rides clearly marked for how can ride them (height restrictions). At the entrance to the park are the stations for measuring. Rebekah is a Kiss and Emma is a Hershey Bar. We are Jolly Ranchers.

These same markings are at each ride, so you can tell who can ride it while you are still walking towards it. It saves a lot of explaining, b/c even Rebekah can tell she can't ride one. Emma is the prefect height, she can go on (almost) every ride in the park.

Here one of the rides she can't go on. The Great Bear. It was awesome. Kind of like the Batman ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain, where your feet dangle. We had the girls wait with us in line and then stand by the ride operators while we went on. What a great ride!

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day. I LOVE the expression on Rebekah's face on the Double Log Flume and the space ship ride with dad. And Emma loves riding the carousel as much as I do.

I tried taking some pictures of Rebekah, but this is most of what I got: "No pictures mommy!!!"

Finally, I got a good one with Clay.

Hershey, PA

We drove up to Hershey, PA this afternoon. Stopped by Chocolate World and went on the free chocolate tour ride so we could get our free piece of chocolate at the end. Then the girls wanted another piece, so we went again. It is actually quite fun to see how chocolate is made.


We had dinner at Chocolate world and then went to Hershey Park for their 2 hour preview. Basically, when you have tickets to go to the Park, you can get in the evening before about 2 hours before closing. It is a great thing to do. The lines are super short. Clay loves to go check out some bigger rides while I take the girls on what they want. Sometimes Emma will go on the bigger rides too. Like the Sooper Dooper Looper!

When life gives you tomatoes...

...make Salsa!

We are getting tons of tomatoes from our garden right now. With all the tomatoes I decided to make some salsa. It turned out great. Here's my recipe:

4 lbs. tomatoes
3 bunches green onions
6 serrano peppers, seeded
1 T salt
1 cup cilantro, packed
juice of 2 limes
8 cloves garlic

Put it all in a food processor. Let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two to let the flavors come out.

Murray for Congress

We went to support Uncle Jay with his kick-off campaign event in Alexandria. We are glad we could be there to support him. Doesn't he look like a congressman?

Rebekah waited all night for the chance to go on stage. She finally took her chance to just sit on the edge.

More Swim Team

Emma and her friends, Olivia and Emma C., all won heat ribbons for freestyle. Way to go girls!

While at the meet, Rebekah contracted pink sharpie pox all over her face. It all comes from the my job to make the kids with their Event/Heat/Lane assignments with sharpies on their arms. I guess when you spend that much time around sharpies, the sharpie pox are bound to happen.

Emma ended up winning her heats in all 3 of her events!! Freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly! Way to go!!

Childrens Theater

Every summer at Wolf Trap they have special productions just for kids, Children's Theatre-in-the-Woods. It is a long hike from the parking lot, but always entertaining.

This year we went with the Rosenlunds and the Michauxs to see Culkin School of Irish Dance followed by Robbie Schaefer. Both were very entertaining. Afterwards, Emma ask Mr. Schaefer for his autograph.

Photo Shoot

I spent some time playing with the girls and doing a photo shoot with them. The pictures of Emma are for her birthday, so I am keeping those a secret. When it was Rebekah's turn, although she was much trickier to work with I got a few great ones (had to delete all the other ones).

Skyline Caverns

While our friends, the Godfreys, were still in town, we went with them to Skyline Caverns. Some cool features from the caverns:

Emma asked to put some color in her hair today, so likewise Rebekah did too. It is just spiker gel and washes out at the end of the day.

It was almost 8 years ago exactly when the Godfreys were in town before and we went to the same place. Here are some fun before and after pictures for you to enjoy.

Riding on the train. Nolan and William. -- add Rebekah, Emma, Abigail, and Jonathan. (William, Stephen, and Lori sat this one out).

Clay with a very pregnant Heidi. -- add Emma & Rebekah.

Nolan, Lori, William, Stephen. -- add Abigail and Jonathan.

Independence Day

My country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims' pride,

From ev'ry mountainside

Let freedom ring!


Today as we sang this song, I was overcome with gratitude. I was just recently accepted into Daughters of the American Revolution. I joined through my ancestor Azariah Tuthill who fought in New York. However, he is not my only patriot ancestor. I actually have almost 20 direct male ancestors who helped the cause of the patriots, who fought for our freedoms. I am so proud and grateful for these men who risked their lives. These are my ancestors who fought for the rights and freedoms that I so often take for granted --right to vote in a democracy. the right to own my own property. Most of all the freedom of religion, the right to worship according to my beliefs and not that of a kings'.

Block Party

We have so many friends from church who live in our neighborhood. It has been great to have so many so close. With our own family being so far away, they have become our Virginia family. The holiday weekend seemed like a great time to invite everyone over for a barbecue. We had water toys for the kids to play in, hamburgers and hot dogs, and fireworks to end the evening.



We had so much fun with all our friends: Michauxs, Rosenlunds, Williams, Hansens, and Monks. We also had a special guests, the Godfreys, our good friends from California back when we were newlyweds.