Halloween Fun

Wow what a great night.  We were all invited to the Scotto's Halloween bash again this year.  It was so much fun last year, and this year I think it was even better.  Tina asked me to be a witch in the forest, so natually I had to make it worth every moment.  I went to Party City, where I found a nose and chin just right for my costume.  Then I planned some time to get my make up on.  I think it came out just fine.  The only problem was I couldn't stop smiling.  I wanted to be a mean witch.  It didn't happen, but I did have a great time.

Ida went as a cowgirl.  We bought her a beltbuckle and boots.  She looked so cute.  She had a great time with her friends too.

Norm was up on the hill orginizing the groups to come down through the spook alley.  He came as a train geek.  I was so busy I forgot to get a picture of him. 

Here are some more pictures from that night.

The fire that kept everyone warm on a chilly night.

This is the Enterance of the Spook-alley

The creepy guy hacking up people.

Druids in motion

Dead Hockey Player

Walking Dead

Guillotine at its finist hour

Grave yard spooks

Waking the dead

Creepers in the woods

Crazy axe and chain saw murderer's

This is the Youth in our Wards

And good friends in costume.  We all had a great time.  Thanks to the Scotto family for making this another sucessful year.

A Weekend @ The Beach

I am always a little sad when my kids have to go back to school.  I have always enjoyed my children and the fun we have over the summer.  This summer was packed with tons of things.  One of them was not even planned for, but I am so glad I got to be a part of it. 
One night, Kristen, asked me if  I would like to go camping and chaperon a bunch of her friends.  Since I can NEVER say no to camping I was all over it.  First we had to get a camp site, so we booked a place at First Landing State Park.  This is located by the Chesapeake Bay and very close to Virginia Beach.  A prim spot for the kids.  I had a hard time not wanting to help them plan, but this was their camping trip, I was just along for the ride.  Many times I had to hold back my opinion.

 The girls and I headed out on Friday morning.  I had Tori Kitchens, Leah Jennings, and Kristen with me.
 We spent the day on the beach, which was a lot of fun.

 
Here are the three girls.

Soon, it was time for them to go back to the camp site and put up tents.  Yes, they put up the boys tent too so they didn't have to do it in the dark when they were suppose to get there.
It was a beautiful camp ground.  There is 1 1/4 miles of beach located along the Chesapeake Bay, so when we finished pitching the tents we wanted to go see it.  There are no lifeguards, but you can swim at your own risk. The water wasn't anything like the beach we just came from, but it was nice and cool.

Above is the Chesapeake Bay.

This is at our camp ground.  The girls loved to climb the trees there.  It was a very cool place.

After setting up the tents, visiting the Bay, and buying firewood at the camp store, we made a fire.  I showed the girls how to cook eclairs over it. One of my favorite things to cook when I go camping. 

The girls seemed to like them too.  We found out the boys would not be joining us until 2am.  We decided to get some sleep until they came.  Around 2am Seth Nielsen and Greg Olsen showed up.  We talked for a short bit and us girls went back to bed.  Greg slept in the tent and Seth slept in his car.  Around 4 or 5 Seth, Kristen, and I sat around the fire and talked until we thought it was time we could see the sun rise.

 



This is a very cool picture of our fire. :)

At that time we decided to head to the Bay and see if we could see the sun.  It was an over cast day, not very good to watch the sun come up, but it was fun to watch all these kids, sleepy, and dragging there feet through the sand.



We were all so tired, we decided to go back to bed for awhile.  We slept for about an hour and then we got up and made pancakes.  This is when Matt Hazelgren and 2 of his friends came.  They helped us eat and clean up camp.  After that, we all went back to VA Beach to spend the rest of  our day.

I called a good friend of mine, Cindy Genovese, and she came to sit with me and play in the Ocean.  I love her dearly and enjoy always chatting with her.  I was so glad she had the time to keep me company.

I enjoyed watching the kids, but mostly they were all together playing on the beach or in the surf.  I didn't want to get in the way of them having some hang-out-time with their peps.

Soon Greg and Seth had to go back to Fredericksburg to go to work.  They completely missed getting soaked.  In the afternoon sometime it started to poor buckets and by the time we all had our stuff off the beach we were all drenched beyond belief.  Cindy suggested we get something to eat.  We followed her to Cici's pizza for a late lunch. There we were able to change clothes and fill our tummy's.  After saying goodbye to Cindy, we headed for home.  All the girls were completely wiped out and slept most of the way home.

Our weekend was a lot of  fun.  It reminded me of how young I use to be.  Doing things at the spur of the moment and driving hours to spend with my friends, just to see them for a short while before driving hours back.  Oh the good old days...It was a great way for Kristen so say goodbye to all her friends before she left.

Road Trip!!

Ok, so this last week we have been packing, shopping, and getting Kristen ready to leave for school.  She is planning on going to the University of Utah and live with my Sister and Brother-in-law.  She is so excited.  I am excited for her, but I will miss her teribly.  She wants to study to be a Biomedical Engineer.  She is a smart cookie and I know she will be in good hands.  She will also love how dry Utah is.  I am not sure she will be too fond of the freezing winters though.
I have never seen her cloet this clean before.  Now I really know she is leaving. 

Kristen started going through her junk.  Tossing and organizing.  For the last few nights she couldn't even sleep in her bed since she had all her things she was going to bring piled high..  She just slept in Ida's room.  I don't think Ida really minded at all.  Ida is getting a little sad.  Losing two sibblings in 7 months has got to be tough.

A grreat place to put things.  This is half the stuff she started out with.  I just thought about taking pictures now.  Isn't that always the way it goes?

Kristen going through things she wants to take.  Her room and our house is starting to look like a hurricane hit it.  I am just being patient, for soon I know it will all be packed in her car with her.

And there is still so much to pack...Where will we put it all???  I love space bags!!

Leaving Sunday...I wish she had a bigger car.  I am worried we won't be able to pack our suitcases in next.  I could always mail things to her...

Fredericksburg 4th of July Festival

Norm & I spent the day walking around down town Fredericksburg today, to see the Heritage Festival.  First, we wanted to get a good parking spot, so we parked at the train station - The best kept secret I assure you.  We take a look at the train station, since Norm is big into trains, both real and model.  He has never explored the Fredericksburg train station so I indulged him just a little.

We even got lucky and saw two trains go thru.  One was a passenger train heading North and the other was a freight train, CSX, heading South. Norm took some video, but I am not posting those, so you will have to go to his blog to see those (http://trainfanatic.blogspot.com/

We missed the Fredericksburg 'parade'.  In fact we saw the tail end of it.  I am guessing anyone can be in it.  All you do is dress up in red, white, and blue and march down the street.  We saw kids on bikes, on pogo sticks, and being pulled along in wagons that were all decorated.  Parents were walking in front of the wagons & behind the 'bikers' waving American flags.  It was a small parade, but fun for those who participated in it.

We started walking down town since that is where the Festival was supposed to begin.  I ran into this nice lady on the way.  She says she dresses up every 4th and just walks around down town.  She was so sweet.  I loved her costume.

As we walked around, we saw others that were dressed for the occasion.  We love this small town and the history here.  This was in front of a little shop/museum that sells t-shirts and cap guns for the kids to play with.  Our girls came in to town to join us and it was nice to have them walk around with us.

There was a car show which was so cool.  This reminded us of our good friends that moved away to Mexico, the Richardsons.  Our thoughts were with you as we looked at all the cool cars.  We miss you guys!!

While at the Festival we got to see a small preview of the show Footloose.  It is playing at the Riverside Dinner Theater in our town.  What a great and talented group of kids.  I am proud to say we know one of these young men.  Greg Olsen is in our ward.  It was fun to see him perform.

Greg is the blonde one. :)  They all did a great job!!  I can't wait to see them in the theater.

After our snip-it of the show, we continued to walk around looking at the vendors.  I loved all the bling there.  However, I showed a lot of restraint & didn't get any bling. ;o)  Overall we had a great day.  It was nice just hanging with my Husband and my Girls.