Ski Day

One of the advantages of home schooling is being able to take a day off in the middle of the week to go skiing.  Our local home school group sponsors a ski trip where you can get a lift ticket, ski rentals and a lesson for $25 per person.  A veritable steal!  So we took [...]

Lessons Learned While Camping

For our vacation this year, we went camping in North Carolina near where I would go when I was a boy.  I have fond memories of camping there and I wanted to share it with my family.  Unlike our previous camping trip last year, the weather was less than ideal:  it rained. A lot.
If you [...]

First Family Biking Adventure

Before kids, one of our favorite things to do as a couple was to go biking off road.  There are a number of rail trails (old railroad beds turned into biking trails) in Virginia that go on for miles and make for an enjoyable ride for casual bikers that aren’t up to a strenuous [...]

Stargazing

“Boy, it’s dark out.”
“I can’t see where we’re going!”
“Boys, just a little further.”
We made our way down the road covered in trees to the nearby field. As we stepped into the clearing, the sky opened up, revealing more stars than we had seen in a long time.
“Wow, look at all the stars.”
Being away from any [...]

O Summer, Where Art Thou?

Yes, on the eve of the functional end of summer, (although astronomically, we still have a few more weeks) I bemoan the loss of a season that came and went in the blink of an eye.
It was lost between the work at home and the work at work, and before I knew it was missing, [...]

Not (quite) as Planned

In honor of our 15th anniversary, we decided to go on a skiing trip at Snowshoe ski resort in West Virginia (Two months after our anniversary–because there is no skiing around here in November).
It was our first time there and the place to go skiing around these parts. My folks came up from [...]

Vacation Notes

Just a few random thoughts as we recover from our vacation at First Landing State Park near Cape Henry on the Chesepeake Bay.

September is a wonderful time to go camping.  During the week we practically had the park to ourselves, and it wasn’t until Friday night where it started getting crowded.
It was also a great [...]

Cousin Camp

Tomorrow morning we head off for a “down-and-back” to Tennessee to pick up the boys.  They have been at Cousin Camp (aka Camp Omar-Opal)  all week with my folks and 4 of their 6 cousins.
This is the second year that my parents have done this–taken the granddads for the week and run the operation like [...]