so much to say so little time

I have had many posts floating around in my head, I just haven't stopped to create them.
Today is Monday, I don't have class thanks to fall break, but I have big plans, I want to get this house looking good, every room needs a thorough scrub down, lately I haven't had a lot of motivation and things are picked up, but not scrubbed down, so today is my day.  I work best when I start in the morning so today is my day, at least I hope so.

 We had a very busy weekend.  Saturday we went to a railroad festival and watched the parade associated with it, but I must say the parade had nothing to do with trains or the railroad at all, but the kids had fun, Lance had a theory that if you waved to the people they would throw candy at you, he was kind of right and now we have a large bag as treats for pooping in the potty (sadly both kids earn rewards, but that is a post for another day). 

 After the parade we did walk around a bit and looked at the Norfolk Southern train exhibit and a model train exhibit then found something to eat.  It was quite crowded and at one point poor Lily became a lily pancake when someone walking with a funnel cake ran right into her and knocked her to the ground. After lunch we headed home for rest time. As luck would have it, Lily fell asleep in the car, but woke up shortly after returning thanks to lance yelling, he then fell asleep and Lily was awake the rest of the afternoon, I would have loved for both of them to have napped, I could have gotten a lot done, oh well.

 Sunday was another beautiful warm day so we went to church, had lunch at Panera, and then headed out to Layman's Family Farm.  We walked through the entire corn maze.

 We got a little confused/ lost only once.

 After walking in circles for a few minutes we found the scarecrow we were looking for.

 The kids got to jump on the jumping pillow/blob, and we all took a turn on the cow train/dust train.

 The kids stopped for a swing.

And we took a hayride down to the pumpkin patch, it was a lot of fun and I am so thankful the weather was perfect.  One the way home we stopped at an outdoor skatepark, Jeff enjoyed the park, I enjoyed a book in the car while the kids napped, a nice pit stop before home.  So by last night we were all exhausted, but we enjoyed the last bit of our Indian summer.

the longest post ever- DC edition

Friday afternoon we packed up the car and headed up to D.C. for the weekend. We had plans to go to the Natural History Museum, the Solar Decathlon, Tysons Corner, and the new Air and Space Museum.  We arrived at my aunt and uncles house way after the kids bedtime so we basically went straight to bed after arrival.  The next morning we got up, got ready, and took the metro downtown.

 (waiting for the metro)

The metro was packed due to the National Book Festival, a Nickelodeon Festival, the Solar Decathlon, as well as scheduled maintenance. Supposedly trains were entering the city every 20 minutes. Our metro stop was the third stop from the beginning and was crowded when we got on. At each stop more and more people tried to cram in, we were packed in there like sardines, I don't know how city dwellers handle the crowds on a daily basis.  We got the National Mall and took a shuttle to the Solar Decathlon.

(the first house we toured)

We went through a couple of the solar houses before it started to get crowded and the kids, well Lily got bored with the houses.  It is evident from touring these houses that that students create these because several of the houses were just impractical for real living, especially with a child (or two).  There were some really good ideas and I was impressed with Purdue University's house, it was the only one we toured that actually looked livable.  Several of the houses had beds that would fold down and one even had an office table/workspace that would fold out into a bed, though a great idea, not very practical.  It is hard enough to make the bed every day, I can't imagine making it and folding it up too.   I tried to convince Jeff to continue to tour the houses while we entertained the kids with something else, but he didn't listen so we all walked through the FDR memorial.  

(Lily and the FDR memorial, she was a little hesitant to approach the dog) 

The FDR memorial was beautiful and HUGE! I thought it was only one waterfall and statue area, but then it kept going and going (4 areas, 1 for each term).  Though I don't know that much about history and I have a lot of respect for FDR, he is one of my favorite presidents.

(walking along the Tidal Basin) 

We walked along the Tidal Basin from FDR to the new Martin Luther King memorial.  The MLK memorial is quite impressive.  If I remember correctly he is looking towards the Lincoln Memorial where he made history.  

(Martin Luther King from the side)

I don't know how they carved the statue or memorial, but I was amazed by how detailed the carving was, the veins on his hands were visible, it was quite impressive. 

(in front of the closed Washington Memorial, it has been closed due to damage from the earthquake)

After the MLK memorial we walked back over to the National Mall.  We looked for the supposed large crack in the memorial caused by the earthquake, there was one, I just don't know if it was there from the earthquake or just from time.  We passed the White House and the WWII memorial on the way.  By the time we made it to the Natural History Museum we were starving so we grabbed lunch in the museum, big mistake.  The cafe in the museum was extremely crowded and the food was ridiculously expensive.  For five us to eat it cost $43 and we only got 2 sandwiches, 1 chicken tenders, 3 drinks, and a cup of fries.  I do have to admit the sandwich was good, but I don't know about $10 good.  We toured Natural History Museum while my mother went to the National Book Festival.  When Jeff and I were exhausted we headed out to the Festival and went to the PBS kids tent to get our picture taken with the Cat in the Hat.

(Lance and I with the Cat in the Hat)

We headed back to the house for a rest and then went to Tysons Corner for dinner and a little shopping.  We didn't do much shopping since the kids were worn out, but we did hit up the Lego store (Lance's pick) and the American Girl store (Lily's).  I love the Lego store especially there $8 tub of Legos that you can pick out, brilliant!  Lily loved the American Girl store, but she pitched the biggest temper tantrum of her life when we tried to leave and she realized she had to leave the doll and the stroller she was pushing around behind, it was quite embarrassing.  Within five minutes of being belted in the car, the kids were asleep so we decided to drive back downtown and see all the monuments at night.  Washington at night is so beautiful.  I don't want to think about how much energy is wasted on lighting up the monuments and capital, but it is pretty nonetheless.

(the Capital at night, the side facing the National Mall) 

It is funny to look at the pictures I took especially the ones at night because the sky looks black, back at my aunt and uncle's house the sky doesn't look black, it was kind of orange and grey, you could see the light shining from the city.  I didn't realize until then how bright the city is at night, once again I was appreciate of our little city where it gets dark and you can see stars.

 (A little monument in Arlington with the Big Monument in the distance, near the top of cemetery)

Sunday morning we got up and decided to go to Arlington National Cemetery.  We chose Arlington because we were a little tired of all the crowds and figured that no one would be at a cemetery on a Sunday morning, well we were wrong.  When we arrived there were masses of people headed in and there were many tour buses parked as well.  We headed into the cemetery with all the crowds and learned that there was a Peace Corp rally going on in the cemetery and that is why it was so packed.  Who would have thought. 

 (Arlington National Cemetery, as far as I could see there were thousands of graves)

We walked all the way up to Robert E. Lee's house and stopped at the Kennedy's grave, we then headed over to the Tomb of the Unknown. Arlington is a beautiful place with amazing views of Washington. It was also very peaceful. I was blown away by how the shear number of graves, At one point I looked to my left and for as far as I could see there were just rows and rows of graves of men and women who served in our military, I was blown away.

(Tomb of the Unknown) 

We stopped by the Tomb of the Unknowns.  There are sign posted throughout the cemetery that say please to be quiet and respectful for this is hallowed ground, the Tomb of the Unknowns was definitely hallowed ground.  It seems like now respect is something that our culture has lost and seeing the respect and tradition continue is indescribable.  Having someone guarding the tomb 24 hours a day through all kinds of weather and having to do the same montomous routine constantly shows so much respect.   Even Lance who doesn't understand hallow ground was quiet and seemed to know that this area was special.  After walking all the way and then back down Arlington we headed out to Dulles for the new Air and Space Museum.

 (the new Air and Space Museum at Dulles)

 

 (Jeff watching a plane coming in for a landing from high up in the observation tower)

I could watch the airplanes take off and land all day, I think I am just amazed that these huge, heavy vehicles can fly in the air.  I loved the observation tower and watching the planes land, being eye level with these huge planes that are coming in from all over the world is just amazing.  I am drawn to airports and airplanes, not sure why, I just am.  After watching planes land we headed down and admired the variety of airplanes on exhibit at the museum.   We saw the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb), the space shuttle Endeavor (it was a lot shorter, but taller than I expected, as well as the Concorde (it had the smallest windows).

It was an extremely busy weekend and though I would like to do it again, just not anytime soon, I am still tired.

Labor Day

Labor Day, the unofficial last day of summer.
One of the more depressing days of the year.
I prefer Memorial Day, with the promise of summer, of new beginnings, with the daylight still increasing, with temperatures increasing, with vacations to countdown to, and things to look forward to.
Even though this summer was non-existent and far from spectacular, I still enjoyed it.
Summer seemed to fly by, but I guess that is what happens when you are in school every day for 7 weeks then vacation for one then back to work two weeks after that.
Even with Gram's passing and quite a few colds and illness, it wasn't horrible, I guess I just deal with things better when I can go lay in the sun at the pool.
Our house feels bigger in the summertime not all closed in and claustrophobic.
It is easier to get up in the morning since it isn't freezing cold and I prefer wearing less than more any day.

And then there is the beach, I love the beach and it just isn't the same when it is in the upper 70's compared to the upper 80's.

There are fun things to do in the fall and things I am looking forward to, I am just going to miss warm summer nights catching lightning bugs when it stays light until almost 8. I dread the days when darkness comes at 5

Looking back this summer, well at least August unlike a lot of the country was not very HOT, we didn't get a lot of pool use these last couple of weeks because it just wasn't hot enough.

But it is nice to be able to go outside with jackets and accessories.
And now that we are in the routine of school, life seems complicated, I miss summer already.
It doesn't help that this week the first week of unofficial fall will have highs in the upper 60's and lower 70's and be rainy so we will be banished to the house, but hopefully summer temperatures will return so we can have a proper goodbye.
I curse myself for complaining about the humidity yesterday, it was very warm and humid and come January 15th, I will long for that weather again.
So today we say good-bye to beach vacations, the pool, mosquitoes and gnats (yay!), playing outside until 8pm in the light, catching lightning bugs, weeknight adventures, the splashground/spraypark, hot and humid weather, warm early mornings spent on the porch, ceiling fans, the smell of rain and fresh cut grass, green leaves on the trees that provide much needed shade, fresh produce from the market, the constant roar of cicadas, and all the little things I take for granted, but miss terribly when they are gone.
I will look forward to pumpkins, apples, Halloween, hikes in the mountains with leaves of various shades, but I will look forward to next Memorial Day with the promise of an amazing summer ahead.
As I sit here on my porch, I am trying to take it all in so come February when I feel trapped inside I can have something to look forward. I can try and remember the purple and pink sky from the sun rising giving everything a pinkish tint (I have a hard time getting up early in the winter so I don't often see the sunrise like I do in summer). I want to remember the sound of the birds chatting in the trees and the cicadas droning on and on. The sound of distant cars driving pass by our neighborhood and occasionally down our street, it sounds different in the now then it will in a couple of hours when cars will be constantly coming and going. I will try and remember how the humid air seems thick, like you could swim or float through it and how the coolness is passing, not lingering all day.
Good-bye summer, don't stay gone forever.

how do you

get back into writing normally when you have been gone for so long?
I don't know what to say,
I don't know what is important, what I want to remember.
So much has happened in the last couple of weeks I am bit overwhelmed with trying to recall it all.

 We went to the apple orchard at the end of September and it was a ridiculously hot day which made for a short visit.  Hot temperatures and hay ride makes grumpy family.

 The same weekend as the apple orchard was Charles' memorial party and my aunts and uncles came into town for the weekend.  My aunt's birthday is the beginning of October so we went out to dinner to celebrate since the everyone is rarely all together.  It was a nice dinner despite the sad circumstances that brought everyone together.  The kids being kids needed entertaining while we waited for the food so we walked around the outside of the restaurant and we got to see a train passing by.  As seen above, the kids weren't too thrilled about the squealing train and covered their ears, it was very cute.

 One way to entertain children at a nice restaurant is give them your digital camera and have them take pictures of everyone and I have to say, I am quite impressed at Lance's photography skills, he has potential, Jeff and I for the most part are centered and straight. 

 This past Saturday was the 20th Annual Dr. John A Stephenson Memorial Run and both kids ran.  Lily ran 1/8 of a mile and Lance 1/4 of a mile.  The kids loved the t-shirts, their numbers, and especially their trophies. Dr. Stephenson was my pediatrician when I was young and it was neat for my kids to participate in a memorial run for him.

 Lance with daddy running to the finish line.

And the best part, the trophies!  This is the time they participated in something to get a trophy and it is a treasured item this week.

So life is flying by at warp speed and I am trying to enjoy it. 
Through the loss of Charles, one thing I have learned is, enjoy every moment you have with people and try and live life, don't get old with a whole list of "I wish I would have. . ."

a day of trains

Today we went to the Transportation Museum and had a blast looks at all the trains, Lance was in heaven.  They also had a model train exhibit which both kids enjoyed and couldn't get enough of. 
We also went to the Fresh Market and hit the jackpot since it was Thanksgiving sampling day, oh they had some good food, if I had money I would order their Thanksgiving dinner, it was delicious, and I am very picky.  Good times, okay so maybe November isn't so bad after all.

the great re-arrange

A week ago Friday we began the Great Re-Arrange. I was really frustrated with our house arrangement and since buying a new one is not an option we decided to rearrange. Our house is a cape cod with two bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs, this wasn't a problem until we threw Lily in the mix. For the last 13/14 months lily has been in our bedroom, which was starting to become a problem, she was getting up a lot at night and since we were right there she never could get herself back to sleep. Also with her in our room we were never in there since she was in there asleep a good deal of the time. Also our living areas were divided up, their were toys in Lance's room, in Lily's room (though her bed wasn't there, but my sewing machine was), in the living room, and in the guest/playroom (where my computer was). The house was always a mess and we never had a central location to hang out. I was desperate for change, I couldn't keep everywhere picked up or keep my eye on the kids, someone was always somewhere different. Option 1: just move Lily downstairs, it was the easiest, but I didn't like the thought of her being downstairs by herself and it didn't solve the divided work/play space problem. Option 2: move both kids down which was an option I had liked months ago, but began seeing problems and I was still a little uncomfortable about both kids downstairs. Also it didn't solve the living space issue, we needed more living space that was a combination of adult space and kid space. So we decided on Option 3: we move downstairs, lily moves downstairs and we turn our large bedroom into a playroom/den. Our old bedroom is the same size or bigger than our current living room. We are now in the playroom/guest room and though it is smaller than what we had we really only sleep in a bedroom anymore and don't need extra space. So all the big furniture has been moved and everything has its place except I have to organize the stuff that was in both closets and figure out what to do with my chest of drawers. I love the new arrangement and am thankful that I can sew, pay bills, or work on my graduate work in the same room as most of the kids toys. I miss our big bedroom, but this makes the most sense, we are using the biggest spaces for living spaces that we use the majority of the time, now I can hopefully keep the living room tidy and won't have so much picking up to do, but I'm not crossing my fingers, I do have two small children who can trash a house in no time flat.

weekend getaway

we had originally planned to go to the beach, but finding a place to stay was getting too complicated so we headed up to D.C. instead. though it wasn't as relaxing as the beach would have been, we had a great time. First thing we did was hit the trains, the metro that is and Lance thought it was so exciting. For even more trains we headed to the American History Museum where the boys pretended to be the president giving an inauguration address:
we saw the large trains in the transportation exhibit, Lance was a little afraid of the people statues everywhere. unfortunately you can't really see the train in the background since the lighting was so dark. Lance was quite taken aback by this new concept of trains indoors:

After the museum we walked down the mall towards the capital. Next weekend is some solar house competition and teams were getting their houses built, some were quite amazing and others were just plain ugly. This one was probably the size of my house:
I love the idea of this one, plants being the exterior:

This one was definitely my favorite, it reminded me of a house you would find at the beach or a lake:


I was amazed that these teams of people were building real houses on the mall, it gave real perspective to how large an area the mall really is.

We walked down to the reflecting pool by the Capital, it was quite pretty and relaxed before trekking back to the metro to go home.
Here is our standard two of us shot when Jeff holds the camera, he tried to get the Capital behind us, but our heads, well actually his head blocked it all.

Sunday we went to the zoo and had a great time, the best was probably watching the orangutan stop and poop while crossing over the walkway and missed a tourist walking underneath by inches, the guy was completely oblivious despite at least 20 people yelling at him to watch out.

The elephants were fascinating as well, Lance was quite cute the way he would mimic Jeff's stance and posture:

After the zoo we hit Tyson Corner and Crate and Barrel. It was a whirlwind trip, but lots of fun. There is so much to do in D.C. and I can't wait to go back soon.

a whole lot of randomness

1st- break my heart
last night jeff was in the mood for a campfire so we got the fixings for s'mores and headed out to the fire pit. due to poor planning the fire was a little weak, jeff did not take into consideration all the rain that had fallen the day before and had a hard time finding dry sticks or really any sticks that would burn. We got the fire going, enjoyed our s'mores and got ready to call it a night especially since the fire didn't look like it was going to last much longer. When the boys were cleaning up Lance grabbed the metal s'mores fork (the rotating things from restoration hardware) which was still hot and burned his thumb and fore finger. We got an ice pack for his fingers and tried to call him down. Every few minutes or so he would turn to me and lift up his blistered thumb and say "vroom, vroom." I tried explaining I had no idea what he was talking about and tried unsuccessfully a few times to figure out what he was talking about and then convince him to just sit with the ice pack. The third time he asked for "vroom, vroom," I asked him if he wanted a band-aid during out "try and guess what he may want through sounds and gestures", he immediately lit up and said yeah, and that is when it hit me, we have "Cars" band-aids and for the last half an hour he had been asking for one, but I didn't realize that "vroom, vroom," meant a Cars band-aid. Oh, how I wish this child would learn to talk, it would save so much time. We got him a band-aid, got pjs on, and then my heart broke to pieces. Lance is a thumb sucker, but he only sucks his thumb when he has his blanket. After getting him ready for bed he climbed up on the couch to get cozy, Jeff asked Lance if he wanted to his blanket and offered it to him, he shook his head, said no, and lifted up his hurt thumb. He couldn't suck his thumb and thus had no use for his special blanket, it was so sad, he was quite pathetic. Fortunately he was exhausted due to lack of a nap and fell right off to sleep without his blanket which is usually a go-to-sleep requirement. My heart was so heavy knowing that Lance's source of comfort at night was taken from him.

2nd- walmart looks more like harris teeter
I am not a big fan of Walmart, but I do shop there for groceries often due to their low prices. The Walmart that I frequent is currently getting a renovation and some of the areas are already finished, or at least they look very different. I didn't realize today how much appearances really does make a difference. This Walmart's renovation gets rid of the really long, ugly, grey (or is it white) shelves of groceries that are the typical Walmart grocery display and changing them for black shelves of various shapes and sizes. Many of the aisles reminded me more of a Harris Teeter or Fresh Market than Walmart and I have to admit it was a much nicer shopping experience. I would have never thought that my opinion of Walmart would change just based on their grocery shelve appearance, but it really has. Now I hope they will not raise their prices now that the store looks more like a high end grocery store and less like cheap Walmart.

3rd- i had a third, but I totally forgot it

fall is in the air

Summer seemed to have disappeared and fall has arrived.
I use to hate fall, but I am starting to really enjoy it, in fact I am excited this year. I can't wait to go to the apple orchard, carve pumpkins, make soup, enjoy being outside without soaking in sweat, and being outside without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes (they have been horrible this summer). I am also excited about fall clothes and getting my warm clothes out of hiding and seeing what I have to wear, especially since a lot of things I couldn't wear last year since I just had a baby and didn't fit into anything. I am not look forward to it getting dark earlier and getting cold. I am really ready for a change, probably since this summer has been really rough with the fire destroying the store as well as our finances, I hope that we will be able to recover and be better than before. Ready for change, bring on fall!

when am i going to have time to breathe?

I was just thinking about my graduate class that starts today, eek, and how I am going to have time to study and it hit me, when am I going to have time to do anything?
Let's see:
Monday- small group Bible study in the morning
Tuesday- Lance school in the morning
Wednesday- speech or Carson (he comes over to play every other week) in the morning and my class in the evening
Thursday- school and speech in the morning and walking with a friend after nap
Friday- every other week Carson in the morning
and I feel like I am forgetting something. . .
speech twice
school twice
graduate class and small group once,
i still feel like i am forgetting something


that is something almost every day (there are some off weeks)

crazy busy

Life has been crazy busy and it is just going to get crazier.
Lance and I are about to start new chapters of our lives, he is over-the-moon excited, I am terrified.
We are both starting school.
Next week Lance is starting preschool. I am so excited for him and he is super excited, every morning he wants to go out with the kids to ride the school bus. I have been explaining to him that he isn't going to ride the school bus, but he is still going to school, in which he exclaims, "ye-haw!" I hope that he will enjoy preschool and that school will help him develop his extremely limited vocabulary and become more verbal, having two non-verbal children is HARD and at times frustrating.
And I start school as well, graduate school. This week I start my first class, Research Methods and Application, doesn't sound that exciting, but it is a required class and I might as well get it over with so then I can take Emerging Infectious Diseases and Applied Genetics. I am afraid though, I just don't know if this brain of mine works in a student-learning way anymore, it feels pretty fried from lack of sleep through the years. I also worry about finding the time to work on school work and everything else in our busy schedule. I know that worrying isn't going to do any good, so I am trying not to think about it, but there are still butterflies in my stomach every time I think about class, fortunately it is only once a week, I can handle once a week.

baby it is cold outside

and I am NOT ready for winter.
Yesterday it snowed, well it flurried and I can honestly say I was not excited. I usually get very excited when it might snow or it is snowing, even it is a few flakes, but yesterday I wasn't celebrating at all. I am not ready for cold weather. We haven't had the money to get replacement windows so it is chilly in the house, I don't have many warm clothes that fit (who wants to wear a large sweater when nursing or trying to wear a baby carrier), I want to keep our heating bill as low as possible and not have to use much heat (though I HATE to be cold) and spring is months away and I would like to delay winter as long as possible. Oh and I almost forgot, the kids don't have winter hats and Lance currently HATES his winter coat so bundling up is not easy. Then there is my hair that gets all dry and static and my hands that get all dry and cracked. The only bright spot to winter is Christmas and I am not ready for Christmas. This year is suppose to be a cold one, can I survive? I would never make it in Canada.c

light up the night

Last night was our second annual "Light up the Night." It was fun, not as much fun as last year because we didn't have as many kids this year, but it was still fun. What's the deal? We were ready this year for tons of kids and we just didn't have that many, it was very disappointing. We kept waiting for the masses to arrive, but they never showed up. In previous years they would seem to bus them into our neighborhood, but they must have moved on to better neighborhoods. We had more lights in our yard this year, more games for the kids to play, more candy to give them, more glo-necklaces to find in the leaf pile, more everything, just not more kids. One reason the masses of kids went elsewhere could be that no one seems to receive trick-or-treaters anymore, the next house handing out candy was 4 or 5 houses down in every direction. There were also a lot of churches doing "trunk-or-treat" in town which must be the newest way to do Halloween instead of old fashion trick-or-treating. Wait, why am I complaining, I now have tons of good candy left over! We did take Lance to a few houses in the neighborhood and after the first house he realized that trick-or-treating was a lot of fun. He would practically run up to the door (even if there were dogs) and hold out his bag. I couldn't believe how quickly he caught on to the whole, knock on door, get candy, move onto the next house routine of trick-or-treating and how he didn't complain with having to walk around when he was quite tired. This year, we went cheap with the costumes and all four of us got dressed up with what we already had around the house, no store bought costumes this year. I was Princess Leia (with bagels in my hair so I could get her side buns), Lance was a Jawa (sand person from Star Wars), but later we decided Obi-Wan was better, Jeff was Luke Skywalker with Yoda a.k.a. Lily on his back (I put her in all green and then taped ears to one of her hats, it was a stretch, but when she was on Jeff's back in the carrier it worked). I had a good time getting creative with our costumes and figuring out what we could use from around the house, bagels, belts, paper, etc. I will post pictures after I get them from Jeff's camera. So despite having few trick-or-treaters, we had a good time and we were able to have lots of games for the kids who came by our house to play hopefully making their night a lot of fun.

an afternoon in the woods

Jeff wanted to get out in the woods on Sunday and enjoy the autumn leaves and the warm weather so we headed out after church. We got a sub to share for a picnic lunch and drove about 30 minutes out of town. Lily obviously didn't like our plan and screamed most of the way there so we stopped earlier then expected for our lunch. We sat down at a picnic table and within a minute of two we were up and moving around because the gnats were so horrible it was impossible to sit still so we walked and ate.
here is lance, lily and I walking down to the river after eating, trying to keep moving to keep the gnats from swarming


After lunch we went on the bridge that crosses over the river and goes underneath the road and back, we didn't explore the other side due to the ridiculous number of gnats.

the view from the bridge, it is beautiful and once more of the leaves change it will be even prettier

Jeff and Lance walking back across the river with the parkway overhead.

After hitting the restroom we got back in the car and went to the Foot bridge, our planned destination. The Foot bridge is a bridge that crosses over the river and is in honor of Bill Foot a local man who was an avid hiker. Right when we got on the bridge a train came by which made Lance's day since he could get such a good look at it and it was so close. It was so close that it shook the bridge we were on, a little freaky.

Jeff and Lance walking out to find a good spot to see the approaching train.

watching the train go across the river



Lance pointing to the passing train, the highlight of his adventure.



Lance, Lily, and I on the Foot bridge.

After crossing to the other side we explored, well Lance and Jeff explored, I was carrying Lily and since it is usually my down time I was tired and didn't feel like doing much hiking. Looking back I wish I had been more motivated to do the trail loop, but I was so tired and couldn't get motivated.

the trees and leaves were very pretty even though they hadn't turned yet

a cliff that was blasted out to make room for the original train bridge and track and in this area is not a small part of the AT.

Jeff and Lance exploring a small waterfall, lance is holding a rock he found

sharing a snack, m&m's.


it was such a beautiful day and nice and warm for October.


unfortunately Jeff just takes pictures and doesn't look to see if how they look, this is such a great picture of Lance because he has a nice smile, but you can hardly see his face.