Chris Greene Lake and Backyard campout with friends

 Last Thursday we met up with a group of friends at Chris Greene Lake for a few hours.  The lake is only open Thursdays - Sundays this year so much less than usual. We went on opening day and had fun visiting with friends, swimming and playing in the sand.  We brought our kayaks with us for one last outing and Jared went out with friends and so did Mark.  Some friends bought our kayaks this week and we are so glad they will be put to good use with their fun family. 

That night our friends the Hendricks came over for a camp out in our backyard.  Awhile ago Christa mentioned that she felt bad that she hadn't taken her older kids camping because it was so hard with her little kids. I told her they were welcome to camp in our backyard since we basically live in the woods and had a built in fire pit.  Once school got out we made it happen. Christa came with her four oldest kids and 7 month old baby while her husband stayed home with their 5 and 3 year olds.  She slept on the couch in our basement with Lilah and the 6 kids slept outside.  We both got a great nights sleep and our kids had a fun camping experience together.  We have never done sleep overs with other kids so it was extra special. It was a perfect night, the weather was amazing and we were able to recreate as many campout activities as possible. We had a fire, roasted s'mores, caught fire flies, shot BB guns off our back deck in the dark and played card games in the tents.  While the kids played card games Christa and I worked on a puzzle together which was so fun.  Around 10:45 the boys came up to tell us good night.  Lydia was the only one who didn't last the whole night.  She came in around 4:00 because she was cold.  They really lucked out with the weather, cool temperatures and really low humidity. The next morning we had hot chocolate and muffins.  It was such a perfect night!  I am sure it will be our favorite memory with them.  

Parker and Jared

Lydia and Reagan

These girls had a fun time creating flags for their made up countries.  

Pictured here: Donut, rainbow, cookie and ice cream land

Parker, Christa, Jared, Aiden, Reagan, Lydia and Beckett

Jared, Parker, Beckett and Aiden.  

We still have some  cans set up in trees but they were hard to see since it was dark out.  They got the idea to borrow some of our headlamps to help them see and it actually worked really well.  Jared attached a small flashlight from his emergency kit to his BB gun with tape and it worked surprisingly well. It was fun for them to have the added the challenge of shooting in the dark.

Christa is such a sweet fun mom!  She has 7 kids and provides all kinds of fun for them. I love that she was willing to put together this idea and make such a fun memory.  We are so glad we have gotten to hang out with the Hendricks the last 2 years and will miss them a lot. Jared and Parker are really close and I feel bad putting distance between them. I hope they can maintain their friendship and pick up where they left off when we are back in Charlottesville.  So often we have been the ones "left behind" over the years and I feel bad being the ones leaving. We are so fortunate to have so many wonderful people in our lives in Charlottesville. 

We Love Charlottesville A Lot

We have made great progress on our "before leaving Virginia" list.  It has been so fun to revisit all of our favorite places and reflect back on what a great 7 years we have had here.  7 years ago I had never heard of Charlottesville, Virginia and now it is my most favorite place I have ever lived.  It has been such a blessing to live here.  This past Saturday we checked another item off the list.  We met up with our dear friends the Charles' and took pictures at Fitzgerald Tires, a small tire shop in the Belmont neighborhood. There are quite a few murals painted on walls all around Charlottesville but this one is my most favorite.  I heard about it a few years ago and knew I wanted pictures by it before we moved.  I asked Jessie if she would be willing/interested in meeting us there to take pictures and she was up for it. After our little photo shoot we went over to Dairy Market for Moo Thru ice cream.  It was nice to have an evening out with the Charles family.  They moved here about 6 months before we did and we have enjoyed hanging out with them over the years. Jessie and I have been paired up together for ministering for quite a few years and have enjoyed ministering together and just visiting with each other. We often got together for Sunday theme treats, walks, Christmas Eve brunch and visits before school got out as she lives right by Baker-Butler.  They are a great family and we will miss them very much. 

Lydia, Aprillee, Jessie, Eli, Milo, Calvin, Dash, Louie, Jared, Mark

The Belmont neighborhood is a really old Charlottesville neighborhood near downtown.  The Downtown Mall is just a short walk away.  It was originally a large farm and then got sold to create the neighborhood around 1890.  It is a very desirable place to live in the city of Charlottesville if you want to be downtown.  It has really old houses and new ones replacing old ones.  There are lots of well known restaurants and its a pretty hip place these days.  We don't go there frequently but this week I happened to go there on two separate occasions.  To take pictures with the Charles and then to meet a woman who was buying Lydia's Barbie house.  I drove down Tuesday to pass on the Barbie house. She works on the Downtown Mall and asked to meet at Browns, a convenient store in Belmont.  After I passed on the house she mentioned that she was going inside for some fried chicken.  I decided I would try it out as well.  I picked up my dinner and then looked on my map to find a place to eat it.  It happened to be a beautiful early Summer evening so I decided to go eat at Belmont Park, a park I had never been to in Charlottesville. I don't know a lot about fried chicken but this was some of the best I had ever eaten. It was great to sit in the park and watch families meeting up to play in the small splash pad.  After I finished I decided to take a drive around the neighborhood.  I didn't use my maps at all, just picked random streets to drive up to just take in a part of Charlottesville I hadn't spent much time in. It was really nice.  Since I was near downtown I decided I would take a drive through our old neighborhood.  No one else in my family would really care to visit the places we used to hang out a lot so I decided to just go myself and it was so nice.  It was like a personal goodbye tour of Charlottesville. 

I left Belmont and drove up Park Street which is an old street with beautiful old Victorian houses and big churches.  Jared attended preschool at First Presbyterian on Park Street so I stopped there for a few minutes on my way to our old neighborhood, RiverRun. I have this early Charlottesville memory of going on a run near our townhome and getting completely lost and the only way I got home was to get back on Park Street and walk to our townhome.  While Park Street is a very nice street the half close to where we lived is not a walkable area.  It's a funny memory.  I remembered running thorough a neighborhood under construction and as I neared the turn to RiverRun I decided to drive through the neighborhood and see if it was where I got lost.  It was and it is now a beautiful neighborhood.  At the time there were very few houses and the streets were not connected so it was really confusing but it is a great spot now. As I was driving I decided to send Mark a Marco Polo to show him the neighborhood so now I have this really silly video of me rambling about the neighborhood and how much I was enjoying my goodbye tour. After I left that neighborhood I drove over to the townhome we rented. 

We really enjoyed living in RiverRun.  It had nice walking trails, was only 7 minutes from Mark's school and a quick walk to Pen Park. It was a great place to live for our first year to help us orient ourselves with Charlottesville.  Plus, our friends the Farnsworths lived around the corner and we had so much fun meeting up with them.  We hung out so much the first 3 years we lived in Charlottesville. Laura was so helpful in showing me a lot of fun things to do in Charlottesville and is such a fun inclusive person.  She was the perfect first friend in Charlottesville.  I am so happy that we could reconnect this winter with biking.  

I didn't plan to take this goodbye tour but it turned out to be a really good thing.  It was really nice to take these 2 hours for myself and say goodbye to these places I have such fond memories of.  It provided great closure and was really nice to just go by myself.  When we get back from our trip out West we are going to be really busy getting our house ready and it will be so hot and humid, this was the perfect time to do this. I am so thankful to have lived in this wonderful place and will miss it a lot. While driving around the past few months I have asked myself frequently why we were leaving this beautiful, fun place we all love but as one friend put it, adventure awaits and Charlottesville is not going anywhere. How fortunate we are to have found such an awesome place and gotten to experience it the last 7 years. 

Water Country USA

 Friday morning after our campout with the Hendricks we drove down to Williamsburg to spend the afternoon at Water Country USA.  Before going to the water park we stopped by the outlet malls there to pick up a few things to take to Egypt.  We specifically went to find uniform options and shoes.  We will have to buy their shirts once we get to Egypt as AIS has a very specific shirt but we planned to buy all their bottoms here.  We got Jared all set with 5 pairs of navy shorts and 5 pairs of navy pants, he was easy.  I do worry that he will grow too much this summer and they will be short next winter but we did plan for that in the sizes we got.  We got Lydia 3 skirts and 2 pairs of shorts and 4 pairs of pants but will plan to pick up some leggings and capris at target or old navy.  From what we understand we can find a lot of things in Egypt but things are better quality and price points here.  We found some shoes for Jared but not Lydia.  I think she was just anxious to get to the water park and not in the mood to shop. 

Once we got to the water park we were surprised at how busy it was.  We had made our reservation so we assumed they were limiting the numbers they were letting in but it did not feel like that.  The lines were really long and we didn't get to go on nearly as many rides as the last time we went.  One problem was that it was a late night for members so I think a lot of people started arriving at 5:00 instead of going home like last time.  The last hour at the park was so empty the first time we went but that was not the case this time.  We had a fun afternoon but will be sure to not go on a member's late night when we go again in July. 

Monticello Trail, Dickerson Beach, biking at the church

 After Mark and I dropped off the donations at Piedmont House we drove a few minutes up the road to The Monticello Trail.  Mark's school was having a teacher appreciation/farewell luncheon at Ashlawn Highland, former President Monroe's house which is right near there.  When I looked at the map to see where Piedmont House was I noticed how close it was to the house and the trail so we decided to time it right so we could take a walk there together before his luncheon.  It is Mark's favorite trail in Charlottesville and he was really happy to get in a last walk there.  I used to go there frequently the first year we lived here. I would drop Jared off at his preschool downtown and then meet up with friends to walk the trail with our littles.  It is a beautiful trail and a great place to walk. Lydia and Jared do not love it as much as Mark so they were okay missing out on the walk.  Mark really enjoyed the luncheon.  The last 2 days have had perfect weather here so it was a great place to meet up with good food.  It was a nice for him to have some time to say goodbye to teachers.  Yesterday they had students until 1:30 or so and then he cleaned out his classroom, turned in all his stuff to the county and drove home.  Today he got to visit with people and do it away from school.  It gave him some nice closure.  

When I got home from the trail I took Jared and Lydia to Dickerson Beach. They built settlements, swam, fished and caught minnows.  They love visiting there so much and while I may get a little bored I am happy to have an easy convenient place to take them.  There were quite a few cars parked by the trail which surprised me but the largest group (6 people) stopped at the first beach and at the beach we went to there were two girls and they were far enough away we did not bother each other.  

Lydia crocodile swimming

We ended the day with one last trip to the church to bike.  This trip was really ill fated.  Because Mark and I were switching cars a lot last week the helmets were in his car not mine.  Luckily I could easily stop by the airport and grab them but then as soon as we got to the church Lydia told me she had to go to the bathroom.  I was so annoyed.  Jared was also annoyed because the insert in his helmet which makes it easier to size had fallen out in Mark's trunk so he was not pleasant to be around as he angrily wore his helmet.  We were meeting the Shaw's there and luckily as I was getting in the car to take Lydia home to the bathroom they showed up and Chris had a key.  It ended up being a fine evening but it was certainly a rocky start.  They didn't actually ride their bikes that much but they were provided an opportunity too.  We are dropping Jared's bike off to its new owner tomorrow.

Last day at UVA

As I left I took out my name plate and put in Angela's. One AS to another AS.

 Last Friday, the 11th was my last day at UVA.  I am so sad about leaving this job.  It has been my most favorite job, a dream job really and I so wish I could keep it while we are in Cairo. I love the people I worked with, I loved the work I did and was so happy to be working at UVA.  It is a bummer the last 15 months of the job I had to work from home.  That is about half the time I had the job.  We all went home last March and then in July I started going in to the office one day a week but I had to work at the Wilsdorf Dock to receive packages instead of at my desk. The last month or so I worked I was training the person taking over for me (who seems very competent and nice) but in a fun circumstance before she got hired she had planned to take off the first week in June which was going to be my last week.  So for my last week I got to work as I normally would.  It was so nice to be back in the office and to have that last week be so much more normal. 

Quite a few faculty members stopped by to say goodbye and wish me well and then more sent very thoughtful emails and Jen and I went out to lunch together which was really nice.  It came up so suddenly!  I think subbing at AIS will be fine but I do not expect to love it like I loved this job.  Not only did I love that actual job but I love how this job was an answer to a prayer. I had been so frustrated about preschool and not getting students signed up.  In 2018 I was so mad at God for not answering this prayer.  I started this job in September 2018 and loved it even more than preschool and had no change in hours or salary during all the COVID times.  This was an enormous blessing. 2020 would have been so much more stressful and horrible if I had still been teaching preschool. Even though it took almost 2 years to see that this plan was a better one it was so clear to me once I saw how 2020 was going to go down.  I will miss it more than I can write. 

Selling and donating

It's even more empty as of today.  We took all the pictures off the wall in our whole house as well. Basically all our big furniture items are gone except for our beds. 

 We have been busy selling a lot of our items the past 2 weeks. We started by posting about it on our ward Facebook page and were able to get a good amount of items/furniture sold.  A few days later Mark sent out an email to the staff/faculty at his school and they have bought so much stuff, its been so helpful!  It was almost like Mark had side job selling stuff out of his car.  While this was happening our highlander was in the shop.  Luckily we have very generous friends who let us borrow the car they plan on having their oldest son use next month when he can officially drive himself. It was such a lifesaver to have a second car to use while the highlander was out of commission. One evening we were driving to friends house and we heard the sound of a bolt falling and hitting the pavement.  We all heard it very clearly from inside.  We turned around and took the car back to our house and used Mark's car.  The next day we took the Highlander to the shop and there is stayed for the next four days. It was actually a scary situation.  When they put the car up on the lifts the back passenger tire completely fell off.  We were so lucky we did not get in a terrible accident and that they mechanics were fine.  So that turned out to be an expensive trip to the mechanic.  We originally planned to get the oil change and the required state inspection so it would be ready to sell and had to get so much more work done.  It is so obnoxious to put a ton of money into a car you are selling a month later.   We have some friends who want to buy the highlander and while it has been a great reliable car for us I am very nervous to sell it to them.  It is 20 years old and has 248,000 miles on it.  We have been very honest about it and they still seem interested but it makes me nervous.  As everyone keeps telling me, they know what they are buying.  The mechanic said that even with how old it is it really is still a good car.  I have loved this car and will be sad to not have it any more. So while we were able to make a good amount of money selling stuff so we can buy the furnishings for our new apartment we then has to spend a lot of it on this car.  At least we had extra cash and still a good amount left over from selling so much.  

Today Mark and I made two big donation trips.  I have been trying to find a good organization we could donate items too and a friend told me about The Piedmont House which is a men's halfway house.  I called them up and listed off the items we had to donate and they were able to take a majority of them.  It felt good to donate to them.  The other place we donated stuff too was the Earlysville Exchange.  This is more of a small scale Goodwill and they were so easy to work with.  They are only doing donations by appointment and were all booked this week but when I emailed the store they said if I could come right at the end of donation time they would slip me in same day.  It was so nice. 

It feels so good to have this stuff cleared out. I am so worried that we will get back from our trip out West and will have way more to do that I planned on and will be on a tight time crunch.  I am concerned that I am not as prepared and organized as I think I am.  We will still have plenty to do but are actually in good shape. Our attic is much more full now than it has been the 6 years we have lived here but overall we have sold and given away so much stuff.  When we get back around the 06th of July we will have an intense week of cleaning and preparing our house for our renters who arrive on July 15th.  We will actually be out of town when they arrive so I just want to get as much done before this big trip out West. We will be leaving town July 12th or so to meet up with Mark's brother David for a week long church history trip.  We have to have our house clean and all our take to Egypt stuff at our friends the Leavitt's house.  They will be out in Arizona visiting family and are kindly letting us stay at their house. 

Walnut Creek

 For our last kayaking excursion here in Virginia we drove over to Walnut Creek.  This is my favorite local lake to kayak on.  We stopped for Duck Donuts on the drive over with the plan to eat them once we were out in the water but the weather deterred us.  The last 10 minutes of the drive we were going through some light rain and when we arrived it had not yet stopped.  We decided to eat the donuts in the car and hope the rain let up once we finished.  Lucky for us it did, it was just a quick passing cloud.  We got the kayaks in the water and enjoyed paddling and playing in the perfect weather. We brought a small inflatable ball and a bat so we could play paddle ball and Jared managed to get some really good hits.  Lydia enjoyed sitting on the kayak and using it as a paddle board.  We stopped by the dock and both Jared and Lydia took a few jumps off.  The dock and beach are not technically open yet so we probably shouldn't have but they did enjoy it.  As we were pushing off a large group of Boy Scouts arrived to canoe.  They paddled over to the beach and got out and started eating their lunch and a guy in the pavilion told them they had to leave because the beach wasn't open yet. We were pretty far out in the water when that happened so we did not get yelled at. and were actually surprised there was anyone there to say anything. 

Jared decided it would be a lot of fun to torpedo the three of us in our kayaks and not surprisingly the Boy Scouts did a lot of that to each other in their canoes.  They were very loud but it didn't bother us they were just having a good time capsizing each other and themselves. Mark and I were safe in our kayaks but Lydia did get knocked over.  She was fine as she had already fallen in herself a number of times. Our friends are buying are kayaks from us so tomorrow will actually be the last time we take them out.  We are meeting a group of friends at Chris Greene to play at the beach and have a picnic lunch.  Tomorrow is actually opening day for the county lakes so it will be perfectly legal.

 Buying the kayaks was a great investment for us.  We explored a lot of fun water sources and it was a good family outing.  Something different to do that was easy for us especially since we lived right by a lake.  It was fun to explore new places and spend that time together as a family.  They sometimes felt like a lot of work but they were totally worth it.

First evening of Summer break

We had the most beautiful weather today.  Perfect temperatures and really low humidity, it was ideal.  I had to run a few errands downtown but when I got back Jared, Lydia and I headed over to Chris Greene.  They enjoyed fishing, kayaking and catching fireflies.  It was such a nice evening, so simple. It made me feel so fortunate that we live where we live. I wish every Summer evening could be as perfect. 

I was really proud of Jared for letting Lydia use his fishing rod.  

They both had fun using the kayak as a paddle board, they did great, Lydia did fall off once but she was actually kneeling not standing.  She says it was not on purpose but I am not convinced.  She was perfectly happy it happened.