Blackwater Creek Trail

Today we drove to Lynchburg to check out a bike trail.  Its a really nice paved trail next to the James River and downtown Lynchburg. The weather was really nice and we had a fun time.  We biked 8 miles and it was pretty much level the whole time which was really helpful.  There are a couple of paths you can take and loop back around, our favorite one was one that had you ride through a tunnel.  It was great.  The last section took us over a high, wood planked bridge over the river which was also fun.  I didn't expect to ride 8 miles today but we all felt good doing it. Lydia may have preferred a few miles less but she did really well. 
I am really enjoying checking out places near us in Virginia and nearby that we have not made it to since we have been here. Jared and Lydia are the perfect ages to be having these adventures.  The last two Summers we were out of the country a lot but this Summer will not be like that (much to Mark's dismay) so we are taking the time to check out sites around us which is great.  Mark did get word that he will be back to his regular schedule at the airport after the 4th of July.  We haven't been on an airplane since the very end of December which is pretty unusual for us based on the last 2 years.  We plan to take advantage of any of the good weather days we have here and check out sites.  June has been really nice but I am dreading July and August.  I always vote for cool, not humid places to travel to during the Summer but it seems unlikely that that will happen this year so humidity and not many places to swim it is.

Tunnel entrance

There has been a lot of rain in the area this week so the river looked more like chocolate milk which was not the prettiest site.

Right at the end of our ride the sun came out. 

We were grateful to have the cloud cover as we were riding. 

Galaxy Slime + Aqua Sand + Disc Golf

We crossed these two items off our Summer fun list this week.  Both were well received, especially the slime. Lydia has been asking about making some the past few weeks so it was good to do it today. We had made slime once before at home and it turned out pretty well but this time was so much better. There have been a couple of community science events that we had attended where they could try to make slime and it never turned out well so I was nervous to make it but it was a lot of fun. Lydia and I made it while Mark and Jared played disc golf and she played with it for over 3 

hours.  We looked up a few pictures of our galaxy online and had a little "science" moment.  The colors were actually pretty similar.  

Once combined, it made this lovely purple  color which suited Lydia fine. 

The Aqua Sand was fun but I am not sure how practical it is.  They thought it was really cool and I was happy it worked.  Its really easy to make but once the colors are combined you can't separate them out again. We will try it again and see if it can be used more than once.

Jared and Mark had a really good time playing disc golf.  Jared had been pretty grumpy most of the day and luckily this helped turned him around.  They played all 19 holes at Walnut Creek and Jared improved a lot by the end. I texted Mark that Lydia and I were enjoying some ice cream and maybe he and Jared should stop and get some so they did.  They stopped at Carter Mountain for some peach soft serve.  Lydia was quite jealous but I have no doubt that we will all make it over there soon for more soft serve. 

Biking at Antietam National Battlefield

I got home from work Monday and Mark said, "I have an idea for tomorrow."  To make the most of the beautiful weather we were having he wanted to go bike around Antietam Battlefield. He looked it up online and it said it was 9 miles to drive around the park. We weren't sure how hilly it would be but we were up for the adventure.  The drive up was pretty, it took about 2.5 hours to get there and we made sure to listen to "Take Me Home, Country Roads" as we drove through West Virginia.  Once there we got our sunscreen on and started biking. It was a good time to go because the visitors center was closed due to Corona Virus so I imagine there were a lot less people driving around on the roads. We weren't super focused on teaching a lot about the battle we just wanted to be out riding together but did go over some basic facts.  It was a cool and different way to see a battlefield.  There were some big hills we had to make it up but that just meant there was also some really fun hills to ride down.  Lydia was not very excited about this outing in the beginning because she was nervous about the hills but she worked so hard and did a great job.  We were really proud of Jared and Lydia.  It was such a good hard for our whole family, Mark and I included. We tried to ride up as many of the hills as we could and got pretty far on most of them.  There was one really big downhill that I was the most scared to ride down. Lydia was nervous too but she loved it. I used my brakes pretty much the whole way down and we all made it safely. Toward the end we stopped by Burnside Bridge and I started to feel a little lightheaded (it was warming up but still such a beautiful day) but luckily we had some snacks and made our way back to the visitor center. The views were beautiful and it was a different kind of bike ride which made it more fun.

This Sycamore tree was only a few years old at the battle it is massive. 

As we ate our picnic lunch we asked Jared and Lydia what they thought about the ride and Lydia gave it a 100 out of 10 and Jared gave it a 9 out of 10. I did not expect such a high rating and hope they remember it as a fun challenging outing.

As we were finishing one of the big hills I mentioned to Lydia that I thought it was a 2 scoop day at Moo Thru.  It gave us all some good motivation and was delicious as always.

Kayaking, national day celebrating picnicking, hiking, and firefly catching (Corona Virus week 13)

Sunday's home church ended up being really nice.  We asked Sue and my Mom if they would be willing to participate in a testimony meeting with us and they agreed and each sent us Marco Polo videos of them bearing their testimonies.  Then we sent videos to them of the four of us bearing our testimonies.  I have not really heard Jared or Lydia bear their testimonies and it was sweet and powerful. For "second hour" (which is never an "hour" maybe 20 minutes at the most, in fact our whole church time is generally just over an hour total) I used a lesson from the Primary Come Follow Me manual that talked about testimonies.  We read some verses and then did an activity where you each got a balloon and before you could blow air into it you said one part of your testimony.  It was a great object lesson.  We have a list of activities we can do together on Sundays.  One of them is reading the blog.  They never choose this one.  Last week I just called them over and started reading.  I had them each pick a year (between 2010 - present) and then clicked on the week closest to the week we were in and read it.  They loved it.  I don't expect them to choose this frequently but would like to read through memories of them together more often.

The weather looked pretty good Tuesday morning so we decided to go kayaking at Chris Greene.  We got out on the water shortly after 8 and had a nice time paddling around.  We attempted to play football but it did not work out as well as baseball. I needed to be at UVA by 10 so as it got later I mentioned we needed to head back (we only had one car) but Mark was convinced we could go farther and have plenty of time.  By the time we headed back and he took the first load of kayaks to our house it was already after 9:00.  We can only take 2 at a time and had 3 so I stayed at the lake with the 3rd one while he quickly dropped off Jared and Lydia and one of the kayaks then came back to get me and the last kayak.  He was very quick but I did not get home till 9:20. Its about 20 - 25 minutes to my building at UVA so I like to leave by 9:40.  I am going there to meet the package delivery people (UPS/FedEX who arrive at 10 so I really do need to be there) I was not amused.  I rushed in to shower and left without drying my hair (I hate doing that and have probably done it 5 in the last 10 years) and made it to UVA by 10:05.  The School of Engineering is actually starting a new system for deliveries.  Many of the research labs are starting up next week and they want to minimize people in buildings so now someone from each department will be at the loading dock in the building next to mine to receive packages.  I have been given Mondays (which I wanted) and will be there from 9:00 - 1:00 to receive deliveries for most of the engineering schools and then I will email their representative if they have any to pick up.  I also have to enter in the times I am in any buildings on a tracking sheet and record when the delivery people show up.  This part makes Covid 19 seem more real or official and I think tracking who is in buildings is a very good idea.  So now I will only be on grounds on Mondays instead of Tuesdays and Fridays.  Here is my new work space:

For the record we did have a nice time out paddling. 

Jared thought he could make it under this tree branch, he could not. But he was a good sport about it.

He couldn't quite get his speed up enough and then got stuck because there wasn't enough space to paddle. 

Wednesday was National Black Cow Day so we learned the history of the drink called a Black Cow and made some.  We followed a recipe from 1949 which used coca cola and chocolate ice cream which tasted better than it sounded and then we each chose whether we wanted a root beer float (what some people call a black cow) with chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Lydia went with vanilla and they rest of us chose chocolate.  For the record vanilla is better. 

Friday and Saturday had really beautiful weather, I was so thankful.  Friday we met up with friends at Baker Butler for a morning picnic and bike riding.  Morning picnics are on our Summer Fun List and it was a fun way to start the day.  I left for UVA and they stayed at the school to play longer and pick up Jared and Lydia's school supplies.  Lydia has been asking about getting her stuff for as long as I can remember so she was happy it finally happened.  She mostly wanted her journal so we could read her entries together.

Saturday we hiked Crabtree Falls.  We heard about this hike shortly after moving here and it always appears on lists of best hikes near Charlottesville.  We have been waiting until we felt both Jared and Lydia were old enough to do the hike pleasantly and they did great.  Crabtree Falls is said to be the tallest waterfall East of the Mississippi (disclaimer: depending on how you measure waterfalls) and is for sure the tallest waterfall in Virginia.  The hike is 1.7 miles to the top which is a really comfortable distance and there are great views at the top.  We started hiking around 9:30 which was great.  It was much busier as we made our way back down.  There are lots of viewpoints as you hike and while it is mostly uphill it is comfortable.  They are very serious about safety, more than once we passed signs telling us how many people had died while hiking there (30).  This was another reason we figured we should wait till Jared and Lydia were older.  Lydia and Jared basically ran the whole way down which often happens but today this time they did an excellent job waiting for Mark and I.  The rule has always been if you can't see us you need to wait for us and it has not always been followed well so they impressed us this time.  As we finished up I asked them if they would do the hike again and they said definitely.  As we got closer to the end I pointed this out to Lydia and she said she wished it was longer (going down, not up).

View from the bottom of the Falls.  It was a really pretty hike. I loved being by the waterfall and the view from the top. There were 4 or 5 different viewing points so it was cool to see so much of the waterfall.  I always appreciate hikes with a view way more than just walking through the woods.  That's too much like looking out into my yard.

This "cave" was a highlight.

A little bit past the cave we came up to this rock that was full of trail markers.  They are always fun to see.  They just look like piles but there were tons of them on here. Jared (in the corner here) added a very small one.

The top.  It really is a great hike. 

We finished the day with a family movie, the mocktail of the week, (Miami Vice) dinner outside by the campfire, and firefly catching.  When we saw how nice the weather was going to be we decided a fire was a fun idea. Mark built a little fire and they roasted hot dogs as appetizers while I made enchiladas.  

After dinner Jared and Lydia asked me to jump on the trampoline with them.  I got on with them and as we were jumping one of the trampoline legs folded in a little bit.  Our trampoline has been on its way out this past year and now its done.  I got off and was done for the night but Jared and Lydia kept jumping and the trampoline leg collapsed.  Its been a great asset for us, especially with COVID 19 but now its over.  It started raining at some point and they had a great time sliding and jumping in the rain. 

We see fireflies each night now and we are all mesmerized by them.  There are often lots of them across the street from us as there are no houses just an open field and trees there but we have plenty in our yard too.  Lydia was having a hard time catching any (she was wearing flip-flops and shorts and could not run everywhere they were because of the flip flops and poison ivy) but Jared dressed appropriately and did really well catching them.  Lydia was getting frustrated but would not go inside to change.  As Jared passed her a firefly she was trying to catch landed on him and he gave it to her.  I was really happy that he passed it on to her naturally without prompting (I am pretty sure this would not have happened a year ago).  I was also really happy that when I said it was time to let them go and go to bed they did it right away, no whining or delaying  They are growing up.

Corona Virus Week 12

This past Sunday was a little different than most Sundays. Mark got dinner set up in the slow cooker and then he and I went on a walk at Chris Greene. Shortly after we got home our electricity went out. so we ended up having home church at church. We put on our church clothes (and shoes! I hadn't worn shoes to church in months), gathered any materials we might need, put the slow cooker in the car and headed to the church. If it weren't for the slow cooker we would have just waited it out at home but we wanted that dinner.  Mark had planned a lesson on the new proclamation for FHE which involved a scavenger hunt and it was fun to go on the hunt for clues at the church building.  We did church in reverse using our "2nd hour" time to prepare talks.  We all picked any topic we wanted and wrote a 3 - 5 minute talk. I picked FHE, Mark and Jared talked about the Book of Mormon and Lydia picked about the tree of life.  It was really nice.  We have mostly been doing conference talks or other talks by general authorities and it was good to switch it up.  We met in the Relief Society room and I think we all appreciated the change in scenery.  We ran into one guy from soccer who is in the 1st ward (he had just completed a temple recommend interview) and had a nice visit with him.  Before we finished church I heard from a neighbor that the power was back on (a pine tree fell on the power line near the back of their property) but we stayed on to finish.

That afternoon Lydia made blueberry muffins all by her self and I made lava cakes for our FHE treat/new weekly recipe.  She did a really great job and is ready to set a new goal.  The lava cakes were good but not something I plan to make frequently. That evening I went on a walk with a friend and it was really nice to visit with her.

Monday had the most beautiful weather forecast so I decided to take the day off from work.  We were able to cross off three items on our Summer Fun list.  Natural Bridge, Safari Park and Campout day. Natural Bridge and Safari Park are the big field trips of 2nd grade.  Jared missed it when he was in 2nd grade because we were out of town and Lydia missed it this Spring because of COVID 19 so we went on our own field trip.  Natural Bridge was a pleasant 2 mile hike/walk right by the river that we all enjoyed. We ate a picnic lunch once we got back to the car and then drove the 10 minutes or so to the Safari Park.  The Safari Park is a drive through animal zoo.  You can buy buckets of feed and the animals come eat out of them while you stay in the car.  There are llamas, moose, deer, yaks (various species of both of these), emus, ostriches, pigs and bison roaming around.  Behind fences there were giraffes, rhinoceros, zebras and camels.  I was a little grossed out by it but really enjoyed how much Jared and Lydia loved it.  They both managed to hold on to their buckets of feed and had a blast. I am really glad we took them.

This waterfall was at the beginning of the hike/walk and there was a larger one at the end.  There were some stairs at the start but the rest of the walk/hike was level and really wide.  You walked next to the river the whole time and it was really beautiful.

Waterfall at the end of the trail

Safari Park

 Camels with 2 humps! 

Once we got home we set up the tent and got a fire started. They really wanted to sleep in the front yard this time so even though I felt better about the back they set up camp in the front yard.  We played some yard games, made tinfoil dinners and smores and then Mark and I headed inside.  Not more than 45 minutes later Lydia came in to sleep in her room.  She said the front yard noises were too loud and different from the back yard noises.  Jared stayed out there all night and woke up nice and early.  It was about 52 degrees and he said he got cold and woke up quite a few times.  I was glad we could get this crossed off the list early on.  In situations like this I love how much our yard looks like a campground.  It does make it kind of hard to leave home to go camping somewhere when we have all we need and don't have to fill our car up with all the things.

He was sad his marshmallows burned.  Next attempt was more successful. 

Wednesday we headed back down to the Drive In to watch Onward.  It was pretty hot that day but since the movie starts so late the weather was pretty pleasant.  Fortunately the humidity has not quite taken over and made us all miserable so a 94 degree day was okay.  Plus we ended up on the far side of the lot and it was already in shade when we got there which helped a lot.  We set up our spot and read and played Frisbee while we waited for the movie to start.  It didn't come on until about 8:45 so a late night but we all enjoyed ourselves.

Earlier in the week Mark pressure washed and re-stained the back deck.  After that was done Jared and Lydia helped him wash our cars and then had fun jumping and getting sprayed on the trampoline. Mark would pressure wash some of the house and then spray Jared and Lydia.  It is still so odd to me how the siding on houses turns green with all the moisture in the air here.  The house I grew up in was stucco and there was basically no humidity in Yuba City so this is one of the weirder house things to me.

Thursday we had plans to attend the Baker-Butler teacher car parade but about 15 minutes before we were going to leave to go to a street they were driving down (our road didn't make the cut) a crazy storm came up our street.  It was only 10 - 15 minutes long but the wind was crazy.  It was raining horizontally and our power flickered off and on. The original plan was to go to the parade and then drive over to some friends house to go swimming. After the storm passed we got in the car and headed down the back way on our street and came across a tree in the road.  We had a few extra minutes before we needed to leave for our friends house so Mark decided to go get his chain saw and try to cut up the tree.  A few minutes into cutting his chainsaw got stuck.  So he drove up to our neighbors house and asked if he could come help out.  This neighbor has lived on our street 20 plus years and is so helpful with things like this.  He was planning on checking the street after he ate dinner but was kind enough to come help Mark before.  While they worked with the chainsaws Jared, Lydia and I walked down the road to pick up any large branches in the road.  We walked back to the car just as they were finishing up and headed over to swim.  This family moved into our ward last Fall and we really enjoy visiting with them.  We did marathon in a week with them and when we went over there to drop off their medals they gave us a jar of homemade salsa.  So my original plan was to return their jar and leave some homemade strawberry jam with them but when I texted about stopping by she invited us to swim which was really nice. We had a nice evening with them.

Earlier in the week I was trying to think of some easy, fun things to do this Summer and decided to look up the "National Day of" for the month of June.  I knew National Donut day was in the beginning of June but wanted to check the actual day and just see if there were a few others we oculd participate in. Friday was National Donut Day so I decided to go ahead and make some.  I made the dough Thursday night and then cut them out Friday morning before work.  I made some glazes while Mark fried them and then I had to leave to go to UVA for 2 hours.  The Shaw's came over to celebrate with us after I got back from UVA and it was nice to hang out with them. I found a few other days that sounded fun and added them to our calendar.  Just a few things to look forward to, I need all the help I can get.

PB with chocolate glaze.  We did a dozen filled and a dozen glazed.  It was nice to have a recipe ready to use and not make so many in one day.  Much more manageable.

Saturday we finally got around to printing off the 4th grade National Park Pass and drove up to Shenandoah National Park.  Years ago we hiked Black Rock Summit and really enjoyed it and today we went back there.  Last time Lydia was so little she was too scared to climb up the rocks at the end but this year she went right up.  She did get nervous especially on the way down but made it up and was happy she did it.  Its only a mile long round trip but does give you beautiful views.  We also saw a rattlesnake! It was pretty creepy but all was well. This was supposed to be the Summer of National Parks and we are still going to try to make it to some out West but we have to wait and see how flying looks and how open and safe parks are.  It was good to be out on a hike.

These flower buds reminded me of frosting coming out of a piping bag. 

 I love the white and pink.

Jared was so happy to be out on the rocks, climbing all over and looking for fossils.

For our movie treats this Summer we are making mocktails.  We made our first one today.  Jared and Lydia were big fans.  I felt it was kind of an acquired taste and I don't think Mark liked it.  They were pretty but not that tasty.  I loved putting the sugar on the rim though, so fancy.  We put mocktail recipes on our Summer Fun list and one a week seems like more than enough.  I am not sure if this is modeled after a real cocktail or not. I don't think we will be repeating this one.

We also attempted a simple version of fried ice cream.  We wrapped little scoops of ice cream in biscuits, froze them for a few hours, and then dropped them in oil to fry them.  And failed completely.  We didn't stretch the dough out enough so it was too thick and therefore still raw when we cut into the ball and the ice cream melted instead of staying solid.  If we try this again we will stretch the biscuit dough more and freeze them much longer.  I think overnight would be best.  After we made ours I looked up a few frozen ice cream recipes and they mostly use a layer of smashed up cornflakes so maybe we will go that route.  Fried ice cream, like what you would find at a Mexican restaurant was not exactly what I was going for but it may be the best option.

It's strange to write about our weeks like this when outside our home things are so different.  With the pandemic and the horrible killing of George Floyd (and so many others) and the protests happening.  Changes need to be made, have needed to be made for as long as anyone can remember.  I saw a really good post by President Obama that pointed out a few things to me.  One that really stood out to me was local elections. As I read through multiple articles and posts this past week about blacklivesmatter and talking to your kids about racism and how daily life is for people of color I was really hoping to read something that pointed out what I could do, an action I could take and how change could really happen.  He said many helpful things and one that he pointed out was how change comes largely from protests and then policies which is elections.  The elections that can make changes like this are state and local.  I have a very poor voting record in local elections and his comments really pointed out how this is where change can happen.  He mentioned that local elections have pitifully low turnouts and if we want things to change where we live we need to actively participate.  So besides having open, good, hard discussions with Jared and Lydia I plan to make this is a priority.