End of summer

After our big summer trip I went back to work, but Amber and the kids still had a few end-of-summer activities. Olivia still had tickets to Splashtown from a school field trip that was canceled, so they spent a day there and had a great time.

Amber helped Olivia with a Personal Progress project of making a planter box for an herb garden.

And they got to see the Merrells, who happened to be visiting Texas just a few weeks after we visited them. They met up at the Blue Bell Creamery and took the tour there.

Before we knew it, it was time for school to start again. They started earlier this year to make up for two week-long breaks they added during the school year.

Summer Vacation - Part 14 - Merrells and Gator Chateau

On our drive home we swung by Buford, Georgia to visit Douglas and Amanda Merrell and their kids. They moved away from Houston before we ever really got to meet their kids, so it was a fun reunion. The kids hit it off and were quickly playing together.

They played inside and out, and we went to the pool that night. The kids begged us to stay longer, so we stayed for a few more hours the next morning before finally saying good-bye.

That left just one more stop. We couldn't just drive past Jennings, Louisiana without stopping at the Gator Chateau. They'd totally rebuilt the place from a small building into a full tourist attraction since we were there last, but we still got to hold baby alligators.

We tried to play on the playground there, too, but had to compete with some rain.

We made it home on Saturday and very much enjoyed being in our own home again after a long, fun vacation.

Summer Vacation - Part 13 - Monticello

After Shenandoah National Park, we hurried over to Monticello where we had a reserved time for a house tour. We got there with enough time to park at the visitors center and get a picture with Thomas Jefferson himself while we waited for the the shuttle to the house.

We had a little while to explore before the tour.

There are things to see along the wings of the house, and they had some activities set up, like writing the Declaration of Independence with a quill.

I visited here as a child, and one of the things I remember was taking a picture with our arms around this big tree, so I made sure to get one of my kids doing it too.

The house tour was very interesting, but unfortunately did not allow photography. The design of the house and Jefferson's inventions and life are so fascinating. The kids were excited to find the "Saturday" marking for Jefferson's clock, which was gravity based but required a hole in the floor to accurately measure the last day of the week.

After the tour, we explored the grounds more.

There was a Jefferson impersonator on the lawn, who was answering questions. He was very good.

We looked at the gardens, workshops, kitches, and stables, and explored the cellars before calling it a day. On our way back to the car we stopped by Jefferson's grave.

Summer Vacation - Part 12 - Shenandoah National Park

On Wednesday morning we drove back into Virginia and headed for Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive. It's a beautiful 105 mile drive through the mountains with dozens of scenic views along the way and it was hard not to stop at all of them.

We were on a schedule because we needed to get to Monticello later, so we hopped in and out of the van to see as many of the overlooks as we could.

The kids were good about it, although I think they got burned out of scenic views by the end.

We wanted to see a bear (a fellow tourist said he saw one), but we did see some deer run across the road. We also found a waterfall, and a perfect little half-mile hike to break up the series of overlooks.

We stopped at "Skyland", the highest point in the park for a bathroom break, and we ate lunch in the car as we went.

It's one of those places I wish I could have spent a long time exploring, but we managed to get through the whole park in just a few hours, with lots of scenic views to show for it.

Summer Vacation - Part 11 - Warren and Harpers Ferry

On Tuesday we drove to Warren's house in Charles Town, WV and visited with him for a while, then left him to work while we went to Harpers Ferry.

We parked at the visitors center and took the shuttle in, then started exploring.

One of the first places we went was to Jefferson Rock, where Jefferson thought there was a good view.

We got lunch at a little pizza place.

Then went to see the historic buildings, including the relocated "John Brown's Fort".

And the site of the old arsenal along the river.

After checking out the museums, we went to my favorite part of Harpers Ferry, which is crossing the railroad bridge to Maryland and climbing the Maryland Heights.

It's a fun little hike and it has beautiful views of Harpers Ferry and the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.

We went back to Warren's house for the night. He got us Chinese food and we spent time with him and Gordon and Lydia (Marissa and her girls were out of town).

We had fun playing Jackbox (party games on game system where you use phones as input) late into the night.

Summer Vacation - Part 10 - Washington, D.C.

On Monday we headed into DC. We tried to take the Metro from Springfield like we usually do, but found out that the Springfield station is under construction so we had to take a bus to the Pentagon and ride in from there.

Our first stop was the White House, where we found some protesters on the front side, and then a larger than normal perimeter on the back side, which was kind of disappointing.

We made our way over to the Washington Monument only to find that not only is it still closed, but completely fenced off for repairs, so we couldn't even give it a hug like last time.

We wandered through the WWII Memorial, then on to the Lincoln Memorial.

Since we were here so recently, we decided to change things up this time and go paddle boating in the Tidal Basin. I got to do most of the paddling with Miles and Damon in my boat, while Amber got chauffeured around to see the Jefferson and MLK memorials.

We got lunch and milkshakes in the wharf district, which helped stop some of the crabbiness. It was a very hot day.

We saved the Smithsonian museums for the hot afternoon.

We all started at Air and Space, and that's where Amber, Olivia, and Damon stayed.

I took Miles and Carmen to the Natural History Museum, where we had a great time.

When the museums closed, we decided we'd had enough and headed home.

Summer Vacation - Part 9 - Jason and the creek

We went to church with Jason's family on Sunday, then we just hung out at the house for a while.

The cousins didn't take long to start playing games together.

Connor and Silken were able to stop by too.

The kids wanted to see the cemetery on the street, so we made our pilgrimage there and found that it's been fixed up, with a sign and staircase added, and the gravestones fixed.

Then we went down to the creek to let the kids cool off.

In the evening we played party games until it was past everyone's bedtime.