Spring Break 2015

What a great week.  We had a lot of different activities this year and lots of fun together.

On Monday we went camping in Virginia Beach.  We didn't think to take any photos of the campsite, but we got plenty of photos playing on the beach.

On Tuesday we came back home.  We spent some time playing with friends at the park then celebrated Scott's Birthday.

On Wednesday we took a trip to Lynchburg, Virginia.  We hiked around downtown a bit and had a picnic by the river.  We then visited a rock climbing gym and had a blast.  We were really impressed at all of the kids.  Everyone made it to the top of the wall.  Everyone loved it.

We spent the night in Lynchburg

Then we attended the 150th anniversary celebration of the conclusion of the Civil War at Appomattox.  This was a big deal with over 1,000 re-enactors and events going on all week.  Grant was particularly excited to learn all about General Grant.

We came home again on Thursday and had a chance to catch up on our sleep and we had a fun movie night at home.

On Friday we went to the Virginia Children's Theater production of Treasure Island.  We had just finished that book as our bedtime story a couple of weeks ago.  They did a great job and we all enjoyed the show.

Scott and Jen in San Diego

Scott attended the 2015 North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society conference in San Diego, California. The conference was a good meeting but this post is about the other stuff we did in San Diego.

The first day we arrived, we arranged for a special sand castle building lesson from a professional sand sculptor.

Jen and Kristine dumping in heaps of sand and water

Mixing is an important step

We made a 3 tier design.

Now that the forms are made, it's time to sculpt.

Always work from the top down.

Scott actually did his share of the work, but also took most of the pictures.

Check out those arches.

3 hours later...

All done!

We got to tour the Midway- an aircraft carrier museum.  This particular plane is called the cougar.

Seals gathering at the coast of La Jolla

We rented bikes and spent a day riding around Balboa park visiting museums...

... and gardens.

We learned about the local history at the Mormon Battalion site.  

We even got out of San Diego long enough to take a fun hike in the mountains.

Grant's Birthday

Grant is 6!

We went to the zoo for his birthday.  The pandas were his favorite.

The pandas were definitely his favorite.

We had an Ewok birthday cake

#sharethegift

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Break

Not being big fans of Black Friday shopping, we came up with last minute plans to get away as a family over the Thanksgiving Holiday.  We went up to Waynesboro, VA and got a jumpstart on winter with some recent snow.

Skyline Drive was closed because of the weather, so we parked at the entrance and hiked in a bit.  We hiked up the Appalachian trail a ways and had a fun snowball fight in the woods.

We visted Grand Caverns and saw some amazing things underground.  

The caverns also gave us something fun to do that was a bit warmer.

We also enjoyed the heated pool at our hotel and took in a movie while we were there.  It was a great trip.

We got back on Saturday with enough time to do some leaf cleanup in our yard.