Oktoberfest

The local Frontier Museum sponsors an Oktoberfest each year. There is a somewhat large German history in this area with the many Germans settling in this area, farther south into the NC mountains you get Irish and Scottish settlers. So the girls and I went. It was fun and festive.

Barrel Racing. Using a smaller barrel than the traditional one, but Lauren did great and won her race. Tiny but mighty, she is.

Making sauerkraut.

Helping to thrash and then sort the wheat.

Helping to make preserves

We had fun eating some food while watching the traditional dancing and music playing. Fun and lively.

Fall Hike (october)

We tried out a new hike in the Shenandoah Nat'l Park. We had done the upper portion leading to a waterfall last year. So we did the lower portion this time. It was a bit steep in places and rocky but we all did well. It was beautiful, lots of lush green trees and the babbling stream full of many cascades.

A beautiful sunset on the way home. Not a great pictures because it was taken through the window of a moving car. But it was spectacular, with pinks and oranges overlaying the clouds. A perfect ending to the day.

Farm visits (October)

We had a fun visit to a dairy and turkey farm, just a few minutes from our house. A family from our homeschool c0-op owns the farm and were gracious enough to host a field trip. The mom gave some info about the farm and animals and how they take care of them. She had a play area of farm equipment toys and corn feed, Aaron and Caleb really enjoyed this.

We then took a hay ride to their baby turkey house and got to see and hold some baby chicks.


Then back to the farm for a tour of the dairy milking house and getting to see them milking the cows. We also got see the barn for the calves and how they are fed and taken care of.


We then had a snack of lots of dairy products ~ yogurt, icecream, cheese sticks, milk.
Enjoyed by everyone.

Here are some pictures of the boys at the girls horseback riding lessons. They love it there, horses, dogs and cats so much fun.

The farm is located at the base of the mountains and is just a beautiful scene of farms, rolling pastures, creeks and mountains. These are some pictures I tried to take of the leaves as they were changing colors. Doesn't really do the real thing justice, but gives you an idea.

Myrtle Beach (September)

Our favorite time to go to the beach is September. We had an especially fun time this year, getting to share our timeshare with our friends from Germany as well as having our best friends from NC staying just down the beach. We were there during the possibility of several hurricanes, but were fortunate to miss them all. The benefit of some stirred up oceans, was wonderful seashell finds.



One of our favorite places to visit at the beach is the Ripley's Aquarium. Here are some pictures of us enjoying the sites.



They have two areas where you can interact with sealife, both a huge hit. Here is Lauren holding a horseshoe crab. She is such a huge animal lover, that it was hard to get her away from the crabs.



They also have an opportunity to pet some rays, following an underwater show they do with a scuba diver in the ray and shark tank. Aaron was thrilled with this.








We love going for a walk on the beach at night. Part of our beach tradition is to look for little crabs that come out at night. So we take flashlights and keep our eyes open. It's fun so see how many we can spy and how many different kinds. This was something completely new to our across the ocean friends, so it was fun to share with them.





The kids played lots of UNO, a game that has no language barriers. Here everyone is playing in our condo.

A little Caleb hanging out with our friend Roger, just liked the picture of our little man with our good friend.

We had our NC friends over for dinner and this is a picture of them watching the pool and beach activities below. I love pictures from the back so this was great.

We had a great time on the beach - shell collecting, kite flying, playing in the waves, boogie boarding, sand castle building, lounging. Caleb had fun exploring his first time on the beach, last year he basically slept alot on the beach. Aaron just loves the beach, the sand, the waves all seem to speak to him. it is so much fun to watch him take such pleasure and joy in it.

The place we stay has several really nice pools, one is just for kids, with a slide and water spouts. It is also next to a really nice treehouse playground. This was also a really big hit.

This was Caleb's first pool experience and he, like his siblings, just loves the water.

Caleb loved the pool so much, that he fell asleep and took his nap in his float.

Aaron with his favorit big buddy, Christopher (our NC friends oldest). He has always really enjoyed Christopher and distance hasn't diminished his affections.

We really enjoy our week at the beach each year. It's something we all look forward too. Great weather, wonderful friends, what more could you hope for on vacation.