Road Trippin' to Kerr Lake!

 With such a short summer (starting school 2 weeks earlier than usual), we didn't get a decent family vacation.  So we headed out for four days to Kerr Lake in Clarksville VA.  We stayed at a house called Hummingbird Haven right on the lake.  It was definitely rustic (think "wood panel" and "laminate counters") but what did we care?!  We didn't own the place!  We just wanted a place close to the lake.  

Gassing up before we head out!

Everyone is still in a good mood....20 minutes into the trip!

 We visited Occoneechee State Park while we were there.  They had a marina, playground, beach area, hiking trails, and a decent setup of a dozen or so cabins for rent.  Their camping sites are rented to capacity on 4th of July and Labor Day weekend, but we swung by on a Friday and avoided the crowds.
And as you check out these pics, you may wonder, 'Where is Garrett'?  Garrett is so committed to his marching band that he chose to go with them to their competition this weekend instead of vacationing with us :(  We missed him but understood his commitment.

Hunting for shells and rocks at the park

Snail shells!  There were tons of them!

Lake was a little low the day we visited.

Town of Clarksville

The kids loved that they could walk right down to the water from our rental house and jump right in!  The bottom of the lake is all rocks and not shells, so Emily never wore a pair of shoes.

My friend Allison lent us her 3 kayaks and we used them every afternoon.  One of us would end up with a little kid in the front or back and we headed all over the giant lake.

Splashing along the lake

"I can't see my feet!"

I always ended up with one kid or another!  Jay kept calling it a "kabob", not "kayak" and it was so adorable that we stopped correcting him!

Fishing off the floating dock

Emily testing the water

Splash!  She's in!

Ahhhhh.....lake life  :)

Disney on Ice 100th Anniversary Spectacular!

 A few months ago, I got an email from Richmond Coliseum/Ticketmaster that we could purchase tickets  A WEEK EARLY for the "Disney on Ice 100th Anniversary Spectacular Show!"  And save $5 per seat, so why not?!?!  I got 5 seats in the first row of fixed seats (behind the folding chairs, so about 6-7 rows back from the ice) and they were....spectacular.  And the ice dancers were...spectacular.  You see a theme here?!  They did little snippets from all the famous Disney movies, so we saw the princesses and princes together, a whole bunch of Anna and Elsa, Nemo and his dad (and Dory!), Mulan and....whatever her boyfriend's name is....Shang?  Caroline just told me this one.  It all started with some over-expressive ice dancers doing something that looked like Fresh Beat Band and then started working its way through the scenes.  Caroline just corrected me again that the Fresh Beat Band looking people were Disney's Teen Beach Movie 2.  You can see how much Disney I watch that isn't animated!
We wised up this year and instead of dashing in 5 minutes before the show started, we got there an hour early and wandered up to the crowd-less front door.  We waited about 10 minutes for the doors to open and it was very easy to find our seats (and visit the potty!).  $36 in hot dogs and funnel cakes later, we were in a great set of seats to take in all the special effects and happy ice skaters!

Teen Beach Movie 2.....I think.....

Mickey and Minnie!

Squirt, Crush, and Dory!

Jay pointing out his favorites!

Jay's personal highlight of the day....the Zamboni during intermission!

School has started....ugh

School started 2 weeks ago, and for the first time in life, I'm back in the classroom BEFORE Labor Day!  But I just remind myself that we're going to be out of school the week of Memorial Day and it calms me down.  I am taking 2 graduate classes this semester--LIBS 642 Children's Lit and LIBS 677 Technical Services in the Library--and so far, the course load hasn't been too overwhelming.  I'm able to focus on my crochet orders during the evening on weekdays and do my classwork on the weekends.  
I didn't have the older two kids for the first day or school because they were at their dad's house, so no pics!  But here's a recent one of Garrett and his girlfriend Shelby.  These two are totes adorbs!  :)
Emily started at the county preschool and gets to ride a REAL school bus!  It's the highlight of her day!  I have her doing before and after care with Mum-Mum, Jason's lady-in-waiting, so that's been saving me 20 minutes each morning on the drop-off commute.  And saving me over $400 a month in daycare costs!  Yay!
What's new with me, you ask?  Well, in order to focus on my course load, I have resigned as department head and science fair coordinator.  I gladly passed along the job titles, responsibilities, head aches, and piddly stipends.  Other than that, just chilling with my new students, who so far are turning out to be an awesome group of kids!
I've been posting my course work on my class blog called You Had Me at "Card Catalog" if you want to check it out here.