Camp Rapidian Hike

Yesterday, we did a hike to Camp Rapidan where Herbert Hoover (the president) stayed as a summer retreat. We have done this hike before, but my mom had friends from Ohio visiting, and she thought they would like the hike a lot since it is one of our favorite, and it is unique since it has the retreat at the bottom. The trail was 4 miles round trip, and it was really rocky. There was even a creek running down the middle in parts. We also had to cross a river a few times and the water was very high because it has been raining a lot. I also swam in the swimming hole with a waterfall forming in it. The camp was very neat, and even had a small museum in it. Right beside the main house of the camp, we saw a huge rattlesnake. I got close enough to take a pretty cool picture.

It does not look like this is a very old snake, since it did not have many rattlers!

Billy and J-Wow in the 'swimmin' hole'. It was cold!!!!!

The church lock-in....by JJ

We had a lock-in at our church last weekend. It was so much fun. We had two HUGE nerf gun battles. We also got to go out to the bowling alley from 10PM-midnight. That is way past my bed time. We also played a game like capture the flag, but it was boys -vs- girls and we used 10 glow sticks for the flags. The boys won....and by a lot too! We watched How to Train your Dragon movie, and by this time I fell asleep by Billy woke me up! I thought before the lock-in started that I really would not like it. But, I really did. I am glad I went, and it will be fun next year too!

The boys are back!

It's summer, and that means Billy and JJ are going to be back 'blogging' about all their adventures again. We did not do any updating the entire school year, they were just both so busy. So, to give you all a quick look at what they have been up to the last 9 months, I turn it over to Billy and JJ: Billy.....5th Grade: (This picture is of red ribbon week at school....I did announcements and had kids sign a poster to live a drug free life.) I had a good first year at SLMS as a 5th grader this year. I made a lot of good friends and had good teachers...a few bad ones, but mostly good! There are 5 boys in my closest group of friends, and we call ourselves the 5. We got to go together for a whole weekend and stay in a hotel that one of my friends grandparents own. That was fun. Towards the beginning of the school year when I was still in Young Marines, I did announcements for Red Ribbon Week. I did them every day for a whole week. At the end of the year, I got the chorus award, which is funny because I cannot sing. I also did a math competition and got 11th place out of all of the the and 6th graders. I also got my Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts and now I am in the Boy Scout Troop. I hope 6th grade is as good at 5th was! This is my group of friends....the 5:

From JJ: Highlights from 3rd Grade

JJ got the Citizenship award for the second year in a row in his class! His list of memories: 1) Cub Scouts because it is fun to learn about the Wilderness 2)Recess is my favorite thing at school 3) Doing fun stuff with my friends 4) I was the stork in the school play. I wore yellow tights 5) History is my favorite subject at school 6) I was glad to get the citizenship award 7) PE Peers was fun the first half of the year 8) on the last day, we played kickball 9)The events for field day were fun 10) I was SEC Postmaster. That is an office position. 11) I had three different teachers....it was a crazy year!

JJ got to put the flag up at school on September 11th.

The end of summer:( By JJ

The Boys are back in school.....Billy started middle school this week, and JJ is in 3rd grade. So far, so good. It hard getting back into the grind after a great summer, but we are trying. Here they are on the first day of school:

Here is a final blog JJ did last week: This summer we did a lot of fun things like G-ville Street Fair, 3 water parks, Virginia Beach, Smalleys Farm, Williamsburg. But, Busch Gardens was the best thing this summer. The second thing was making all of my CD's. And this summer was the first time I ever did a ride at the fair. I also went to 2 art camps and did 4 books with Boys Book Club. The summer went by fast. I cannot wait until next summer.

Camp Shenandoah...by Billy

For the past three nights, I was at Camp Shenandoah, a Boy Scout of America camp for Weeblos. We did lots of fun things like shooting BB guns and learning knots and first aid. We even went on a hike and saw a rattlesnake! Nighttime was a different story. There were raccoons and mice, mostly mice that came into out tents. Also it was cold. I have a 40 degree sleeping bag (meaning it should keep you warm down to 40 degree temperatures) and I was so cold! So both of these factors kept me up, and not to mention the 12:00, 2:30 and 5:00 AM train. Now the 5AM train was my alarm clock, so since nobody else in my pack was up at the atime, I just got dressed and sharpened my knives and walked around early in the morning. We learned about different fires, and how to make them and how to put them out. We also did team work exercises and skits and a bunch of other really fun stuff, like swimming in the lake and catching newts. And it rained on the first and last day, which is the tradition. I really like Camp Shenandoah.

Harrison Holiday....by Billy

We had our vacation last week. I went to VA Beach with Mickey, Minnie and JJ and stayed with Pie for the first 4 days. Then the last three nights we spent in Williamsburg going to Busch Gardens.

At the beach, we went to the ocean front one of the days so we could boogie board which was a lot of fun. We also built sand castles at the bay and played games in the pool. When we were at Bush Gardens, we rode the rollercoasters for a day and a half. At Williamsburg, we did an awesome thing called Rev Quest. We were spies and we find clues to a mystery. It was fun. I really liked Williamsburg a lot.

My favorite part of the whole place was the magazine.

Special thanks to Den and Dee for letting us use their vacation points to stay in a really awesome hotel. JJ and I had our own private wing. And to Pie for letting us stay with her.

Harrison Holiday...by JJ

We had Harrison Holiday last week and I planned it this year. The first part of the week we went to Virginia Beach. That was really not part of Harrison Holiday. And then we went to Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg (which was Harrison Holiday)! My favorite part of Virginia Beach was going swimming and boogy boarding at the Boardwalk Beach. I also liked Piezerreia to eat. My favorite part of Williamburg was the silversmith and the blacksmith. And, we bought a really cool game from there called mancala. Bush Gardens was my favorite part of all. The Loch Ness Monster was a really cool roller coaster and I rode it 8 times. I also got a stuffed animal Nessie and a hat that says Loch Ness Monster. Bush Gardens was the best part of the whole trip.

My favorite part about the whole summer so far is going to Busch Gardens. It was really fun. I love the Loch Ness Monster. It is my favorite Roller Coaster ever. That is why I rode it 8 times. There were some other fun rides too that we did. I cannot wait until I am tall enough to ride some of the really big roller coasters there. I love Harrison Holiday. For my next Harrison Holiday, I want to go to Hershey Park.