Autobahn Go Carts

RJ's friend Bradley had his birthday party at Autobahn (Go-Cart racing and video games) in Stirling, VA. On the ride home RJ said "We DEFINATELY have to do that again." Then he talked about it some more and repeated "We DEFINATELY have to do that again." After 8 more times repeating this phrase, we arrived home. In RJ's defense ... it was a 30 minute drive.

We DEFINATELY have to do this again!

 

After the party, we went to the St. Agnes back to school BBQ. I forgot to get a picture of RJ with the bag of trash over his back. Apparently you got "points" with Mrs. K for helping out. 

Cross Country on a Rainy Night

Coach Matt does not mess around. After a downpour at 6:30pm in McLean, we expected practice to be cancelled. Nope! And quite a crowd showed up to practice and worked hard.

A nice save from falling after a slip on the mud

 

Biking and Hiking with the Grays

We went on a bike ride to a hike with the Grays. After a short bike ride to Langley Oaks Park, we found some cool trails that lead to an around the Potomac River.

Getting ready to cross Dolly Madison (123) at Georgetown Pike

Kids decided to build a bridge to cross a stream near the Potomac River

Doug crosses the bridge and steps on the two rocks he placed

The snake was afraid of us ... but we didn't want to take any chances

Day off fishing

Doug took the day off to go fishing with the kids and Grandad. We had fun catching about 15-20 smaller fish, but the rockfish were hiding.

We caught plenty of small fish

The live box in the back was not pumping water, but Grandad used the hose to supply fresh water and RJ found a weight to block the water from flowing out the intake.

Whitetail, speedway, golf, and more

Kids talked Sara into an extended weekend. RJ and Julia did some running to earn screen time. Doug took a day off so we could fit in the Clear Spring Carnival, golf, tubing, and the Hagerstown Speedway. And there was plenty of fun in the pool and woods.

Visit to the birthplace of James Buchanan

Rainy day blackjack game with the new sock-puppy

Hagerstown Speedway - around 7pm

Hagerstown Speedway - around 10:30pm

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The pic above shows the meet-and-greet. We met some folks with boys who were big fans of #22. So we cheered for him ... and he won! We left around 11pm ... but there was 1 more race we could have watched. Sara had to wash the mud off her face before going to bed.

Fun at the pool. It was good being at a pool with no lifeguard after the Overlee experience (cannot have anybody on your shoulders, cannot walk along the closed pool, cannot sit on a basketball in the pool, cannot play with a ball that kids had been harmlessly playing with for 30 minutes, etc. etc.)

Preparing for tubing on Conococheague Creek

Tubing was chilly but fun ... we hiked up creek a bit and floated to the Covered Bridge at Martins Mill Bridge Park. 

Golf at Yingling's Par 3 course - Julia gets shot-of-the-day by holing out from here for a par!

Clear Spring Carnival

Julia was looking forward to the Clear Spring carnival since last year ... and this time RJ got to go as well. Perfect weather, friends Ava/Nicco/Rocco, super-discount tickets, and an awesome parking spot made for a super-fab night.

Rocco joined us in the Bear Affair. This was before we spun like a 78rpm record for 5 minutes.

Rocco and RJ on the Sizzler. We went on the Round Up (i.e. Throw Up) afterwards

Julia and Ava rode with Gunnar because adults were not allowed on kid rides

Boys devoured a funnel cake ... RJ asked for another about 5-10 times

See ya next year for my annual head-spinning adventure.

Farewell Ford F150

Sold the 2000 Ford F150 today. Truly a sad day. After 12 years and a lot of fun we now have to rely on the mini-van for hauling stuff.

One last picture

Splinter

The mosquitoes in the back yard are intense. After 15 minutes outside, I had 15 bites. Sara was looking at the mosquito bites when she saw a scab that looked pretty bad. Earlier in the day at work, I touched the area and it was a bit tender so I told Sara to investigate.

Twenty minutes later Sara extracted a splinter that resembled a large thorn. At first I hypothesized that I got it biking to church ... the path was completely overgrown so the normally 3-4 foot wide path was only about 1 foot wide. This meant that you would get brushed on the legs by weeds and bushes as you pedaled past. I definitely got poison ivy, but this could have been from something else. 

Extracted splinter - you can see 2 of the 15 mosquito bites to the right of the hole