Last month brought us our first visitors from upstate NY. We enjoyed having The Southworths visit us. Their daughter, Rachael has kept in touch with Sophia since we moved. I believe they enjoyed their stay down in VA, doing some local sightseeing and appreciating the warm weather. We took them to Busch Gardens but soon Alex, Matt and myself went our separate ways so Sophia and Rachael could spend some quality time together.
Matthew has officially joined Cub Scouts and was so excited to finally get his Tiger Cub uniform. Many of you are probably not surprised that I have once again volunteered to be a den leader. There are currently 8 boys in my Tiger den. I've managed to get them all registered and have pretty much shocked Pack 242's Committee Chair & Cubmaster with getting a den together already. Matthew's first Pack outing was at a Tide's game (Triple A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles) in Norfolk's Harbor Park. The boys enjoyed the game...it was a perfect night to watch a baseball game. I also held my first den meeting/outing at a park located across from our neighborhood. The boys earned their Bobcat badge and we completed 2 requirements in the handbook. So far, so good....
Alex attended Boy Scout camp from June 28th - July 4th. It was a 5 hour trip to the Blue Ridge mountains for the scouts to get to Camp Powhatan, a part of Blue Ridge Scout Reservation, and is the largest council-owned Scout Camp in the U.S. Although it was a long trip, Alex had a blast and got to meet other boys from Troops and Venturing Crews as far away as South Carolina, Florida and Texas. He was thrilled to be tapped out for the Order of the Arrow on Friday evening. He also completed a total of 7 merit badges: canoeing, emergency preparedness, leatherwork, wood carving, space exploration, medicine and fingerprinting. Way to go! Alex had so much fun that maybe next year Ted will be tempted to chaperon.
Sophia has been busy with Girl Scouts this summer. They have been on a couple of outings already and every other Tuesday (from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.) is spent at the Yorktown Library. The Junior Girl Scouts are volunteering in the morning and then spend the afternoon working on badges. I've been helping out with this as well. The girls will host a storytime for toddlers in August. They are excited about planning this. All this work will help the girls earn their Bronze Award.
The first days of July leading up to July 4th were well spent. On 7/1, I took the kids to Buckroe Beach in Hampton, located on the Chesapeake Bay. It was a gorgeous, sunny day with a light breeze and no humidity. Sophia and Matt swam in the warm bay water. I love this beach because it never is crowded.
On 7/3, Ted had off from work for the holiday weekend and we headed to Virginia Beach. We got there mid-morning and the beach, as expected was bustling with tourists. It's a very different atmosphere from the Outer Banks and Buckroe Beach....but Virginia Beach does have a nice 3 mile long boardwalk and parallel to the boardwalk is a bike path. The oceanfront is lined with hotels and motels and the main street has shops and restaurants galore. Sophie & Matt went boogie boarding the whole time (except for lunch break). I went for a stroll on the boardwalk and will never do so again in flipflops...ouch! I was able to get some neat pics of the Old Coast Guard Station, King Neptune and a Navy Aviation Memorial taken with my cell phone's camera.
This is a miscellaneous pic I took .... the city of Virginia Beach actually has these posted all over.
The 4th of July...another warm and sunny day...was spent at my youngest sister's (Tina) home. It was a luau/birthday party for my niece, Jasmine who is turning 7 yrs. old. The kids had a great time swimming. The adults enjoyed playing cornhole which is a fun bean bag toss game and is a lot more complicated than it looks. We all ate and drank (some of us a little too much) and just had a darn good time!
We hope you are all enjoying the summer...please keep in touch...we would love to hear from you! And if you are in the area, stop by for a visit.
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