Summer haircuts

First tick found = summer haircut time!

5th grade graduation

Some times during this past school year, I felt like we'd never make it to the end.  Sometimes I felt like that was OK, and  others we could drag ourselves there fast enough!  Brady, in particular, had a fabulous class this year.  Really nice kids, most of whom have been together for most of their elementary school years, and a really great teacher.  

It was a little emotional watching the fifth grade graduation, and knowing we were moving on from this school forever.  Despite some faults, the faculty was really supportive of our family and I felt really cared about my boys. 

Brady with some of his star student / honor roll classmates.

Love that grin!

Rudy decided that he wanted to watch Brady's graduation, which I thought was pretty sweet of him, since he was missing some fun times in his own classroom.  

Brady and Gabriel.  (Who decided cupcakes with blue frosting were the best choice?!)

Gabriel, Brady, and one of the twins (I still have a hard time telling which...)

His amazing teacher.  She had a challenging class, in that these kids are bright and inquisitive.  I'm sure they kept her on her toes, but she handled them well. And, the best part according to Brady?  She played soccer with them at recess!

I insisted on this picture, despite complaints from each kid.  Allison is the only kid who was in every single one of Brady's elementary school classes, all the up from kindergarten.  

With his guests:

STEM day

I got to volunteer at the final STEM day of the school year.  Brady's class had to create a playground out of scrap materials.  The playground had to meet certain specifications, including at least one of each type of angle.  He had a dream team of buddies to work with and they agreed that their design was the best in the class.

Rudy's class had to create a Greek ship out of recycled materials.  It had to float and it had to include oars similar to the true Greek ships.  Rudy's group created one that stayed afloat the longest.  

Third grade awards

The third grade awards ceremony was outside in the courtyard, with no speaker system, so I couldn't tell you what any of the teachers said about the year.  Rudy's year will not go in the books as one of his best, but I think he did learn some life lessons about working hard and going above and beyond minimum expectations.  (At least that's what I'm telling myself...) 

Mt. Rogers camping, day 2

Sunday morning came bright an early to our little campsite!  I actually managed to stay warm - in my sock liners, socks, leggings, hiking pants, two long sleeved dry fit shirts, fleece, and sleeping bag - but that didn't exactly make for a restful night.  Between the sleep-scootch-sleep cycle, the freight train snorer in the next door tent, and the general restless camping sleep, three of the four adults were a little bleary eyed in the morning.  Garth, on the other hand, apparently slept soundly something like 87% of the night according to his fitness tracker.  Bully for him.

I was up and out around 6:30, and got to enjoy a peaceful morning before a snuggly Mary Emma joined me.

After breakfast, we packed our gear and decided to leave it near the site for the hike to the summit of Mr. Rogers, which is the highest point in Virginia.

The peak is rather anti-climactic.  It's buried in a beautiful evergreen forest, which smells lovely and is quiet and shady; but, it really seems like highest peaks should afford some sort of view!

Rudy, at one of the highest points...there were two USGS survey markers; based on our eyeballing the two, we think this one is actually slightly lower.

Four kids, taking a break from jockeying for position as the highest person in Virginia.  

Ellen and I had chosen what looked like a 6-ish mile hike back out to the car for today, but when we checked the map against our location and looked at the potential routes, it looked more like 9 miles.  Ouch.  Instead, we chose to backtrack a little and take the "gnarly" route over Wilburn Ridge that we'd let someone talk us out of yesterday.  

Snake sighting!

Again, me with the views.  Can't help myself.

We took a short break at "Fat Man Squeeze."  Ellen found these flowers blooming in the shade; the kids enjoyed exploring the "cave" and looping through it and back around to the trail. 

One of the things I was hoping for was to see the rhododendrons in bloom; with trail names like Rhododendron Ridge, I was expecting a riot of flowers.  The time was almost right - all of the bushes in the valley lawns were in bloom - but I think our cold winder set the mountain blooms back.  We saw a few about to burst, but not quite...

A bonus of our shortened route was the extended lunch period.  We stopped for what we thought was a short break, but soon extended into an hour of lounging on the hillside.  Sunny day, nice breeze, tired legs, fabulous views - not a bad way to spend an hour!  The kids mixed up the lounging with some exploration of the rocks.

Then, back to hiking...


We saw another herd of ponies today.  This bunch was more active and much more interested in us.  A few troublemakers kept sneaking up behind kids and nibbling on their backpacks.  

I don't know much about ponies, but this foal seemed almost brand new.  It wasn't even all that sturdy on its legs.  The little guy came right up to Mary Emma and Rudy, and I think it took every ounce of their self-control not to pet him!

Overall, it ended up being a really wonderful trip, so I'm glad we stuck to our plans and modified as necessary to make them work as best as we could.