I Don't Hate Snow!

I could start this post with comments about how long it's been since my last one but that would not be as interesting as diving right in so...

We moved!  From hot and humid Kingwood, TX where we lived in a smallish house in a neighborhood to a rather large house on six and a half acres in the woods of western PA.  Our situation is ideal for home schooling and raising kids.  It is private and safe with lots of room to roam.  I love the house and spent our first several months here attacking the unpacking and the set-up.  We were out of boxes in two weeks!  Now that that is done, I sometimes find myself wondering what to do with myself.  We have wonderful neighbors but hardly ever see them.  In fact, if I don't drive away from home, I don't see anyone other than my family and the wildlife that comes to call.  I'm still not sure how I feel about that.  I suspect that, all things being equal, I may have more of the city girl in me.  But, all things aren't equal and I see more and more each day how good this life is for the girls.  

Moving back to the east coast, I thought I knew what to expect, at least from the weather.  It turns out that the four hours from Virginia (where I grew up) to Pennsylvania actually make a big difference.  It is colder AND we have gotten so much snow this winter!  It makes me laugh because on our house-hunting trip, every single person assured us that we should expect no snow this year.  I ignored them and figured we would get enough to please our little croc-wearing Texans but---well, let's just say, I never knew there were so many KINDS of snow.  It has been very interesting to watch and I have had many opportunities because it has snowed almost daily for the past month.  Well, maybe not quite that much but close.  I was starting to get grumpy and sound like every other person I've met here who hates the snow.

This morning, I woke to Chris saying, "you've got to see this!"  

Outside our window, it was fairyland.  By now, I have seen our backyard covered in snow more than a handful of times but this was different.  I could tell looking at it that the scene would not last long.  The inches of snow that decorated the tree branches were falling in chunks as I watched.  So, I yelled to the girls to get up and put on snow gear and out we went for a few quick photos of the beauty that God gave us today.

 "The wish"

Later in the day, I dragged the girls back out to make my first snowman of the season.  We call this one "Family Portrait".

In case you can't guess who's who:

Before I fixed my snow person, it looked like I was trying hard to run away from Chris (which would have been difficult since he has his lightening-fast Newtons)

 Baby G

Love how she decorated herself

 Beautiful Madeleine--no braces!

 E--posing for three seconds.  She was carried to and from the site by big sis' Grace

 Sophie and Ella weren't very interested in the building of their snow people but Sophie definitely got into the decorating.  She even found a bead and a bell for her eyes.  Chris commented that Sophie's snow person looked more like a snow mermaid.  How appropriate!

 ARD--swimming is her favorite thing.  

From the back

When we let Alfred out, he barked and barked at the strangers in front of the house.  Our neighbor stopped to take a picture.  So, I guess we did a good job.

And now---Bring on the Spring!

Fun, Fun, Fun While Daddy is So Far Away

 The Great Maze at Luray Caverns

Mia wanders through the misters into the maze

Our second cavern visit of the summer, Luray did not disappoint.  The girls and I survived the windy drive along 211 from New Market to Luray where we bought our tickets and bravely entered the maze.  It was a lot of fun, probably the highlight of the day.  Our objective was to find four different goals where we got our tickets stamped on our way to the exit.  We wandered through a tunnel, stopped at a lookout and a fountain and stumbled into many a dead end.  We had a little too much help at times from fellow maze wanderers who thought we would appreciate a tip like, "the next one is right around there".  Come on people--it's a puzzle!  We're supposed to solve it.  As always, my fun was in the photos...

Sisters--different flowers from the same garden

getting stamped at Goal 2

The other day, I asked Ella what scares her.  Her answer?  Ghosts, monsters and when I'm not with you mama.
That was a heart melter for sure.

All four goals stamped!

Acting out the "dead end"

 Luray Caverns


I really enjoy walking through caverns.  I like to imagine what it would have been like to discover them or even to live in a cave way back when.  Caves feel like cozy, safe places to me.   I am hoping to take the girls to Endless Caverns before the end of the summer.  After that, I think we will be able to call ourselves cavern connoisseurs of the Shenandoah Valley!

oldest and youngest

Mia and "Plato's Ghost"

The Fab Five

Yum!  Fried eggs!

Sophie wants some

So that's it.  The first blog post since...well, it's been awhile.  I've missed Frodo Seven.  As I've said before, it makes me appreciate my life and the people I share it with.  

Adventures in Hiking

Day Three:  Leaving Las Vegas

We spent Dave and Jes' first full day on holiday taking a hike.  We drove about 45 minutes from the strip to conquer "Turtle's Head Peak", a hike described as the most challenging and vigorous of the trails in the area.  I did not know that factoid starting out and, for the record, I made several mistakes before we even began.  First, I did not eat a big enough breakfast.  Second--and probably worst--I wore my running skirt, perfect for a jog, quite immodest for a hike with winds that blew it every which way and definitely UP.  And third, I should have read about what to expect.  In general, I like to be surprised by life and new places but there were several points on this climb where I thought I might slide to my death.  About half way from the top, after rounding a corner and slip-sliding on the gravel, I declared myself done with anything remotely perilous.  I felt pretty out of shape compared to my compadres and was thinking that I am probably too important to my dames at home to risk my life for something as silly as a view.
Yes, I tend to the melodramatic.  Had I researched the climb, I would have known that it wound around to the backside of the peak (rather than going straight up) and got quite easy--though it still left us breathing hard.
After much panting....

here we are at the top

We rock.  Five miles round trip and we look this good :) HA.

We met a few fellow hikers on our journey.  First were the frat boys, descending before reaching the top because it was just too hard.  Hmmm... Then there were whiny girl and her boyfriend.  She was wearing about half the normally acceptable amount of clothing and complaining loudly about a wide variety of subjects.  She and Romeo refused our offer of water (they had not brought any) and we worried about them the whole way down.  A pair of women friends took our picture and told us about "The Valley of Fire" which Chris and I checked out our last day.  One woman we met was doing the hike as a workout, trying to beat a previous time.  As she passed me going up, she said, "Don't stop.  It just makes it harder."  She really brought it and beat her best time to the top by twenty minutes.

Speaking of the top:

Me and C

A big thank you to Jes for this picture.  She took quite a few and I love this one.

More pics of our hike:

at the start

that's the peak behind us

can you spot the rock climber in this one?

trail marker

is she hiking or modeling?

ups and downs

Dave, taking a panoramic picture on his iphone

he did this a lot

see that gravel?  that is what we walked on!

you can't really see it but the strip is behind them

another one of the four of us

on the way down

poser

beauty

I didn't take any more photos after the hike but we stopped at a nearby casino and ate an early dinner at their buffet.  At the end of it, I still hadn't done more than play a little roulette and a slot machine or two.  But the week was still young....

Back to Vegas (For Jes)

 Day Two in Sin City:

The first thing Chris and I did Monday morning was run.  Separately because he's faster than I am.  I ran past an old man sleeping on the bench at the bus stop, the high rises and Vegas glitz rising all around him.  I have a feeling Mother Teresa would not have just kept going.  I felt like the guys in the parable of the good samaritan but, what to do?  I thought about him for the rest of the day.
After that, we went out to buy me shoes.  I brought some very pretty but very impractical shoes for walking the strip (this was not deliberate).  On the way to buy shoes, I tripped twice prompting Chris to say, "Come on--I already said we could buy you shoes"--which was not very nice but I forgave him.
Jes and Dave landed around 1:30 so we got the rental car and headed back to the airport where Chris accidentally got in the taxi lane and had to drive across a median to get where we needed to go.  We felt like the Dukes of Hazard, pulling away just as the security guard came running over.
I really wished we had made a sign.  I was so excited to see Dave and Jes.  I did yell rather loudly "Welcome to Vegas, Kreitzers!" when I caught sight of them.  It was the first Dave and Jes sighting since last August and I had missed them a lot!
We dropped off the luggage and the car and went to the strip to walk around.  I didn't take nearly enough photos of all of that but in my defense, it was pretty overwhelming.  Shops and sights and people, people, people everywhere.  Of course, we ended up in a casino.  The first of several over the course of the trip.  After that, dinner at a restaurant across from the Belagio.  No pictures of that dinner.  (I am seriously slipping.)  It was great fun and great food though.  And we saw the fountains in front of the Belagio.  The water shot higher than the roof.  Amazing.  No pictures.  (shucky darns)

I'm opening a clever caption contest for this photo.  Doesn't Jes look svelte?  It's all that tennis.

gathering for the indoor storm

I thought this was very cool

Craps was the first table to get our money.  All of these photos are out of focus because I was using a point and shoot camera without the flash but I really like them anyway.  This one in particular.  Notice:  Chris is rolling and his face is the only part of the picture  in focus.

Dave, so serious.  Chris got scolded for not hitting the far wall with the dice.
He rolled them over the edge at least once trying to compensate.  Beginner's foibles.

I think craps is a really cool game and I can never remember how to play it.  So I watched.

Chris roll again

Jes' roll

Teaching moment by Dave

That's all for now.  Peace Y'all.

Hofbraus Night #1

Seashells

It's been awhile since my last post and I know you are waiting with bated breath to hear what happened next on our Vegas trip but today, I just want to record a conversation I had with Sophie over the weekend.  More and more, the kids are saying things that I want to hold onto and remember forever.  Most of the time, the moment passes and I do forget whatever had struck me as so special.  I need to start carrying a notebook around.  In the future, I imagine these small moments being like so many seashells collected on the journey, pointing both forward to the women they will become and back to the precious time God gave us together as a family.

Conversation with Sophie at Sonic.

I ordered our drinks and the speaker voice gave me my total....

Sophie:  Stores just want money.

Me:  Well, yes, they're not going to give things away for free.

Sophie:  Not me.

Me:  You're going to open a store and give things away for free?

Sophie:  Yes--'cause I don't want money so much.

Me:  What do you want?

Sophie:  I just want to be happy.

Me:  How do you become happy?

Sophie:  Just giving other people what they want.

So, I don't know how many Zig Ziglar fans there are out there but Sophie's line of thinking goes right along with his, "To get everything you want, you have to help enough other people get--what they want"--a truth that I think applies to everything from friendship to business to marriage.

Obviously Sophie's philosophy of happiness needs fleshing out.  Still, I think she's wise beyond her years and has a heart that is truly special.  What a job, to be her parent, entrusted to shepherd that heart into adulthood.  This is no small work we do.