The rest of our 4th of July trip

The first evening we arrived at Clover Hill, we let the kids run wild in the yard. Elias and Nathan were excited to show off their weaponry recently acquired at their viking birthday party. Ava showed Merry all the animals. Grace almost made friends with the Cinnamon, the cat (this is a big deal because she is terrified of pretty much anything that moves.) Adam definitely made friends with Cinnamon, however I don't think the feeling was mutual. After dark Jacob and Nathan started the Wii battle while Merry and Ava caught fireflies. A whole bottle full of fireflies were released in Ava's room that night, so they would have night lights while they slept. Unfortunately I think there are dead fireflies all over in Ava's room now.

The cousins all in a row, sort of.

Showing off weapons and spitting skills. I think the saliva is somewhere in the picture.

Adam meets Cinnamon.

Weapons of war.

On Saturday I was slacking on camera duty. We went and visited Mount Vernon. My favorite part was the gardens and the hippopotamus teeth dentures. The kids loved the in character Martha Washington. After the sweaty day at Mount Vernon, John took the kids sailing on the Potomac. Where was my camera? I don't know. This is what my kids keep talking about. I might just have to take sailing lessons. Then we went and visited my long lost BFF from college, Stacy and fam. Again I was slacking off on pictures. We had a great time catching up.

The south garden entrance.

Miss Martha.

Sunday we headed to church and then spent a lazy day around the farm. In the evening we snapped a few pictures of John and family, until the weather didn't cooperate.

Another family picture.

The family with the barn in the background.

Note on the barn. No nails were used, it is all pegged together.

Happy Elias

The storm clouds.

On the 4th we spent the morning taking pictures, then the afternoon we took a tour of the farm. We hiked around a little and found a lovely patch of thimbleberries and blackberries, unfortunately a bear did too. Luckily we had picked enough to make a quick batch of jam. John made a cherry pie. We stuffed ourselves and then headed off to see the fireworks.

After the fireworks we loaded up and headed back to Florida.

Most of the kids looking at Cinnamon.Grace.
Favorite past time of all children. Throwing rocks in water.

We drove through the stream in the Red Rover about 5 minutes later.
I found a nest while hiking and Ava decorated it.
Patriotic girls.

1. My favorite picture of Adam.

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   The drive home.

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   We had made it all the way to Ocala, which is about an hour north of where we live, we thought we would make a quick stop to pick up some new boots for Jacob. I took Jacob and Adam in to find some boots while Brian came behind with the girls. I set my keys, wallet and phone down in order to help Jacob try on the boots. Brian walked up and asked if I could lock the door to van with the clicker. I look down, the keys are no longer there, only Adam. So we search the store, the helpful sales lady kept insisting that I did not have them when I came inside the store. So we unloaded and searched the car.

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   After about an hour, I decided to call USAA insurance and have them send a tow truck to take the van to dealership to have a new key made. The lovely lady at the Toyota dealership obviously didn't want to be helpful in the afternoon because she told me that she wasn't sure what kind of key I needed even though she could look up my exact model of van and she didn't know if the service department could make the key that day because it was pretty late (my clock showed 2:45pm). The tow truck driver arrives and refused to tow the truck because he didn't have the key to put it in neutral and he didn't want to break the van dragging it (actually cares, good job tow truck guy).

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   Option #2 called enterprise because they will pick you up to schedule a rental car. They will not use a bank card because I am not a Marion county resident and I don't have my credit card activated because I don't use it that often and of course I have to activate it from my home phone which I have changed in the last couple of months. So we use Brian's card and sit and wait.

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   While waiting I go back in to look 1 more time for the keys. Shaking all the boots at Adam's eye level. Miracle occurs. I find the missing keys in a boot at the end of the row right at Adam's waist. Quickly, I call and cancel the rental car and skedaddle.

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   Side note:

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   we did buy some boots.