Sporty

 Merry has decided that swimming is her sport of choice.

 She had her first swim meet this week.

 The back stroke.

She is also playing on the school volleyball team and had her first game this week.

I am not loving how little light there is in the gym.

 Grace has switched to defense this year.

 You can see how wet the fields are by all the water slashing up.

She played an awesome game.

Loving the over the knee socks.

Clearing the ball.

 Jacob's team also played this week.

 Nice pull back.

 Not sure what this crow hop is about.

He also played a great game.

First tournament of the season

 I don't know if we are dedicated or just crazy, we had to be in Jacksonville at 7:00AM for a game so we left at 4:00AM, the view of the sunrise coming into Jacksonville made it well worth it.

The bridges are what I remember the most about visiting my grandpa in Jacksonville as a child.

 Jacob coming in for some defense.

Jacob a head above.

It poured rain through some of the games but no lightning so the play continue.

Grace seemed to enjoy playing in the rain.

 Her concentrating face.

 I love all the rain drops.

 Both her and Jacob teams placed 1st in their divisions.

 This is what 11 hours at the soccer field looks like.

Tired and happy.

First day of school

Jacob started the 9th grade this year, that means early morning seminary for us.  Yeah!

It means the pictures were taken in the very dark predawn morning.

I am thankful that Brian has taken the brunt of the driving in the morning.

 That is a Bob Ross shirt he is wearing.  When we took him school shopping he only picked out 2 Bob Ross shirts and one Top Ramen shirt.  I am not sure where he got his sense of style.

Merry started 7th grade this year.  She does not look particularly happy to be awake this early in the morning. 

I could only get a half of a small out of her.

 Grace started 5th grade this year.  As her school doesn't start until 9:40 she is much happier than the older kids.

She has the same 5th grade teacher that Merry and Jacob had so she was very excited to continue the tradition.

Adam started 3rd grade this year.  He was excited to go to school even though his picture doesn't look like it.

 He was not excited to take all of the pictures.

 This was a big year for us because Eliza started kindergarten.  She was so excited to be going to the same school as Grace and Adam.

 

We were excited not to have to pay daycare anymore.

 The happy little folk.

Eliza and Grace picked these cute jumpsuits for the first day of school.  I tried to explain how hard it was to go to the bathroom while wearing a jumpsuit.  Grace said she didn't care, it was cute and she wanted to wear it.  Eliza said I am tiny enough to climb through the hole in the top if I need to use the bathroom.  Grace came home and said she was never going to wear it again because it rode up all day long.  So Eliza retired her jumpsuit as well.

A visit to Virginia

The first stop was a visit to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.

 Posing with his statue.

 You can see how fascinated Jacob and Merry are.

 The kids favorite part was the turtles in the reflection pond.

Checking out the smokehouse.

 Checking out the weaving house.

 Merry practicing with a feather quill.

 Eliza being Eliza.

 Adam forgot his tennis shoes but remember his boots.

 Jacob still looking happy.

 Adam overlooking the gardens.

 Rolling down the hill was another favorite pasttime.

 Me and Adam enjoying the view.

Brian and I both loved touring the house and gardens and the kids went along because we were driving.

 On the way to John and Lynnie's we drove up the skyline road in the Shenandoah National Forest.

 The view was spectacular all the wildflowers were in bloom.

 The boys, I think the kids sang John Denver's Country Roads like 20 times as we were driving.

 We stopped and took a short hike.

 With lots of climbing on rocks.

 Eliza showing off her missing teeth

 Brian hiking through the woods, it was actually pretty cool.

 Jacob climbing the rocks.

 Waiting for the sun to set.

The beautiful view over the mountains.