Behind on the Blog

I know it's been a while since I've blogged but I'm still alive.

For the last week or little more I've been visiting with my parents.

Despite some rainy weather, we've done several things while being here in Illinois for a week. We hit New Salem State Park (we are in the Land of Lincoln) and we went to the St. Louis Zoo for a day. So we managed to get a couple things in while we also visited some extended family while we were here. The Price Family Reunion is every other year and it's always fun to attend. Our last attendance was 2001 so it was nice to go this year. My Dad took me to four (4) family cemeteries and downloaded a lot of family history to me - some I knew, some I didn't. We spent a full day driving all over central/southern Illinois to these cememteries and other than seeing a snake (ACK!) it was a great day!

I do have pictures but they'll have to wait for now. We start our 2 day trip back to Virginia on Monday and after I recuperate from that I will start digging through the photos taken on this trip. I took a lot of them too (as always)!

Military Spouse Appreciation Day

6 of My Favorite Things

Deanna from Mom-Musings tagged me for this meme: Favorite Things.


These are the rules:

1. Mentioned who tagged you.
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.
3. Tag six more blogs, then go and comment on their blogs. Let them know that have been challenged, and invite them to play along.


Six of my Favorite Things:

1. Feeding my birds. I have all kinds of birds in my yard this spring, including several ducks. It started out just Alice & Jasper (we named them) but now I've had a few others in the yard as well.

2. Reading...I love to read and challenged myself to read even more this year including 5 classics.

3. Chocolate...I love my chocolate and finally realized I'll never be able to give it up.

4. My camera. I love photography and it goes hand in hand with my scrapbooking. I always have my camera with me.

5. My iPod. I love music. It relaxes me and calms me.

6. Nature. I love the peace and calm that nature brings whether one of the amazing National Parks like the Grand Canyon or it's walking a trail, sitting on a beach, watching the birds in my yard or even my cats in the house. God's Creations are wonderful and amazing never ceasing to bring me enjoyment!


That wraps up Six of my Favorite Things.
I am going to tag a couple bloggers who are my friends and also a few whose blogs are new to me.

These are the following bloggers that I am tagging:

Katie from Pass the Chopsticks
Dani from Navy Stitching
Jill from Queen of this Kingdom
Hope from Hope from the Edge
FeyaVanya's Thoughts
Alyssa from Simply Dazzled

Virginia Beach KITE Festival

I went to see some kites on the beach yesterday. It was the 5th annual Atlantic Coast Kite Festival in Virginia Beach, VA. They held several contests including "People's Choice" and "Best Kite"....kites were judged on flight, structural design, craftsmanship, and visual appeal. There were kite vendors of course for those who had no kites or left their kites at home. Members of the American Kite Association (AKA) held demonstrations and flew their giant kites (up to 80 ft long).

For more Kite Festival photos CLICK HERE!

Busch Gardens, Williamsburg VA

Yesterday was our first of many trips to Busch Gardens Williamsburg this summer. This is our 2nd year in a row of buying season passes.
This is one of my favorite parks. It is by far, in my opinion, one of the prettiest in regards to landscaping, flowers, and scenery.
Here's a few of the highlights from yesterday. These were all taken with my small point and shoot Canon Powershot SX110is. (for someone not looking for a big DSLR but would like a really decent camera for a decent price, I highly recommend this camera)

Roman Rapids - Corey & Alyssa rode this one together.


Loch Ness Monster - Alyssa & I rode this one. YEARS ago (when I was a teenager) my brother in law forced me to ride in the very, very, very front of this coaster. It's the only coaster I've ever ridden in the front and it's the only time I've ever ridden in the front..... I'm a middle of the coaster kinda girl....


The Griffin - I do not ride this one. The boys however LOVE this ride and can ride it over and over and over.... .CRAZY! (they let you hang for a few seconds before dropping you....CRAZY I'm telling you! I really need to get this on video)


Apollo's Chariot - This one is fun...once you get past the first drop (I hate the first drop!) It's a quick, sleek, and smooth ride. It's hard to get pictures of this coaster though as it's kinda built into the trees for the most part.


To see more pictures from the day CLICK HERE

Maryland Hunt Cup 2009

MR LIBERATOR

For many years, I've heard a lot about the Maryland Hunt Cup. It is essentially ran in my brother-in-law and sister-in-laws front yard. Okay, maybe not literally but it sure comes close.

This year was the 113th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup, the longest steeplechase horse race in the United States. The first race was in 1894. In 1922,
Worthington Valley became the permanent home of the four mile, twenty-two fence racecourse. Worthington Farms is the farm that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law work and live on. It's quite a spectacle, with fans bringing their friends and families for an afternoon of picnicking and socializing. You'll see that's exactly what we did too!

We arrived at about 1PM with the race starting at 4PM. I took that time to take some pictures of the great daffodils that grow on the hill right at Randy & Suzie's home.


Really it's just a huge get together with a horse race thrown in the middle....actually it started out as a horse race in which grew the big get together's and the day long activities around the Hunt Cup.


When it's about time for the race, the first thing they do is bring the horses over from the farm to the race course. They are then paraded around in the paddock for all to see. It was pretty cool.


There are a total of 10 horses that start this 4 mile race. Unfortunately, this past race only 8 started...and it gets worse (and apparently even more "historic" as this race had a finish like no one could remember).

Twill Do and Coal Dust didn't start the race at all. That left Private Attack, Michele Marieschi, Askim (last year's winner), Rosbrian, Shady Valley, Mr. Liberator, Make Your Own, and Western Fling. I'm not quite sure what happened to everyone but by the end of the race only Michele Marieschi and Rosbrian were still running for the prize. Some horses refused to jump, other lost their riders. Once a rider (aka: jockey) is off the horse they are done. They cannot get back on and finish the race.



The horse in the lead here has no rider - when his rider fell off, he quickly took off and he was quickly in first place....unfortunately the horse AND the rider must cross the finish line together in order to win! They do have what they call outriders (others on horses but not racing) who are out there to collect the loose horses so they don't get in the other riders way.

These final three pictures are the last stretch. The two remaining horses in the race at the last two jumps. It was quite exciting. Michele Marieschi (#3) won the race with a time of 10:07 (ten minutes/7 seconds). I gathered from those who attend this every year that this was about 2 minutes off the record time and that typically more than two horses cross the finish line.....


To see more of my Hunt Cup photos - CLICK HERE

Here are some of the news articles from this years Hunt Cup.
Baltimore Sun
Explore Baltimore County

15 Years

Where does the time go? My "baby" turned 15 yesterday. It's hard to believe it's been so long. My dad calls every year on my birthday with my birthday story. He tells about how he had a revival to preach...poor mom, she was on her own. Course that was back in the day when women were on their own anyway. So, I always have Alyssa's birthday story - my husband was deployed but was able to come home for 3 weeks. Alyssa however decided to take her sweet time and arrived less than a week before he had to leave and go back to the submarine, which was in port in Italy. He didn't see her again until she was 3 months old.

She's really into Twilight (as if you probably didn't already know) so it was a Twilight birthday for the most part! She got the boxed set of hardback books (making this her 3rd copy of Twilight, the first in the series of the saga) We also managed to get her the library "READ" poster of the 2 stars in the Twilight movies, reading Twilight. Our library does not have this poster and Alyssa just hates that but now she has her own...in her room! Does it get any sweeter than that?

She also racked up a couple of iTune gift cards, another Taylor Swift dress, a movie and a Twilight gift card for Hot Topic (where the Twilight merchandise is sold). Topped the day off with a Red Velvet cake - from scratch made by mom....her favorite!