We got a chance to hang out with my Mom in person (!) yesterday, which was awesome. We have been extra careful with her since she has a few covid risk factors, but it had really been too long. Turns out that Rappahannock County Park is almost exactly halfway between Charlottesville and Winchester so we met there.
Melina and Diane were SUPER excited to see their Nana. And the park itself turned out to be a really fun discovery. It has trails, a nice spot to get in the river, tennis, basketball, a skate park, playground, etc. It’s even a designated “dark sky” area so we’ll have to go back sometime at the new moon and do some stargazing. We’ve probably driven past it 50 times over the years and never stopped.
Speaking of things we’ve gone right past and never known about, the girls (especially Karen and Diane) are have a really good time with geocaching. I think they are up to twenty “finds” at this point, all around town. Diane even has a special backpack that she brings on the excursions, filled with all sort of little treasures that she can “trade” with the adventurers who have been there before (and after). We even got Pop Pop to join us for one outing.
With their abundance of free time, Melina and Diane have also found a way to get cookies whenever they want. They figured out that while we won’t buy them cookies very often, we have a really hard time saying no to them baking cookies. They have made snicker-doodles, chocolate chip, jam-filled thumbprint, and Mexican wedding cookies. Well played kids.
Our daily nature walks continue, and while their hasn’t been as much wildlife lately (too hot!) we did find our first egret at the lake. And the deer seem to be losing their fear of humans more and more by the day. They are brazen.
In the spirit of “finding fun” I’m also including these two photo-shoots (from our weekly Zimet family challenges):
First was me goofing around with macro shots of raspberries and blackberries (this went on longer than you might think is humanly possible)
And second this photo-shoot with Melina and Diane. Because it was every bit as fun as it looks 🙂
Traveling Together 