Apple farm- June.

Our school took a trip to an apple farm outside of town.  

 First we got to see and feed some animals.  That's me clinging to my teacher and refusing to get anywhere near an animal.

 Georgie, on the other hand, was at the front of the line demanding pea pods and beans to feed to all the animals.

 She also thought this scarecrow was hilarious.  I added it to the list of things I'm afraid of.  It's too close to mascots.

 We took a tractor ride out to the orchard.  (Georgie was mad she had to sit down and threw a fit the whole time.  That's so JoJo.)

 But we did have a lot of fun picking apples off the tree. 

And picking out pumpkins in the parking lot.

 We drove Georgie's classmate, Yohansh, and his mom with us.  After we got back, she invited us back to their house and made us an awesome Indian lunch.  Well, at least mama said it was awesome.  We jsut ate snacks.  (Have we mentioned how much mama loves our school?)

Despite the fact we all ate our weight in apples on the tractor ride, we got snacks when we got back to the farm. 

Guess who LOVES goldfish?

Walking to school- Henry.

We've had the very good fortune of good weather so far this school year.  On September 18th, we had our first forecast of afternoon rain.  And, without fail, at 3pm, the biggest, windiest storm came through.  Our school tried to dismiss us a few minutes early in the hopes that we'd make it home before the rain started.  Since it wasn't raining when I started out, I didn't bother to put on my raincoat.  

This is what I looked like when I got home.  Soaked to the bone.

Even my boats were filled with a good 3 inches of water.  

We've had one rainy morning since.  Mama drove me to school, but we had to wait in the drop-off line for 30 minutes.  Mama says there's going to have to be another monsoon before she does that again.  

Antietam- Henry.

We wanted to stay at the campground all day, but mama caught wind that the Appalachian Trail was just a mile away.  And if there's one more sure thing about mama, it's that she will always make us stop and hike the Appalachian trail, even if it's only for a hundred yards.  So we headed up the road only to find this sitting in the middle of the road ahead of us:

Of course, there's a memorial to Civil War Correspondents tucked away in the middle of nowhere. 

Gathland State Park  turned out to be a fun diversion.  George Alfred Townsend, a Civil War journalist actually built the arch and a huge estate up here over a hundred years ago.

But, of course, he squandered his fortune and died penniless and his estate went to ruin. But it did make for a fun place to explore.  June decided she wasn't into it and went to sit in the car.  She's totally going to be the one who yells "Can't we just take a vacation that's not educational for once?" 

Soon JoJo got fussy and banished to the car too.  That left mama and I free to do a little hiking of our own.  We found a really cool trail, but couldn't hike too far on it, lest we lose sight of the grumps back in the van.

We were worried we might have to scratch the rest of our plans for the days, but a long drive around the Maryland countryside provided a short nap.  Then, further fortified by vitamin peanut butter, we resumed our afternoon's activities.

And those were to celebrate the anniversary of the bloodiest day on American soil- the Battle of Antietam.  You've got to hand it to the National Parks Service.  They know how to put on a 3 year long sesquicentennial event.  Here they had a whole festival set up, including tons of informational tents, reenactors and kids' activities.  We especially liked building a miniature Burnside's Bridge and setting up troop formations. 

If dirty faces are an indication of a good time, then it was a great day.

Why can't we ever just look at the camera at the same time?

Mama BEGGED us to get an old-timey photo taken.  Only Jo and I obliged.  Papa begrudgingly put on a uniform and then turned out this awesome pose.  You know he wanted to do it all along.  

After Georgie took off the green dress, she insisted on donning the yellow dress too.  That is one cute kid.

Someday, June is going to regret she didn't take part.

After a trip through the Gettysburg Traveling Museum trailer (you just always have to show everyone up, don't you, Gettysburg?), the kids were dead set on following a path through a soybean field.

And mama waxed all nostalgic about how could anyone hold a war in such a beautiful place.  Western Maryland, you have won us over.

Papa picked us up in the van and took us around the driving tour.  We made papa stop so we could climb the tower by Bloody Lane.  Mama wanted to prove she could climb to the top without panicking like she did the last time she came with papa.

It turns out that chasing two kids up old metal stairs is enough distract you from being too scared of heights.

On the drive home, June said she wouldn't take a nap.

Until she did.  That is one tired girl.

JoJo did her normal one-eye-open napping.  She's been doing that since she was born.

City-style camping- Henry.

Much to everyone's dismay, we made the decision to leave our camping gear back in South Carolina.  And it never fails that as the weather turns cooler, we all get the urge to get out and sleep on the ground.  

Just our luck, mama remembered a camp ground that she and papa stumbled across on that epic Civil War Battlefield and State Park camping trip they took 10 years ago.  A campground that also had real tree houses you could sleep in! 

Since there were five of us and we're city-soft now, we chose not to sleep on the floor of a tree house, but instead we booked a cabin with bunk beds and foam mattresses. And nothing else besides a picnic table.  It was awesome!  It was just like sleeping in Laura Ingalls' house

Not to mention the fact that sleeping in a cabin for one night is one hundred times easier than taking all of our camping gear out.  Especially when mama decided only to bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the whole trip.  Everybody's happy!  We may never camp again. 

After a campfire and a great night's sleep, we woke ready to face the world.  June has declared this her camping outfit.  

JoJo played the part of "dirty little kid foraging for sticks" very well.

We could have run around our cabin all day.

June and Jo especially liked the "throw something off the porch then run around to find it" game.

We played until I found a map of the campground and insisted we take a tour.  June disagreed, saying she had no energy and NEEDED a snack.

We made it a point to visit all of the empty tree houses and cabins.  We totally staying in this one next time.  12 people- 1 round bunk bed.

Civil War Weekend- June.

The weather has finally gotten cooler and Henry had a Monday off of school for Rosh Hashanah (we are so East Coast), so we decided to take off on Sunday and head and hour out of the city.

If you haven't heard from us yet, it's the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  Be prepared for lots of pictures of us by cannons as we love the Civil War and we love celebrating anniversaries.

Come on, Georgie.  We didn't come to play on a bike rack.

First stop on our tour- Harper's Ferry.  Mama and papa came here about 10 years ago and mama really only remembers John Brown and the abolitionists' raid.  Turns out Harper's Ferry (a trading town conveniently located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah) also traded hands 8 times during the Civil War and pretty much spent the whole war have it's arsenals burnt down.  We came in for the weekend celebrating the first battle for the town.  

Yet, it remains a lovely town, very carefully trapped in time.

The town itself is located on the side of a huge hill, so with Henry at the map, we found our way to the top.

Georgie managed to climb all the way to the top on her own.

But got a little tired once we reached the graveyard.

Check out the view of the mountains and the river behind Henry.  Northwest Maryland may be the prettiest place we've ever been.

Thomas Jefferson had it right when he stood on this rock in 1783 and declared:

“The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. ... This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic."

Seeing as how it's the sesquicentennial, we really need to work on the etiquette of "don't sit on graves."  I'm not pictured because I was too busy climbing graves.

On the way back down, we visited the relics of an old church that had been burned down.

When we got back into town, we scored some ice cream and took a break.  Since this wasn't a grave, mama didn't shoo me off immediately and let me have a little rest.

JoJo- mama.

This is a good post to catch you up on all things JoJo.  First, let's address the nickname.  Brandon, Henry and I endeared to the name JoJo.  June only calls her Georgie.  At school, she goes by Georgiana.  About 75% of the families at the school are foreign.  And we are constantly confusing them by addressing Sweet G with a nickname.  I feel like we've already acquired a reputation at "that" family (really, just I've acquired the reputation.)

Poor Jo is really settling into the unfortunate roll of the third child who constantly is yelling "Look at me! Look at me!"  (Surely she didn't inherit that from her mother.)  In this case, she drapes herself over a step stool or chair and yells "Help! Help!"  Or she waits until you leave the room and runs after you, imploring you to accompany her back, saying "Show you sumpin."   She's so high maintenance that we've gotten really bad about letting her keep her nuk when she runs and fishes it out of her bed.  We used to be better about it being for bedtime only, but it's nice to have some quiet now and then.    

On one occasion of silence, I heard Jo count up "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight" then heard a huge thump.  I came out to find George doing this.  Kid shins must feel no pain, because after this (and all the time), hers were certainly bruised up.