July in the Valley

This summer we have been keeping busy!

 It started off with my friend, Jenny, visiting. It was so great to have a girls night out on the town together. We were still home by 8, but that is how I roll!

The boys and I went to Luray Caverns. They got in free because of the summer reading program at the library. I must say, we have been to a number of caverns around town and this was my least favorite tour. And of course, it was the most crowded. You just never know what attracts people to one area over another.

 We were lucky enough to have some gorgeous 70 degree days in June as well. I wanted to take advantage of them and go hiking up at Skyline Drive. We did two hikes this day, but we absolutely loved Stony Man Trail. The view was exquisite!

This is the view BACK to the mountain we climbed. This is the second highest elevation in Shenandoah National Park I believe. If you are lucky enough to make the photo larger, you can see Stony Man, laying on his back and you can find his forehead, nose, jaw and chest about halfway from the left of the image. 

 If you look closely here, you can see find another stony man. Wait, that is just Eddie. Skyline Drive is off in the distance. What a gorgeous spot and a lovely hike.

 Until your kids do things like this and nearly give you a heart attack.

Not that playing with weapons is any better. No, that was contained in an archery camp for Eddie. He really liked it. 

Independence Day started with Eddie and I running a 5K. I must say, I think we looked pretty festive.   We had fun and ran the whole thing which is saying a lot for me lately!

After we got cleaned up and had our handy tripod take our photo....

 We went downtown for some festivities. They were having a huge raffle calling off numbers every five minutes for incredible prizes. It was fun to hope that our number would be called, but no luck. We are not $30,0000 richer, nor do we have a new car.  (But a vendor did say we were the most patriotic family of the day. Yes!)

 We went out for lunch and found Ben's artwork hanging in a building downtown. He drew the paw print in blue using paint on rubber and then stamped it on a wood block.  All the kids drew a separate image and the art teacher glued them all together to make a gorgeous masterpiece.

 Later, it was home with sparklers....

and snakes.

 The next day, we drove to Winchester and visited Polly and the kids. We had a great time in Old Town Winchester having lunch and hitting some cute stores. I was in heaven in their independent book store. Polly and I posed for this picture in her garden out back. She has been working hard!

 And today's free Friday event from the library was the Mt. Crawford Creamery. 

I have been absolutely dying to pet a cow recently and boy, did I get my fix. We stood there for a long time while these girls let us pet them and they kept trying to lick us. I was so happy!