Now that facebook is all the rage I a spending more time there and less time with the blog. I don't really know why considering how long it takes to upload pictures to facebook. You get a great response from people so I think its because it is a little more gratifying.

Regardless my apologies for being so bad about updating!


We are having a pretty good summer so far. We went camping just the Barlups over Memorial Day weekend and had a great time. We decided that as long as we don't have any grown-up agenda the weekend goes smooth as can be. Imagine that... We camped at Blue Rock State Park which was very pretty. It also happened to be close to the Wilds. If you are interested I think I would recommend Dillon State Park over Blue Rock but both are close if you want to visit the wilds. The Wilds is fantastic. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but it was really great and you can totally pretend you are on safari at some points.

Jimmy and I on the bus at The Wilds

Giraffe

Taipan's. These were so ugly they were cute!

The boys relaxing near the carnivores. Jimmy was told not to run or they might want to eat him. Yea. Nice try Ms. Wild's worker.

Playing with squirt guns. This was much better than swimming considering Jimmy still doesn't understand the concept of "too deep."

Family canoe ride. Brian and I learned many moons ago that canoeing was not something we did well together and we haven't done it since... Until now that is. It actually was really nice and Jimmy did great at sitting still.
We also went on a Hawkins/Barlup vacation. Something that hasn't happened since I think I was around 16? We rented a cabin in West Virginia to celebrate my Mom's 60th Birthday. For as bad as this could have gone it was actually really fun! We are thinking we should try to do something maybe every other year...

Jimmy playing in the spring at Berkeley Springs, Va

My bro, sis-in-law, sis, mom and Jimmy on the train!

This was probably one of the funniest things about the vacation. The train operator was new and let the train coast with mom half in. Then she couldn't get it stalled right and they had to jump it. Then it was putting off so much crap I immediately got a headache. Chris & Jimmy laughed the entire time - for different reasons of course. Jimmy threw a fit when it was over...

Blowing out the candles on Mom's skillet cake.

Jimmy made these eggs pretty much by himself. He has an interesting egg cracking technique. It isn't really cracking so much as squeezing. I did help him out by picking out a bunch of the shell. I think Mom thought I was nuts when he said he wanted eggs and I replied with - you know where the fridge is. What?!? I was tired.


Winchester, Va. Really cute.

The gardens.

This weekend we are going camping with the Bairs and I am sure there will be lots more pictures to come. Thanks for being patient about the lack of blog updates!