Family Olympics

It was a quiet Friday this past weekend, so time to bring on some family adventure. We were each tasked with creating three events, with a mini cupcake awarded to the winner of each competition. That got the kids fired up:

Benji, ready with the tools for his events

Demonstrating his self-designed obstacle race

At the start line

Abby in the obstacle race

Frisbee roll

Ping pong track roll

Benji, making the "olympic rings" between events

Fuzzy sock hand race -- an Abby creation

Straw race

The final tally

Twister!

Family game night:

Abby taking a bow after her victory, and Benji photobombing her

Cub Scout Camp: CSI Edition

Benji spent last week at cub scout camp.  This year's theme was CSI and they got to do a number of cool things during their "wild card" period, including making silicon fingerprints and meeting a bomb sniffing dog.  The rest of the day was spent in fishing, archery, bb gun range, games and swimming in the lake. He had a blast!:

With his camp lanyard; they earned beads for things like catching a fish, getting a bulls eye and good behavior

Benji, kissing a fish he caught, which earned him an extra bead

Father's Day 2016

We had a picnic at Ivy Creek, followed by Finding Dory:

Sophia's 7th Birthday

She asked for a minecraft party just like Benji's, so we drove up to Herndon to help out:

Looking for cubes

The big girls helped man the prize station

Making things explode

The girls wanted their turn

Pin the tail on the pig

Creeper pinata

Birthday girl with her cake

Abby, Julia and Vishnavi after the party, hanging out in Jules' new room

Swim Meet #1

Against Crozet. Benji swam freestyle and back like a pro. Here he is relaxing between events with his Peanuts book:

Just Reading

Lunch with a View

The kids and Kevin came and had lunch with me at the law school one day last week.  We ate in the small courtyard, which is quiet and pretty. When I ran up to my office to grab drinks, I snapped these:

Biking the High Bridge Trail

This had been on our summer to-do list. This is a reclaimed railroad right-of-way in Farmville which has one of the highest bridges in the country. We started our Farmville day with lunch at Walker Diner, which we are pretty sure was featured on the Food Networks Diners, Dive and Drive-in program.  It was awesome:

 Next, on to the trail. Kevin and Abby rented mountain bikes and Benji and I rode a two-person trike:

Blueberry Picking

Some friends told us about this neat little patch in Free Union with blueberries and raspberries. It was beautiful and the owners were super friendly, plus the bushes were busting with berries: