Fun at Yoder's with the Fresnos

We had a very fun lunch with Shelly, Tanner, Carsen and Emery at Yoder's before they left to go back to California.  Yoder's is a Mennonite store about 20 minutes from Culpeper on the way to Charlottesville with a deli, fresh baked goods, Amish furniture and lots of unique packaged foods.  Shelly bought caramels and cinnamon/white chocolate dipped pretzels.  We also bought fresh bread and cinnamon rolls to take home.  Then outside there are goats, chickens and lots of play equipment.  The pictures really speak for themselves. 

This one is too funny.   The goats can climb up this very narrow walkway to the food at the end.  None of them bother because a very large goat his taken up residence at the end.  There is a goat lying on the platform.  (You can't see him.)  There is a pully to carry the corn up to feed the goat.                                                                                                                                               

Tanner feeding the goats.  Notice he changes from the 5 Guys hat to an old hat that Grandpa Crowley was throwing away.  What a cute guys.

Carsen's turn

Tanner in Grandpa's old hat.

Emmy fed the chickens -- but not corn.  She fed them Doritos.

Ah!  Here's a Grandpa's Boy.

Wow!  Here's another Grandpa's Boy.

Here's where we had our lunch.  The sandwiches at Yoder's are well worth the drive.  But take your own iced drink.  They have bottles only.

Those Crowley kids love Doritos

Fun Times

Here's the turkey. (in the cage of course)

Little Emery swinging.

What a handsome guy!

This Tanner is perpetual motion.  He never quits having fun.

Here's Grandma's Girl

We left Yoder's and Grandpa took the boys to a movie and Emery went to play with cousin, Charlotte.  Shelly and I were going shopping, but we were tired.  We may have gone home for a nap.  I can't remember.  Those California kids love to have fun.

Bear Day With the Girls

This is where the fun started.  All of the girls had birthdays recently and that meant a trip to the Bear store.  Emery and Charlotte have filled their bears and Audrey is pushing the pedal for the stuffing to go in her cat. 

It was a moment of wonder and magic for these little girls.  It was heart thumping to watch their little faces at each station. 

Charlotte grooming her kitty.

Emmy and her new best friend.

It was love at first sight.

Choosing the clothes was crazy fun.

Here are the girls with their bear houses.  Emery (3) Audrey (3) Charlotte (4)

How cute is this?  Visiting the bear store with these three little darlings tickled this Grandma's heart.  Then it was on to lunch.  This is just the beginning of fun times with my granddaughters! 

June has been a Whirlwind!

What glorious month we have spent with kids and grandkids.  They can wear you out, but they are so worth it.  We have loved every minute of our time together.  Jeremy's family flew in from California on June 2nd and the fun started at the beach.

The getting ready was difficult for the kids.  They had to wait the half hour after getting the sun block to go out.

Audrey

                                                     

                                                          Cute cousins -- Charlotte and Emery

Emery and Audrey

                                                             jocelyn and her daddy

Is that the original wave buster?

Charlotte, Lauren 1, Lauren 2, Emmy, Tanner, Carsen

Nathan wants in on the action.

                                                       Lauren, Audrey and Charlotte

                                             
                                                                          Carsen

Tanner

                                                            
                                                         Jocelyn and Melanie

                                                               Tres Amigos

Shelly and Emery

Nathan

Nathan and Jocelyn's favorite toy at the beach -- the rolling cooler.  The two one-year-olds kept us all busy trying to keep up with them.

I'm sure the wisdom of the ages is being passed along here.

The shrimp fest begins.  Much to my dismay not one of my cute daughters-in-law will eat shrimp and Rich won't touch it either for that matter.  Where did I go wrong?

                                           

                                           Gabe, Melanie and Shelly

 So.................Matthew, Andrew and Jeremy and now Tanner join in for a great shrimp feast.  Lauren use to love to come with us to Awful Arthur's but now she doesn't like shrimp.  Really Lauren?   Here we are at the pool with our shrimp for lunch.  Yummy!                           

Tanner

Okay, Lauren did try one!

What a fun tradition......................eating fresh, spiced,  steamed shrimp at the beach.  It doesn't get any better.  I have tons more pictures so stay tuned.

Catch Up!

Wow!  It's been a crazy month.  As I was getting ready to enjoy a women's brunch in my home on April 16th, I ask Rich to put some music on for us.  As he bent over one of the two artificial lenses he has in his eyes as a result of cataracts suddenly shifted down off the pupil.  (As we found out later)  He didn't tell me but, went upstairs and called the Dr. who had done his preivious eye surgeries.  Although it was Saturday the Dr told him to come in immediately and she would meet him at her office.  She said one danger is the lens can fall the rest of the way into the eye and then would have to be fished out surgically.  He came down stairs to tell me he was leaving to see the Dr which was an hour away.  Not knowing what was wrong, I wouldn't let him go alone.  It could have been anything!  So this started the crazy month we have been through.

Because the ressetting of the lens is such a technical specialty, the next day we saw a specialist in Chevy Chase, Maryland who scheduled the surgery.  We tried to get home but this is what we faced.

So we left this fun traffic mess and ended up at Great Falls.  It was a beautiful day so we started hiking out to the falls.  Unfortunately these were the hiking shoes I had on my feet.

Of course I was very cute with this matching purse, but not really suited for a two mile hike.

We started for the falls and about half way there I already had a huge blister forming on the top of my foot.  I thought -- that's okay.  You know the price of beauty and all.  Then the pain started getting really bad so I told Rich to go ahead and I would wait.  I sat down on one of the locks to wait.  Of course I was immediately bored stuck on the lock.  Then I got the bright idea to wrap the scarf I had around my neck around my foot.  It worked perfectly.  So off I went.  Then I started worrying that the other foot would start complaining so I wrapped a few napkins around that foot also.  Yes, I was quite a sight, but the scarf and napkins worked.  By the time I found Rich, he was on his way back, but he went with me back to the falls.  It was a beautiful sight -- about two miles all in all.

This is the tow path along the canal.  It runs 184 miles from Georgetown to Cumberland, MD.

The water was roaring and beautiful.  The canals hadn't been opened yet, but it was fun to be there while the traffic cleared up.

So Next:

 Rich finally got his antique radios restored and returned to us. Only the inside on the large one needed restoration.  We drove them to Connecticut.  The large radio was given to him by his grandfather who lived in Idaho Falls, Idaho.    He was quite a man.  He graduated from Stanford in accounting and was a CPA until he was in his 90s.  Amazing.  He always used to say that his business  was dying off.  Literally.  I guess so at that age.  His grandson is thrilled to have this radio.

This smaller radio was a gift his father gave to his mother on her 22nd birthday.  Both the inside and the outside had to be restored on this radio.  Both of this radios are now playable and Rich has extra tubes for the future.  What treasures to have.  They are beautiful.

Then.....Lauren visited over spring break.  What a treat for us.  Here she is with brother Nathan.

Two sisters -- Lauren and Charlotte catching a few zzzz's

Lauren will be back  along with the Fresno Crowleys , the first week of June for our annual family reunion at the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

Then bad news.........I found out that my pitching arm isn't what it used to be.  Ha Ha!  Rich ask me to bring his wallet upstairs.  I decided that I could throw it.

I wanted to throw it up to the bridge and he could retrieve it.  Hmmmm.  You guessed it.

This is one of the many things I'm not that good at anymore.  Then Rich reminded me that my pitching arm was never that great.  Running yes -- throwing no.  Oh well.  I'm glad I can laugh at myself these days.

So ........................last week after a three day stay in Maryland, Rich's eye surgery was successful.  The lens was stitched to the iris and he is as good as new.  And by the way, those of you who keep asking me if Rich got a tattoo.  Check out his blog here for the answer.  http://facesofculpeperva.blogspot.com/    It's after "A Walk With Lauren".