Backyard Fruit Bowl

Brett and his backyard fruit bowl.

Blackberry Pickin'

Brett and I went blackberry pickin' this morning. He picked a few strawberries and said that he wanted to make a backyard fruit bowl and that he needed some beautiful leaves. So, this is what he came up with.

Grand National Cross Country Race

"Grand National Cross Country Race Pro and amateur ATV and motorcyle racers take on the slopes at Wisp for a fourth straight year in the GNCC Race. Gate admission is $15 for both days and children under age 7 are free. For more information please visit GNCC's home. "

Charlie and a few of his friends travelled to Summersville, WVA for the GNCCR. They entered the first timers category and had a really good time. Charlie came in 12th out of 35 riders. Not to bad....

Line up... 3

Team line up...

Line up... 2

Team line up...

Line up... 1

The Storm lines up for the National Anthem at the last game of the season.

Basement Ceiling

Charlie and few friends hung the drywall on the ceiling!

Playground

Playground at the farm museum.

Fiddler's Convention

On Saturday June 12 Brett and I went to the annual Fiddler's Convention at the Carroll County Farm Museum. We had a really nice time. It was just the two of us as Charlie had gone riding in Southern Md... When we arrived, we visited all the vendor booths, then we ordered up a quarter chicken platter and shared it. Then we found a nice spot in the shade and put down our blanket. I sat back and enjoyed the music while Brett played his gameboy. It was really neat to listen to local musicians as they competed in categories like, group, old timey group, vocals, banjo, guitar, fiddlle, etc. When Brett could no longer contain himself and sit still, we walked the grounds. They had a formal garden, herb garden, and a vegetable garden. Then we stopped to visit each of the animals living on the farm. Brett wanted to play at the play ground for a bit then we got a snow cone. Lastly, we bought a huge bag of kettle corn to take home with us.

The Creek

Brett and I took our mud boots along to Olmsted Illinois so we could take a walk in the creek. We found crawfish, water bugs, tadpoles and we saw one huge turtle.

Fall '04

This is another picture from November 2004. My Dad came down for a visit and we were out raking leaves off the driveway.

Foot Bridge

There was a deteriorated foot bridge over the creek, so Charlie rebuilt it. It is a great spot to stop and enjoy the outdoors. Or if you are a Knox, it's a nice spot to stop for a little relief.

Amish Seat Belt Check

I finally got some film developed. This picture was taken back in November 2004 when we were in PA for Thanksgiving. This was a funny site, the local police was performing a seat belt check on all vehicles coming into town. I wander if the Amish were compliant.

Muddin'

I can't remember if this was Feb or March... but it was one of those warm days and the snow had melted and left the ground really soft and muddy.

Memorial Day

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend! We certainly did. We hit the road Wednesday after work and made it to Chapin Illinois Thursday morning. We camped out in Charlie's Mom's yard. What fun! On Friday we attended Jana's graduation, which was very nice. Then she had her graduation party that night at the legion. That went really well! Charlie and Christopher, who is finally back from Japan, set up the PA system and played for the crowd for almost three hours. It was a really good time. Then on Saturday we drove four hours south to Olmsted Illinois to Knox Drive, where a nice Memorial Day cook out was in progress. Again, the PA system went up and the music flowed.... this time, someone had a small TV so we plugged into karaoke for while, too. It was a lot of fun. We slept on our air mattresses inside the barn. We had perfect weather. On Sunday Charlie and Christopher helped their Dad with a room in the new house, so me and the kids spent most of the day going for walks, eating mint and honeysuckle, and playing in the creek. I took my digital camera but left the memory card in the computer so I have no pictures to share. I know Candy got several good shots, maybe she will be so kind and send a few to us... I grabbed her camera and got a good picture of Christopher driving the tractor will all the kids and Charlie riding in the bucket. We need at least that one! We left Olmsted Sunday at four pm and took Tanner home, then we immediately turned the Expedtion Eastward. We stayed in a hotel just over the Indiana border and finally made back to Maryland at about 7:30 pm on Monday.
Anyway, I hope you are all well. We are!