And More Bridge Day 2009

Here is a quick video of our, first ever, trip to Bridge Day.

We all had fun in the cold. Lexy was bundled up like a little cocoon. Isaac was wanting to find a parachute and do the jump. And Amy was... you guessed it studying as we walked around. She ran into the MSU CRNA program director there. It was pretty funny when she pull out her study notes and then said, "Hey Becky, how are ya..?"

Early Halloween

They have Halloween a little early here in West Virginia when the 31st falls on a weekend. They do it to keep kids off the streets when the party level is high. The Ridges did Trick or Treating tonight. So, here's the pics.

We make some cookies and frosted our tails off.

Lexy Jo has dressed up at Dorthy, complete with Ruby slippers, braided brown hair and basket full of Toto.

Isaac is a Zombie. It took Lexy almost a week to warm up the him in the costume. But they look great together.

Lexy and her best buddy Emma on our front steps.

Here are the pumpkins that the kids carved.

Family Pictures

We have been sooo excited for the fall leaves to come here in West Virginia. Amy has been wanting to take family pictures when the leaves changed. Well, you can't wait to do it next weekend or the leaves will be gone. So, we headed out after church on Sunday and took pictures. We started with some just off of US-119 on the way home, then some by the Ridges Gate. We stopped by the house and grabbed a change of cloths, then found a few spots along Rabel Mountain Road. We ended up at Wine Cellar Park in Dunbar to finish off. But got the kids back to the Ice Skating Rink by 4:30pm for lessons. It made for a busy day. I hope you enjoy these pictures and the video at the end.

Family Pile

These old walls are cool, lighting not quite right.

This is not our house. Neat old building though.

This is the wine cellar door.

Momma Jo and Lexy Jo

This is a bit long but Amy was sad about all the pictures that I DID pull out already.

Fun Saturday for the Kids

Great Saturday for the kids again. We slipped out and let Mommy stay home to study.

The Lowe's her has a kids workshop that is free everyother Saturday. This was an on week. The kids have built fire trucks, ball toss games and Frankenstien boxes. It's a nice little program Each week they get a patch for the project they build. Lexy's are attached to her Lowe's apron.
While we were finish up the Frankenstein boxes we heard that Toys R Us was having a free Lego build a toy. So we found a way to kill a little time and headed on over. It worked out pretty good. We even ran in to the Harman family. The kids got to build a Lego Car and take it home. I love free Legos..!!Thanks Lowe's and Toys R Us.

Lexy got here Halloween costume all ready. Complete with the ruby slippers and basket with Toto. She is ready to roll.

October Pack Meeting

Well we have another Pack Meeting in the bag. We handed out our first Arrow of Light. He felt pretty special, even though his parents weren't there. He is the first one to move to the top of our Advancement Ladder.

I know it's an old picture. But it's what I have.

One of the games we played was a squirrel eating game. We talked about the fact that squirrels don't have thumbs like we do. So, we used masking tape and taped their thumbs to their palms, on both hands. Then went we got all the thumbs taped down... We gave them peanuts to shell and eat. Like a squirrel would have to. The all had a lot of fun with that. Some used their teeth, others smashed them into the chair. What a mess. But they all had fun.

Broncos Win

Aaaawwww... He has such a sad face for looking soooo good in that hat.Hey Aaron, I'll take this down if you leave me a post on this blog asking me too...

Jason, et al, please don't tell him that I have posted this. Let's see how long it lasts before he sees it.

For those of you that don't know. Aaron is a HUGH Chargers fan and he HATES the Broncos. He wants me to hate the Charger, but I won't. We have a running bet that we must wear the other teams hat to work after our team losses. Well, I have had my share of Charger days and have been mistaken for a Chargers fan a few times, "Oh, sure your a Chargers fan now that they won yesterday." It took some explaining. I sure am enjoying this Broncos win.

Other Bridge Day Pictures

After we spent a few hours on the bridge and looking at the vendors. We has some lunch, we all had meat-sicles. Isaac and I had chicken on a stick and the girls had corn dogs. Once we got back to the car we still saw a few fun things.

Lexy's Monkey Feet
Lexy rode in the stroller most of the time we where at the festival. Sitting down and not moving much I think she got the coldest. Her feet were freezing. So, once we got in the car, I had her take off her shoe and I put my gloves on her feet. She had a lot of fun being a monkey. She kept asking, "Give me some monkey food."
Cotton Hill
There is a place just short of Fayetteville on State Route 16 called Cotton Hill. Very pretty area. These are some sweet photos that we took.

Yeah, yeah, it's from the same spot of the

same place, but it's fun to see how zooming and

rotating makes the photo feel different.

Nice Picture Frame

This was in a vendor booth between the bus drop off and the bridge. I thought it was awesome. I would like to find some old pane glass windows to make some of these. I have some ideas of cool pictures to put in them.

Beautiful Subdivision

We stopped by a place that was advertising bridge view lots. All the homes have porches and earth tone colors. It is a very cool place. Tons of trees. I like the railing arches on this one.

BRIDGE DAY

We made it to Bridge Day yesterday, October 17th. There was a little bit of everything there. BASE jumpers, rapelers, zip liners, whitewater rafters, vendors, on and on.

So, if you are not familiar with BASE jumping it is when someone jumps off an object with a parachute. Building, Antenna, Span, or Earth. Isaac is quite interested in it because Travis Pastrana does a lot of BASE jumping. He got up on the ledge and thought about it... but without a chute he stepped back down.

Looking down from the bridge.

Isaac took this sweet picture of some guy as he did a back flip off the bridge.It was pretty cold (upper 30's) on the bridge. Lexy was bundled into a cacoon in the stroller trying to keep warm.
Momma Jo and Isaac in the cold rain, waiting for the bus.

Dad and Lexy enjoying the cold rain on the bridge.

More to follow...

Hotcakes Anyone...?

If you have been around our house over the years you know that my kids like to help with weekend breakfast. We make good, big breakfasts on the weekend. Biscuits and gravy, waffles, Captain Crunch french toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, omelets, hashbrowns, on and on. And, they must all be made from scratch, there is NEVER pancake mix at our house. The other day we had pancakes in shapes for the kids. Lexy had her princess pancake and Isaac had a motorcycle. This shape thing started for them when Grandpa made them teddy bear pancakes a few years ago.

Lexy with her princess pancake... in the dark...
Close up of the princess pancake.

Close up of the motorcycle pancake.

I kinda like to share too...

Walbeck Pancakes

1 c. Flour

1 T. Baking Powder

1/4 t. Salt

1 T. Sugar

1 c. Milk

1 Egg

2 T. Vegetable Oil

Mix all the dry. Push to one side of the bowl. Add all the wet into the empty side of the bowl. Whip the egg, milk and oil, stir in the dry. The more you stir the flatter the pancakes. Lumps are OK. If you let the batter side for 3 to 5 min they will puff up taller when you cook them.

At one time this recipe was from the Better Homes and Gardens binder... but I think the I have adjusted it and I never look. We just grab the stuff and mix it together.

Making this type of food from scratch is great for our kids. A few years ago, Lexy let her aunt know the she was NOT making pancakes right because it takes more the flour and water. She was trying to use a pancake mix and Lexy was mad. I think she mostly just wanted to crack the egg.

Lexy's Ballet Class

Lexy has started a new ballet class now that we are in West Virginia. She had to switch classes because she was too board in the first class she was in. The teacher suggested we move her up a level and they excepted her in another class. She has to work at the tasks they do at this higher level, which is good. Here are a few pictures of her in action and with each of the ballet teachers. The action photos are a bit fuzzy because they have been taken without a flash and through glass.

Enjoy.

Fall Drive

We when for a little fall drive today. We have been watching the leaves start to change and we don't want to miss them when they explode. Plus, next weekend is Bridge Day and I wanted to make sure we knew the way and the best idea for parking. Soooo... we drove to Fayetteville, WV this afternoon and on to the New River Gorge Bridge. B E A U T I F U L.

We drove Highway 60 through Montgory. We have been to Fayettevile before but we drove through Beckley. Highway 60 follows the river most all the way, and the leaves are starting to change. We stopped at the bridge visitor's center and hiked down to the lower observation deck. We got some nice pictures from down there.

Family Picture from the observation deck.

The New River Gorge Bridge.

Another bridge shot.

On the way back we stop by a few places. First was this water fall. I was cool. About a 30 second hike from the parking lot to the base of the fall. But it was a cool little cove. The kids had fun playing on the rocks. If ya look close you can see Isaac on the far right side of this picture, the will give you a sense of scale for the water fall.Here is a calendar shot of a narrow road in the fall. We gotta take these shots when ever we can.We stopped at a place along the river where there are some water falls and an OLD hydroelectric plant. This place had some great places for photos.

This one is the best shot of the day. Lexy had fun being a model again. I took a lot of pictures of here and Amy at this place.