Virginia Pictures

This is at Fort Stevens where we stopped along the way so the boys could play and I could nurse Benjamin.

My sister, Ginny, meets Mercy for the first time.  :)

Her children, Beatrix and Seth get acquainted with her as well.  Look at how Seth knows to let her smell him first!  

Seth, my 9 year old nephew, took me on a tour of the trees on his property and the unoccupied property next door to them.  It was unoccupied by people, but very occupied by ticks.  I learned this to my dismay yesterday, when I discovered three ticks firmly attached to me!  Ooogh, yuck!  I HATE ticks!  I hate to bite a towel and scream while Steve plucked them from my skin.  You know, it is a slow process because you have to do it slowly so the head doesn't remain lodged inside of you.  Icky, icky, icky.  Nevertheless, thankyou Seth for the tour of the trees.  I loved seeing them all!  I was so amazed at how he was able to tell me the names of all the different trees.  

From left to right, Keats, Lark, Seth and Moses.  These kids are so precious.  I can't wait to take more trips to Virginia to see them!  I haven't gone before because of the daunting 9 hour trip but it really wasn't that bad!  Definitely doable to see my nieces and nephews!

Fossil hunting!  My sister's family go fossil hunting all the time.  I was so excited to get to go with them!  We went two days in a row to different spots.  The boys loved it!  

Here is another one of my weird clothing concoctions...

Mercy really enjoyed the trip to the river as well...  :)  She is going to have a great life!

It was too hard to keep my feet dry.  Oh well....

Apparently it was too hard for my boys as well.  Andrew's pants became so heavy they wouldn't stay up.  Oopsy-daisy.

My sister discovered wild Lemon Balm growing in the forest by the river.  I fell in love with lemon balm late last Spring after I bought some from a vendor at a Farmer's Market.  It makes the yummiest tea.  I'm going to try and grow some in my garden this year!

Johnny, my brother-in-law, kept teasing Andrew for saying he was wearing the "freezing hat of death".  It was a really really cold day and to be soaking wet with no pants had to have been miserable.  Once we got back to the van, Andrew told me, "I'm freezing half to death!"  It had just sounded like "freezing hat of death".  We couldn't stop laughing about Andrew wearing the freezing hat of death.  :)