Leaping Lamb, take 3

Yes!  Ella led us to Leaping Lamb Farm for the third time; this was to celebrate Ida's birthday (instead of a party).  Was Dutch Boy ready?  Yes!

Ate a lot of delicious eggs, thanks to these ladies.

And soon we got to the baby goats, who are much friendlier than lambs...

Went out to check out the lambs and their mothers.  And there's a glimpse of Scottie Jones, our favorite farmer.

 No trip to Leaping Lamb complete without some quality time with Paco!

We also went on a sweet hike up through the trees, looking for fairy houses:

 Almost tried to elastrate this lamb, but it turned out to be a girl.

Oh, yeah, the chicks were a big hit, especially with Miki:

On the way back, as is the tradition, we visited Jen and Keith and Luke and Chloe, who put these cucumber face masks on the girls!

More beautiful than ever!

Ida is 9?

Very Vining in Virginia and Elsewhere

So yes we flew all the way to Haddonfield again.  Long traveling day, but happy to arrive and to share some of our artwork with Grandpa V.

One of the highlights is his hospital bed; it's mechanized, and can "taco" a girl.  Also a good place to read.

Meanwhile, upstairs, this lady was trying on several generations' worth of dresses:

A neighborhood house that is Haunted!

Then we packed everyone up and drove down south to Mutton Hollow.  Here Ida is working at the stream, before a tick sighting caused her to decamp.

There's Mutton Hollow; Miki in full flight, Toko-san trying to keep up.

In case you wondered, and wanted to read a plaque to understand where we were, and how:

The fish in this pond ate a lot of bread while we visited:

Oh, before we set out and were packing up, some cast aspersions on Toko-san's "laundry basket" strategy of packing.

Back at MH, Miki was excited about hurting her finger.  Perhaps a precursor for the duress that would strike us all..

First, though, this delicious dinner!

And the next day we set out on an occasionally unpopular hike.

We always knew where we were.

Here Miki is explaining several things to the grandparents.

A wave of nausea took over the young people shortly before our departure, but the day was sunny.

Much time was spent waiting at rest stops.  Enough said.

Soon, the affliction took hold of me.  I took to my bed, back in Haddonfield.

Ella taunted me, trying on various army outfits; she would not fall to the dread virus until later...

And then soon we were traveling, another long day.

Rising early to find those Eggs!

Ella's Playhouse

For a long time the girls have wanted a clubhouse for their top secret "D.C." (can't share with you what that stands for, and don't actually know). So Ella leapt right into Action!

As my mom is wont to say:  "Not everyone could wear those orange pants."

Anyway, Ella got no help from me at all and a little less from the girls, sometimes, than she desired, but this very rainy winter did give her some moments to work on her project:

Soon the club was spending some quality, secret time out there...

A WINTER TRIP

Here's a nice picture of Arthur eating a sandwich. We were en route to Black Butte, just like old times.

We all drove down in the mini van.  How sweet!  Except Maggie, who was in Florida doing lawyerly things but drove all night and showed up the next day.  Before that happened, Elsie and Ida built these cool snowmen.  Arthur told a bunch of scary stories about how people were killed by icicles, but this had no effect.

These snowmen had snow guinea pigs as pets.  Is that visible?  White on white, man.

After these photos/documentation, the girls attacked the snowmen with icicles and destroyed them.

Here's a nice picture of Arthur eating a sandwich.

In these later years, he's become quite a contemplative individual.

Though still quite attentive and a man of action.

Speaking of brother-in-laws, my bro-in-law Fred bought a big sailboat named Scalliwag!  Huge parties ahead!

WALKING TO SCHOOL

I'm the one who keeps an eye out for traffic.

So Nice, So Scary

These sisters can be so sweet. Here, Ida has carefully made up Miki's face. Tres subtle!

And then Ella finds this, downstairs:

Explanation: Doll that had been kidnapped by pirates. Because the game needs something to make it interesting.