End of Summer...

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Associate Pastor and great family friend, Mike Weiglein, turned 40!  Perfect party at their wonderful home in Ivy.

A total eclipse of the sun results in a totally worthless shot of the sun.

Since it was cloudy at the pool, we chased the sun north until it broke through the clouds.  We patiently shared our one pair of glasses and admit is actually very, very to see the backwards "C" as we emerged from the total eclipse. 

Four years ago in Michigan, Little Man started crawling...and is recently obsessed again Daddy's Ohio State visor:-)  Guess that was his response to being strapped in his bucket seat for 12+ hours, poor thing. 

Oh, my heart and my babies!

We've been singing "We are Called" to act with justice, to love tenderly, to walk humbly with our God every week in church since the weekend that the white nationalists tried to destroy the spirit of our city.  The kids asked for it at home and couldn't sing it enough when I found the video with the lyrics for them...stopped them dead in their fast tracks.  

Unseasonably beautiful August day for Polo.

There are no words for how patient PJ is with Andrew when he decides to tackle a new skill.  Today was back diving.  We went from sitting down backwards to successfully diving off the board i 24 hours! 

And then PJ taught Mom how to back flip!

Sugar Hollow Blue Hole Swimming Hole

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After Smith Mountain Lake, we explored Natural Bridge, its hikes, caves and caverns en route to the Safari Park all on our 2-hour drive back to Charlottesville...which, I have to say, we weren't sorry to escape under the current circumstances downtown:-(

Friday was our "stay-cation", so we finally explored Sugar Hollow (past Crozet in the Shenandoah National Park) for a lovely 3-mile hike over the river and through the woods to the Blue Hole Swimming Hole. 

My people!

Molly didn't show any part of her age (almost 12) while swimming, swimming, swimming....until today!  Poor thing couldn't move last night unassisted, but seems to be on the mend now 36 hours later.  

Andrew's first jump...interesting reaction, but PLEASE note what he did NOT say, Praise God!!!

Fun morning.  Everyone swam and jumped.  No one had cell coverage.  No one got ticks or saw a snake (we chose the "Blue Hole" over the "Snake Hole"---Duh!).  Good ole summertime fun:-)

Natural Bridge & Safari Park

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On the way back from Smith Mountain Lake, we hit Natural Bridge's one-mile creek trail to view the wonder of the Natural Bridge itself, the Indian habitat, cave, and stepped falls.  

215 ft high, it's pretty spectacular.

 Indian village with very interesting habitats.

 Caves...

 ...waterfalls...

 

...and Caverns.

Very different from Luray Caverns, they were fascinating in their own way.  We had a "black out" moment, and then our tour guide lit just a cigarette lighter to demonstrate the amount of lantern light the original explorers would have had to use.  No, thank you!!!

Just 5 miles away, we then had to finally check out the Safari Park after 7 years driving past it on 81.  I'll admit the giggles were fully worth it. 

 

 Giraffes still fascinate me.

 

Not sure what this African animal is, but his antlers are actually soft as fur.  

Dozens of animals with a gorgeous backdrop.

Smith Mountain Lake

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Since Little Glen Lake, Michigan wasn't an option this year, we still wanted to get our lake vacation fix.  Being only 2 hours away, we've always wanted to go to Smith Mountain Lake...and now having been, we desperately want to know why we don't hear about more folks going!  We couldn't stay the whole week, so opted for a condo over a house.  We rented a boat all but one day, so the condo amenities allowed us tennis, pool, beach and fishing access on our last day.  

 Enjoying our first evening's view.

Great friends, the Weigleins (our Associate Pastor---Mike---Vail, Matthew's buddy Presley and precious Ella), joined us for the first two days.  Our constant boating consisted of many blow pops (a tradition learned from the Barkers!) and every single possible tubing combination you can imagine.   

What do you do when one child is having a ball trying to stand up and the other is giving you the "slow down" thumbs down??

 Church friends are the BEST friends:-) 

Matthew and Presley are inseparable while Margaret and sweet Ella can't get enough of each other. 

Mike, Matthew and Ella (2) all waving!

  

Killians LOVE Weigleins!

 Everyone plays a role on the boat...driver, spotter, look-out.

 SML may have had a redneck reputation when it was first dammed, but there plenty of money there now....tons of LARGE, beautiful homes on equally large lake front properties. 

We boated nearly the whole lake up to the Bridge for lunch, where they have popcorn and peanut-butter toes spoiled fish---yuk!

My perfect, patient driver.

Our M and M's could have tubed together all day.

 Oh, that face!

My heart (and my shadow---rrrgh.)

 "Matthew's position"...always asking to go again, then assuming his "I'm bored" head resting on his palm position. 

 A little evening reading with our almost 2nd grader.

Time to wake board!  We realized how spoiled we are with Barkers in Michigan...the horse-power of their boat, their various rope lengths, the angle of their rope, etc., but we made the best of it and had a great time....just not many pictures without other adults around.    

Can you see the rainbow Margaret spotted during the storm?

Quite possibly the world's most patient Dad...fishing for HOURS.

When the fishing crew needs a beer but Margaret has been enthusiastically helping with dinner (so of course you don't want to disrupt that), you do what you have to do.