Big Fun in Amish Country

While visiting Dover last week, Barb, the kids, and I took a day trip to Lancaster, Pa. If I'd have known how much I was going to love Lancaster, we would have made plans to spend the night. The reasons that I wanted to go to Lancaster in the first place were to see the Amish farms and to visit a local amusement park. We accomplished both of these things. Unfortunately, Brian and his dad decided not to go. They heard the phrases "Amish buggy tour" and "looking at quilts" and opted out immediately. Not to be deterred, the rest of us left Dover early on Wednesday morning and made the two hour drive to Lancaster. The drive was nice and took a lot of backroads- especially as we got closer to our destination. Before going, I was a little worried that the area would be too touristy and that we wouldn't see any "authentic" Amish people. This was not a problem. The Amish were everywhere. As we approached Lancaster, we passed farm after farm where people were out plowing and working in the fields using horses instead of tractors. I couldn't believe what I was seeing- it seemed like something out of a pioneer movie. But, this is the way of life for this group of people.



Our first stop was at Abe's Buggy Tours where we took a 3-mile ride through the countryside on an Amish-style horse and buggy. As we rode, I took lots of pictures of the farmland. I didn't, however, take pictures of the Amish because they do not like to have their pictures taken and I wanted to respect that. Our driver, Erv, was a Mennonite who had been raised as Amish until he was about fifteen years old (taking his picture was okay). He was able to tell us all sorts of things about these two groups and their way of life. It was very interesting. At one point, a little Amish boy- maybe seven or eight years old- came up on a little bike/scooter thing and Erv started talking to him in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect of German- which is a language spoken by the Amish. The little boy replied and continued to follow us for a short distance- I think he was trying to play with Owen. It took every ounce of restraint that I had not to take a picture of that boy because he was so cute on his little scooter.




After our tour, we had lunch at Miller's Smorgasbord and then visited Dutch Wonderland- which I will discuss in a later post. Our lunch was great and we were given a table that looked out onto a farm. What a lovely view! I have to say that I have a newfound respect for the Amish. While their way of life is definitely not for me, I respect that they are so dedicated to the ideas that they believe in. I know I've said this already, but I really enjoyed the day in Lancaster. It is truly a unique place, and I am so glad that we were able to spend some time there.

Dover Heritage Half Marathon

While we were in Delaware last week, I ran in the Dover Heritage Half Marathon. Running a half marathon has been a goal of mine for quite some time, and I'm so happy to have the first one under my belt. The experience was awesome! The race began and ended at the Air Mobility Command Museum, and the entire course was run on Dover Air Force Base. Before beginning the race, we had to pass through a gate onto the military base. There were two military officers at the gate who inspected each person with a hand held metal detector. We were also warned that if we veered off course we may find ourselves face down on the ground and surrounded by security forces. Everybody laughed when the race director said this- but we knew that he was being serious. After waiting about twenty minutes for everyone to pass through the gate, we were given the "all clear", and the race began.




The course was out-and-back- which means we ran six and a half miles one way and then turned around and came back the same way. Since this was my first half marathon, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't want go out at full speed and then overdo it and give out halfway through. My plan was to run at a slow, consistent pace of about 10 minutes per mile- which would put me finishing somewhere between 2:10 and 2:20. I thought this was attainable because I had been training pretty hard for this race, and I was in pretty good shape. The race began, and I took off. I got to the turn-around with no problem at all. My time was actually better than what I had planned, and I was feeling confident. I passed the 15K mark and I got really happy because I was now running further than I had ever run in a race. And then I hit the last three miles... and it got bad. The problem was not the cardio- I wasn't out of breath at all. The problem was my legs. They were so sore. I had worked really hard to get in shape so that I wouldn't run out of breath, but I didn't think about my legs getting tired. The last couple of miles were very difficult for me, but I kept going. After what seemed like forever, I finally spotted the finish line. I saw Brian, Barb, Poppy, and the kids standing there cheering for me, and that gave me the energy to finish strong. As it turned out, I still did pretty well. I met my time goal with a finish at 2:10:18. Of the 91 people who finished the half marathon, I was number 59. That's not terrible for a first attempt. Even though I could barely walk for two days after the race, I still thought that it was a lot of fun. I fully intend to run more half marathons this upcoming fall and spring. I am also planning to add weight training to my training routine so that my legs won't give out next time.

Visiting Poppy and Nana

We just returned from a week visiting Brian's family in Delaware. We always look forward to spending time with Brian's dad and Barb, and we had a really good time while we were there this year. The kids were so excited to see their grandparents, and vice-versa. Olivia and Owen especially enjoyed helping take care of the three Sanders dogs. They went out with Poppy each evening to walk the dogs and they helped Nana put food in the dog dishes. We were also able to visit with my Aunt Connie and Uncle Mike while we were in Delaware- which we all enjoyed immensely. Here are a couple of pictures that were taken around the Sanders house last week.

A Tale of Two T-ball Seasons

This has been a busy Spring at our house. In addition to all of the end-of-school-year craziness, we have also been attending t-ball practice and games for the last several weeks. The good news is that Owen and Olivia were in the same age division, and therefore able to play on the same team this year. That helped cut down on the amount of time spent at practice and games. Their team, the Diamondbacks, had a great season. Of course, there are no winners or losers in t-ball, so it was all about having fun, learning the basics of the game, and showing good sportsmanship. Having played last year, Olivia was the more seasoned player of the two. She was a real go-getter. She hustled after the ball every time that it was hit, and she got it a lot of the time. When it was her turn to bat, she hit the ball well and ran the bases like a pro. Owen on the other hand- let's just be glad that he made it through the season. He did like to bat and run the bases, but he was not a fan of playing outfield. He tended to do things like sit down on the field, pull grass out of the ground, stare off into space, etc... One time the ball came right to him- and he just looked at it. Olivia did things like that last year, so maybe he'll be more into it when he's a little older. Regardless of their performance, both kids received a plaques for participating. Here are some pictures taken this season.

Memorial Day Picnic Part Deux

Last year, the kids and I went to Laura Walker Park for a picnic on Memorial Day. Since then, Olivia has asked (a trillion times) to go back to the park and have another picnic. So, we decided to spend this Memorial Day like we did the last one- by having a picnic in the park. The kids had a blast. We had lunch at a picnic table, and then they played on the playground equipment for about an hour or so. We also went down one of the hiking trails for about a sixth of a mile. The kids didn't like being in the woods, so we turned around and went back to the car pretty quickly. I wasn't too sad about this decision. Although I put on a brave face while we were walking down the trail, I must admit that I kept having visions of bears and gators hopping out of the brush and coming after us. Altogether, we spent about two hours at the park.

Olivia's Dance Performance

Olivia has been taking a dance class since August. The class is officially called "movement", but it teaches the fundamentals of tap and ballet. Olivia has really enjoyed the class and I feel that she has learned a lot. Last Saturday, the studio had a performance so that the students could show off some of the things that they have learned during the year. Olivia's class did a ballet and a tap number. The performances went well. Of course, they were nothing fancy because the girls are three and four years old, but they were cute. We discovered that Olivia is neither shy nor nervous about being on stage. She was pretty much a ham during the performances. We sat on the first row, and she kept waving at us and blowing us kisses. I don't have many pictures of the performance because I used video instead. I am going to give a link to YouTube where I've posted the dance numbers if you want to check them out. My sweet niece Ava also participated in the performance on Saturday. She was doing a gymnastics demonstration, and she rocked it. I have a video of that, too, but I have a feeling that Hannah will be posting one soon. Enjoy!

Link to Ballet Routine - this video is a little over 2 minutes long.

Link to Tap Routine- this video is about a minute and a half long.

Imagination Movers

I am going to take a moment here to RAVE about the Imagination Movers! These guys are fan-tas-tic. The kids and I were so lucky to get to see them in concert this past week. Here's how it went down: on Monday I found out that I had won a drawing for four tickets to see this band. The kids love watching the Imagination Movers show on the Disney Channel, so I was pretty excited about taking them to see the band live. Brian was not able to go at such short notice, so Aunt Quincy went with us instead. I left work early to get the kids and drive to Jacksonville for the show. I had to pick up my tickets from the will call booth, and I did not have high expectations for the seat location (they were free, after all). Imagine my surprise when the usher led us to the twelth row, center aisle. Other than those in the VIP section, we had the best seats in the house. During the show, various members of the band would come off the stage, walk down the center aisle and interact with the kids who were dancing there. My kids got to meet two of the Movers (Rich and Dave), Nina, and Genevieve from Choo Choo Soul (Choo Choo Soul was the warm-up band). We would not have been able to do this had our seats not been front-and-center. We all had so much fun. Olivia was like a little Imagnation Mover groupie. The minute she saw someone coming off stage, she made her way to that person and would follow them up the aisle. I must confess that I also had a great time and found myself up on my feet for much of the concert. I am stating this now- If the Movers come to Jacksonville next year, we WILL go again. It was GREAT! Now that I am done raving, here are some pictures and a video from the concert. The lighting in the video isn't the best, but it's my favorite of all the videos I took because it shows the kids really getting down.