The Huffman Crew: Catching up . . .

I've been absent from the blogosphere for awhile, but my computer time and personal energy reserves were depleted for awhile. You see, in early August, Dave packed up and left me. . .for a week of camping/hiking/concert-going in Oregon! The three kiddos and I stayed afloat, got into a good groove, and survived the week with minimal permanent damage. When Dave was on his way home, I called his cell because I felt I had to prepare him for a few changes around here. #1) We officially say "fart" now instead of "stinker", #2) His sons have become highly-skilled at peeing in bottles in the van on the side of busy highways, and #3) Marley has a recurring role on a little home movie I like to call "Time Out."

I'm going to post pictures of the past two weeks, and many of them. We've been doing some serious day-trips and have found that even though we didn't take a big vacation this summer, we've made some great memories. Enjoy. . .

The boys finished up their third summer of the Reston Runners Youth-in-Motion program.

Keller had his first non-cousin sleepover a couple weekends ago. We dyed rice and made cool 'I Spy' bottles, as well as a Rainbow Rice Box full of hidden treasures for Marley to explore. And yes, we did other sleepover stuff--like played Wii, watched movies, ate popcorn and stayed up too late! The rice ideas came from a friend's blog. Everytime Keller sees her blog, he whines that he wishes that he had a 'crafty mom.' Hey buddy, I can copy other people's ideas like nobody's business--that'll have to be good enough!

Last Friday, we did a kid swap--Marley stayed with my friend Diane and I brought her son (Keller's best buddy, Connor) along for a fossil-hunting day trip at Purse State Park. The fossils were abundant, but unfortunately so was the evidence that this remote little stretch of undeveloped land is being used by hooligans for partying. Gorgeous old pieces of drift wood were charred from beach fires, piles of Heineken cans littered the beach. It was sad to see such a beautiful spot along the Potomac being trashed. The boys were rather oblivious to it--the water was crystal clear and they swam, collected fossils and had a grand time.

On Saturday night, I took the kids to the free drive-in movies to see Hotel for Dogs. It reminded me of how we used to go to the Silver Drive-ins when I was a kid. We'd watch whatever G movie was showing, then we'd get in the back of Travel-All or Scout and curl up with our sleeping bags while my parents watched the grown-up movie. The kids liked it and we'll probably go this Saturday for the final summer movie, Desperaux.

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Brownie's Beach in Maryland for Dave's birthday. It is really beautiful and a great place to find fossilized shark teeth.