Camping

We went camping this weekend with some friends from church. It was raining, which always seems to be the case when we go camping. But despite that we had fun. Actually the biggest problem was the cold not the rain. We only have one sleeping bag which we were attempting to share along with some other blankets. It didn't work so well. So we've determined for the third or fourth time that we are going to get new sleeping bags. We kept pretty dry except for poor Doug who woke up wondering why his feet were so cold only to find that the one leak in our tent was dripping directly on his toes. Sad day.

Here's Doug making pancakes for breakfast.

These are the Stewarts and the Grants (at least some of them) who we went camping with. The Stewarts are new in our ward so it was nice to get to know them. You can see our green tent and white ride in the background.

We camped at Elk Neck State Park in Maryland which is our favorite place to camp around here. It's right on the Chesapeake Bay so you can camp and hike right next to the water. It was really cloudy but still pretty. We were hoping that the most of the leaves would have turned because it is so pretty there in the Fall, but for some reason a majority of the trees were still green.

There is a lighthouse at the park that you can climb up, and a really nice hike along the bay to get to the lighthouse. Doug and I think we are going to make this Fall camping trip to Elk Neck a yearly tradition. Last fall we went with Shana, and our friends Derek and Justin.

The lighthouse is on a big cliff. Since it's so high up you get a great view of the bay. All in all we had a great time, especially since we made some new friends. Next week I will have pictures of my visit to Seattle. We hope everyone is doing well!

ROTORFEST 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday we went to Rotorfest at the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester. Doug got six free tickets from work so we went with Lizzie, Johnny, Bekah, and Abby (Abe was on a 50 mile bike ride). Rotorfest is all about helicopters (as you probably figured out) and here we are inside one.


There were about ten helicopters there that you could go into including a bunch of the huge ones that the army uses. Here are the girls inside of one of the really big ones.

And one of the really small ones.


Johnny inside a government helicopter. This one wasn't an army helicopter and we thought it was probably used to transport politicians and stuff like that.


There was also an air show with parachuters and different aircraft showing us what they could do. After we had checked out the helicopters and watched the air show we got lunch and then went inside the museum for some refuge from the unseasonable heat. Here we are on our way back to the car. There were a couple of helicopters in front of the museum that you weren't allowed to get into but they were pretty cool. This one that they are standing in front of is a helicopter that was invented by the guy that started the company that Doug works at now.


Two helicopter nerds.

Our Weekend

Well there's not tons new going on with us but we did have a great General Conference weekend. Saturday morning I went to an open house at Chestnut Hill College so we got to Conference late. We enjoyed both sessions and are very happy about the Temple being built here, which I learned about from Ryan because we were late to the session. Saturday evening while Doug and all the other boys were at Priesthood Session we had our traditional girls party which was a lot of fun. We had delicious, healthy snacks: homemade hummus and guacamole with chips, popcorn, and homemade applesauce. Mom was saying how much Ann would have liked out party this year because we were so healthy. We missed her and all our other girls that have moved away :( The girl party is slowly shrinking in size. We watched an old version of Pride and Prejudice which had Lawrence Olivier in it, and that was fun. Sunday we went to Mom and Dad's ward for Conference and had the classic meatball sandwiches between sessions (delish as usual). Then Doug and I went on a walk to Mill Grove which is a wildlife preserve near the church. Here's some pictures we took:

Doug posing for a model shot

Mill Grove

We are actually at the ruins of the "mill" of Mill Grove here but it wasn't a
very cool background so we took a picture in the opposite direction

The woods at Mill Grove

So all in all life is going good. We love and miss you all! Please keep us updated on everything that's going on in your lives.