"Elementary my dear Watson... elementary"

We planned a day trip to go visit Gillette Castle, and despite the rainy weather, we had a great time! Actually the dreary weather was quite appropriate while visiting this 'creepy' castle. It's not the type of building you'd think of when you think 'castle'...it was built to look a little run down and rough along the edges. It's not a romantic place either, it's kinda eerie, yet the rain just made it more fitting.

This castle was built by William Gillette, the stage actor or portrayed Sherlock Holmes. He lived here back in the early 1900's with his 15-20 cats and as you can tell, he was quite an eccentric gentleman!

Here are Zachary (in brown jacket) and Hannah (in purple jacket), standing beside the castle sign with some of the other kids in our homeschool group.



Very cool gate near the entrance. The stone work was absolutely amazing, both inside and out!


View of the castle from the ground...sorry about the rainy white spots...the rain was kind of misty so it got my lens wet.


The back section of the castle where the greenhouse is.

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

28mm

Aperture

f/11

Exposure

1/125s

ISO

1250

Inside the front door...pretty impressive 'foyer' huh?


Very cool glass window....I imagine on a bright sunny day this looks even more beautiful!!


This is where you end up after walking into the castle from the foyer...


The 'living room'...


The beautiful fireplace...


Our family posing beside the main stairway...


Gillette's library


Gillette's office...where there were multiple doors (of multiple sizes). The place was FILLED with so many unique things. I've been here before and every time I go, I see new things...it's more like a 'fun house' than a castle. ha ha


The kiddos in the greenhouse...complete with pond where Gillette used to keep two 'pet' frogs...


Upstairs hallway. Even the light fixtures were pretty cool! The halls were narrow and quite dangerous, so I guess it's good that Gillette had no children. Can you imagine your kids running in the halls here? They get knocked out cold by the stones protruding from the walls!


One of the three (yes, only three) bedrooms...complete with full bath though, which in those days was quite rare!

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

18mm

Aperture

f/5.6

Exposure

1/30s

ISO

1250

Another bedroom. (All the dressers were built in and had very unique features...strange handles, cubbies etc.)

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

18mm

Aperture

f/5.6

Exposure

1/30s

ISO

1250

Some of the items Gillette used while on stage....carpet bag, binoculars, his violin and a pair of very weird looking 'girly' slippers. ha ha

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

32mm

Aperture

f/4.2

Exposure

1/10s

ISO

1250

Yup, that's me heading down the back stairway from the 3rd floor.

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

21mm

Aperture

f/3.8

Exposure

1/13s

ISO

1250

View of the back stairs from the bottom floor


Back outside, it was still raining, but I managed to capture some decent photos. My husband took this one of me holding our very cool umbrella. Gotta love the colors!!


Hopefully we will get back up there someday just to walk around the gardens. The whole area is a 21 acre state park, so it's worth another trip.

Today it's back to school and our daily activities as usual....figure skating for Hannah, violin lessons for Zachary and cleaning up the house for me. It was such a nice break from all that yesterday, even if it did rain.

Til next time...

Hail!!!

The weather today was so crazy! This morning when I woke up the sun was shining. By noon, it was starting to rain...downpour, actually. I went out on a few errands with Hannah for a little while and only minutes after we arrived home, the heavens opened up! WOW! The rain started, thunder clapped and then HAIL...and LOTS of it!!!!!

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

38mm

Aperture

f/14

Exposure

1/200s

ISO

1250

Within 5 minutes, our ground was covered!


Once it was over, the kids went outside to see what was left behind. Here's Zachary with a handful of ice...


See how deep it was??? Totally unbelievable! Hannah thought it was so cool. She loves snow in winter, so this was lots of fun for her.




The weird part about this hail?? They were all different sizes (this is a small one Hannah picked up) and they weren't round. It was as if they melded together on their way down and were all lumpy...pretty amazing.


The rain stopped within 20 minutes and again the sky was beautiful. It didn't last long...the clouds rolled in, but there wasn't much more rain. Just a weird weather day overall. If nothing else, it made for an excitement afternoon!!! Rob and I were just glad that it didn't do much damage. The hail was large enough to cause problems, but it was short-lived, so everything (with the exception of a few of our plants) was fine. Phew!

Hopefully we'll have some 'normal' crisp, clear autumn weather in the days to come. I'm SO ready for it!

Bible Quizzing

Zachary has been on our church's Bible quiz team now for 3 years. Each year, he improves just a little bit, but this year he's doing extremely well! We are SO very proud of him. The teens are studying the book of John this year (last year it was I & II Corinthians, two years ago it was Luke, and the year before that, it was Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon.) It's such a great thing to see your teenage son walk around the house with the Bible in his hand while studying so intently!!

They had their first quiz meet of the year last weekend and they did pretty well. There weren't many teams there, but they still had a LOT of fun! Here are a few photos:

Zachary, getting in some last minute studying before quizzing begins.


Part of our church team...ready to quiz.


Zachary answering one of the questions. During this particular quiz, he got 3 in a row...woo hoo...way to go Zachary!!!

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

45mm

Aperture

f/8

Exposure

1/60s

ISO

1250

Jumping for yet another question. Keep in mind, these kids are quick! They hear one word (or actually 'part' of one word) and jump to answer the question before most of us adults would even be able to process it! Ahh, youth!


Here is the team enjoying a bit of fun and games before lunch. These are truly a great group of kids!!! I'm so glad Zachary is enjoying quiz team so much this year.


A few more photos....




I look forward to seeing how the team does this year. Even if they don't win first place like they did last year (at Nationals!!!), they are still #1 in my eyes. These teens are treasuring God's Word as they continue to hide it in their hearts. I pray that Zachary will always keep it with him as he grows into the man God intends for him to be. I'm so proud of him already...can't wait to see how much more he grows over the years.

P.S. Thanks to Coach Mark for a few of the photos above. Most are mine, but I have to give credit where credit is due. =)

What's Been Happining??

Wow, it's been over a month and a half since I've blogged. I don't know what happened, but I suppose I've just been in need of some 'time off'. I have missed it, but I think the time away did me some good.

I have been wanting to post about our family vacation to Disney World as well as other things we've been up to, but it's kind of late now. Instead, I'll post a few of my favorite photos...highlights from the past few months.

Summer flowers in bloom, simply gorgeous!! I love taking photos of flowers. They're so beautiful and have so many details that really pop when photographed. I took these photos at a flower farm near us.


I went on an overnight trip to PA with my sister and we had a total blast! We spent a couple hours driving around simply taking photos of the beautiful scenery. The best part was the quality time we got to spend together.


Ahhh, Camp-of-the-Woods, my home away from home for so many years. I have been going there every summer with my family since I was born, and I had the privilege of working up there on music staff for 10 summers. Such a great place where I've met so many wonderful people...many who are still a huge part of my life today. I am truly blessed!! I was able to escape for a few days with the kids to head up north to camp simply for the purpose of taking photos. So...here are some of my favorites...


As you can see, Camp is a beautiful place. The memories I made up here will last a lifetime. I cherish them every day of my life and am thankful for each and every one of them.


The kids and I up at Camp-of-the-Woods...


My sister and her family came for a visit in August. We had a wonderful time laughing, playing games, and simply hanging out together...something we haven't been able to do for a very long time. As you can see, we're quite the crazy family!!


All the cousins had a blast playing together...literally!!!


Our homeschool group had a family picnic and unfortunately not many families were able to join us, so a few of us took a hike through the woods just for fun despite the humidity and heat!


Our family LOVES going on hikes together through the woods! On this hike we went up to the top of a waterfall and back down the other side. It was a beautiful day out and we were able to get some really great photos and have a lot of laughs along the way!!


We've been homeschooling already since the end of July!! We started extra early this year because we love taking the month of December off for the holidays. The kids also have been keeping up with their extra curricular activities for the most part. Hannah has continued her skating and is improving more and more each week.


Zachary started something new in August!!!! He is now a pilot in training! It's almost hard to believe, but he's loving it. He has been up twice so far, and is due to go again soon. He's hoping to get his pilots license before his driver's license. What a trip, huh? His dream to attend the Air Force Academy is slowly becoming a reality...at least the flying part. So far he's already taken off twice, he flew the plane for almost the entire ride both times and on his next trip up, he will be landing the plane! Keep him (and me as his nervous Mom) in your prayers for safety, wisdom and peace while he's learning to fly. You can catch a video of his very first take off in my previous post. He flew a Piper Archer ii then, and in the photos below (his 2nd flight) he flew a Piper Warrior.


Our homeschool group also began our field trips. On this particular trip we took a boat tour around a bunch of nearby Islands. It was VERY fun and we got some wonderful photos since it was such a beautiful day!!


So, as you can see, the past few months I've been keeping busy. Life has been full, crazy, busy and interesting. Hopefully things will settle down a little bit now that Autumn has arrived. The weather is still pretty warm out, but we're looking forward to seeing the leaves change color soon. It's my favorite time of year...the crisp air, gorgeous colors, scents of fall, warm fires, and falling leaves. Ahhhhh!

Thanks for being patient with me as I took a little break from blogging. My family has been getting after me to continue, so Lord willing, I will be more faithful in the days to come.

Up, Up and Away!

Happy Birthday Hannah!!!

My little baby turned 9 today! I can't believe it. Where on earth has the time gone?? The one thing about remembering when she was born, is that it also brings back sad memories of my Mom dying. Hannah was born only 2 months before my Mom succumbed to cancer. So, part of me wants to remember the excitement and happiness of our little blessing from 2001, but part of me wants to forget 2001 'cause of losing my own Mom. It was quite a year for us!

That being said, I am so very proud and blessed that I have two beautiful children.  Hannah has grown into such a beautiful young lady over the past year. I am very excited to see what the future holds for her. Here she is through the years:

2001 - A few hours old...all 10 lbs 2 oz of her!!


2002 - 1 year old


2003 - 2 years old


2004 - 3 years old


2005 - 4 years old


2006 - 5 years old


2007 - 6 years old - Kindergarten homeschool graduation


2008 - 7 years old


2009 - 8 years old


2010 - 9 years old!! My little girl has blossomed into a beautiful young lady!!


"Happy birthday my dear sweet girl! I love you beyond words. May God continue to guide you and bless you as you grow. Always keep Him in the center of all you do. Love Mommy"