Uncle Orson's Writing Conference

My sister and I went to a two day writer's conference conducted by Orson Scott Card in early August and it was sooo cool! Here are some pictures of things we did in Lexington, VA, for two days. Hurray for our supportive husbands who kept the kids!

Me looking studious while reading writer's samples after lunch.

Scary me! (I guess there are scary ghost tours in Lexington and non-scary ghost tours.)

Scary sister!

At the Natural Bridge...obviously.

My sister with Natural Bridge behind her. We couldn't go up on it. Bummer.

Me, Orson Scott Card, and my sister! What a cool two days! I think it saved me at least a year or two of wasted writing time. He's one of my super favorite authors!

What I don't have good pictures of because it was dark was a place called "FoamHenge." A local artist remade Stone Henge out of fiberglass and foam. So fun. If you're ever headed south on 81 towards Roanoke, take the Natural Bridge exit and go see "FoamHenge". (It's about a mile before Natural Bridge on a local road.) It's totally free and if you follow the trail further, you can see all kinds of foam sculptures. Go in the daytime, though, so your pictures will turn out.

Squeaky Bean

Here's my good little girl!

She wanted to wear an apron like Mommy!

Crazy face. That kid loves to eat!

Curly Fry put one of his ties on Squeaky Bean. (He LOVES them). She did not love it as much.

At the beach...she stole Junior Mint's chair.

Junior Mint

I can hardly believe Junior Mint will be 8 on Monday. He starts scouts tomorrow. I'll post pictures of that for sure. But til then, here are some of my favorite shots of Junior Mint from this summer.

Independence Day

Ice cream tradition at the Jersey Shore. Yum.

Soooo happy! And freezing cold from boogie boarding.

An Album Cover shot. He makes me take this kind of picture all the time. He's planning on being a professional musician (and hockey player, basketball player, football player and movie director) and he likes to be ready with his album cover shots. He gets very 'emo' in the covers sometimes.

Curly Fry

Here are a few shots of Curly Fry. Love that face! And the hair! Don't even get me started...

Happy guy with a snake puppet.

Junior Mint and Curly Fry play box roller-coaster. A big hit!

Daddy and Curly Fry on his first real roller coaster. Not such a big hit.

Summer

I've been offline so much of this summer there's no way I can really catch up with what's going on with our family and what we've done, so I'm just going to do a bunch of posts with lots of random pictures. Enjoy!

Squeaky Bean is getting to be such a big girl! The pigtails still kill me! Love them!

Curly Fry and his innertube. Happy Camper.

This is Junior Mint's poker face. Seriously. He was beating mom at cards.

Ahh. My cute honey and our little Squeaky Bean. Although, the way she's been lately, maybe she should be Screamy Bean or Climby Bean.

My babies...

FYI: Code Names

So, it took forever, but the chitlins codenames are listed below their pictures here. My cute honey's nickname is Hubba Hubba. =)



Junior Mint: He picked it himself. He also took this picture of himself. Curly Fry: Blissfully enjoying the last home game after it rained. Puddles galore! Squeaky Bean: She's just so happy here. You can almost see her dimples.
(She's squeaking right now.)

My Nice Family

Here are some pictures of the family--some at the Jersey Shore, some at home. Can you see the sand crab in the top? Isn't the headband my sister made for baby girl SWEEEEET?!