The Land of Oz: August: Band Camp, Virginia/New Jersey Adventure, Another Zoo Trip, and Lynnsey Starts Cross Country

As with every August for the past four years, the month began with band camp. This time Lynnsey participated too. Both Kendall and Lynnsey had a great time. We visited once for skit night--a sometimes funny, often puzzling night where all the kids put on skits full of teenage humor and inside jokes that mostly leave the adults asking each other, "Do you know what that means?" Their show this year was a Greenday set of songs and even though I'm not a huge fan of the group, the band arrangement was really impressive! They performed a concert for us on the last day of camp so we could see what they had been doing all week.

I LOVE summer so much! August is sometimes hard because I know summer is about to end, but we made this month so busy and so much fun! When we found out that my niece Lydia was going to get baptized in August we decided to not only make the journey to New Jersey to be there for that, but we decided to take the long way and do a campus visit to Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Virginia. (Pronounces byoona vista not bwuayna vista like we thought!) It's about a nine hour drive from Albion and most of the way was so beautiful. We got to drive through West Virginia which wound up being the most lovely surprise. I don't know what I thought it would look like but oh my goodness, it is absolutely stunning! If I ever move someplace else, I think maybe I could be really happy in West Virginia. These pictures don't even do it justice. You'll just have to go there and see for yourself. I want my kids to go to SVU just so I can drive there to see them!

We stopped in Lexington, Virginia, about twenty minutes from Buena Vista to spend the night at a hotel since our campus visit was scheduled the next morning. The hotel was nice and situated up on a hill so we had a really pretty view.

Alison and Mike drove down and stayed at the same hotel. We got up the next morning, had breakfast and checked out of the hotel and drove to SVU. We drove through downtown Lexington which is such a cute little city and so pretty and then on to Buena Vista. The college is also situated up on a hill. A couple of hills actually. It is a really pretty campus with very friendly people. We had a fun tour of the grounds.

And some classrooms.

And hiked up a big hill to visit a dorm. The boys loved this Star Wars graffiti on the water tank that we passed.

We loved the view from the dorm patio that overlooked the great big single's building. Getting to church on Sundays would be super easy!

After the tour, we congregated in the ballroom of the main campus building, which is this huge old building that is just so cool. We got to meet some professors to chat with them about programs and majors and what a student could expect. And then we got to meet a couple of students as well who were more than happy to talk about their experiences. Kendall was just so excited about the idea of having any major but still being able to be involved in music and theatre. In fact, when they found out that he plays the clarinet and has marching band experience, they were really excited and told Kendall that they "need" him to come to SVU. Kendall also got to meet a student who is involved with the campus improv comedy group who encouraged him to get involved with that which is something I can totally see Kendall doing.

In the end, Kendall was totally sold on the school and it jumped right to the top of his list. He loves the idea of a smaller liberal arts college that gives him opportunities to be involved in more than just his major, that has over 90% LDS population, and that isn't associated with BYU. Isabel came away feeling like it was probably just too small for her (less than 1000 students) and she's still pretty sold on USU. Lynnsey and Cecily both really loved SVU but honestly I think they'll love wherever as long as they can be roommates! Spencer also really liked it but was sad that Bentley still wants to go to BYU. And Kaya, Lydia, and Barrett were just bored and didn't want to do another campus visit maybe ever again.

After the visit, we went to lunch at a local BBQ restaurant that was SO yummy!

And then we drove another hour to do a visit at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. That was a super fun but super pricey experience that will likely be a once in a lifetime trip. But we were so close that we didn't want to pass up the opportunity. Plus it was a lot cheaper than Williamsburg which is the other place we wanted to visit.

We got to tour the main house which was pretty awesome although our groups were quite large (our families had to split up because other people had already booked each tour and there wasn't space left to fit both of our families) so it was a bit crowded. Still, it was pretty fascinating. We only got to do the main floor--it was extra money for people who wanted to go upstairs so we had to pass on that one.

We also had fun touring the grounds.

And there were games and activities that the kids could participate in.

We took a look in the wine cellar

And saw some other displays in that building including some old sewing things and an iron that had been found on the property.

As we were heading back to the buses, Mom got the ride of life when she and Mike realized how steep the hill was!

We stopped on the way back to the visitor's center at the cemetery where Jefferson and his family are buried.

Then after exploring the gift shop, we said goodbye to the Bramhall's for a day. My mom went with them and Cecily came with us. They went back to New Jersey and we drove over to Mechanicsville to visit Eric, Lisa, Ashley and Alexa.

We ate a delicious dinner at Lisa's house and then Eric took us over to his gym where we had fun trying out the equipment. He's since sold the place so I'm glad we got to see it when we did.

Spencer won the planking contest!

There was a lot of fun rolling kids in tires. Well, fun for everyone to watch them anyway! Kendall got so dizzy that he couldn't walk well for a few minutes and I was afraid he was going to lose his dinner.

There was one tire mishap though when Eric was inside a tire and Kalen was rolling him and got going a little too fast. Kalen couldn't stop the tire before it hit the wall and broke it. Oops! We felt so bad!

After staying the night in Mechanicsville, we headed out the next morning for the scenic drive to New Jersey. We decided to go up the coast and take the bridge tunnel. It was a little scary because we were driving out over the water for miles and then occasionally we would take a tunnel that actually took us underwater. The kids loved it and it was beautiful. We even got to see some dolphins swimming near us at one point!

Once we got across, we stopped at a visitor's center and talked with a really nice lady there who gave us some flyers and information about Chinqoteague island.

Kaya took advantage of us talking to swipe my phone and get a few selfies with a seagull statue.

Next we headed to Chincoteague. Ever since Kalen read the Misty series as a kid, he has been fascinated with Chincoteague and Assateague islands and now was our chance to go for a visit.

We stopped for lunch (and playtime) and a delicious but overpriced BBQ restaurant called Smokey's.

And we visited the Pony Museum where we actually got to meet some ponies who are descendants of the original Misty.

And we drove out as far as we could to try to see a bit of Assateague Island which is where all of the wild ponies live but there was a $20 fee just to cross over onto that island and since we were short on time we decided we couldn't justify the expense of just driving over and not being able to stay for awhile. So we had to settle for a far away picture instead.

And then we went and bought homemade ice cream. It was so delicious!

On our way back toward the highway, we made another stop, this time at the Nasa Museum which was really fun and interesting. It was almost closing time by then so we couldn't explore for as long as we would have liked but it was still an enjoyable experience even rushing through.

And then we made the rest of the drive to New Jersey. It was a lot to cram into one day but so much fun! We arrived in time for a late dinner and the kids loved meeting Scout, the newest addition to the Bramhall household. He is the cutest, fattest little puppy ever!

The kids had big plans to film another movie for their YouTube channel and Spencer and Bentley had fun practicing getting into character as a couple of mean girls.

The next day we had fun just hanging out and playing.(And filming a movie!)

Kaya, Lydia and Barrett decided to spring clean the play house and spent hours having fun in there.

And we had lots of fun playing in the pool too!

Kalen figured out the ultimate way to keep cool in the pool without getting a sunburn on his face.

I even got to enjoy a relaxing day on the patio with a good book! That's something that doesn't ever seem to happen at home!

One of our excursions in New Jersey was a trip to the mall to get Kaya and Lydia's ears pierced. Kaya decided that even though she could have done it when she was eight that she wanted to wait and get them done when Lydia turned eight so they could go together just like Lynnsey and Cecily did. The girls were so cute. They picked out matching earrings and held each other's hands for moral support.

Poor Lydia has a thick earlobe and the girl doing the piercing actually had to redo it because it didn't go through all the way on one of her ears!

We had a couple of fun game nights while we were visiting.

And then we spent a really great day at Six Flags. Alison and Mike have season passes and the park was doing a "bring a friend for free day" so we got to get in for free with them. It was really fun. I did learn that I can't handle roller coasters as well as I used to. At least not some of them. I went on a couple that were really fun but most of them were pure torture! The kids had a ball though and loved all of it.

Lydia was a little scared of the parachute ride that shoots you way up over all the rides so you can overlook the park. It was a little scary but in the end everyone loved it.

Barrett's favorite ride was Nana's scooter!

Spencer's favorite ride was NOT the carousel!

And of course, the best part of the trip was being able to go to Lydia's baptism! She was so excited and happy and I'm so glad we got to be there for her special day.

After the baptism we went back to get ready for the big birthday/baptism bash. Kendall and Cecily used their artistic skills to make a beach party cake.

And then we enjoyed a pool party with the extended Bramhall family and several of Lydia's friends.

As always, our visit was way too short and then it was time to head back to Michigan and try to salvage the last remaining days of summer time before the busy-ness of a new school year took over again.

We spent some time at the playground.

And enjoyed watching the solar eclipse with the rest of the country!

Kendall put his cake decorating skills to use again when he got an order for a Princess Leia cake from Abby for her sixth birthday.

There were still concerts in the park.

And another zoo trip. In looking at the remainder of our busy summer schedule, we picked the one day that would work best for us and woke up to pouring rain! But we decided to bring umbrellas and hope for things to clear up. It wound up being such a great decision. The rain kept the crowds away all morning so when we got to the zoo we were some of only a handful of people walking around and pretty much had the run of the place. The rain had cooled the temperatures too so we weren't roasting. Even though it rained all morning, it wasn't raining hard anymore and the tree cover there kept us from really getting wet so we didn't even use the umbrellas.

Lynnsey started cross country running for the girls high school team. She wound up hating it from day one because she got shin splints that never did go away and had a coach that just seemed to really not like her for some reason. But she stuck it out for the season and did make some improvement by the end.