Visiting Virginia

A lot has happened since we posted last. One of the more notable items was that Jon got glasses. His teacher at school said that he was having a hard time reading the chalk board from the front row, so it was obvious he needed glasses. Of course that wasn't a surprise since both his parents have glasses, but it was a little sooner than we expected. Other than sitting too close to the TV (which all our children do), there was no indication that he was having a hard time seeing. The picture below shows Jon in his new glasses.

We went to visit Mike's family in Virginia this past week, which was nice. Since the fall colors were starting to show up there, we went for a walk in the woods nearby after our arrival and tried to get a family portrait. It was challenging, but we had a nice time.

We decided to go visit Shenandoah National Park with Lena's sister Lois and her family. It was fun to enjoy the fall colors, though it was a bit cooler than we expected. We went on a couple short hikes with the kids. They enjoyed the Big Meadow area the most since they could run all over the place with so many criss-crossing trails. They also had fun climbing on big rocks, collecting leaves and nuts, and spotting a couple caterpillars.

Our other fun outing was to spend a day at Cox Farms for the Fall Festival that they have each year. It's like a little amusement park with lots of slides, a hay ride, apple cider, swinging ropes, etc. The kids had a blast and we were very tired at the end of the day.