Just Peachy

After our VBS ice cream social yesterday, we made a mad dash over to Yasuko's house where we were meeting her before hitting the road to go on our peach picking expedition. Her friend's12 year old son, Sam, joined us to help pick some peaches. We had a beautiful country drive down to Martin's farm on Knoll's Island, North Carolina.
This was the first time I had ever got peach picking; actually, it was the first time I had ever seen a peach tree! So, you can imagine how excited I was to go. Tyler shared in my excitement as well.
Of course, we had to pick one of the hottest days of the year. The temperature was well over 100 degrees. When we arrived to the orchard and got out of the van, the sweat was just pouring off our faces. So, we quickly did our picking. Yasuko and I really made the best of our experience.

At first, we decided to pick the riper peaches, but then they were difficult to come by, so we settled on the harder ones. They will eventually ripen after a few days. We ended up leaving the farm with about 15 pounds of peaches! Yes, that is A LOT of peaches. Don't worry though, I have several yummy plans for mine. :)

VBS Videos

Vacation Bible School

Every day this week Tyler has been attending Vacation Bible School at the church of his previous preschool. He was joined by his best buddy, Brady. Each day they would learn more about God through fun water games, crafts, and songs. They had an awesome time! Unfortunately, today was their last day. Parents and friends were invited to see a concert of them singing all the news songs they learned throughout the week. I was super proud of how well Tyler did with the songs. He did an excellent job, especially with the actions. Afterwards, we all go together for an ice cream social to celebrate. We will definitely miss VBS and Wendy (Brady's mom) and I are already looking forward to signing them up for next summer's program. Here are some of the photos from today. I will also post some of the video I took at the concert. Enjoy!

Play Date

Tyler's best friend, Brady, came over to spend the afternoon with us. His mom and his little brother, Kyle, came too. We had a fun fulled day starting with eating lunch together, playing in Tyler's room, and then hitting the pool for some swimming for a few hours. Their fun continued with coming back to the apartment for some more playtime and then making homemade pizzas for dinner. Wendy provided dessert for us all with some yummilicious cupcakes she made. Unfortunately, our day together had to end as it was getting late, but the boys will see each other again tomorrow at Vacation Bible School that they have been attending together all this week.

All Aboard

Yesterday Tyler wanted to see some GeoTrax videos on YouTube. And so this afternoon, he rushed to his room to build this cool track. He asked me to come in his room to make a video just like one of the videos we watched yesterday.

Another Pool Party

Tyler and I got invited to another pool party on Saturday. My friend, Tina, asked us over to help celebrate her friend, Rhonda's, birthday and to say goodbye to her nephews that were returning to their home after spending the week at her house. Tyler had so much fun with Casey in the pool and playing in the sand box. There was cookout with fabulous food and of course birthday cake. I really enjoyed chatting with the other ladies. However, before long dark clouds had moved themselves over and it started to rain hard. Tyler and I just made it home before it started to thunder and lightning and while I was on the phone, we heard an extremely loud noise that sounded like it was right beside me. I immediately dropped the phone and I looked up and noticed the microwave lights were out. I tried phoning my mom back, but the phone was dead. The next thing I knew, the Internet was also out as well as the satellite. After two full days of trying to restore my computer and home phone, I was successful. We're still waiting on the microwave to be fixed or replaced by maintenance and the satellite repairman is coming on Saturday.

Pool Party

Do you remember last year's pool party at our apartment complex? Well, we had another one tonight! And what a day to have it; on the hottest day of the year so far. I met my neighbor, Jenny, there and she invited Tyler and I to sit at her table with her family. We had a lot of fun together. First, we grabbed some delicious food which I believe was catered by the same awesomecompany as last year. Then the DJ played some music while we ate. Later on, he stopped the music to play a few games of  hula hoop and limbo. Tyler participated in both and had a great time.

They had a raffle drawing and yours truly won a Dairy Queen gift card. Yay!!! There was more music played throughout the party as well as some karaoke, but not as much as last year. Meanwhile Tyler was having a total blast in the pool. He played with some of his friends jumping in the pool continuously. However, at the end of the night he came crying to me. Apparently, he jumped in so much that the skin on both of his big toes scraped from touching the bottom of the pool so much and they started to bleed. We brought him over to one of the lifeguards and they cleaned his toes up and put Band-Aids on them. Of course, it hurt to walk so I ended up carrying him back to the apartment and up the three flights of stairs. It was way past his bed time at this point, but he was still a little upset over what happened. So I let him watch one show and have a little snack before putting him to bed. He'll feel much better after we get a treat at Dairy Queen using our gift card. :)

Tyler and Rachael go to the Aquarium

Tyler and I were delighted to receive a phone call this morning from Rachael's grandmother asking if we would like to go to the aquarium with her and her two grandchildren. Rachael was one of Tyler's friends from preschool this past year. They always have a blast together as they are a lot alike. So, this afternoon we met Dawn and her both of her granddaughters, Rachael and Abagayle. We've been to the Virginia Aquarium a few times before but each time we go we always see something new and different. This time we got to see a lot more.

We had a fantastic time walking throughout the aquarium viewing all the different sea creatures and education centers. The children were especially excited to get to the sea turtles. This photo is obviously not at the sea turtle tank, but it cracks me up every time I see it. LOL

There was certainly lots to see including sharks, a huge lobster, stingrays, turtles, lots of pretty fish, seals, hermit crabs, starfish, horseshoe crabs, komodo dragons, and tons of other species.

Then it was time to go into the other part of the aquarium that I have not yet had the opportunity to explore yet. To get there, we took a beautiful walk throughout the marshland area of the aquarium. We saw a cute and not one bit shy squirrel at the beginning of our trek. It was hot out but the kids kept us entertained. We also cooled down with some water that we stopped to get before we made our way over. Tyler and Rachael had fun riding on the back of Abagayle's stroller and pretending it was a horse drawn carriage.

Once inside the building of the other part of the aquarium, I became quite impressed with what we saw. There was one part that made to look like we were tiny creatures walking through some grass and we were amongst some pretty scary stuff including snakes and spiders. It was so cool!

Then we went to see some real snakes, but didn't stay too long. LOL We then heard an annoucement that the otter show was about to start, so we made our way over. Unfortunately, it didn't appear like the show was going to start soon, so we went on to Tyler's part of the entire visit. He got to pet a real life rat. Yes, Tyler loves rats and even has a few plastic ones at home that are considered his favorite toys.

Next on our agenda was the bird area which contained some very interesting selection of birds including this one with the blue bill. I've never seen anything like it before. We got to the owl cage just in time to see the keeper come and feed him and do a few tricks. Soon, however, we got back on the trail and headed back over to the main part of the aquarium as it was getting close to closing time.

Tyler and I enjoyed our visit to the aquarium with Dawn, Rachael and Abagayle. We really got to see a lot this time and the kids had a great time together. It was such a pleasure spending the time with Dawn. She is such a kindhearted person. I look forward to spending some more time this summer with them and her daughter, Heather, when she returns back from her trip. Thanks again, Dawn, for inviting us!!! :) Here are some other photos that I took of our visit:

Duck Rescue

This afternoon we had some unexpected visitors drop in for a visit. A mother duck and her 9 ducklings waddled themselves into the pool for a bit of a swim, however they were soon noticed by the lifeguard who wanted them out of his nice clean pool immediately. The lifeguard took his net and thought he would get them out by shooing them to the other side of the pool. Unfortunately this method only worked with the mother duck as the ducklings were too little to hop up on the ledge.

My friend, Wendy, and her two boys were here for a play date at the time. Wendy jumped in the pool and tried to get them altogether and back to the stairs where they could get out of the pool. Meanwhile, the lifeguard caught two ducklings in his net and dumped them on the sidewalk on the other side of the fence. The ducklings crawled through the fence and ran to their mama back in the pool.

Another woman who just arrived in the pool area jumped in as well and she said that we should just grab the ducklings and get them out that way. She said the mother duck could abandon them if she gets overly stressed. By this time the mother duck was on the side of the pool and between Wendy, the other lady, and the lifeguard with the net, they managed to get all the ducklings out of the pool and back with their mother. We later saw them altogether at the pond. It's too bad I didn't have my good camera to get some good up close photos, but I was lucky to have got these photos with my little camera.

Wakefield Peanut Company

Continuing on with Saturday's road trip to Wakefield, Va to find the "twin Tasty Treat", we came across this really neat peanut company just up the road. We decided at the very last minute to make a stop and check it out. The Wakefield Peanut Company processing plant is located on the property, but unfortunately they no longer do tours for insurance reasons. However, they did have a very nice shop where you could sample various types of nuts. I picked up a can of delicious chocolate covered peanuts as well as a peanut Christmas ornament. This was a fantastic discovery on our way to the Tasty Treat, and we might just have to come back just so we can visit the peanut company again.

Twin Tasty Treats

When I'm home visiting my mom, you can be more than certain that there will be several trips to my favorite ice cream place on the island, the Tasty Treat. I've been eating at the Tasty Treat ever since I can remember. There are three Tasty Treats on the island and it is a locally owned business. 
One day I decided to do a Google search of the Tasty Treat and to my surprise I came across another one. This one just happened to be an hour away from where we live in Virginia and when I looked at the photo (shown above) of the establishment I couldn't believe how similar it was to the Tasty Treats in Cape Breton. They both had the same shape, identical signs, used the same color schemes, same rural setting, and they both even had a telephone in the same spot of the property.

So I decided that when I returned to Virginia that I would make it a mission to go visit the U.S. Tasty Treat. Yesterday when Larissa was here, we were in the mood to go on a little road trip, but couldn't decide where to go. Then I remembered my desire to go check out the "twin" Tasty Treat. When we arrived in the town of Wakefield, Va where the Tasty Treat is located, I was a little disappointed. They had changed the looks of the place a lot. It no longer looked like the Tasty Treat back home.

 But we traveled all this way just to see it, we had to stop to get some photos and of course, try their ice cream. The funny thing was that they also had the exact same ice cream menu and only served the flavors of vanilla and chocolate, just like the Cape Breton Tasty Treats. So we each ordered cones and sat down outside in the seating area to eat them, which by the way was nicely covered to keep the sun away. While Tyler and Larissa enjoyed their ice cream, I didn't like mine as much. The ice cream wasn't nearly as tasty as the ice cream back home. Theirs was more of a milky taste, whereas Cape Breton's was a lot more sweeter. After we ate our cones we snapped a few photos. It was still nice to be able to say "I went to the Tasty Treat today". :)

Chocolatey Birthday

While we were in Canada our friend, Larissa, had her birthday. Ever since we first met in Sicily 9 years ago we have always celebrated her special day together with a surprise cake. So when she phoned this morning to say she was on her way over, we rushed to get her a cake. The key thing here is cake. LOL We always have a cake fight during our celebration and it is always with chocolate cake, Larissa's favorite. So, when I was at the store I not only picked up a chocolate cake, I also picked up secret ammunition-cupcakes! After I prepared dinner we brought everything down to the playground in front of the apartment and ate there. ( I didn't want to make a mess in the apt. LOL) Once we ate, we ate cake. I ate mine quickly, so I could get to my secret ammunition. Hee Hee. Larissa was in total shock when I hit her with the first cupcake and then it was a full blown war. Well, I'll let judge who won from the picture below. LOL We had a blast though!!!
Steve Update: Steve and 6 other guys rented a van and a driver to go look at some local sights in Lima. They went to Pachacana (a ruins site), then to a pyramid made of clay and brick and then to a museums and did some shopping at the market. Oh and the most interesting part of all was he ate Guinea Pig! He said it was a little tough, but tasty.

Bear Path Acres

A couple of days ago my friend, Tina, asked if Tyler and I would like to join in on a visit to Bear Path Acres with her two sons, their cousins and our friend, Heather, her mom, and her daughter. None of us had ever been to the center before, so it was a great to experience all together. Bear Path Acres is an animal education center filled with all different types of animals and reptiles for the main purpose of educating everyone on wildlife.

When we first entered the center, we were greeted by the caretaker and owner. She was very informative of all the animals and said we could go around and view the exhibits ourselves while she prepared the feed buckets for the kids. There were goats, miniature horses, llamas, and sheep.

We didn't want to get too far without our feed bucket, so before long we headed back and sure enough they were all ready for us. Most of the children used up their feed on the horses, goats, sheep, llama, and even geese before they got to the other animals. They were just too excited to be feeding them. LOL

There was a wide range of animals to view, including monkeys, raccoons, turtles, rabbits, hares, lemur, chinchillas, emus, guinea pigs, ferrets, chickens, turtles, and foxes. And the best part was that they were mostly all up and active instead of sleeping in their cages.

The caretaker said to stick around the bear cage so that we could see all the things the bear could do. Apparently, the bear had been rescued just last year and since then she came along way. The caretaker showed us the close relationship between her and the bear. She fed her marshmallows for some things the bear could do and at the end Sugar, the bear, received her favorite- a peanut butter cookie.

There were several more animals to see yet. There was a black leopard; he reminded me so much of Luigi. A cougar, parrot, peacocks, lizard, pigs, steer, bison, horse, and mule. Each one of the animals had names and you could tell they were very well cared for. After we finished viewing the animals, we were told to go over to the ferret cage. It was there the young man had the ferret out of the cage, so that we could pet it. The children really enjoyed that part. Next we went inside to see the reptiles. Again, there was a good selection. Tyler said his favorite part of the center was seeing the snake with its' skin that had shed.  We quickly viewed the gift shop and then headed back out.

By this time, we were all getting a little hungry. So, we all followed each other in our vehicles to the town of Franklin where we stopped at Applebee's for a late lunch. In conclusion, it was a very enjoyable afternoon with our friends that we missed so much while we were away in Canada. Tyler got to see his former Pre-K buddies, Rachel and Casey again. He talked about them a lot during our vacation. And I was so glad to see my good friends Tina, Heather and her mom, Dawn. Some more photos are below of our trip to Bear Path Acres.
Steve Update: USS Thach arrived in port yesterday. This time they are in Lima, Peru. Steve is hoping to be able to see some sights before they leave.We got a chance to chat with him tonight when we returned from our adventure which made our day even better. :)