Hike and Festival

It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood! Little nippy this morning...mitten weather at least until the sun gets higher.
Ryan, Jill and Riley went for an early morning walk and found great huge leaves and some horses in the meadow.

Their owner came out of his trailer and we got to pet the horses.
Back at the campground, Gretchen and Mason
returned from picture taking.

Ah, the new mittens fit just fine...I'd like to keep them on!

and Ryan got busy stacking firewood for tonight.
Everybody up with something warm to drink...

and Grandpa is steaming...at least his chair is :-)

and it's warmer with three!

After breakfast and cleanup (can't let that warm water go
to waste!) we headed out on a hike.

Nice view of the James from the Canoe Landing

Interesting footprints on the path.

The cabins to rent looked really nice!

Ah, hands free hiking for Gretchen.
Great shelf fungus!
Anybody know what this is???
More footprints...tiny ones this time.

Tickle time with a grass head...

Lots of berries..blue berries...not blueberries!

Ah a brief nature's music lesson...on acorn caps...

Colin almost got it...he took a stock home to practice.

Lovely pond but no wildlife..not even a turtle :-(

A snack stop at the amphitheater...

and a little map reading practice...
it's great to be able to read!

Meanwhile Ryan was practicing his gymnastics.

Time for a ride, Dad.

One tired Ryan..burned too much energy at the beginning.

A beautiful butterfly at the end of the trail.

Back home for some lunch.

Colin got his wood chopping lesson...note eye protection for him.

Then we headed down to the James River Festival they were holding today. It was GREAT!

There were some volunteers there in period dress cooking
stew for dinner and apple pies to die for in a dutch oven.
On to the apple press..easy to begin with, but got harder!
Then the corn shucker.
That is tough!

Now making corn shuck dolls...
on to hand dipped candles...

Mason got alot of attention most of the afternoon.

Let's make some butter from cream...yum!
A little face painting...
Colin's turn.

We headed back to see if the apple pies had gone in
the dutch oven yet...not quite time yet. The volunteers
showed us their digs while they're here! Very Cool!
Dad's turn...he throws an accurate axe! We never knew!

A little more wandering, some great Brunswick Stew cooked over the fire and then we headed back to the campground for some dinner.

John and Dave build a mean fire! It was great for the Somores...needed to use up the supplies :-) Had our own bonfire! When it got dark Gretchen and Mom headed down to the Canoe Landing to do some more star pictures. Check out www.me-and-mason.blogspot.com for Gretchen's great pictures. Very cool Milky Way! Came back and talked around the campfire and then one by one we headed to bed...all by about 9:30. What a GREAT day!!! Camping Rocks!