Bloomsburg State Fair Fun

This past weekend, we had the Myers’ children because Mike and Missy were at a weekend get-a-way. We thought that it would be fun to take the kids to the Bloomsburg State Fair.
We got to the fair around noon and there was so much food we could not decide what to eat.

After eating, we tossed dimes to try and win some prizes. Emily was the only one of us to get a dime to land. She won a glass cup. A lady next to her had won 2 of the same cups so she gave them to us.

There was a game where you had to throw a ball and break glass bottles. Sounded like a lot of fun to Tyler.

Enough of the games, the kids wanted to go on some rides. But before we went on any rides, Jay wanted to try the rope challenge. All of them fell off before they could ring the bell to get a prize.

The first ride that Kayla and Emily went on was the bumper cars. Emily was a little short to reach the pedals, but she had a great time spinning in circles and occasionally gained control of the bumper car to hit someone. Kayla was a professional and drove around hitting anyone that she could.

Here is a video of Kayla and Emily on the bumper cars.

After bumper cars, Emily wanted to go on the carousel ride.

Tyler and Jay patiently waited for the only ride that they wanted to go on. It was called “The Speed Ride.” We went on a similar ride when they had it at Dorney Park several years ago. That ride was a 2 seater on each end and it was terrifying. This ride was almost the same ride but it had 4 seats on each end. While walking to the ride, Kayla said that she really wanted to go on it. We were unsure if she would be able to handle it, but after she gave us her puppy dog eyes, we told her the she could go on it. Tyler went first on the ride by himself.
Once Tyler was done his ride, Jay and Kayla went for their spin. Jay said that Kayla was terrified at first and that she even asked him to hold her hand to keep her calm. However, when the ride stopped and went backwards, she just kept screaming with joy, "This is one of the best rides EVER!"

We took a video of the ride in action to show how crazy it was.

After The Speed Ride, we decided that we would leave the fair. Of course we had to get some funnel cake for the ride home. Jay wanted to take a little detour to show the kids the windmills in Shenandoah that he had driven by many times on his way home from a coworker’s house. If you have never seen these wind mills up close, you should definitely check them out.

What a fun day with our nieces and nephew!

Baby Flips Out!

Our dog Baby is a lazy dog and hardly ever wants to play rough. However, many years ago Jay discovered that every once in a while when Baby plays rough, he allows Jay to flip him in his arms. Many of our closest friends have seen this trick, but this is the first time we have gotten it on film.

Baby is always dizzy at the end of the flips and it is usually the end playing rough.

Hilton Head Vacation

For our vacation this year, we went with Griff and Barb to a vacation house in Hilton Head. Making the trip with us were Scott, Gwen and Brayden and also Justin. Our first flight was to Charlotte, North Carolina. We then we got on a smaller plane to Hilton Head Island.

Eating lunch in Charlotte while we waited for our next flight.

After renting cars, we headed for our beach house. At the beach house, the first thing we did was walk out the back door to check out our private beach. When we turned around, we saw the outside of our house. It was AWESOME. To see the YouTube Vacation Home Walkthrough video of the vacation house, click on the link.
Every day, the family swam in the swimming pool. Brayden loved swimming in the pool with his raft.


One day we were visited by a dolphin who allowed us to feed her. She also did a few tricks.

Occasionally Jay would make up a pool game. However, since no one else is really a game person, they usually ended badly.

We went for a bike ride several days throughout our vacation.

One day while riding our bikes along a trail, we came across an area where there were thousands of small crabs. It was fun watching them scurry across the ground and hide in the holes when we got close.

Our family likes to eat. Almost every night we checked out different restaurants in the area. The food was so good!

As a family we did do a few activities together. One night we played mini golf and had a lot of fun. The ladies had a hard time playing because Brayden would chase down the balls with his plastic club and also put them in his pocket.

Another day the men went to the disc golf course that they played at least year. However, this year it was being renovated so they had to make up their own holes. They still had a lot of fun.

Jay’s highlight of the vacation was swimming in a 50 foot wide canal as the tide went out. It is a bit hard to explain so Jay took a video.

The family dropped their doughnuts and boogie boards upstream and coasted out with the tide. Most of the family got bored of doing this after about an hour and a half. However, Jay and Griff continued to enjoy themselves until the water got so low that they could not do it anymore. They probably spent about 4-5 hours in the water. They came back to the house sunburned and tired, but they had a blast.

Like last year, Jay would walk out along the ocean and look for stingrays in the water. One day he came back and said that he saw a couple of stingrays. Barb did not believe him so they went out together to look for some more. They came back about an hour later with a funny story. Jay was looking for stingrays about 15 feet in the ocean and Barb was looking for them on the shore. After about 10 minutes of looking and Jay telling Barb what she should be looking for, she saw a stingray, pointed into the water and yelled out, “JAY LOOK!” Since Jay is TERRIFIED of the ocean, he immediately ran high stepping back onto the shore. Barb said that he made it back on shore in about 1 second. When Jay was safe on the shore, he explained to Barb that when she yelled, he instantly thought that she had seen a shark. Jay told Barb that if she did see a stingray she just needed to calmly point and tell him. With their communication cleared up, they looked for about a half an hour more and spotted 5 stingrays.
Our vacation was very relaxing and we really enjoyed ourselves. Our only disappointment was that we did not get a photo of all the family together. Justin and Scott left two days before the rest of us (lack of vacation days), and the only family photo that we have was taken after they left. However, with the magic of Photoshop, Jay added them to this photo.

Thanks Griff and Barb for another wonderful vacation!