The end of July is the Orange County Fair (Yes- we live in Orange Counrty, New York - by OCC - Orange County Choppers). Both girls were active in two 4-H clubs. One was a traditional club and the other is a KNEX building club. Tessa submitted six fair projects as a Cloverbud (she was younger than 8) and receive the white and green "participation" ribbons that you see below. Dagny is a 4-Her and did eight projects and received Blue ribbons on all of her projects (they receive $5/ribbon for blue ribbons). Luckily Grandma Becky was staying with us and helped a lot getting the 4-H projects ready for the fair and even rode with Joel and the girls to the Fair Grounds to enter their projects in the fair. Big Thank You to Grandma for getting the projects submitted - we could not have done it without her - especially since we went to Boise the day after we submitted to the fair for a week. We did not get to go to the fair to see our projects displayed. Hopefully next year. Big Hooray for the girls for completing the projects and doing so great at the Fair. We are super proud of them.
Above is Tessa with her Butterfly cycle poster. We raised cacoons to butterflies.
Below is Dagny with her rocket. Both girls made rockets and launched them. Dagny's was the most advanced (she was the oldest) and the lightest and of course went the highest! Very impressive to watch!
Below is Tessa with her 4-H scrapbook. Both girls put together books of their year at 4-H with pictures and journaling. They did an incredible job with their books. They have had a lot of experience with scrapbooking and card making. It is what mommy and the girls enjoy doing in the colder months when we are not traveling and exploring every weekend.
We finally had a beautiful (rain free) Saturday in September and forgot all about the chores and errands we had planned for that day and through a picnic together and headed to the Delaware Water Gap National Park (Hooray - another stamp)! It was a perfect sunny day that was not too hot or cold for hiking. The Park is just a little over an hour from our house too. It is on the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The park is one of the top ten most visited parks in the US. Some of that could be how close it is to a large population base. There are tons of waterfalls, a variety of vegitation we had not seen before, a working village from the late 1700's with a mill, weaver, glass blower, black smith, wagon wheel maker, etc and great hikes for the family. It was one of our best family days that we will all remember with fondness with years to come. We cannot wait for Spring to go back and explore some more!
Delaware Water Gap on one of our hikes along a mini gorge.
The family with Dingman Falls. This is one of the most famous falls at DWG. We even got to hike to the top of the falls. It was not Multnoma Falls by Portland, but still the amazing beauty of Nature! The path to this falls was even paved - what luxury!
The visitor center for the NPS at the base of Dingmans Falls. This is where the kids earned their Junior Ranger Badge five minutes prior to them closing. Big thank you to the very kind rangers that verified the program with them and gave them their badges. Joel wants to put all their Junior Ranger badges on a vest or sash to be impressive as we travel the other parks. It may be challenging to find all the badges - their rooms are disasters! Maybe we can do that for next summer. We love the National Park Junior Ranger program - we have learned so much as a family participating in these programs at the parks we visit. Check them out is you have kids under 12 years of age...
What terrible Idaho Parents we are. We discovered at DWG that our kids had never skipped rocks. We obviously do not camp enough... We taught the girls - they learned it quickly and were hooked. It was amazing how many times they got their stones to skip and the great skipping rocks they found. Just naturally gifts...
After working with Marriott hotels for fourteen years - I finally had Mr. Marriott visit one of my hotels. What an incredible experience! I have met him a few times but a visit is more exhillerating. He also came with Arne Sorenson, President & COO of Marriott, Mike Stengle, Area GM for Marriott Marquis, and my owner - Mr. Harry Gross. Below is Mr. Gross and Mr. Marriott in my hotel lobby - you can see me grinning in the right corner of the picture.
Me visiting with Mr. Marriott - what a treat!
With Dagny being the oldest in the 4-H group, she showed the girls how to fold origami birds. Below is a poster of how to make one of the Origami birds and pictures of her showing the other kids in the club. She misses the Origami Club at Just For Kids that she led. She was very excited to be able to share her talent with the other kids and they thought it was very amazing to learn how to do.
We finally had a beautiful (rain free) Saturday in September and forgot all about the chores and errands we had planned for that day and through a picnic together and headed to the Delaware Water Gap National Park (Hooray - another stamp)! It was a perfect sunny day that was not too hot or cold for hiking. The Park is just a little over an hour from our house too. It is on the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The park is one of the top ten most visited parks in the US. Some of that could be how close it is to a large population base. There are tons of waterfalls, a variety of vegitation we had not seen before, a working village from the late 1700's with a mill, weaver, glass blower, black smith, wagon wheel maker, etc and great hikes for the family. It was one of our best family days that we will all remember with fondness with years to come. We cannot wait for Spring to go back and explore some more!
Delaware Water Gap on one of our hikes along a mini gorge.
The family with Dingman Falls. This is one of the most famous falls at DWG. We even got to hike to the top of the falls. It was not Multnoma Falls by Portland, but still the amazing beauty of Nature! The path to this falls was even paved - what luxury!
The visitor center for the NPS at the base of Dingmans Falls. This is where the kids earned their Junior Ranger Badge five minutes prior to them closing. Big thank you to the very kind rangers that verified the program with them and gave them their badges. Joel wants to put all their Junior Ranger badges on a vest or sash to be impressive as we travel the other parks. It may be challenging to find all the badges - their rooms are disasters! Maybe we can do that for next summer. We love the National Park Junior Ranger program - we have learned so much as a family participating in these programs at the parks we visit. Check them out is you have kids under 12 years of age...
What terrible Idaho Parents we are. We discovered at DWG that our kids had never skipped rocks. We obviously do not camp enough... We taught the girls - they learned it quickly and were hooked. It was amazing how many times they got their stones to skip and the great skipping rocks they found. Just naturally gifts...
After working with Marriott hotels for fourteen years - I finally had Mr. Marriott visit one of my hotels. What an incredible experience! I have met him a few times but a visit is more exhillerating. He also came with Arne Sorenson, President & COO of Marriott, Mike Stengle, Area GM for Marriott Marquis, and my owner - Mr. Harry Gross. Below is Mr. Gross and Mr. Marriott in my hotel lobby - you can see me grinning in the right corner of the picture.
Me visiting with Mr. Marriott - what a treat!
1 comment:
You guys are so busy! I love that you have taken so many trips with your kids. We need to do better! That is a great thing that they do 4H, We love KNEX at this house. I would love to meet Mr. Marriott, I love staying at his hotels, especially the nicer one! I love calling the front desk and hearing "Good morning Mrs. Gordon, how may I help you?" It tickles me!
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