4 August, The end of Camp Peter 2010

I'll admit it, I'm sad to see the campers leave.  In fact, I woke at 3 this morning (smoke alarm low battery, don't you just hate them!) and could not get back to sleep.  Yesterday we said goodbye to Liv and Ruby.

Sara, Isaac, Ruby, Grandpa Peter, and Liv

  The house got much quieter but there was still lots going on.  We had many loads of laundry to do, sheets to change, trips to the bank, suitcases to pack, and all those details that crop up prior to a trip.  Isaac and I did manly things in the garden while Sara ran errands.   We had a pleasant dinner at a restaurant (Gosport Tavern) and Isaac was a delight.  We came home to watch a movie but quit half way through because we were all too sleepy to finish.  Today we finish packing so Sara and Isaac can fly out to Colorado this afternoon.  They will get home in time for dinner....but the house will be empty because Wilma had the baby this morning at 10:50!!!!  I'll follow later in August, date still up in the air.

Future World Cup Hero

In order to get Isaac to sleep before the plane trip I took him to the park to kick the soccer ball.  After 45 minutes of that you'd think he would fall into bed, exhausted.  Not so.


Some observations:  With the girls gone Isaac is suddenly tugging at us for lots of attention.  I'm not sure if it's because he misses their attention or just the constant flow of energy from those two has infected him.   He knows that he is going home to Mom and Daddy but I'm sure he has no comprehension of what it means to have a baby in the house.  Heck, most adults don't either until they have one.  I expect to have some sad moments in the next month, prompted by finding kid stuff scattered around the house.  Chris told me that he and Wendy expect to hear Liv and Ruby asking about 2011 in Portsmouth...starting about Thanksgiving. 

Martha Ann's house now six feet up in the air

Martha Ann's house is now six feet up in the air.  They are building a new foundation and will lower the house onto the new brickwork.  The house will end up four feet higher than when they started.

8 August, Ruby and Liv depart

Wendy getting an activity update from Liv

We are seeing the beginning of the end for Camp Peter.  Chris arrived on Sunday, Wendy on Monday, and the Casey family departs today (Tuesday).

In the past day the campers have been busy playing cards with Chris, making chalk drawings on the sidewalk, playing with toy paratroopers, going to the park, enjoying Movie Night, and generally having fun.

Red Lions at Red Lion Square

Peter's scooter

This part of the fence is dedicated to Peter and Sara Youngblood

Chris bought treats from the Ice Cream Man

Movie Night...before Wendy and Peter fell asleep

What a group!

Tomorrow it will be deathly quiet around this house!

1 Aug, David leaves and Chris arrives

On Saturday we seemed to be in high gear all day long.  We helped the Spirit of Independence dock and than we toured the boat.  Brother David (my brother, not a camper brother!) arrived from Roanoke so we all went to Yorktown to see the Ducati dealer.  David has been having a problem with his motorcycle and Dave Lillard agreed to take a look at the part in order to figure out what was going wrong.  Liv and Ruby had entirely too much fun messing about in the shop while Dave worked on the bike part.  We had a really late lunch and then took David over to see the house that is being raised.  Next was a late dinner and bed time.  All of this was complicated by the fact that our air conditioning units stopped working.  We had to get the AC folks over to see about the problem, which turned out to actually be an electrical problem.  After a few hours of crawling around Sara and I discovered that four of our 220 volt breakers were totally fried!  Thus we had no AC when we went to bad last night.  Luckily it was a cooler night and even rained overnight. 

This morning we fixed a huge breakfast and then took David for a ride on the Sara C.  He had never been on the boat.  Too bad we had to make that a quick trip because next we had to go to Hampton to pick up Chris at the train station.  David left for Roanoke and I took the campers to Hampton. 

The train was early and when we pulled in we thought we were 20 minutes early but Chris had just stepped off the train.  What luck.

Once home Chris taught Isaac how to play Old Maid and then they worked on playing catch.  By the time we had lunch everyone was ready for quiet time.  By that time Sara and I had installed new breakers and the AC was once again working.  Life is good.

By the way, our friend's house is now about two feet up inn the air.