On the campaign trail with grandpa Jimmy

On Sunday afternoon we attended a fundraiser for Lukas' grandfather. It was held at Clark's Never Sell The Land Farm (also Elioak Farm) which is a 312 acre, 1800s family farm (now in it's 7th generation) owned by the Clark family. Needless to say it is full of old family heirlooms and old fashion charm. It was a beautiful location. It is currently run by Martha Clark Crist who was our gracious hostess.



Martha is the daughter of the late Md State Senator, James Clark,Jr. He was a Member, House of Delegates, 1959-63 and a Member of Md State Senate (District 14), 1963-86.

For those interested in the history here is a link about the family history and farm: http://www.clarklandfarm.com/NSTL%20Our%20farming%20history.htm

The farm is also noted for housing some of the items from the old Enchanted Forest Amusement Park in Ellicot City. This is a stainglass window that is set in the old back door which now serves as decoration for the new sunroom. The plaque below reads, "Clark Farm: Through the looking glass". It is an illustration of the Enchanted Forest items on the Elioak Farm.



Chilling in the hamock out back at the farm before the festivities...yes, he managed to fall out of it at one point.



Ok, every campaign fundraiser has to have some speeches...
Vicki Goodman, Martha Clark, Grandpa Jimmy

Martha Clark and Grandpa Jimmy


And their was live entertainment. Even Lukas danced and enjoyed it.


But the best part of an old, old farm is the great old trees for climbing...

Play date with Papa and Grandma

Lukas is offically a Dolphin now. He has moved up to the Pre-K class at school. To prepare for the start of the new year his school was closed and mama was at a conference with Aunt Debbie so the men in the family went to the State Fair with Grandma Shirley to see his cousins show their heifers. It ended up the girls weren't showing until much later in the afternoon so they didn't actually get to see them compete. Wayne did get a picture of Cheyenne before the competition with what ended up being her first place heifer.



Needless to say they managed to have fun and all reports back state Lukas was very well behaved.

Milking a "cow"


Riding the rides...



This was supposedly his favorite ride...go figure

Playing baseball with Ben...live action

Here is some video of our slugger in action...

Batter up!


Coach Robey


Success

Visit to Leesburg and the Air and Space Museum Annex

We headed to Leesburg, Virginia to visit Aunt Rebecca, Uncle Rob, Ben, Kira and Sean. We had made plans to go to the Air and Space Museum Annex that is located next to Dulles Airport and only about 10 minutes from their house. Lukas was very excited about going to see them and the plans.

Here are the kids standing over looking the exhibit area below.

Lukas (4), Ben (15), Kira (12) and Sean (9)

The first thing we did was go up to the observation tower. They stream the audio from the control tower and you can try and locate the planes they are talking to. It was 11am and we only saw one plane take off the entire time we were in the observation area. Evidently there isn't much air traffic at Dulles on Saturday mornings. All of our flights to Kazakhstan left in the afternoon or evening. You can see the North South runway in the upper part of the photo.


The exhibit area is huge. It is the size of several airport hangers. The exhibit covers the history of flight starting with the Wright Brothers. It has every kind of aircraft and space craft.



Here are some of the earliest aircraft.



THE ENOLA GAY


SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE


LUKAS AND A VERY IMPRESSIVE US MILITARY AIRCRAFT


RUSSIAN MIG


They have an area dedicated to simulators that you can ride and one that is interactive. There are 5 different rides. We went on the shuttle 3D ride.


Here is Lukas getting ready.

and the Simmons kids right behind him.


After spending a few hours at the museum we went to lunch and then back to Becca and Rob's house. Ben is on the high school baseball team and played on a travel team over the summer. He was kind enough to play a littel ball with Lukas. If Lukas plays ball I think he will be a DH because all he wants to do is hit.


PLAYING BALL WITH BEN

Cousins, swimming, fishing, tubing (sort of)...

We headed down to the family farm after work on Wednesday. Lukas was excited to see his cousins Chris and Erik were already there. Thursday morning the girls arrived. During breakfast it started to storm. Eventually the electricity went off. Once the rain stopped and the sun came out the kids decided to go swimming. My parents are on a well so, no electricity, limited running water. Since they couldn't use the hose for the real slip n slide they got creative and made their own. Eventually the electricity came back on and they got out the actual slip n slide.




Here they all are piled onto the tube in the pool...


All Piling on the tube together


Lukas enjoyed spinning on the tube...


and being lifted up on tube....


and jumping off the tube...


and gracie had to join in the swimming festivities...nothing like a swim with a german shepherd.


The older kids wanted to go tubing in the creek so off we went. Chris went first.



Then we tried to coax Lukas into going with Cheyenne. We got them both on the tube and were about to push off when Lukas changed his mind. As you can see he isn't real confident even riding in a boat yet. He keeps saying," go slow mommy? not fast?" He doesn't like it when they go real fast. Fortunately the kids don't like going real fast when on the tube either.


So Erik went and then Chris took another turn.


Here they are later in the day chilling on the sofa together playing video games.




Uncle David showed up Friday afternoon and the boys all went out fishing. It was Lukas' first time. According the fishing party, Lukas caught the first fish and caught 4 all together. Who says Friday the 13th is an unlucky day! Of course no one had a camera on them so no pictures. They used them for bait the next day when the big boys went out fishing in the bay for rock fish. The second fishing trip was not as successful. They came home empty handed after beeing out all day.

Cousin Ashley came down on Saturday. She has a real way with kids. She has been doing daycare while going to college. She is a natural at it. She is also good at tickling as you can see....


Our sleepy boy...he fell asleep on the sofa around 11:30AM. He must of been very worn out because he slept from 7pm till almost 7am the night before.

2nd Annual Trip to the county fair

Our trip to the fair this year was on the day of the opening parade. The local elected officials marched in the parade so we were there to cheer on Wayne's dad. The parade started off with the Raven's Marching Band and ended with alot of fire trucks and emergency vehicles. Wayne's mom driving the car and dad walking behind Wayne's dad Wayne's boss, the Court Clerk and her dog Shanna This is a picture of Lukas on the pony ride last year... This is the picture from this year, same shirt, larger size... Of course our boy had to ride the amusement rides... Lukas wasn't quite big enough to go on this ride by himself. Wayne was going to go with him until this young boy came up and offered to ride with him. He had Lukas holding his arms up in the air and screaming. Then when it started to go real fast Lukas was all bunched up next to him looking a little scared. The young boy put his arm around him to make him feel better. When they got off we thanked him and the boy told Wayne that Lukas told him," I like you." The boy got a real kick out of that. He was standing there looking around trying to figure out which John Deere toy he wanted to check out first. Once he had his fill of tractor toys it was on to the real stuff. If it has motors, wheels and a steering wheel Lukas will be on it. He had a tough time deciding what he was going to add to his collection this year. At least this year he didn't have a meltdown when we said it was time to leave the exhibit hall and tear him away from the John Deere booth. Video of the helicopter ride and another ride