Sunday, September 30 Four Seasons Parkway Run/Walk

The Foulk Family getting ready for the walk

Trish and our sweet Lily

As you can see, Lily was dragging her feet just a little!

Our second annual photo at the Rocky statue.  Next year we hope to have Aunt Sara and Uncle Matt along with cousin Evelyn joining us!

Our fighting stance, ready to kick some childhood cancer butt!

This morning we left the house at 6:30 am and headed up to Philadelphia for Lily's walk.  It turned out to be a beautiful day, very autumn-like, and perfect for a walk.  We walked the  course, had our picture taken at the Rocky statue, Luke and I ran up the steps to the Art Museum and we finished the walk 8 minutes faster this year as last.  After the race we spent some time at Franklin Park and Constitution Square just exploring the area.  We had intended to go see the Liberty Bell but the line was pretty long and we were tired so we opted to check out the burial spot of Ben Franklin instead.  We also took a Duck tour.  This was a 70 minute tour of the city and the same vehicle drove right into the Delaware River so we saw a lot of the area.

Jim's Steaks where we had our authentic Philly Cheese Steaks.  Yum!!

Headed to the carousel located in Franklin Park

Saturday, September 29 Luke's Birthday Party

One of 3 caches we found today.  Lots of fun.

Lily's Happy Unbirthday cake, Minnie Mouse

This morning Luke and I worked on a Lego set that he got from Grandma Peg and Pop Pop Ed before we took off to find a few more geo caches.  We found 3 caches in the same area in a housing development about a mile from the house.  The weather has been great with little humidity and cooler temperatures.  This evening we celebrated Luke's birthday.  Luke's birthday isn't until October 12 but since we were all in town for the walk and I will be at a wedding that weekend we had a family party now.  For whatever reason, Lily decided that it was her birthday as well so we had a small cake for her too.  The birthday had a pirate theme and Luke got some pirates, Jack Sparrow, Blackbeard and Captain Barbarossa and the ship Queen Anne's Revenge from The Pirates of the Caribbean. He also got a new bike and helmet from Grandma and Grandpa Foulk.

Friday, September 28

Luke and Lily's pre-school

Finding our 2nd Cache in Schutte Park

The Monster Mile, NASCAR in Dover

The kids had to go to preschool this morning so we went to the Casino for the breakfast buffet.  Peg took me to Boscov's to shop while Trish and Ed stayed at the casino.  After we picked the kids up from school Peg and I took Luke and Lily to Schutte Park for a picnic and Luke and I searched for a geo cach.  We were successful and found the treasure cache fairly easily.  I am finally learning how to use the GPS to find the coordinates for the hidden treasure.  Luke is enjoying the searching as well and collecting the trade items that are in each cache.  At 4 we left to see one of the preliminary NASCAR races.  Chad and Lily stayed home since neither of them are big fans of the noise.  It was a first for me and I enjoyed it a little more than I expected.

Thursday, September 27

Lily was awesome on the zipline

We found all six stations in the corn maze and the tower in the middle.

Left for Dover at 5:30 this morning and made really good time and arrived at Trisha's home around 2:30 pm.  Took a ride out to Fifer's Orchards and the kids played on the slides, zip lines and corn mazes before we picked out a pumpkin and some apples.

Saturday, September 22

Our very first cache find!

This harmonica was Luke's choice from the trade items.

After yesterday's caving experience the kids spent the night at our house as they are planning to leave for Delaware after the Ohio State game.  This morning started off around 7:30  when Luke came downstairs with the chapter book we started last night but didn't finish because he and Grandma fell asleep at Chapter 4.  We finished Bugs Bunny's Treasure Hunt and then had pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  After breakfast Luke and I went on our very first Geo caching adventure.  Geo Caching has been around for at least 10 years and is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure.  The location is pinpointed by GPS co-ordinates.  When you find a cache there is a logbook to sign your name and most of the time there are trinkets or tradables.  The rules of the game are simple, when you find a cache you should sign the log, if you take a trade item you must leave an item and then you must replace the cache in the same spot that you found it.  Luke and I found our first cache at a location less than a mile from our house.  It took us a while, mostly because I need to work on my GPS skills, but when we found it, Luke was thrilled.  His treasure, a plastic harmonica.  He was torn between that and a plastic centipede.  We tried to find another cache on the way home from the Orchard Fall Festival but were unable to locate the treasure there.  We were a little bummed but are going to try our luck in Delaware next week when I am out for the cancer walk. 
We made it up to the Fall Festival at the new orchard next to the Canaan Middle School.  We fished, jumped on the jumpy thing, rode race bikes around the track and rode a train through the orchard.  Lots of fun but disappointed that they had no apples and no apple cider.  Oh, well not to worry, we had Flyer's pizza for lunch and watched some of the game. But we spent most of our time outside playing with the kids.  Luke had a little melt down when he realized that they were heading home today, guess he thought they were staying until Tuesday. They got away around 3:30 and I'm sure the kids are sleeping by now.  Miss them already!!

Lily liked fishing up until she actually caught a fish

Luke on the zip line, his spotter didn't catch him when he dropped soon after this picture.

Pop Pop did a seat drop and impressed everyone

Faster Grandma!

Friday, September 21

The adventure for today, Ohio Caverns in West Liberty.  I can't even remember the last time I visited the caverns but it was either Trish or Sara's 4th grade field trip.  We had a great time and for the most part the kids were great.  Lily has a problem any time someone tells her she can't touch something, it's like her brain says "touch, touch touch" and she can't help herself.  I guess we probably got out of there and only stunted the stalactite growth by a few thousands of years.  I had forgotten how pretty it really is.  They also have a new entrance that is completely handicap accessible and into the cave for 60 yards which was pretty impressive.  Our tour, the Natural Wonders Tour was 1 mile and 50-55 minutes.  After the tour we bought two bags of dirt for the kids to sift through the sleuce to find precious gems and that was a lot of fun, too.  When we returned home we picked up Andy and went to York Steak House for dinner and then drove past the new casino just to see what it looked like.  Pretty impressive!  Tomorrow we may check out the new orchard near Canaan Middle School if it isn't raining.

The new entrance to the caverns

Working hard for those precious gems

Some of our gems

And this is how we wore them out afterwards.  "Let's see who can get to that tree at the bottom of the hill first kids!"