26 August 2012 - Meadowcroft

On Wednesday of this week, our young women's presidency (of which Joanne is a part), decided that their activity would be a visit to Meadowcroft.  I had heard of it before, but had never gone.  I am disappointed that we didn't know about it before, because it is a place that I think many of you would really enjoy.  When you come visit, we'll see if we can take you there.

The main draw of Meadowcroft, its reason for existence really, is an archaeological dig at what is called the Rock Shelter.  This roadside sign describes the significance of the Rock Shelter (you may need to click on it to zoom in and read it):

There is a visitor's center built over the dig site, and they have a very nice video presentation that documents the discovery and excavation of the site.  Here is Jessica at the railing surrounding the dig.

In addition to the Rock Shelter, there is a complete periodic interpretive village, with indian, frontier and colonial sections.  Here is a wigwam, where we learned about Indian living, agriculture and hunting.

We all got to try throwing an atlatl arrow at a stationary (and fake) elk.  We all tried at least three arrows.  Emily and one of the young women were the only ones who hit it, and Emily's was the only one that stuck.  Here's Madeline having a go.

Here's Joanne's try with the atlatl.

Here are the three young women (out of four active) who attended the activity.  This covered bridge took us to the colonial village.

Here are the girls at the one-room school house, with the 'teacher'.  They each had a turn reading from the McGuffey Readers.

They also have a working blacksmith shop.  The blacksmith told us he was making a strap hinge.  We watched him for a few minutes as he pounded and shaped the red-hot metal.

It was an excellent day out, and when any of you come to visit, we'll be happy to take you out to Meadowcroft.

19 August 2012 - Ohiopyle State Park

Earlier this summer, we had gone with Grandma Fails to Ohiopyle State Park.  We had planned at that time to do some rock climbing and rappelling, but conditions were not conducive at that time so we looked at waterfalls and went to Fallingwater instead.

With summer waning to a close, I had a strong desire for one last 'hurrah'.  We've had so much fun this summer, I just didn't want it to end.  So we decided that we would do an overnight trip back to Ohiopyle.  We headed down (about an hour southeast of us near the Maryland border) on Monday morning and started by rappelling at Meadow Run.  These are the best nearby cliffs in Pennsylvania, but even at that, they're only about 40 foot drops.  Joanne took a couple turns (please don't judge me for lack of helmets -- I totally forgot them at home, so we had to be extra careful).

This is Emily on the rope.  The girls each took several turns.  The girls have really taken to climbing and rappelling since our outings earlier this summer in Utah with Grandpa Phil.

There is a nice crack climb at Meadow Run -- I would rate it at about a 5.6.  This is Madeline on the route with top-rope protection.

This is Jessica, also top-roped, on a bumpier route to the right of the crack route.  I'd put this one at about 5.7 or 5.8.

After a full day on the rocks, we went out for a nice dinner at a Revolutionary War era tavern call the Stone House Inn.  It is located along the old National Road, which passes just to the south of Ohiopyle.  Then we spent the night nearby at the Chalk Hill Lodge.  We should have spent the night at Stone House Inn, it was nicer.  But it worked out OK.

The next morning, we did what is called the Pedal-Paddle.  The Youghigheny River flows through Ohiopyle State Park, and is the source of some pretty extensive whitewater rafting options.  From the town of Ohiopyle, there is a trail that is part of the Rails-to-Trails project.  It is an old railroad bed that follows the river upstream to the small town of Confluence, about 13 miles away.  There is an outfitter that rents you a mountain bike so that you can ride the well-established and easy trail for 10 miles to a stopping point just before Confluence.  They meet you there, take your bike and trade you for....

A raft or kayak, so that you can ride the river for 10 miles back to Ohiopyle, were you began on the bike.  It was easy enough that Madeline handled it with no problem.  Well, she did crash her bike one time when she hit a little muddy patch on the trail, but it was not a bad crash and she was fine.   On the rafting part, Emily got thrown into the river twice (I almost did once), and Madeline would have, but Joanne and I caught her legs just before she went overboard.

It was hot, and on the middle section of the Yough, the rapids only reach a pretty mild class II, so it wasn't too scary, and we all jumped in on purpose to cool off from time to time, so getting thrown in wasn't the end of the world.  We had a blast, and still don't want summer to end!

12 August 2012 - Girls Camp

This week was girls camp for our stake.  It was quite late in the year because the stake leaders wanted to hold it at the Johnson Farm campground in Hiram, OH, and this was the only week that the campground was available.  The campground is not huge, but large enough to host about 100 people.  It's about 2 1/2 hours away from our house.  It is located on the farmland behind the historic farmhouse where the Prophet Joseph lived for a time with the Johnson family, and where several sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were received.  Subsequently, it was a very spiritual place for the girls to have camp this year.  We were able to secure two large tents for our girls to use, and they enjoyed being able to 'bunk' together.

Each camp site housed multiple wards/branches, so our girls were together with a number of others.  They had a shared pavilion, and the whole stake ate together at the main campground building.

I was only at camp for two of the five days, but it was evident that the girls all had an excellent time and that the camp was well planned.  Here is a shot of the girls with their camp group, including girls from Waynesburg and Wheeling.  Julie, our ward's camp leader, is in the back row.  The girls love her.

Here is Allie making hamburgers for dinner one night.

This is a view of the road leading from the campground back toward the Johnson farmhouse.

5 August 2012 - Farm Fun & Jessica's Birthday

This week the youth in the ward had a surprise birthday party for one of our young men.  It was totally initiated and organized by the youth.  This was my favorite part -- cutting of the ice cream cake.

We've been doing very well with our Wednesday morning work at the farm this summer.  The recent harvests have been very large, so the girls have had a lot of fun helping count and bag the vegetable shares.

This year we have enjoyed some excellent watermelons.  These tasted sooooo good, and I think were made even better because we helped grow them.

We have a teenager in our house now.  Jessica turned 13 on August 10th.  I came home early from work to have a family birthday party.

Jessica got a bunch of gifts from folks far away (thank you!).  Here she's showing off some new piano books.

Friday evening she had a slumber party with sever friends.  It wasn't even that annoying.

Mommy made her a super yummy multi-layered  birthday cake.

Emily embroidered Jessica a temple pillow.  No one will (except perhaps mommy) will appreciate the amount of work that went into Emily's labor of love.