Easter on the East Coast

During Easter week, Dan and Helen flew to Norfolk, VA to spend a few days with Jeannie. While Jeannie worked, we drove to Petersburg, VA to tour several Civil War battlefields. We learned all about the "Dictator" - a Union cannon used to shell Confederate batteries. Also, new to us was the Crater. On July 30, 1864, Union troops exploded a mine under the Confederate battery, attempting to create a breakthrough into Petersburg.

We also drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel which is 17 miles long to the DelMarVa Peninsula. Chincoteague Island was our destination. Here is a picture of Jeannie and Dan right outside our hotel on the island.

Assateague Island is the barrier island to Chincoteague Island. This is the old lighthouse on Assateague Island. It has been guiding ships since 1864.

Chincoteague Island is known for its wild horses. Legend says that these horses are descendants of those that were shipwrecked off the coast in the 1600s. These horses run wild on the island and each July, a certain number are herded to the other side of the island and sold at an auction. This island became popular from the book entitled Misty of Chincoteague. It is a beautiful area to explore.

We also toured Yorktown, VA which is the location of Cornwallis' surrendered to Washington to end the Revolutionary War. The town is very quaint and a very interesting Visitor's Center.

The South is known for its beautiful azaleas. And they were out in full bloom during our visit. After church on Easter Sunday, we walked through the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and saw such variety of colors. Thanks Jeannie for your gracious Southern hospitality!

Easter Weekend

Alana came home from her second semester at BYU Law and immediately was set to work helping her nieces and nephews dye the Easter Eggs.
The following day, we all went down to the ranch in San Marcos for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. The grass in the field was really high this year. A new calf was born at the ranch so the kids enjoyed seeing him.
Alana and Natalie helped the little kids play pin-the-egg-in-the-basket. Thanks to Megster and Megan for the fun games for the little children.
Everybody brought side dishes for the lunch - and the food was plentiful and good.
The kids, even the big kids, got to hunt for the eggs in the field.
Nice cake by Katie and Natalie. Good thing Jerry was there to help scoop the ice cream.
Gavin got quite a haul of candy.
Ellie was excited with her Easter Eggs.
It was a pretty big group this year.
The pinata was a big hit with the little kids.
Ellie and Gavin had a great time.
Ethan decided to tackle one of the cupcakes. . .
and he really enjoyed it.
Ethan then decided to pull Larkin around in the wagon.
Coco didn't feel great so slept through most of the day.
Thanks to Eileen for hosting another great egg hunt. Here are the two Ferguson siblings.
On Sunday morning, we all awoke early to go to Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills for the Easter Sunrise Service at 6 a.m.. The doves were released at the end when the Hallelujah Chorus was sung.
Sue, Beth and Brad did a great job singing at the Sunrise Service. Steve, Alana, Grammie and Grampie came this year also, which made it extra nice.

SoCal RAGNAR Relay - 200+ miles of Friends, Family & Fun

This is the beginning of our Ragnar Adventure for this year. We rented two vans and spent the night at our house. . .we had people from fly in from all over the U.S. - Annette from Charleston, S.C., Jeannie from Norfolk, VA, Ian and Annie from Denver, Erin and Helen from Sacramento, Allison from Denver, and then all of us locals, Brad, Margaret, Danny, Megster, Donna, Christopher, and Steve. Our start time was for about 9 a.m. on Friday from Huntington Beach so the first van, pictured above (minus Brad, who joined us later that evening), headed down there.
Of course, the most important participant, Nemo, our mascot, was packed very first thing. We had 3 first timers this year, Annette, Steve, and Christopher, and they did super.
Pictured at the start line are Donna, Christopher, Nemo, Allison, Jeannie and Annette.
And they're off. . .there were almost 500 race teams this year with 12 team members each, running 3 legs apiece with mileage ranging from 3 miles to 9 miles. They start team groups about 15 minutes apart.
Jeannie was our first runner, with Nemo helping her along. It was a beautiful day running along the beach.
Here is Helen starting one of her legs of the race, doing a quick Nemo pass before she started her 5 mile run about 10 a.m. It was just starting to get hot.
While we were waiting for Helen to finish her leg, we all took some time to get a picture of us in our van, that was still in reasonably good shape at this point (not too sweaty).
I started my leg of the race, 4 miles, right at Angel Stadium. Here Allison, Annette, Jeannie and Christopher doing the classic "jump" shot.
Helen passes the slap bracelet with Nemo to Margaret and she is off - unfortunately, it was getting hotter and it made running a bit more difficult.
Margaret passed off to Annette who ran up some pretty steep hills in Anaheim. . .Nemo was there to motivate us.
Ian is looking pretty fresh here after Christopher passed off to him. It was close to 90 degrees for most of Ian's run through Gypsum Canyon.
When Ian took off, we all posed for a picture at Yorba Linda Regional Park. Mom and Dad joined us about this time to cheer us on.
James, Brielle and Ethan joined us as well as Megan, Gavin and Coco to inspire us. It was either run the race or watch the kids for the 36 hours. We're not sure which was harder.
The four kids are refreshing themselves as they watch their parents run.
Ian finished his run, exhausted after his 9 miles of 90 degree heat. Megster looks pretty happy here. . .before she realized that she now had a big hill and 7 miles to run.
It was lunch break time for Ethan and great-grandpa.
Gavin and Coco shared a peanut butter sandwich with great grandma at a park in Corona.
The first van reached Lake Elsinore in time for a bit of a nap after running 6 legs. . .hard to nap with hundreds of people wandering around. Van 2 was completing their first 6 legs of the race before they handed the slap bracelet (baton) back to us about 8 p.m. Fortunately it started to cool down for all of us as we ran all night down side roads to Escondido.
The final member of our team, Steve, met up with us in Lake Elsinore. . .he didn't realize all the fun that he was going to have. His first leg was scheduled for 2 a.m. and he earned the nickname "The Green Flash".
Fast forward about 18 hours, after we had all done a number of other legs, round-the-clock, and here is Steve finishing his 2nd leg of 6 miles right on Mission Bay in San Diego.
Ian, Steve, Nemo, Coco and Erin are all posing before Erin has to run her final leg of 9 miles, where we finished up about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Silver Strand State Beach on Coronado.
We were waiting here at Silver Strand Beach with our bowl of noodles at the end of the race. The little kids loved playing in the sand.
Pretty much everybody is here except for Erin who was finishing the last grueling leg of the race. . .way to go, Erin.
Finally, as the sun went down, we all jumped for joy that the race was over. Thanks to Ian, Annie and Erin for all of the time that they put into planning it. It was a lot of fun and plenty of family and friend bonding time in the vans. . .we finished in about 35 hours. Maybe we will try a different Ragnar Relay next year. . .Napa Valley anyone?

Llamas and Astronomy

This past weekend, the historical museum here in Duarte had an astronomy night with a picnic ahead of time at Encanto Park. We ate dinner ahead of time and then took dessert to share.
One of the special guests was Copper the Llama. All of the little kids enjoyed feeding him his Bermuda grass.
It was still pretty light out but we were able to get a close-up look at the moon.
The kids enjoyed seeing the craters of the moon, as they were studying outer space in Megster's pre-school class.