working on the farm

We spent most of Sunday afternoon at the Three Birds Berry Farm. This is a local farm that grows blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc. All are u-pick and this is a popular summer time activity for lots of people in the NRV. In the fall and winter the owners have volunteer days to help around the farm to earn credits towards berries in the summer. So we went out and helped mulch and build a new barn. We have lots of pics of the barn building, but really we lined up and dug the post holes. Each one needs to be 4ft deep... thats a deep hole. We didn't finish up but got a good start.

Here you can see us starting the barn post digging.

Luckily, Amalia and Camilo were up for the job. The owner has a daughter, Lilly, who is Amalia's age and was a helper too.

Camilo's first job was gathering his shovels.

He kept one shovel for himself and shared the other with Lilly. Amalia was the master of the post-hole digger.

By this point my back was wrecked... apparently sitting in front of a computer all day is not good training for post-hole digging.

Big helper!

Some dirt ended up on his face and clothes.

Very proud of this dirt clod.

Contemplating the actual depth of a 4ft post-hole.

Now this is a perfect dirt clod!

You might notice the butterfly on her cheek from attending BugFest the day before.

Now thats a deep hole!

Yup!

racing!

Haven't posted for a while so here a race update. The Homecoming 5k and 1 mile fun run was this past weekend. Amalia wanted to do the 1 mile so we signed her up. She did quite a bit of training in the weeks building up to the race so we knew she was ready for the race. Her biggest challenge was going to be pacing herself so that she could finish strong.

Pinning on her race number. If you pin on a number, its a race!

Camilo waiting by the pizza table for the post-race pizzas to be delivered. He was determined to win the race to the pizza!

Getting ready for the start. The race started and finished at Amalia's school so that was super convenient for us. The course was mostly on the Huckleberry trail, so Amalia knew what the course had to offer.

It was a beautiful fall day so Camilo brought his trucks and played in the dirt while Amalia raced.

No pics of the actual race but here is a recap. We started out slow and easy as we were aiming for negative splits (getting faster through the race). We were literally in last place of the 24 runners after 100m but we knew what we were doing. The last 1/4 mile was uphill and thats where champions are made! We slowly started to catch people and mover our way up. When we hit the hill on the way back we were moving well and didn't have to slow down at all. We passed lots of people. Amalia sprinted the last 100m to finish in 8:55 with a 9th place finish overall and FIRST in her age group.

Here she is getting her ribbon from the VT Homecoming King and Queen. I'm pretty sure she could have beat them in the race!

Afterwards, the kids got to play with the Hokie Bird.

 The kids thought this was the best part... or maybe it was the pizza.

Amalia showing off her loose tooth!

cool hawk!

On our last trip to Ecuador, we got to see a gray-bellied hawk when we were down in the lowlands. This amazing bird has only been seen about a dozen times in Ecuador, and only a few times ever. And we saw one eating a tinamou (a chicken-sized ground bird). We are currently writing a manuscript describing what we saw.

Check it out:
Gray-bellied hawk

Visit to D.C.

Earlier this summer we all went to DC for a few days. Lisa went to a conference at the NSF and the kids and I went around DC to visit the sites. DC is a great city to visit, lots of great restaurants and all the Smithsonian Museums are free to visit (not really free as our tax dollars pay for them but its money well spent). So here are some pics from our visit.

We first went to the National Zoo. Its a very nice zoo and since Lisa has collaborators there we got to go 'behind the scenes'. Here is Amalia feeding treats to the Maned Wolf.

Got to keep your distance from the cage. These wolves are from Brasil and have super long legs.

Amalia loved learning about them from the keepers who took us around. We also got to visit the cheetah breeding program but I didn't get any good pics of that.

Camilo was most enthused with the nachos! That was fun to clean up...

It was broiling hot the second day but we still braved the heat to visit some of the monuments. It was over 100 degrees and super humid. Here the kids are at the Washington Monument. We weren't allowed inside since the earthquake last year opened up some cracks.

I was able to convince the kids to wear their hats. There were also some sprinklers set up around the area to give people a chance to cool off. Super nice!

We then walked all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. Its a long walk for short legs on a hot day but we made it.

Lincoln in the background.

We spent a bit of time inside in the shade trying to cool off.

Amalia has been learning about Lincoln in school so she knew all about him. Camilo mostly wanted to eat snacks.

We then went into the Natural History Museum where it was nice and cool. I prefer the zoo as stuffed animals are a bit depressing but the kids thought they were cool. Amalia's favorite part was the human origins section. She wanted to lecture Camilo on human evolution but he was more interested in the interactive exhibits.

Dinosaurs are always popular!

Our last day we went to the Air and Space museum. Its was super hot outside so the museum was packed with people looking to escape the heat. This museum was super popular with the kids, especially the interactive exhibits.

Glad this isn't a real plane and I'm pretty sure we would be sick...

Kids posing under an early American plane.

Pretty prop and radial engine!

Amalia in front of the display for PB-Ys. I explained to her that her great-grandfather was a naval aviator and the navigator in one of these.

Camilo contemplating the merits of radial versus inline engines.

And that was our trip to D.C. Again, a great city to visit!

camping at Walnut Flats

Earlier this summer we loaded up the vanagon and went camping at Walnut Flats. This is a camping area a bit higher in elevation than here so a bit cooler. Here are a few pics.

Camilo and Amalia walking along the rock bridge at the swimming hole.

Tired Cohiba on the way home.

Standing on the rock bridge.

Camilo loved playing on the beach at the swimming hole.

Amalia was intent on taking the dogs in the pool. They weren't so excited about that prospect.

Amalia on the rocks.

The vanagon where we camped. The big problems were the RVs behind us. One night they fired up their generators and run them from 7pm-9pm. Drove us insane! Why would anyone need a generator when camping in the forest!?!?!?

Amalia with a cicada on her left sleeve.

Camilo at the swimming hole trying to get Romeo into the water.

Tired Franklin on the way home.

Tired kids on the way home.

Tired Romeo on the way home.