Fishing and Camping

We have been one with nature lately. A few weeks ago Eric took Lexi and Luke down the the neighborhood pond to see if they could catch anything. After digging up some worms from the compost pile, they grabbed their nets and poles and headed down. Eric got Lexi's rod set up but before he could get the worm on Luke's rod, Lexi was reeling in a fish! Of course Luke got impatient and started saying "My turn, my turn." Eric had a great time spending a little time with his niece and nephew :-)

Then this past weekend, we combined a camping trip with a sad farewell to a dear friend's dad. Our good friends the Christophel's received news 6 weeks ago that his father had pancreatic cancer. Although they believed it was terminal, the doctors gave John 6-8 months to live. Unfortunately, his time was much shorter than that. John passed away last week. The beautiful funeral was held on Saturday morning in Elkton, VA. We didn't know John very well, but it touched us very deeply when he passed. Jesse always has been a wonderful friend, and through the years of getting to know Jesse we also got to know a little about John both through stories Jesse told us about growing up and through the character that John and MJ instilled in Jesse.

After attending the funeral, we headed up to Luray to camp with my parents. They camp site was a little bit of a hike, but well worth it. No one was around us and the dogs were able to run free. The boy fished and as you can see below they both caught a good one! Mom and I chatted and walked and swam with the dogs. We saw lots of birds, an adult otter and a little baby otter. The baby was so cute only 6 or 7 inches long. Also, Jada showed us her new trick...diving for tennis balls.

After camping we headed to the Christophel farm for a visit. This was our first time at the farm and it was beautiful! We spent some time chatting and looking at pictures the family took before John passed. It was difficult circumstances to visit under, but it was good to spend some time with the family.