Beach- Day 3

We spent our third full day of vacation at Assateague Island in Maryland! I blogged about it last year, it's the island where the wild horses roam! It's so fun driving on the island, because you never know what you're going to see! I totally fell in love with this little pony! I wish I could cram him in the camper and take him home with me!

The baby stayed close to it's mother at all times. They were to the left of the road and on the other side of the road was it's "pack."

 The baby just whinnied and whinnied and eventually the baby and it's mother decided to cross to the other side. As they were crossing, the horse (which you can see on the right came out to block traffic, so that the mother and baby could safely cross!

Apparently, (I read this information today) there is one male "leader" of the pack who protects the mares. This must be their leader. By the way, the lady to the left of the photo is "pony patrol!" lol

 Here they are all together, making their dramatic descent onto the parking lot! lol

 I could stand there all day long and just watch and photograph them! My husband makes fun of me and says that they are just horses, but it's not often that you see horses just roaming around free!

Ben and Alex enjoyed playing in the sand.

 And running from waves!

I enjoyed just sitting and relaxing! I think my pale stomach is just hilarious! This is the first time that my belly has seen the sun in probably 10 years! lol I may be a little too old to wear a bikini, but I worked my butt off this past Spring chasing those men around the hockey rink! lol And by the way my stomach is just as pale now as it was then! I used SPF 70 on it because I knew it would probably burn. It didn't burn and I didn't even get one tan line! :(

 I had to include this photo! It makes me laugh! Every time that I try to get a photo of me and my husband together, he always makes a funny face in at least one of the photos! lol

He said that this is his "stressed out from vacation" look! lol I did end up getting a nice photo after all!

 We decided to take a little walk on the beach and we came to a group of horses just taking a rest! lol I didn't get to see this last year, so it was quite a delight to come upon this! I guess they like to enjoy the beaches and work on their tan lines too! lol

 And as we were leaving we drove up to this group of horses who found a watering hole. We stopped and watched them. They jumped in got wet and went on their way! I know...they're just wild horses, but they are so fascinating to me!

We plan to go back to Assateague in the next day or two, and I cannot wait! 

Beach-Day 2

We're having a wonderful time in Maryland! Today we went into the town of Berlin to the Farmer's Market and to eat lunch at Rayne's Reef!

I absolutely LOVE Berlin! It's soo small town and reminds me alot of South Western Pennsylvania. The only difference is that all of our old stores are shut down and boarded up!

 Last year when we visited Berlin, I blogged about meeting this cute little Golden Retriever. Well guess what? He was in exactly the same place since I last saw him! Right in front of his owner's business! See him laying down outside the door? He is absolutely adorable! And I found out that his name is Brady!

 I talked again to Brady's owner (I apologize, because I didn't get his name) and he said that he has read my blog and recognized my boys! lol

This was very exciting because I have never met anyone who has read my blog before! :)

I love this shot of Brady, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, it looks like he is smiling as he basks in the sun!

I am going back into town in the next couple of days to take some photos. I'll have to get the owner's name.

 Here's me and Alex as we wait for our lunch at Rayne's Reef! They have the most delicious food in this quaint little diner! I had a tuna salad wrap, which was yummy, and Alex had french fries only! lol

 Chris had a tuscan chicken wrap, which he enjoyed, and Ben ate two hot dogs! Besides seeing Brady again, I think this little lunch spot is another reason I must go back to town in the next couple of days! ;)

 I love how beautiful and quaint this little town is! The details in the signs are amazing...everything is just amazing and wonderful to look at!

 And the store windows are dressed so beautifully as well!

 Last year when I had visited this store (Victorian Charm) she had a Vera Bradley window display. I was quite tickled when I saw this window display cause we all know how much I love Richard Gere! :)

At the bottom left of the window you can almost see the little white dog that is lying there. He lays there all day long, and was there last year as well! One little tip...he's not very friendly...not like Brady at all!

 After spending the afternoon in Berlin, we went back to the campground where we got these shots!

The boys had such a great time! And I look forward to going back to Main Street in Berlin sometime soon! I am going alone because there are a lot of antique stores and places where I do not want my 4 and 5-year-old inside! lol Oh and I plan to take my bike there are a lot of places that I want to photograph!

Tomorrow we are going to Asseategue Island...I cannot wait! :)

Beach-Day 1

Hello! This is our first full day at the beach! Oh how I've missed this place! No other campground has been the same ever since the first time we came here last year! We're at Castaways Campground in Berlin Maryland! It's in between Ocean City and Asseateague Island!

Today we spent the whole day at the campground. They have a bunch of organized activities for the boys so they were happy staying here for the day! Tomorrow we plan to go into the town of Berlin! I blogged about this town last year. It's where the movie "Runaway Bride" was filmed! That blog post happens to be one of the most read posts of mine ever! Not sure why, but it's a wonderful town and I could only dream of living there!

Here are some highlights from Day 1.

The boys really had fun playing on this inflatable bouncy thing out on the water. They said they were playing "Wipeout!" lol

 Here is Ben, his friend, and Chris walking out in the middle of the water on a sandbar!

 Me and Alex!

 Me and Chris.

 I love this photo because it wasn't taken in the way that it actually turned out. I was taking a photo of the seagull, but if you enlarge the photo or just glance at the specs on the bottom, it's Ben and Chris out on the water walking on a sandbar!

 I had so much fun painting on the beach! What a wonderful way to pass the afternoon! I absolutely LOVE how fast my watercolor paint dried!

 The boys having a blast playing in the sand!

Tomorrow should be a fun day! Like I said, we plan on going into the town of Berlin to the Farmer's Market. We're going to eat lunch at Rayne's Reef (YUM), and then we are going to Asseateague Island! I cannot wait to collect sea shells! Have a wonderful night!

A Peek Into My Art Journal

This is week 3 of my online "Sketchbook Delight" class! And I am loving it! Last weeks lesson was about finding your inspiration or "muse." I have realized that there are soo many things around me that are inspiring...that have great textures and beautiful colors! I really learned to open my eyes and see all the detail, that I normally overlook!

Last week I found some old corn cobs in our garage for our squirrel. They had such wonderful texture. I knew I must capture it in my art journal. It wasn't Indian Corn, but I love the colors of Autumn so I made it into Indian Corn! :)

 Another view.

And I have many inspiring photos on file that I have taken over the years. I have been looking back at old photos and they just speak to me now! I love putting them down on paper! I'm not a realist type of artist, I love the whimsical dreamy look of art, so that's how I create!

Here is a nest that was built by a killdeer in the middle of my sister's driveway! I love how unique it was and I am sooo glad that I was able to photograph it! I've been drawn to bird nests lately, so you may be seeing a lot more of them!

Here is my take on the bird nest. I journaled around the painting. I used watercolor, pencil, colored pencil, and markers.

Another angle.

And by far the most inspirational place I have been to recently was our trip to the beach this past summer! I didn't realize how inspired I was until after I came home and missed it tremendously! I cannot wait to go to the beach again this summer and take my watercolors and just paint on the beach!

Here was our view from the campground we stayed at called "Castaways" in Berlin, Maryland. We stayed on the bay side and in the distance you can see Assateague Island.

I should have varied the colors of blue, but since I am just beginning with watercolors I am ok with it. I had an inspirational moment and just went with it.

And I did the journaling on the sand.

Another view.

I religiously work in my art journal everyday! I have been going through some tough times lately, and art is a great escape for me! I am seeing the world with a whole new view, and I LOVE it! :)

POTD- Goat

I haven't done a "Photo of the Day" in such a long time! I hope to start doing them more often now since summer is coming to an end. It seems that we have so much going on in the summer and I'm always running to and from somewhere!

On our last camping trip we visited a restaurant/petting zoo called "Farmer's Inn." I've been going to this place ever since I was a baby and I enjoy going every year! I think it's great that my boys can enjoy the same place I enjoyed as a child!

Here is one of the cute little goats! They are always super friendly because they know that you are going to feed them! lol I just wish I could take this little guy home with me! He's a little too big though to fit in my purse! ;)
Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Tomorrow's Movie Monday! YAY! My favorite day of the week! ;)

Scripture Rocks

On our camping trip we stopped by "Scripture Rocks" in Brookville, PA. I have been camping in this area for 32 years and never knew this place existed until I read about it on an online blog! lol
That is the wonder of the internet! You can find almost anything on here! I'm going to give you a little background on Scripture Rocks before I share the photos with you.

In the 1890's a young school teacher by the name of Douglas Stahlman got in a fight with a man behind a local tavern in Brookville, Pennsylvania. The fight left him with part of his skull crushed.

In a medical procedure that was quite risky back in the late 1800's, doctors patched Douglas' skull with a metal plate. Whether it was the plate pushing on his skull or his near death experience, Douglas became obsessed with the scriptures that he read.

He took to the woods in the Brookville area and carved 500 individual scriptures among the rocks! Which is about 15,000 individual letters! It is truly amazing!

In the 1920's he was placed in a mental institution in Pittsburgh, PA. He remained in there until he died in 1937.

Thankfully the owner of the blog I read gave me detailed directions and the gps coordinates to find these rocks! If it wasn't for his help, we never would have found them!

We had to park on a back road, walk up the road a little, up a hill, and onto the remains of these railroad tracks.
We walked the tracks for several yards and came across the "Death Rock."

Here is a photo of the boys standing next to the rock, it gives you a little comparison to it's size. Ben was a little scared at first...he said "I think this place is booby trapped!" lol I think he plays way too many Indiana Jones Lego games on Wii! ;)

The moss covered rock is my favorite! I love how the moss grows in the letters! Sorry that this image and the next are sideways. They were not like that originally when I uploaded these. I'll have to leave them like this, because it's too hard to re-upload here on blogger.

Here is a close up of the rock with moss.

Locals have weeded the area to make it more accessible to visitors. Well sort of. It was really grown up in places when we went. We actually had to walk through weeds that were above our knees! I was a little nervous, especially since I was warned that the place was crawling with snakes! Luckily, we didn't run into any on our hike!

Here was a cross that someone made and erected among the rocks. It's a dedication to the man that hand carved all of these rocks!

This was a huge rock that my boys climbed. Can you believe that they actually climbed this all by themselves? I was a nervous wreck, because it was nearly a straight up slope! You can't really tell from this photo, but there were several verses carved on many different angles on this huge rock. And it's amazing how uniformed each of the letters are!

This rock is dated by Douglas. At the top it says: "July 30, 1913." If you glance at the lower left hand corner of the rock it is numbered on a yellow splotch of paint. Each piece that he carved is either numbered on the rock itself, or on the tree that is right next to the rock. They are all numbered and I would have loved to have went and found every single one, but I was soo sick that day. It was 90 some degrees, I had bronchitis, I couldn't breathe, and it was sooo humid in the thick woods. We stayed for about an hour and I just couldn't handle it anymore, so we left. I would have loved to have gotten better photos and stayed much much longer, but I just couldn't take it!

This photo I made black and white and increased the contrast, so you could see the different angles of scriptures. I would like to go back in the Fall when it is much cooler and take some paper and charcoal and do some stone rubbings!

We found a heart shaped stone on our hike! I had to keep it, I LOVE heart shaped stones!

Lastly, I had to include a photo of my happy little hiker Alex. Both boys did so well on this hike, and it wasn't easy! They walked through weeds almost as tall as they were, and climbed rocks and a steep hillside in 90 degree weather! And they never complained at all!

I also had to include this photo because my parents bought the boys these t-shirts with these funny sayings on them. Alex's says: "Don't look at me, that smell is coming from grandpa!" lol

We really enjoyed our trip to Scripture Rocks, we just wish we had more time to explore. It was so peaceful there and truly amazing, I hope to go back soon!

Camping-Part 2

We encountered a lot of cool things on our camping trip. The river had recently flooded and there was a lot of brush that washed ashore. My brother went over to the brush pile and was taking off some pieces when he came across this cute thing. He was actually pulling a piece of the pile when he nearly touched this duck!

She's so well camoflauged. Can you see her in the photo below? Look at the middle top of the pile.
Here's a closeup. She never budged just sat there on her nest patiently! Isn't she adorable?

We were visited two days in a row by some geese families. At one point there were twenty baby geese eating the grass!

So fuzzy and so adorable! I wanted to take one home with me!

I was about ten feet away, and that didn't bother them, but when a dog barked, they headed over the hill and into the river.

It's like they can't decide...should they stay or should they go?!

They decided to go!

I could spend all day watching them eat and swim!

Here are the two families of geese swimming together.

The babies bobbed up and down like those little carnival ducks that have a number on the bottom of them!

Here is a photo of the group of geese that we saw on our first day. There was a family with ten babies, two geese with no babies, and another family with ten babies. Such a wonderful sight to see!

Bird Nest update coming soon! WE HAVE BABIES!!!!!!