Cousins' Camp Part II

The girls slept late this morning so we must have worn them out yesterday. We started the morning with a good breakfast and then off to Mass. Larry had to count poor box and thrift store money for our parish Outreach group so the girls and I went out to the playground. After Larry finished we were off to one of our favorite places -- the Shenandoah River and the "scary bridge." Our grandkids love to skip (or throw) rocks in the river and then walk across the suspension bridge. So that's what we did.

getting ready for wading in the river

If you can't skip a rock, the next best thing is...

...a big splash!

Now that rock ought to really make a geyser!

Next destination is around the corner: The Scary Bridge!

Anya was afraid going across and was happy to get to the stairs on the other side.

A quick walk up and down and then back across the bridge.

Not so scary now. Every few steps she stopped to jump up and down and give a little body shake.

We met some critters on our outing.

A butterfly adopted Larry.

Is this fuzzy fella predicting a cold winter?

Our next outing was the Route 11 potato chip factory. They were doing a massive order for Costco -- sixty pallets of boxes. Wow!

Who wouldn't love a potato that makes such a yummy chip!

The second floor is where they add the flavors. They were making lightly salted today.

Talk about "loving" your potato chips -- barbecued for Lauren!

Marianna preferred sour cream and chives. "They're Mommy's favorite."

Home to swim before heading in to meet Lauren's mom in Centreville.

Finally mastering the doggie paddle and swimming in the deep end!

Two little mermaids cooling off.

And Lauren's working on her back dive.

Last stop: dinner at Glory Days Grill with Lauren's family. Anya kept begging for "just one more night" of cousins' camp, but Lauren has to get ready for swim team divisionals where she's hoping to break the team record in freestyle (two win an Ipod). Good luck, Lauren! Now we need a boys cousins' camp. How about it Brendan, Ryan, and Sean?

Mini Cousins' Camp

The past few days have been lots of fun! I'm never happier than when I'm with my grandkids, I look for opportunities for "cousins' camp" to get the young ones together. I've been trying to arrange them this summer without much luck. I tried to arrange for a boys camp with three brothers each from two families, but between soccer and swim team, vacations, etc. it hasn't worked out. But over fourth of July one little granddaughter begged to come out for "cousins camp" so I decided if I couldn't arrange a larger group, a "mini camp" was a great alternative. So Lauren and Anya are having a two-night sleepover with the daytime addition of Anya's little sister, Bianca, who's too young for over-nighting (except when a new baby arrives).

Actually, camp started on Saturday when Anya's mom met her sister to pick up Lauren. (Larry and I had a dinner for the 25th anniversary of AAA Women for Choice, a crisis pregnancy center where I used to volunteer.) We needed to get her Saturday because we had tickets to see The Little Mermaid at Winchester's Little Theater. So Sunday we went to the play and then came home to dinner, games, and a movie.

Today we had a great adventure that started with Mass. (Thanksgiving is always a good way to begin anything!) Then we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, came home and packed a lunch, and headed out to Marker-Miller Orchards to enjoy their super playground and pick blackberries.

Here's the adventure so far! And we have more fun planned for tomorrow. Check in to see the scary bridge and the potato chip factory.

Getting Ariel's autograph and a hug after The Little Mermaid

Cracker Barrel for artwork and breakfast -- Yum!

And a trip to Marker-Miller Farm. What a playground!

                       

A good little climber !

And another!

The sandbox is fun!

Piloting the pirate ship is fun too!

Lauren is the sweetest apple in the basket!

After lunch we're off to the blackberry patch.

It was a hard search. Most berries weren't quite ripe, but we finally got a basket full.

Paka makes a good engine.

Three hot little berry pickers choose cold drinks to cool off.

A pretty princess posing with the posies.

Bianca wanted her picture taken there too.

Lauren just wants to go home and go swimming!

I Missed St. Benedict's Feast Day and the Blessing of the Bees...

...since I was on retreat and we were using the calendar of the pre-Vatican II Roman Missal which offers a different saint on July 11th. But I'm praying the prayer for bees today. As a matter of fact, when I was out walking the grounds of the San Damiano Retreat Center in Winchester I saw honeybees working the white clover. It was a nostalgia moment because I remember when I was a child how dangerous it was to walk barefoot in the grass. The bees were all over the clover. Now, sadly, they are few and far between. But I snapped some shots of a few busy bees. (Hat tip to Darden for sending this!)

Catholic Prayer: Blessing of Bees on the Feast of St. Benedict 

The original Benedictine monasteries were usually self-sufficient, which means the monks had to provide for all needs. One thing that would be included in every monastery was beekeeping, to make beeswax for candles and honey for food and mead.

Although not the patron of bees or beekeepers, there is a Benedictine connection. Here is a blessing over the bees. This blessing is from the older form of the Roman Ritual.

St. Benedict's feast was formerly March 21, but it is now celebrated on July 11.

Prayer:

St. Benedict is the patron of bee-keepers, and those who themselves have bees could not do better than mark his day by praying for their hives. Farmers can pray for their cattle and their barns; fishermen for their fishing boats and the fish in the sea, why should bee-keepers do less? In some parts of France it was, and may still be, customary for bee-keepers to have a medal of St. Benedict affixed to their hives:

O Lord, God almighty, who hast created heaven and earth and every animal existing over them and in them for the use of men, and who hast commanded through the ministers of holy Church that candles made from the products of bees be lit in church during the carrying out of the sacred office in which the most holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ thy Son is made present and is received; may thy holy blessing descend upon these bees and these hives, so that they may multiply, be fruitful and be preserved from all ills and that the fruits coming forth from them may be distributed for thy praise and that of thy Son and the holy Spirit and of the most blessed Virgin Mary.

Prayer Source: Candle is Lighted, A by P. Stewart Craig, The Grail, Field End House, Eastcote, Middlesex, 1945