The Neptune Festival

Every year, the Boy Scout Troop in which our boys have flourished, heads to the boardwalk to raise some money and share scouting with the community attending the Neptune Festival!  This year we headed down on a cooler, cloudy weekend with thousands of other folks to sell water, soda and candy to people attending concerts, the art show, surfing contests and the sand sculpting competition.  Ian was the "barker" for the water during our volunteer session. 

Ian selling pure natural, ice cold water that was zero calories for only 1$!

Ms. Elaine and Ian surveying the scout snack shack!

a wee bit of rough surf didn't phase the seagulls one bit!

Charlie makes popcorn to give out to the kids attending the Neptune festival!

teams building sand sculptures

some of professional sand sculptures

These scantily clad ladies were selling body art and painting...seemed that many people had been visiting their booth because we'd see them walking down past the scout booth bedazzled! 



Cletic girls!  The detail on these works of art is amazing!



Neptune saves the day!!  A political statement!

This sculture was spectacular!  I was only able to get a photo of one side...the artist was from Holland.



This sculpture represented birth to death.





This one was too darned cute!  Below is the explanation of the sculture! 



The Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach!

Kim belongs to a sorority called Beta Sigma Phi, and her chapter, Alpha Rho do many things throughout the year,raising money and volunteering for various organizations and events.  This year, we decided to volunteer at the Rock'n'Roll 1/2 marathon out at Virginia Beach!  Of course, there was a concert after the race that we'd get to attend as well!  So, we all signed up, dragged a few spouses and Ian volunteered with me too! 

This picture is a bit blurry but hey, it was before 6am so gimme a break! This is looking out towards the beach where other volunteers were gathered to welcome the new day and await their assignments.

Ian and other members of Alpha Rho and spouses were gathered waiting for our assignment!

Lisa, Raquel, Cyndi , behind Cyndi is Christina and Ian 

Here comes the sun!

Our first assignment!  Separating the popsicles so single pops could be handed out to the runners as they finished the race!

After each were separated, they were boxed up and put in freezers to await the runners.

A pretty shot of the much needed Medical tent and the sunrise.

Raquel, showing us how it's done!  Rock on Raq!

Ian exercising his OCD by making sure the popsicles were carefully packaged back into the box and all pointing in the same direction!

Hey!  We ran into Thomas! One of Arrick and Ian's friends from school. He's also a paramedic!  Tracy continues to pull apart those dang popsicles!

Bananas lined up for the runners!! 

Iced water awaiting consumption!

I was stalking Thomas at another redcross tent! lol

Beautiful day for a race!  Truly, the weather was fairly cool, mid 80's and barely any humidity!

On to our next job!  The coordinator shouted she needed at least 10 people for "Beer Check"!  Well shoot, Alpha Rho folks jumped at that!  We later found out they needed people for GEAR CHECK! big difference!
This hot number was at the front of the line because it looked cool they said!

UPS volunteered their people and truck to check in, hold and check out runners personal items they couldn't take on their run.  For example, cell phones, shoes, water, socks, back packs etc.  This was Alpha Rho's job.  Match the number on the items checked with the runner's race number fastened to their shirt.  There were quite a few UPS trucks that day!  This is what Brown did at the 1/2 marathon!!

The items checked!

Joe, hanging out waiting for the runners to come and claim their belongings.

Towards the end as our truck was empty, we saw some sights. Some, Ian said, we should never have seen to begin with nor should we ever see again!  Some people were dressed in costume and others, well we thought they were costumes but probably not planned that way! 

Summer fun!

This is has been a summer filled with many things and events.  Some right in our own back yard.  Since I began a new job with the Navy this summer, we stayed pretty close to home working on projects around the house and just getting a few things done. 

Arrick worked this summer, saving his money for school, Ian went camping with his Boy Scout Troop in West Virginia.  They planned a week long trip to go white water rafting and other fun things on the water. 

Ian navigating the rapids

Ian high and dry?

that must be the "white" water part!

 John and I have toyed with the idea of a pool in our own back yard for quite some time.  It seems now days that people are shying away from in ground pools and some in our neighborhood were filled in so houses would sell more readily!  In any case, we opted for a larger above ground pool.  Nothing is as refreshing during a hot and humid Virginia summer than to jump in a clear, cool pool!  So, we did some investigating and found one on Craig's list! We got SUCH a deal!  I almost feel badly about it but it was what the previous owner wanted and it fit our budget with room to spare!

Ian enjoying the finished product!

The previous owner tossed in quite a few extras and this lovely floating chair was one of them!  It has two cup holders!! woohooo!!!

a much larger pump means a happier Kim and John!

 Unfortunately, John had to deploy before the pool was complete so he didn't even get to enjoy the results of his hard labor!  Ian and his friends and myself finished the pool and filled it.  When John returns he will put up the deck and we can landscape around and in the remaining back corner of the lot!  We have much more to do to finish up our yard but now we have a pool to jump into so we can cool off when we want to take a break!

It was a project that we couldn't have done alone.  Ian's friends pitched in to help!  These boys worked during the hottest summer we've had since we've lived here.  They only worked a bit each morning.  They were content with the big lunch and plethora of popsicles we had for them each day!

John was in his element working with the big toys while Ian was left with the ole shovel! Here they are removing the top soil and leveling the ground .

The pool AND partial deck that was included in the nominal price!  Oh, and our canoe I got for free.  That's another story!

Ian looking over the perfect circle He and  his dad mapped out!

The big empty spot in the back corner of our lot.  We have a large yard so we have plenty of space for our new pool!