Ellicott City Revisited

In July, we took a guided tour of Ellicott City.  We had originally scheduled the tour for a date that ended up being right after the flood and much of the road was still closed off.  Since the tour is monthly, we postponed it a month and fortunately Main Street was open by then.  We started up near the Museum where Jocelyn and I have gone to the Children's programs, and ended at the bottom of the hill at the B&O Railroad Museum.  This was the first really good look we had at the damage done from this second flood.

These two pictures are what our tour guide called "the gorge", the area of Ellicott Mills Road that completely washed away, and the area behind the Thomas Isacc Cabin.  It was so much larger than I had imagined.

All up and down Main Street we saw markings on buildings like these on the Howard House, that were made by First Responders making sure no one was trapped in the building by flood waters.

In the center of this photo is the vertical sign for Caplans.  Sadly, last week the announcement was made that all the buildings from Caplans down to right before the B & O Railroad station, will be torn down.  I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, but it makes me so sad at the loss of history.

This building is right before Caplans.  It used to be a bank and you can see in the center what was once the vault.  It is not supposed to be demolished, but restoration will be a huge task as water flowed from the back windows through the building and out the front windows onto Main Street.

Everywhere we went, we saw these stars.  They came from Stars of Hope -  http://starsofhopeusa.org/hopealert-for-ellicott-city/   and they were something special to see amidst all the devastation.  This one was one of my favorites.

After our tour we stopped in the B & O Railroad Museum.  This is one of the stops for the summer Passport book, and we wanted to take the tour. 

Ellicott City has a long way to go to recover from the flood and it will be so sad to see the buildings come down, but there is so much strength and courage from the people who live and work there.  You can only have hope, as they do, that it will be enough to bring the town back.

Summer fun in 2018

Summer has flown by and 5th grade starts in a week and a half, but it's time to look back on the fun we've had.

Pat and I got a date night and did some painting.  I think we did pretty good!

Jocelyn got in some crafting of her own at pottery camp.  She loves this camp!  We can't wait to see the finished products when they are dried and fired.

We haven't been able to get back to the horse farm as much as we wanted because we've been busy or it's been too hot, or raining.  Seriously, we're volunteers!  We get to pick and choose what weather we're game for!!  On the day we took this picture, it was too hot, but we managed to find a chore that involved water, so by the time we got home, we were pretty gross - sunblock, bug spray, sweat, water, and some other substances we probably don't want to identify!!  But we had fun and can't wait to go again!  (We offered a great big hug to Pat when we got home, but for some reason, he turned us down??)

We worked in a tour through Ellicott City.  It was interesting and educational, but also sad to see the destruction from the flood.  More on that in another post...

At Pets and Vets camp, Auntie brought in Mollie for show and tell and some kid loving!

A few of our Girl Scout friends joined us for a Children's Tea at the Historical Society Museum.

No summer is complete without spending some time with our friends.  It's so great to hang out with Colin and Nicki, and Lily and Ann.  I love that we have been friends for so long.  It's wonderful to see our kids grow up together.

What is summer without ice cream??  Well, certainly not as much fun!  We made some new discoveries at the store.  Coconut and Almond milk ice creams in flavors like cookie dough and mint chip!!  And the best part is coconut milk Cool Whip!!!  Awesome!!  And of course, no pottery camp week is complete without a stop in the one and only ice cream shop that makes dairy free chocolate ice cream!

Summer 2018

Our summer is off to a busy start!

Jocelyn had a play date with her buddy Kate, and we saw Incredibles 2 with Lily and Colin and families.

We finished our training to volunteer at the Horse Rescue Farm.  Mucking stalls, stocking hay, brushing Nugget and picking out his hooves.  Hot, dirty and sweaty work, but Jocelyn loved every minute and can't wait to go back in a couple weeks.

We got to say "Hi" to Barney!

Then it was off to PA for a visit with Pat's family, including fireworks for the 4th of July and a fight to the death whiffle ball game...  guess who won??

 Stay tuned for more summer fun!

10 (and almost a 1/2) Year Photos

We were a little late getting these photos taken this year... ok, a lot late.  But taking them outside in a pretty spring dress made it all worth while.

I met the photographer as a friend of a friend a couple years ago.  She's such a great photographer and she does a fantastic job of capturing Jocelyn's personality.  Enjoy!

Gus, of course, had to get in on the act!

I fear some of these photos bring out the teenager!   Noooo!!!

It's Over!!

4th grade is over and we couldn't be happier!!
Technically, schools are not done until Tuesday, but Jocelyn is done!  She is so relieved to be out of that class, and so excited to be going to Programming Roblox Camp starting tomorrow, for a week.

On Thursday I volunteered my last time for the year, so we ate breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, and then brought in the gifts for Jocelyn's teachers, and took a couple pictures.  Miss. Dorchak (left), math, science and home room, was a very sweet teacher, but fought the battle with Jocelyn all year long with a difficult class.  Mrs. Lee (right) was Jocelyn's Language Arts teacher and helped her grow leaps and bounds in this area this year.  Jocelyn is really going to miss her and I'm going to really miss her teaching style.  She's been amazing!

The last day of school was a great way to end the year.  The 4th grade had an extended recess which was a great time for Jocelyn to hang out - literally - with two of her best friends, Kate and Ryan, then she said her goodbyes to Mrs. Rowe, the GT Science teacher that brought Jocelyn into the Animal Antics and Crazy Contraptions sessions that she loved.  Then I wrote "Running Away" on the early dismissal sheet and we escaped for good to have lunch at Jocelyn's favorite restaurant Red Robin.   We've never been more relieved to see the end of a school year.  On to a fun and exciting summer!!