Tangier Island

Last weekend, we took the family on an overnight getaway to Tangier Island, a little island located in the Chesapeake Bay. I first learned of this island a few years ago when I worked at the Energy Office. My former colleague was working on a wind project with the island. For a while, Stacey and I have been wanting to go and take the kids. We drove to Reedville, VA to hop on the ferry for another 90 minute ferry ride to Tangier. I had no idea how HUGE the Chesapeake Bay is! The island is located 18 miles off the coast of VA. I was absolutely in awe of the bay. When we arrived, we were greeted by the owner of the B&B and were taken to the B&B via a golf cart. The island is only 2 miles long and 1/2 mile wide. No one has a car and the mode of transportation is either a bike or golf cart. It was so cool! Once we checked into the B&B, we rented a golf cart and toured the island and headed down to the beach for a bit. With the island being only 2 miles long, you can imagine that it didn't take long to tour the whole island. I think the highlight of our visit was riding the golf cart; the kids absolutely loved it. We also walked around a bit to check out some of the local shops and get a feel for some other things to do. After having a HUGE meal, we went back down to the beach to hang out and watch the sunset, took pictures of the kids, looked for seaglass (one of our favorite things to do at the beach), and walk around. On Sunday, we had a HUGE breakfast (boy, they sure know how to feed you there!) and ventured back out around the island. I can't tell you how many times we literally drove around Tangier. The kids loved riding the golf cart, so it was fun. We toured the local museum and learned a lot about the history of the island and its people. Afterwards we rented a kayak and canoe and took them out around the inlet of the bay for a little bit. The island was founded by John Smith in 1608 and most of the people are descendants from England and they have a little bit of an accent. In its heyday, the island used to have a population of over 1,000. Now the population is less than 500. The younger generation is leaving after they graduate and many do not come back. The way of life is mainly fishing (fish, crabs and oysters mainly). With the livelihood dwindling, many are struggling. Tangier is known as the soft shell crab capital of the world! Many people simply take the ferry for the day to just have lunch at one of the restaurants. It was just nice to be able to sit back and relax with very little to do, but to just enjoy the quietness of it all. So many times we feel that vacations can be more stressful than we want. This wasn't the case at all and it was great! We definitely recommend at least going out to visit Tangier Island. OUR BEAUTIFUL KIDS!!

School's Out.... Summer Fun!

Summer vacation has officially begun and aside from a stomach bug going around the house, it's off to a pretty good start. The kids' last day was a half day. When the bus pulled up to the bus stop I expected to see kids running off the bus screaming and in good cheer. I was surprised to see most of the kids quietly getting off the bus. I think I was the only one screaming and cheering!!! Jack and Evan did their usual race down the hill to see who could outrun the other. Lauren was a bit sad, but Caroline was really crying. Ms. Hineman leaving LCES hit her hard and she is really going to miss her. I felt badly for her over how upset Caroline was. After unloading their bags of schoolyear stuff, we headed up to Fredericksburg to see the afternoon showing of Madagascar 3. We always try to do something fun for the kids to celebrate the end of the school year. We all really enjoyed the movie - just as funny as the first two. Saturday, we pretty much enjoyed a relaxing day at the pool, which was followed by sleepovers. Jack went to Evan's; Lauren went to Julia's; and a neighbor friend spent the night here. Because summer camp doesn't start for 2 weeks, we have to manage to find ways to keep J&C busy and occupied without boring them to death. Lauren started back at the local Daycare and she couldn't wait to go back. She refer to it as her other school or the yellow school. LOL..... too cute. We have a number of weekend getaways planned for the summer, which are going to be fun! Our first getaway will be to Great Wolf Lodge this coming weekend, which will be followed by a few other trips. Nicky from Australia will be arriving at the end of the month for a 2-week visit as well. We will be posting pictures of all our summer adventures. Picture of Kids on Last Day of School

End of School Year Awards

We could not be MORE PROUD today...... Jack & Caroline had their last third grade awards today and they did stellar these last 9 weeks! Aside from receiving their Honor Roll awards, Caroline also received a Citizenship Award and Jack received a medal for perfect score on his History SOLs!!!! I was certainly beaming with pride today at the awards assembly and texting Mommy the whole time. I wish she could have been there this morning to see them get their awards. We are so proud of both of you today for your third grade accomplishments. You are officially FOURTH graders now! Oh my gosh....... Below are photos of each of them with their awards, but I also wanted to take a few others. Caroline and Ms. Hineman, her third grade teacher who has been absolutely wonderful for Caroline this year. We found out the other night that Ms. Hineman is moving and won't be returning to LCES next year. After putting the kids to bed, Caroline came back downstairs crying and told us the news. She was very sad that she won't see Ms. Hineman in the hallways next year. Ms. Hineman has been her favorite teacher so far. It was heartbreaking to see Caroline go through this the other night. The other photo is of Jack with his third grade buddies, Kyle and Nicholas. They have been buds since Kindergarten and absolutely love hanging out together. I hope they will continue to be friends and have lasting friendships for years to come. I look at the kids and realize how fast they are growing up and find myself with mixed emotions; happy to see them grow and develop into independent, mature, caring, smart, loving, kind people; but then sad realizing how quickly they seem to slipping away as they grow into themselves and find their identities. Pretty soon, they won't be 'needing' us. As parents, we will continue to do our best to guide them and prepare them for their future and hope for the best. We love you so very much and know you are going to do great in 4th grade. CAROLINE'S HONOR ROLL AWARD JACK'S HONOR ROLL AWARD CAROLINE'S CITIZENSHIP AWARD JACK's SOL HISTORY AWARD - PERFECT SCORE! CAROLINE & MS. HINEMAN JACK & HIS BUDS, KYLE and NICK

Lauren's Pre-K Graduation

Yesterday, Lauren officially graduated from Pre-K! Hard to believe our little girl is growing up. Time is going way too fast; I hate it. Stacey, myself and Gigi attended the Pre-K ceremony at the elementary school. After the 30 minute ceremony, we all went back to the classroom for some refreshments. Lauren's teacher, Mr. Scott has been absolutely wonderful for her. Lauren has grown up so much this past year. We were initially worried at the beginning of the year because she is going to be one of the youngest in her class. She had just turned 4 when Pre-K started. When Mr. Scott did his initial evaluation on her development, she only scored like a 24, when in fact, kids in Pre-K should have been getting scores of around 45-50. When we received her end of the year scores, she exceeded the scores. She received a 118 when the average range is about 84. We were absolutely thrilled. She has done so well this year in coming out of her shell, opening up, talking more, etc. Pre-K really helped her a lot and we are so glad she was able to have this year to not only grow, but to prepare her for Kindergarten. It is amazing what she already knows - all her ABCs, she can write her full name, is learning lots of great site words, and so much more. Meanwhile, over the past 3 weeks Jack and Caroline have been studying for their SOLs and this past week they took their tests in Reading, Math, Social Studies and Science. Overall, both have done very well this year. Jack who is normally on the Principal's List was just shy of making it each 9 weeks, but made Honor Roll each time! Caroline who is usually on Honor Roll, was just shy of making that, but was on Scholar's List each time. I think they are realizing that each year will progressively get harder which will require them to focus and spend more time studying. We couldn't be more proud of them though. They are all great students and we know they will continue to do well. We finally received Jack's art project that won him 3rd place for Creativity! Check it out. As this school year and chapter comes to a close, we will enjoy our summer of some weekend getaways and summer camps before the next school year begins. Our Pre-K Graduate! Our Budding Artist:

Fredericksburg Historic Half Marathon & Semper Fred 5K

In keeping with the spirit of running races, Stacey and I ran the Historic Half (me) and Semper Fred 5K (Stacey) last Sunday. This race began 5 years ago in the Fredericksburg region and we have both wanted to run this race for a number of years now. One of my goals after the transplant was to be able to run my first 1/2 marathon. I ran 2 marathons before (pre kids), and it's been a number of years since running this level of long distance. I wanted to challenge myself after the transplant and set a goal of running this race this year. I registered that I would run it in 2 hours, but had a personal goal of 1:45. My final race time was 1:44:48!!!! I couldn't believe it, I was so psyched. Stacey did great as well with her 5K. Her time was right around 47 minutes. She is not a runner by nature, but gosh darnit, she does it and finishes and I AM PROUD OF HER!! She has run a couple of 10K and I am trying to get her to consider doing 15K and work herself up to this challenge. I think I will continue sticking to the 1/2 marathons. They are not that bad to run and I can easily do one. I think I am going to do 2 more this year. I would also like to look into doing a sprint triathlon. ME and STACEY

ME and MIKE

OUR MEDALS!

Great Train Race 2012

Racing season has begun for the Broughton family with the kids running the annual Fredericksburg Great Train Race & Caboose Run. Jack and Caroline ran the Train Race (1 mile) and Lauren ran the Caboose Run (1/4 mi). They all did great and we couldn't be more proud of our little runners. Jack came in 12th out of 86 boys in his age group with a time of 6:54 Caroline came in 71st our of 125 girls in her age group with a time of 8:53 Although the race does not time the Caboose Run, Lauren came in 13th out of her age group. We are not quite sure how many kids ran the Caboose Run. Regardless, they all did fantastic!! All around we had a great day and hopefully the kids will want to run another race this year. Stacey and I will be running the Fredericksburg 1/2 Marathon on May 20th; she is running the Semper Fred 5K and I will do the 1/2 Marathon. Can't wait! I absolutely love how the family runs together! It's great.. KIDS WITH THEIR MEDALS:

RACE BIBS AND MEDALS

School Awards

Jack and Caroline had their school awards yesterday and we couldn't be more proud. These awards are for the third 9-week period. Hard to believe there is only 7 weeks left of school and they will be in 4th grade. Wow.... Caroline did a great job this past semester and made Scholars List! Jack made Honor Roll and was just shy of making Principal's List. We were surprised at the award ceremony that Jack also received an award for his Art project. He placed 3rd for Creativity! We had no idea and still haven't seen the actual artwork yet. We can't wait to see it though. They are now in the last few weeks of school and we have made it a goal for both of them to make Principal's List and we know they can do it! Summer is almost upon us and Stacey and I are going through our summer schedule and trying to arrange trips here and there. Aside from summer camp and much needed pool time, we plan to do a variety of things and will try to plan at least one cool thing to do each week. We have a few ideas already, but still need to fill in a few more things to make the summer complete. Our Young Scholar Award!!

Our Honor Roll Recipient!!

Our Young Starving Artist!!