Anna Grows

Artist Point Westward Ho!  That was the Fagella family vacation cry this year as they headed west to the wilds of Montana and Wyoming for a vacation in  beautiful Yellowstone National Park.  Instead of traveling by stagecoach, they went by aircraft (although there were moments a stagecoach seemed like a better option) and instead of pitching a tent, they rented a cabin for the week.  Transportation upon arrival was not a horse, but rather a Buick  Regal, complete with satellite radio.  The supplier of choice was not the General Store, but rather the Super Wal-Mart in Billings, Montana (in keeping with remoteness, the nearest Wal-Mart was 70 miles from Yellowstone).  Despite all of the modern conveniences, there was plenty of adventure in store for the week. Anna & Charlotte from Vienna at the Bear Tooth Highway The adventure began with attempting to get to the Baltimore airport to catch a flight.  Why would anyone want to drive to Baltimore on a Friday afternoon?  Well, t

Gabby the Pirate Anna recently completed two weeks of camp at Harmonia School for the Arts in Vienna.  Every summer she looks forward to this camp, in which she gets to paint, work with clay, learn a new instrument (this year it was guitar) and participate in a musical production.  The grand finale is the musical performance on the last day of camp.  This year's show was Captain Bree and her Lady Pirates .  Anna auditioned and got the role of Gabby the talkative pirate (we think there may have been some type-casting). As you can imagine, putting together an entire musical in two week time with kids ranging in ages from 6 - 14 is quite a challenge.  The kids helped build the set and make the costumes.  Anna had a number of lines to remember and a couple of solo lines in the songs.  It was a fun production, although a bit lengthy (and that was after skipping 3 pages of the script because the kids could not remember lines).  Anna had a great time and is looking forward to her ne

The Grandparents with Anna & Aidyn The last week of July marked one of Anna's favorite vacations of the year:  a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Joe and Theresa loaded up the suburu to make the weekend drive to Ohio to drop Anna off.  As an extra bonus, cousin Aidyn was also there for the weekend so that they could hang out. Anna had a great time!  She and Aidyn raced their scooters and road bikes all over town with Grandpa.  Biking with Aidyn is its own thrill ride as he weaves through the streets looking at whatever thing strikes his fancy.  Theresa and Joe ended up serving as bike escorts to keep him corralled and out of on-coming traffic.  Anna and Aidyn also spent a lot of time racing remote control cars.  As the weekend wore on, they fell into brother/sister mode and began to irritate each other.  By Sunday, Anna concluded that she was very lucky to be an only child.  We are not sure if Aidyn drew the same conclusion. Anna bringing in the harvest Mo