Wet Week!

Yes, it was another wet week (in more ways than one), but we still had a great time hanging out together! 

Our excitement about going to the River Pool in Kate's Kingsmill neighborhood was almost dashed when we arrived at AFCC on Tuesday morning in the rain. ☔ Kate's mom, Elizabeth, told us not to worry, that we could swim in the indoor pool if need be...but we really wanted to hit that River Pool and the lazy river.  Once we arrived, it was indeed raining, but since there was no thunder or lightning, the pool was open and we went for it!  After all, we were going to be wet anyway, right? 😄

The pool was a lot of fun and we had it all to ourselves!  Enjoy a lot of pictures from our fun day:

The hot tub was popular!  Isn't it always more fun when it's not crowded?

Chris and Xavier enjoyed the beach ball!  The water was just right and again, much more fun when it's not crowded.

So much fun in the lazy river!  Laura spent most of her time here.

Kate told us we would love the lazy river, and she was right!  (It's also MUCH more fun when it's not crowded! 😊)

Kacie is cool in her shades...even though she didn't really need them!

Patrick and Alexis doubled up!

At times, our friends were in the water, and at other times, they were "rainbathing."  (Which is what you do when you sit by the pool on a rainy day!)

More hot tub time!

Drew enjoyed sitting by the lazy river and waving to his buddies!

This pool is just the right size for us!

Did we mention we had it all to ourselves?!

Kate's dad, Mark, pointed out the scenic view to Laura.  They were atop the crossover bridge.

We shot a little video...

Here's our group picture just before we left.  What we feared might be a washout turned out to be a fabulous time!  Many thanks to Kate and her family for hosting us and we can't wait to do it again next year!

We used our computers on Wednesday to create thank you notes for Kate's family.  It works well to put our friends into small groups.  Some of them work on their own, and some of them enjoy help from staff.  Check out Chris using both hands on the keyboard!

Alexis and Patrick crafted a beautiful note.  They wrote a rough draft ("sloppy copy") on paper first, so the typing went pretty quickly after it was edited.

We continue to work with our friends on inserting and formatting pictures in a Word document.  Kacie and Kate added three pictures to their thank you note!

In our educational groups, Becky helped Sam, Patrick, Cameron, and Kate review fraction concepts.

Lisa worked with Liz, Kacie, Bo, Chris, and Alexis on counting change.

It was great to welcome Patti back for yoga after her bout with bronchitis.  She introduced us to chair yoga today!

We thought chair yoga would be easier than floor yoga...and in some ways it was.  Having the chair to help with balance was good for many of our guys.  But we still got a great workout and could definitely feel it in our cores!

Devin has come so far in his yoga practice.  Look at his beautiful tree pose! 🌲

You know someone is engaged when she moves her chair over to be Patti's assistant!  She's leading us in a lunge pose.  You go, Laura! 👏

Thursday was a big day for our associates as they took over lunch preparation from start to finish!  They were divided into three groups:  placemats, pasta salad, and sandwiches.  After getting their directions, they went to work getting our lunch ready.

Sam, Kate, and Chloe chopped lots of veggies for a pasta salad.  Colorful and nutritious!

The sandwich team consisted of Kacie, Alexis, Chris, and Liz, who took orders for sandwich type from their friends and then organized themselves into an assembly line to put them together.

Patrick, Kevin, Drew, Laura, Xavier, and Devin were tasked with making place mats for everyone.  The saying was "We are kind to one another."

We also needed someone to put gaskets on a few parts for Eaton so we could finish the May order.  Bo was happy to work at this table!

They are proud of the pasta salad!  It was very tasty!!

All the sandwich orders were prepared correctly!  No unsatisfied customers!

Here are the beautiful place mats, which added a nice touch to our tables!

During group work, Drew and Devin worked on addition facts.  Devin was pretty certain about this answer!

Laura, Kevin, and Xavier worked on addition too.  They are trying to find the missing addends.

We are kind of bummed that none of our painted rocks have been posted on Facebook yet.  😕  We know some of them have been found because Lisa has noticed them missing out and about on her travels.  We'll continue to check, and we'll paint more in the weeks to come.  Hopefully the people who found them smiled...even if they didn't post!

We ended the day on Thursday with an online game called Emoji Challenge.  The object is to guess the name of the movie by using the emoji clues.   We enjoyed this!

Friday was National Doughnut Day so we made our own!  It was a fun treat!

James stopped by to pick up some the parts we had worked on for Eaton this week, just in time to receive a bag of warm doughnuts!  He was pretty happy for a Friday treat, too!

We worked on our June calendar and then had some spare time before lunch.  Kacie suggested a game of Bingo and Devin was the first winner.  He was pretty excited to win an American flag!

After lunch we took a short ride to Newport News Park to visit the Discovery Center.  It's a small, but interesting, exhibit, which features information and displays on all kinds of critters native to our area.

Laura was interested in learning about the raccoon and owl shown here.

Chris pushed a button and Devin and Kacie noticed it lit up a horned owl.  This was a display about nocturnal animals that make sounds we may hear at night.

Kevin touched a snakeskin.  Alexis thought about it!

Kacie brought along her camera and took lots of pictures, including one of these bird eggs.  There were many drawers we could open to see things like eggs, feathers, nuts, turtle shells, and fossils.

Bo enjoyed reading about the various displays.  Sam touched samples of animal fur, including deer, rabbit, and fox.

The Discovery Center also rehabilitates injured or orphaned animals.  We went to the outside exhibit and saw ducks, squirrels, and birds that were in the process of being prepared to be returned to the wild.

If you look closely you can see a butterfly that we watched light on these flowers repeatedly.  We decided it must have been very hungry!

Even though the Discovery Center is small, it was an interesting place to spend some time on a very hot Friday afternoon.  While at NN Park, we also stopped by the Newport News Visitors Center and picked up some information that can help us plan future trips to many places in Newport News and the surrounding cities.  That was exciting!  We missed being able to take a hike, but it was nice to end a mostly wet week with a sunny, if incredibly hot and muggy, day! 🌞

We've got plans for next week.  Here's what's up:

Tuesday:  We are doing a double outing today, and the weather forecast looks absolutely gorgeous!  First, we visit the MGs at the Botanical Garden at Freedom Park.  We will eat lunch there, so bring a bag lunch.  After lunch, we will head over to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for our monthly visit with Christina.  (She has to travel on our usual day, Thursday, so we rescheduled for today.)  Please wear Arc shirts!

Wednesday:  We'll have some fun today celebrating Yo-Yo Day!  (Do our guys even know what a yo-yo is?!)  It's also Yoga with Patti Day, so dress to stretch.  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  The highlight of today will be our celebration of Chocolate Ice Cream Day!  We will use our ice cream machine to make it from scratch.  So lunch on your own but chocolate ice cream for dessert!  We will also learn about our eyes today. 👀

Friday:  It's Best Friends Day and Upsy Daisy Day...which means we will have fun hanging out with each other and treating the day as a gift!  We'll work together to prepare a lunch of BLT sandwiches with homemade potato chips.  After lunch, we will enjoy an afternoon at New Quarter Park.  The long range weather forecast looks awesome! 🤞🤞🤞

🏌🏌🏌REMINDER (more info forthcoming):  Saturday, August 4th - The Women of the Moose are sponsoring a golf tournament at the Kingsmill River Course that will benefit The Arc!!  This has potential to be a HUGE fundraiser for us, so please consider signing up or being a sponsor.  ALSO, we will need some of our AoA associates to volunteer on that day. 🏌🏌🏌

🏃🏃🏃 AND, not to be MISSED, our 9th Annual Williamsburg Landing 5K for The Arc is on October 6 this year.  This is our biggest and most important fundraiser, so please save the date and plan to run/walk and/or sponsor.  All the info you need can be found at this link, and we are live for registration, too! 🏃🏃🏃

9th Annual Williamsburg Landing 5K for The Arc

Have a great weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan