Hurricane Sandy

With the preparations all of my Facebook friends were making and all the talk on the news and weather websites, I started getting nervous about Hurricane Sandy.  Then the storm approached and it never seemed to rain especially hard, just constantly.  Monday night the winds really picked up, but we've lived in Kansas and we grew up in California where Santa Ana winds are big and strong this time of year.  It didn't seem especially unique, just a bad storm, not a hurricane.  Tuesday morning we drove down to Richmond so we could Trick or Treat with the cousins on Wednesday.  I logged into Facebook and saw the pictures some different people from our ward posted of the field where the kids play soccer.  It's a giant lake!  The smallish river at the edge of the field over ran its banks and the soccer fields are sort of a flood basin.  The result:

 There shouldn't be any visible water on these fields.  There's a teeny stream that sometimes has water in part of it at the base of this hill.  Otherwise, the creek/river is at the far far end, behind the trees to the left.  Not visible at all, Buddy only discovered it was there last week because they were practicing at one of those fields and a soccer ball got kicked into the trees and it turns out it went into the river. 

Air and Space Museum

Princess Sparkley's Girl Scout troop visited a pumpkin patch yesterday afternoon, and rather than pay for the boys and I to get in ($9/person) we took advantage of the free parking at the Air and Space Museum (after 4pm) by Dulles.

We got there just before the Observation Tower closed at 4:30. It's probably our favorite part.

It was neat that we got to see the Space Shuttle that flew over us a few months back.

The museum closed at 5:30pm, we had to pick up PS 11 minutes away at 6pm.  Traffic was HORRIBLE.  It took us 50 minutes to make it to the pumpkin patch.  Luckily all the other parents were stuck in traffic also.  And then we still had to get home... 

Air and Space Museum visit - May 2010

Air and Space Museum visit -  September 2009

Shenandoah Colors

10/16

On Tuesday, we drove up to Shenandoah National Park to see the fall colors.  We also saw a bear!!  We drove along Skyline Drive, starting in Front Royal, got to Matthew's Arm Campground and turned around to head back.  At one point, a car was stopped with its hazard lights on going the other direction.  We couldn't figure out why until we went past and saw the black fuzzy blur in the bushes on our side of the road.  A bear!  We U-turned and tried to spot it again (only half of us saw it) but it has made its way too far away from the road. 

Mystery Baby has a love/hate relationship with the car.  If we can manage to get him to sleep, he sleeps wonderfully.  But most of the time, he just screams.  On this longer trip, we finally got him to sleep and he stayed in the car for the photo ops, hence the photo of him sleeping in his car seat.

New car with its new license plate (and Romney bumper sticker).

We stopped for apple donuts at The Apple House on the way home.

Mitt Romney

 Photo sources: local news

We found out about a week ago that Mitt Romney was making a campaign stop in town today and tickets were free.  B ordered 5 tickets figuring either the baby wouldn't be here yet, or if he was, the baby and I would stay home.  No baby.

B got even more excited when Romney announced in Norfolk, VA this morning that Paul Ryan would be his running mate.  B likes Ryan more than he likes Romney so he was excited that we'd probably get to see Ryan today.  

After reading books to dogs at our library, B going on a run while Buddy and Princess Sparkley rode their bikes alongside, and then B and Buddy mowing our front lawn, we headed out to see Mitt.

It wasn't an especially hot day (I think the high was 87) so it could have been way worse, but it was pretty miserable, especially two days past my due date. 

"Doors" opened at 2.  I think we parked and got in a super long line around 2:20.  By the time we got through security, it was 3:15.  Liquid wasn't allowed, which was annoying, but they had some water stations once we were through security.  Mitt was supposed to show up at 3:45.  At 3:45 the mayor welcomed us.  Then some woman gave a 10 minute prayer, which included a laughing point.  Then every local elected Republican spoke for 10-15 minutes.  Then they went back to music for awhile.  Then Governor Bob McDonnell spoke and introduced Paul Ryan.  It's about 5PM.  Then Mitt Romney.  B held our kids up so they could catch glimpses of Ryan and Romney through the crowd (and bay of cameramen that didn't stand and set up their cameras until after the audience was situated behind them). 

Photo source: friend E.J. (we didn't get to see the buses)

Our pictures:

Buddy had a Mitt Romney pin that Grandma and Grandpa M mailed us from an event they went to in Ohio.  And some congressman's people were handing out tiny American flags so the kids each got one.  Little Guy was cute holding his as high as he could and waving it around, but he stopped every time I tried to get a picture.  Princess Sparkley wanted a shot of my belly.  Not me, just the belly.  The kids were troopers even though it was hot, boring and they were thirsty.

Cupcakes

 The girls made and decorated these cupcakes completely on their own.



4th of July

The cousins invited us down for the Fourth of July so we headed down Tuesday the 3rd, watched their swim meet, stayed up too late and woke up bright and early (sort of) for their neighborhood's parade, followed by swim party.

(flipped the picture so the tattoo was correct)

We all got super sunburned after close to 5 or 6 hours at the pool.

We came home, showered, ate dinner and headed to Ray's for custards and shaved ices.

 Guess who got a shaved ice - blue raspberry.

Then a minor league baseball game where we watched the Flying Squirrels play the Mets.

It was SUPER hot and we were all tired and sunburned.

But it was worth it for the fireworks after the game.

Pet Groundhog

We recently discovered two groundhogs that crawl under the fence from our neighbor's yard (where we believe their burrow is) into our yard (one at a time) to munch on our "lawn." 

I had to look the up online to see what they were. They must not have ground hogs out west because these creatures are totally foreign to me so when we looked out the window and saw this enormous rodent, we were hesitant to know what to call it but I was pretty sure it had to be a ground hog, and it is.

I like watching the bigger one chomp the dandelions.  We were excited to have these "pets" but after our big derecho storm last week, we haven't seen them.  We're not sure if they have retreated from the heat, or if the neighbors have done something to get rid of them. 

Firehouse Tour

6/21

Our ward has a park day group and over the summer, they planned a field trip to the downtown fire station of a nearby town.  We tagged along for the fun.  Little Guy didn't want to squirt the fire hose but the two big kids did.

Shenandoah National Park

We drove to the northern part of Shenandoah National Park, visited the visitor's center there and then went on a shortish hike to an old cemetary.  We saw some interesting insects and two deer as we got back to the road.  When we first arrived at the vistor's center, a ranger showed us on his digital camera a film he'd gotten at about 6:30 that morning of a mama bear and her two cubs walking along Skyline Dr.

Marine Corps Museum

We took Grandma and Grandpa L to the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle (Quantico) VA.  They were really impressed and the kids were excited to see the new Chesty the bulldog mascot areas especially for kids.

The Playroom

It's been almost a year since we moved, and the bottom level is finally clean enough to photograph.

The much anticipated...playroom.

This is the level of our house you enter on.  It's sort of like a walk out basement, except it's all above ground.  There's an unfinshed section that B uses as his office.  There's a laundry room.  And there's an under the stairs closet.  And this giant bonus room. 

Birthday Hike

Some of the National Parks and Battlefields were free this week so we thought Buddy would enjoy going for a little hike for his birthday.  Except Saturday's forecast looked rainy, so we went on Friday and made it also into a mini-field trip learning about the Second Battle of Manassas (which we just learned about in our Civil War studies).

Little Guy took a lot of these pictures (flowers, me, etc.).

Space Shuttle Discovery

The Space Shuttle Discovery is retiring and will be displayed at the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport so it had to fly here, piggyback on a 747 from Florida.  It did a bunch of fly overs in DC and up near the airport, but we're sort of on the flight path to Dulles, so rather than fight crowds, we found a big empty parking lot with a big sky view and waited for it.  And we saw it.  It flew directly over us, really low once and then circled back by in the distance a second time.  It had a little NASA jet escorting it. 

I took some pictures with the camera the first time, and the second time I grabbed our video camera but it was pretty far away that time so the video isn't great.

We came home and watched it land online while the kids drew pictures. Here are the kids' renditions:

Lego/Shuttle 3D art

 by Buddy

 by Buddy

 by Princess Sparkley

 These last three are by Little Guy.  The 3rd picture is all the fighter jet bad guys.  There weren't really any fighter jet bad guys.  It all went very smoothly and without incident.  He just likes bad guys.  Lately, this includes him randomly telling us "I like the Gadianton Robbers."  That's the part of the Book of Mormon were in as a family.

Richmond

We went for General Conference Weekend (3/30-4/2) in Richmond.  Grandma and Grandpa M were there.  Uncle G and B ran the Monument Ave 10K again.  Princess Sparkley attended a drama camp at the high school with cousins S and Pickles.  The girls made Baklava (Grandma M's Easter Greek tradition) with the grandparents.  The kids played the Wii, watched the Chipwrecked movie, played with Mollie Doodle, and we ate a lot of yummy food.  I didn't take very many pictures though.

Aunt H, Buddy, Little Guy and I went to the race to cheer on the runners.  This is the only picture I got.  We got rained on, cheered for G and B, saw a lot of dogs, and some fun runner costumes.



Video coming soon (we hope).
||||||While we were at the race, the three oldest kids went to a drama camp and then we went to that performance. PS starts out 4th from the right. Cousin Pickles is 2nd from the right.||||||

Baklava

Mollie Doodle is getting bigger!

We stopped at Sam's Club on the way home and the kids shared an Icee.  I like how Little Guy's creepy eye is peeking at the camera.

Little Guy hurt his left leg somehow on Saturday.  At bedtime he complained that it hurt a little.  By Sunday morning, he refused to walk and had to be carried everywhere.  He would cringe if he had to put weight on it or if in moving him, you hurt him.  But he'd kneel on both legs to play Legos.  At bedtime he had me help him roll over on to his stomach, etc.  On Monday morning, as we were packing up to leave he started to put some weight on it and would limp around.  By Monday night, he was using it with a heavy limp.  Tuesday a slight limp.  Wednesday a slight limp.  Thursday, he seems fine and told me it doesn't hurt anymore.  No idea what he did to it!

Grandma and Grandpa came over to see our place Monday night (4/2) and had dinner with us before heading out for a business meeting early the next morning somewhere in Pennsylvania.  It was a big treat for the kids to have them visit.

Hiking in Shenandoah

3/23

Princess Sparkley had a Girl Scout campout near Shenandoah, but didn't want to spend the night.  She drove down with her troop and a few hours later we headed in the same direction and hiked with the boys in Shenandoah NF (Doyles Falls and ___ hikes). 


The first part of the hike is a very steep decline, during which we were drizzled on the entire way.  And we didn't really dress for rain, or cool weather.  Oh well, we survived.

Scenic shots. 

We sent B across the stream to get the pretty

purple flowers with the waterfall in the background.

We did a loop that was two trails together.  B and I did the first hike, Doyles Falls, last May when we went camping on our own.  Roundtrip, this hike was 8.5 miles.  Little Guy and I gave up (he's four after all, and I'm 20 weeks pregnant) at 5.5 miles and waited in a parking lot 3 miles down the road from our car while B and Buddy high-tailed it 3 miles on the Appalachian Trail to the parking lot where our car was.  Little Guy and I sat in the parking lot, swatting bugs away, watching the sun slowly get ready to set crossing our fingers that they were going to be quick.  And I thought they only had 2 miles to go.  They did it in just about an hour.  We were all worn out. 

Then we headed to Taco Bell for dinner (so I could try the Doritos Taco).  Except the steamer for Cheese Roll-ups wasn't working and our boys had been excited about Cheese Roll-ups for the entire hike!  So we drove to a different Taco Bell, ate, and then drove around in a thunderstorm on dark back roads until we found the Girl Scout camp and Princess Sparkley. 

Little Guy was long asleep by then.  When we parked at our home about two hours later, Little Guy woke up, said, "What about... Oh."  He was wondering where PS was since he was asleep when we picked her up.  Then he saw her sitting next to him.