Trip to Washington DC

For our anniversary this year we decided to take quick trip up to the DC area. The girls did great on the drive up there. Settling down to sleep at night was the biggest hurdle for us to overcome. Silly giggly girls!!!! I do recall those days as a child.

The big plan was to go to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Chantilly, VA, but on a whim we decided to drive into DC. The weather was questionable. It was one of those gray cloudy days where you were never quite sure when/if it was going to pour down. The good news is that the temperatures were perfect....a little muggy but I would take that over 90 degree temperatures any day.
We found ourselves on a neat little two lane green way with single lane bridges. It ran along a canal system that was parallel to the Potomac River, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park. It made for quite the pleasant drive and it was certainly less stressful than city traffic driving in an unfamiliar city. Along the drive we came up with a new term for drizzle/mist, drist. We had quite the laugh over that. The one time we decided to park and check out the bridges and trails it immediately started to rain, so we had to head back to the car. Maybe on our next visit we'll get to explore that park more.

We drove around and past just about everything before we decided that it would be worth getting a little wet to see the sights. We parked in one of the free parking lots and headed out on foot with two umbrellas (and no jackets). Thankfully it was still warm even when with drist and eventually rain.

The first was the Jefferson Memorial, which under construction or restoration. It was quite the walk and it started pouring pretty good about half way there. I'm just glad that it was not cold. That would have been no fun. Dennis took a lot of pictures of the memorial, but missed the one that I wished he would have gotten. There was a spider dangling from Jefferson's nose! The girls were quite fascinated by it. Elizabeth had a blast posing for pictures on this trip. Here's her Ms. Jefferson Memorial picture:

From the Jefferson Memorial we could see the Washington Memorial across the Potomac River. We were pretty damp by the time we got back to our car, so we actually got back into the car. The thing we didn't realize was just how close we were parked to the Washington Memorial. So we took another scenic drive around only to find ourselves back in the same exact parking lot. Hahaha!

From there we headed to the Washington Memorial and had a great view of the Capital Building and several other sights! It was a little breezy there, so the girls were ready to move on to the next stop pretty quickly.

Next was the WWII memorial. It was neat to find our state, but I was the only one interested in posing next to it. Past that was the Reflection Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. The girls were pretty tuckered out by the time we headed toward the Lincoln Memorial, but they just kept going. Dennis was determined to make it to his personal favorite memorial. (I like them all, so I'm not sure I have a favorite.) Again, Elizabeth posed for the perfect Ms. Lincoln Memorial picture.
The girls were pretty much ready to just camp out there so Dennis and I ended up putting them on our shoulders and heading back towards the parking lot. Along that walk we stopped at the Korean War Memorial. Both Dennis & I would love to visit that memorial early in the morning before other people get there to really get some good pictures to get the full affect of the reflections on the slabs in front of the statues and reflections of the statues onto the etched wall. That one I could spend some time really appreciating the creative artwork.

Finally we made it back to the car and were all pretty much beat. The girls slept all the way back to the hotel. Both Dennis and I were wishing we could nap all the drive back to the hotel, too.



















The next day we went to the National Space & Air Museum in Chantilly, VA. Dennis and I really wish the girls had more patience, but considering they were great trooper in the city the previous day, we couldn't complain. We certainly did not get to see and enjoy it as much as we wanted. I did get to see to see my favorite plane ever (SR-71 Blackbird) and I got to tell the girls about my old job before becoming a Mommy! They thought it was pretty cool that Mommy used to build the pretty shiny things hanging above the space shuttle. Elizabeth had fun posing for pictures again and Katherine was ready to go back to the hotel from the moment that we arrived. The gift store was the biggest hit. Katherine picked out a fancy water timer and Elizabeth a space shuttle. Mommy bought a SR-71 Blackbird model and Daddy a cool paper airplane book.
We wrapped up the evening by hitting the worlds smallest swimming pool at the hotel. It was like an over sized hot tub. We weren't the only family with the same idea so that made it seem even smaller. The funny part was that there was a lifeguard on duty. Seriously funny! I wish I had thought to take a picture of it.

The next morning we packed up and headed home. It was a fun trip. We took the scenic drive up to DC and we wished we took the scenic drive back. There was a lot more stop and go traffic on the way home. It was interesting to see different scenery on the way home though. We look forward to more trips to the DC area in the future.

You can check out more pictures here.

June's Gone?

I can hardly believe that we are a few days from the end of June. It has been a really busy month here, so I've decided to consolidate the months happenings into one post. It might be a little long, so please bear with me. I might even post it and then come back and add some more so don't be surprised if you see "to be continued" at the bottom of this entry.

Of course there's Elizabeth 5th birthday. Her birthday party was on Saturday, June 6th. She had invited her classmates from school and a few of her neighborhood friends. It was Art Space Studio and the kids had a blast. Each kid got paint the letter of their first name. It was fun to watch them be creative. Even Katherine and one of Elizabeth's friend's little sister (Katherine's age) painted letters. Each child wrote their name on a birthday plate for Elizabeth. Then we had chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a. That was followed by singing happy birthday and cupcakes from a Hello Kitty pull apart cupcake cake. There was even enough time to open gifts. Elizabeth has thoroughly enjoyed every gift she has received.

The following day, Sunday, June 7th, was Dennis' birthday. He chose to have left over Hello Kitty cupcakes for his cake. He got dinner of his choice that evening. His gift arrived the following week. He bought a new fancy digital camera. I'm hoping eventually the novelty will wear off and I'll get the chance to take some fun pictures of the girls during our daily adventures, but for now it goes almost everywhere with him. He has really enjoyed taking pictures with it and has gotten some really great shots. I'm looking forward to sharing some of them with everyone.


If you don't know already, Elizabeth LOVES race cars (I am too, so her love of them shouldn't be too surprising). Lowes Motor Speedway is here in the Charlotte area and they offer tours of the track. We met up with a few of our friends for a tour. I think that Elizabeth was disappointed that her M&M #18 car was not there for her to see. She kept asking where the race cars were at. We were the last tour that day because there were a few races going on (Legends series and one other), so instead of just getting to do one lap around the track the tour van did two laps.

As many of you know, I've taken up running. We recently changed our gym membership and I signed up for some personal training sessions. The best part about the new gym is that Elizabeth gets to go to the kid zone area where they have two inflatable bounce houses. She loves to go there. I get my workout and so does she. Katherine always has fun at child watch and has made several new friends. I started going there 3-4 days a week in June and now Dennis goes a couple times in the evenings after work (sometimes the whole family goes together) and we all go together on Saturday mornings. It's been a lot of fun. I've even inspired Dennis to run a little. We've been really enjoying working out together. Elizabeth will be the first to tell you she gets a great workout bouncing in the bounce house.

My birthday was next in the cue. It was the following week, on Wednesday, June 17th. We went out to eat at Salsaritas and then I had Tiramisu for my birthday cake. The girls split a cupcake and Dennis passed on both. I was fine with that because that meant more Tiramisu for me. Dennis surprised me with a NASCAR Ride-Along gift certificate. I'm very excited about it. I guess he saw how excited I was to go on the tour at Lowes Motor Speedway. I'm looking forward to that adventure, but it looks like it won't happen until fall sometime.

Also, during that week Elizabeth attended a 3 day afternoon camp at Art Spaces Studio. She made a glass mosaic ladybug (which I'll have to take a picture of), painted a small flower pot (seen to the left with tomatoes and banana pepper from our garden), and a garden stake. The last day the kids got to plant a seeds in their flower pot and we've been watching it grow in our kitchen window. The 2nd afternoon, we skipped Katherine's nap and Katherine and I hung out and painted our own projects while Elizabeth was in camp. Katherine painted a fish (again stay tuned for a picture) and I made a small plate with the letter K for Katherine.

We've had a lot of fun birthday parties to attend and Elizabeth had speech twice a week. It almost seemed as though we had more running around to do over this month than we normally do during the school year. We also had a air conditioner scare.....on a 90 degree day. It turned out to hopefully be just some fluke thermostat issue. In the evenings before dinner we like to hit the pool. Katherine is very fearless and eager to keep up with the big kids. I imagine that both girls will be swimming like fish by the end of the season.

I think that's it for the month of June.....it's only taken my until half way through July to get this posted.

Summer Olympics 2008

The Olympics were a huge hit at our house this summer. We kicked it off with a great craft project that one of my friends shared. We made Olympic torches for them to wave during the opening ceremony. Although, I pretty much made them for them since I waited to the last minute. They had a blast watching as I frantically cut out and assembled them with tape. Yep, that's right, no glue used! I'm not completely sure that they really got what they were. Elizabeth kept holding hers up and blowing on the base of it like it was a horn. Of course, if Elizabeth did it, Katherine did it, too. I think Elizabeth also said that it was a funny looking ice cream cone. They didn't make it through (neither did Dennis & I) the entire opening ceremony, but I think that Elizabeth finally figured out what a torch is after talking about it a lot. You've got to love the inquisitive mind of a 4 year old.

We watch the Olympics every night until the last of the Olympic games. Elizabeth loved all of the swimming events and thought that the gymnastics were neat too. We watched quite a bit of the volleyball tournaments and track. We even watched few equestrian events (which only makes me miss riding more). The girls weren't too interested in any of those.

We have Mario Olympics for the Wii and Elizabeth wanted to play that a lot over the course of the Olympics. She loved the swimming, fencing, trampoline, skeet, and track events. No medals for her, but she had a blast with it and that's more important than winning.

Nature Trail Adventures and Fender Benders

This week as been quite a week for us. Tuesday set the tone for the week and certainly will be memorable for many reasons.

After seeing just how crazy the YMCA's Childwatch is in the summer, I opted to split my workout time between home and the YMCA. There was easily triple the amount of kids there. Tuesday I walked pushing the double stroller (quite a workout pushing it up the hill on the circle in our neighborhood) in almost 90 degree weather. After walking half of the neighborhood the girls and I were ready for some shade, so we headed for the nature trail.

I had forgotten how beautiful the far section of the trail can be as the trees provide a beautiful shaded tunnel with tiny dancing spots of sunlight breaking through here and there. In a non drought year there's usually a nice trickling sound of the creek that runs along the trail, too. Surprisingly Elizabeth and I were able to spot a nice size school of fish in the creek.


Elizabeth spotted red berries on some of the bushes and was instantly intrigued. When I told her that they were blackberries, she was ready to eat some right then. I explained that the red ones were not ripe yet, but the black ones were. She wanted to get out and help me pick a few. I had to talk to her about letting me make sure there were no snakes around before she could come over and pick the berries. She was completely fine with that as she shrieked at the mere thought of coming across a snake.

She called to all of the butterflies we saw trying to get them to land on her. "Here butterfly! Here butterfly! Come land on me, please!" No such luck. We talked about what the butterflies were doing. That started the whole set of questions for every single bug and pebble we saw. What is this doing and what is that doing and why? She's been into reading The Hungry Caterpillar book, so I took the butterfly opportunity to ask her a few questions. I asked her what the butterfly was before he was a butterfly. She proudly shouted, "A very, very hungry caterpillar!"

When we got home and I transferred the berries we picked into a bowl it was perfectly fitting for us to find a tiny caterpillar crawling on the berries. The little guy had to be only a couple of cm in length if that. Elizabeth was delighted! We let him go in the grass and she sent him off with a big, "Go eat, eat, eat you hungry little caterpillar so you can grow big and turn into a beautiful butterfly!" She was a little disappointed that he disappears so quickly in the blades of grass.

The girls continued to play outside while I started to make our lunch. They were having a blast. As I looked at the clock it hit me that I was forgetting something. I had forgotten Elizabeth's noon speech therapy appointment! Thankfully there was an opening at 1:00pm, so we started the rush to make the appointment.

While Elizabeth was a speech Katherine and I headed to The Peach Tree Stand to grab something for dinner and some fresh produce. As we were pulling out of the parking lot I hit an on coming car! It was a minor fender bender, but their vehicle definitely received the majority of the damage. Everyone was fine, but since it was my fault I felt awful about it! Thankfully, the Fort Mill police showed up fairly quickly and we were on the road again. Dennis did have to run from work to pick up Elizabeth from her speech appointment.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone with the insurance company. Surprisingly that was a pretty painless experience and my car was in the shop the next day. It was completely repaired and ready for pick up on Saturday! Talk about quick service!

Cousins

On Friday, June 13th, Dennis brother, Tim, and his family arrived for a couple days visit. Dennis parents had driven up to meet them in the Tennessee mountains for a couple days of fun up there and then they all headed back here. When they arrived Elizabeth & Katherine were still napping. It was nice to get everyone settled in before they got up.

It's amazing how much the kids have all grown. They're far from the little kids I remember the last time we were all together. Joel(13) now looks eye to eye with Tim and I'm guessing he'll pass him up by the end of the year. Ben(12) pretty much looks me eye to eye. Alexis(10) and Noelle(8) are close to the same height and it won't be long before they look me eye to eye. Given that I'm only 5'2" so it's really isn't easy to pass me up or look me eye to eye. It just seems like yesterday the kids were Elizabeth's size. Time sure does fly by way to fast.

Elizabeth was the first to wake up from her nap. She played it super shy for about 15 minutes. She was fascinated with their dog, Lacey. She kids what their names were and then she'd repeat their name as if she was committing it to memory (who taught her that name remembering trick anyway?). By the time Katherine woke up Elizabeth had warmed up to everyone and was having a blast playing with her cousins.

Katherine, who is quite the social butterfly, didn't take nearly as long to warm up to anyone. She thought the girls were the best thing ever. I think the feeling was mutual. The girls loved helping out and playing with her.

It was so nice to have everyone together. We've been together a couple of times, but have not taken any pictures so it was very nice to have a new group picture. The last one we took was back in 1999 in Hawaii. Our family has grown by 3 since then.

First Day at the Pool

Saturday, May 31st, was our first day at the pool for the season. It was our neighborhoods yearly season opening BBQ. It was the first year that I was not involved with helping organize and work at it and that felt a little strange. I felt like I should be doing something. It didn't take long before I was enjoying not having to do anything but enjoy my family and friends!

Every year we're not too sure what to expect from the girls initially. Will they love the water? Will they even get into the water? Will they be cautious? This year there was little hesitation. Elizabeth actually enjoyed playing in the shallow end since she could touch the bottom. The water came up between her chest and waist. Katherine, who wasn't too sure about it last year, was fearless. That's a little scary. I think she'd jump in with out even thinking twice. She couldn't get enough of the water.

After playing for a good 3 hours in the pool, Elizabeth was content to sit wrapped up in a towel (teeth chattering in the 90+ degree weather). If you asked her if she was ready to go home she'd loudly tell you, "NO!" Then she'd head back to the pool. Katherine finally gave in and napped a little on my shoulder while Elizabeth got down and boogied to the music (there was a DJ there). Who knew she knew how to to the chicken dance. She had a blast dancing!

Both girls were beat after a long day of playing at the pool. It was weird for us to have both girls in bed by 8:30pm. Weird, but nice! I think we could get used to that!