the perfect day, followed by a not so perfect day

Yesterday was perfect, today, not so much.
Yesterday morning, got up made breakfast (eggs, bacon, and muffins).
We logged onto northpoint online and had church over breakfast and on the couch in our living room.  It was really nice to do "church" from home with the kids sitting with watching or playing quietly nearby.   We then got ready for the day, packed a picnic lunch, and headed to the mountains to go hiking.

almost to the top

taking in the view at Buzzard's Roost

 We hiked 1.5 miles up to the summit of the Sharp Top and had a picnic lunch.
The day was warm and sunny and absolutely beautiful. 

the view at the top

Abbott Lake below, where we got married

 After the hike we walked around the lake at the bottom of the Peaks and then headed to a nearby city for an early dinner at our favorite restaurant, Chipotle.  After dinner we walked over to the Fresh Market and grabbed some goodies before heading home. 

Sharp Top in the background, can't believe Lily made it all the way up there

we strolled along the lake after hiking 3 miles, we decided we need to come back and explore more on a day when we weren't tired from hiking

It was the perfect day.
Today was not that day.
This morning Lance did not want to go to school, he said he was sick, he said his throat hurt, his head hurt and he couldn't go to school (he was sick on Friday with fever, headache, and sore throat).  We told him he was not sick and he was going since he didn't have a fever.  He then complained that he was very itchy and we then looked down at his legs and realized he wasn't going to school, at least not right away.  He looked like he had leprosy, his legs were covered in pink welts, it looked awful.  We first thought it was poison ivy from our hike yesterday, but then we discovered some welts on his back and shoulders where he would not have had contact with poison ivy.  I did a quick google search of hives and poison ivy and neither really looked like his rash, then I read about scarlet fever and got a little nervous (sore throat, headache, rash, all his symptoms once again the rash didn't match).  I called the doctor as soon as the office opened since we needed to find out what to do about his rash, he couldn't go to school and it looked too awful to wait it out, we got an appointment 45 minutes later.  We took Lily to school and headed over to the doctor.  By the time we saw the doctor at 9:45 his rash had practically disappeared, we were very frustrated, how was the doctor suppose to figure out what was wrong if there was no rash to show him?  The doctor did look at the few spots that remained, took his blood pressure, listened to his chest, and did a thorough exam and then gave us the typical doctor answer: Hives with unknown cause.  Hives caused by a virus, an allergen, or just a fluke.  Since he hadn't had any new medication or new food, there was no way to tell what caused the hives.  He said that they would come and go for the next couple of days or they might stay gone, no telling, not the answer I was hoping for.  I shouldn't say that, I am thankful that it wasn't something serious like scarlet fever, but it is never fun either to get the "it's just a virus" response.  So we left the office and took Lance to school.   That morning Lily had been complaining that her tongue hurt and that she was sick and could not go to school.  We hadn't really paid much attention to her because we just thought she was copying Lance like she does, but when I picked her up from nursery school, I noticed she felt warm and after taking her temperature I soon discovered she was running  a low fever.  I wasn't surprised Lily was ill since Lance was just running a fever Thursday and Friday.  So I now have one child with hives and one with a fever.  The good news is we might be able to find out if the hives is caused by a virus if  Lily breaks out on Thursday or Friday or we may never know.  So today was not the perfect day Sunday was, but then days like today make days like Sunday perfect.

St. Patties Day

I have a huge to-do list, why do I set myself up like this, with way too much on my plate and trying to do it all? The maddening thing is, this week is harried but in two months I might have nothing. Despite needing to get my to do list knocked out we spent done tim outside, it is gorgeous out. Despite crying and whining and lots of protesting, Lance went for a bike ride on the trail. He hadn't been on his bike in months so I was worried it would.be like starting over, but it came back quickly and he did better than he ever had. He was a rockstar and I am so proud of him. Lily also was awesome, she actually stayed in the stroller, normally she wants to get out and push. So Lance has mastered going and stopping, now we just have to work on starting, riding to the pool this summer might actually happen, do excited!

we timed it perfectly and saw a train cross the trestle

lance getting the hanging of it again

he got his confidence back and took off

how lily rolled

weekend

This was a birthday weekend.
Lance was invited to a friend's birthday party.  It was at the skating rink that also has an indoor climbing/jungle gym apparatus/contraption as well as an arcade.  Lance only knew the birthday boy and at age 5/6 in a huge place like we were in everyone kind of did their own thing, so Lance and I had some time to hang out together minus Lily, it was fun.
We played in the arcade first and I got to teach Lance how to play Skee-ball.  After we used up all our tokens we redeemed his tickets for some junk then he played in the indoor whatever then it was time in the party room.
The party room was crazy, it had moving lights on the wall.

the glow party room

  The kids had glow bracelets and necklaces, and they had cups that had lights that looked like they could induce seizures. 

the glow cup

After pizza, soda, and cupcakes we headed back out and Lance got to try roller skating. I wanted to skate myself to see if I could still do it, but it took all my concentration to keep Lance on his feet so I held him around the rink a few time before calling it quits.  We played a little more in the arcade which was kind of lame, most of the games were winning tickets by luck not skill, I say this as though skee-ball requires skill, but it is more than just putting in a token and pulling a handle.
So Lance and I had fun, me being the germ freak would not have chosen to spend the afternoon there, but we went and had fun.

trying out skating

We headed home and had a few hours to rest before our second birthday party, it was my sister birthday. Fortunately, this party was low key and we just enjoyed pizza and cake and the kids helped Amy open her presents.
Yesterday, we "worshipped" at the house of Panera. 

a moment of sweetness

We are looking for a church, but it has been difficult and the last couple of weeks we have spent time together as a family.  After breakfast and a trip to Target which involved finding some good deals since I visited every sale rack and endcap we headed home. 

breakfast

I prepped for lecture today and then we all headed outside to play.  We try and play outside everyday, it is easy in the spring and summer, but in the winter I hate it, especially when it is cold.  I put on a pair of leggings under my jeans and braved the 36 degrees to play outside.  I felt quite energized after being outside, it was the cure to a blah, cold, overcast day.  I got all my work done for this week (yay!) and did a little grocery shopping.  After fixing dinner, we watched Beauty and the Beast as a family and played with glow sticks. 

glow stick and camera fun

So for a cold, snow-free weekend, it was fun and the cold wasn't so bad.

so much to say so little time

I have had many posts floating around in my head, I just haven't stopped to create them.
Today is Monday, I don't have class thanks to fall break, but I have big plans, I want to get this house looking good, every room needs a thorough scrub down, lately I haven't had a lot of motivation and things are picked up, but not scrubbed down, so today is my day.  I work best when I start in the morning so today is my day, at least I hope so.

 We had a very busy weekend.  Saturday we went to a railroad festival and watched the parade associated with it, but I must say the parade had nothing to do with trains or the railroad at all, but the kids had fun, Lance had a theory that if you waved to the people they would throw candy at you, he was kind of right and now we have a large bag as treats for pooping in the potty (sadly both kids earn rewards, but that is a post for another day). 

 After the parade we did walk around a bit and looked at the Norfolk Southern train exhibit and a model train exhibit then found something to eat.  It was quite crowded and at one point poor Lily became a lily pancake when someone walking with a funnel cake ran right into her and knocked her to the ground. After lunch we headed home for rest time. As luck would have it, Lily fell asleep in the car, but woke up shortly after returning thanks to lance yelling, he then fell asleep and Lily was awake the rest of the afternoon, I would have loved for both of them to have napped, I could have gotten a lot done, oh well.

 Sunday was another beautiful warm day so we went to church, had lunch at Panera, and then headed out to Layman's Family Farm.  We walked through the entire corn maze.

 We got a little confused/ lost only once.

 After walking in circles for a few minutes we found the scarecrow we were looking for.

 The kids got to jump on the jumping pillow/blob, and we all took a turn on the cow train/dust train.

 The kids stopped for a swing.

And we took a hayride down to the pumpkin patch, it was a lot of fun and I am so thankful the weather was perfect.  One the way home we stopped at an outdoor skatepark, Jeff enjoyed the park, I enjoyed a book in the car while the kids napped, a nice pit stop before home.  So by last night we were all exhausted, but we enjoyed the last bit of our Indian summer.

the longest post ever- DC edition

Friday afternoon we packed up the car and headed up to D.C. for the weekend. We had plans to go to the Natural History Museum, the Solar Decathlon, Tysons Corner, and the new Air and Space Museum.  We arrived at my aunt and uncles house way after the kids bedtime so we basically went straight to bed after arrival.  The next morning we got up, got ready, and took the metro downtown.

 (waiting for the metro)

The metro was packed due to the National Book Festival, a Nickelodeon Festival, the Solar Decathlon, as well as scheduled maintenance. Supposedly trains were entering the city every 20 minutes. Our metro stop was the third stop from the beginning and was crowded when we got on. At each stop more and more people tried to cram in, we were packed in there like sardines, I don't know how city dwellers handle the crowds on a daily basis.  We got the National Mall and took a shuttle to the Solar Decathlon.

(the first house we toured)

We went through a couple of the solar houses before it started to get crowded and the kids, well Lily got bored with the houses.  It is evident from touring these houses that that students create these because several of the houses were just impractical for real living, especially with a child (or two).  There were some really good ideas and I was impressed with Purdue University's house, it was the only one we toured that actually looked livable.  Several of the houses had beds that would fold down and one even had an office table/workspace that would fold out into a bed, though a great idea, not very practical.  It is hard enough to make the bed every day, I can't imagine making it and folding it up too.   I tried to convince Jeff to continue to tour the houses while we entertained the kids with something else, but he didn't listen so we all walked through the FDR memorial.  

(Lily and the FDR memorial, she was a little hesitant to approach the dog) 

The FDR memorial was beautiful and HUGE! I thought it was only one waterfall and statue area, but then it kept going and going (4 areas, 1 for each term).  Though I don't know that much about history and I have a lot of respect for FDR, he is one of my favorite presidents.

(walking along the Tidal Basin) 

We walked along the Tidal Basin from FDR to the new Martin Luther King memorial.  The MLK memorial is quite impressive.  If I remember correctly he is looking towards the Lincoln Memorial where he made history.  

(Martin Luther King from the side)

I don't know how they carved the statue or memorial, but I was amazed by how detailed the carving was, the veins on his hands were visible, it was quite impressive. 

(in front of the closed Washington Memorial, it has been closed due to damage from the earthquake)

After the MLK memorial we walked back over to the National Mall.  We looked for the supposed large crack in the memorial caused by the earthquake, there was one, I just don't know if it was there from the earthquake or just from time.  We passed the White House and the WWII memorial on the way.  By the time we made it to the Natural History Museum we were starving so we grabbed lunch in the museum, big mistake.  The cafe in the museum was extremely crowded and the food was ridiculously expensive.  For five us to eat it cost $43 and we only got 2 sandwiches, 1 chicken tenders, 3 drinks, and a cup of fries.  I do have to admit the sandwich was good, but I don't know about $10 good.  We toured Natural History Museum while my mother went to the National Book Festival.  When Jeff and I were exhausted we headed out to the Festival and went to the PBS kids tent to get our picture taken with the Cat in the Hat.

(Lance and I with the Cat in the Hat)

We headed back to the house for a rest and then went to Tysons Corner for dinner and a little shopping.  We didn't do much shopping since the kids were worn out, but we did hit up the Lego store (Lance's pick) and the American Girl store (Lily's).  I love the Lego store especially there $8 tub of Legos that you can pick out, brilliant!  Lily loved the American Girl store, but she pitched the biggest temper tantrum of her life when we tried to leave and she realized she had to leave the doll and the stroller she was pushing around behind, it was quite embarrassing.  Within five minutes of being belted in the car, the kids were asleep so we decided to drive back downtown and see all the monuments at night.  Washington at night is so beautiful.  I don't want to think about how much energy is wasted on lighting up the monuments and capital, but it is pretty nonetheless.

(the Capital at night, the side facing the National Mall) 

It is funny to look at the pictures I took especially the ones at night because the sky looks black, back at my aunt and uncle's house the sky doesn't look black, it was kind of orange and grey, you could see the light shining from the city.  I didn't realize until then how bright the city is at night, once again I was appreciate of our little city where it gets dark and you can see stars.

 (A little monument in Arlington with the Big Monument in the distance, near the top of cemetery)

Sunday morning we got up and decided to go to Arlington National Cemetery.  We chose Arlington because we were a little tired of all the crowds and figured that no one would be at a cemetery on a Sunday morning, well we were wrong.  When we arrived there were masses of people headed in and there were many tour buses parked as well.  We headed into the cemetery with all the crowds and learned that there was a Peace Corp rally going on in the cemetery and that is why it was so packed.  Who would have thought. 

 (Arlington National Cemetery, as far as I could see there were thousands of graves)

We walked all the way up to Robert E. Lee's house and stopped at the Kennedy's grave, we then headed over to the Tomb of the Unknown. Arlington is a beautiful place with amazing views of Washington. It was also very peaceful. I was blown away by how the shear number of graves, At one point I looked to my left and for as far as I could see there were just rows and rows of graves of men and women who served in our military, I was blown away.

(Tomb of the Unknown) 

We stopped by the Tomb of the Unknowns.  There are sign posted throughout the cemetery that say please to be quiet and respectful for this is hallowed ground, the Tomb of the Unknowns was definitely hallowed ground.  It seems like now respect is something that our culture has lost and seeing the respect and tradition continue is indescribable.  Having someone guarding the tomb 24 hours a day through all kinds of weather and having to do the same montomous routine constantly shows so much respect.   Even Lance who doesn't understand hallow ground was quiet and seemed to know that this area was special.  After walking all the way and then back down Arlington we headed out to Dulles for the new Air and Space Museum.

 (the new Air and Space Museum at Dulles)

 

 (Jeff watching a plane coming in for a landing from high up in the observation tower)

I could watch the airplanes take off and land all day, I think I am just amazed that these huge, heavy vehicles can fly in the air.  I loved the observation tower and watching the planes land, being eye level with these huge planes that are coming in from all over the world is just amazing.  I am drawn to airports and airplanes, not sure why, I just am.  After watching planes land we headed down and admired the variety of airplanes on exhibit at the museum.   We saw the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb), the space shuttle Endeavor (it was a lot shorter, but taller than I expected, as well as the Concorde (it had the smallest windows).

It was an extremely busy weekend and though I would like to do it again, just not anytime soon, I am still tired.

birthday weekend

So we kicked off our family birthday week with Jeff's birthday. We went to a local pizza place for dinner:
we found tiramusi at the grocery for a cake:

and cupcakes for the kids, since they aren't a fan of coffee and since we thought that if each kid had their own candle to blow out that Jeff could blow out his own candles, but we were wrong.

As soon as we finished singing happy birthday Lance leaned over and blew out Jeff's candles despite me yelling "NO" when I realized what he was about to do. We continued the celebration on Sunday by driving to a nearby ski resort and hiking around on their nature trails. The views were incredible:

We did have a bit of a scare. We took a trail down to an overlook and then took a perimeter trail around in hopes of connecting to another trail to make a loop. The initial trail had other hikers on it, but the perimeter trail was deserted and was a little creepy especially since the trail map mentioned that several trails were prime bobcat habitat and to beware of bears. At some point on our journey I noticed there was what I suspected, bobcat scat (poop) which put me a little on edge. Then we got quite a scare, so much so that both Jeff and I got goose bumps. The perimeter trail runs below a mountain ridge and at one point we came up on a turkey vulture and scared it so it left its roost to fly away. We heard the flap of the wings and the movement up ahead of us and though I can't describe it, it scared us, we thought it was a bear or bobcat. Jeff and I both started making a lot of noise in hopes of scaring it away and the kids of course started screaming and crying. I guess what made it scary was we were enclosed in thick brush, well actually rhododendron shrubs, so we really couldn't see our surroundings at the time and heard something very large move right in front of us. After the incident we were ready to get off the trail that seemed endless. We did something stupid in normal situations, we left the trail once we got out of the thick brush, and headed up to the top of the mountain. Normally this isn't smart, but since we knew all the houses of the resort and roads were above us we knew that the only way to get back to the car was up. Despite not seeing any houses when we decided to start out on our own we spotted some right away and walked back to the car. Turns out we were almost to the trail that would have taken us back to the car if we just would have kept going, but we were too freaked out and tired by that point, it was starting to look like it might rain or storm.

We got back to the car and drove to a city nearby and had dinner at Chipotle and went shopping at an outdoor store. We then headed home and just missed two severe thunderstorms and got home just as it was starting to rain.
So we had yet another breath-taking animal encounter, fortunately this time though we weren't in any real danger.
So despite being terrified and feeling lost, we had fun, I am so thankful that the kids are old enough to go hiking and enjoy being outside adventure, I am looking forward to even more adventures to come.

the 4th was redeemed

The 4th of July was redeemed and all was not lost. I finally started feeling human again Saturday. I had dinner with the family, worked on schoolwork while the kids went swimming, and then went to see some fireworks. Though we weren't at the beach this 4th of July, the fireworks were enjoyable and the waiting for them to get started was bearable thanks to two thunderstorms in the distance that provided some amazing lightning to keep us entertained until the real fireworks began.

Monday was definitely a better day, the best day of the whole weekend for me, but not so much for other members of my family. We all seem to have caught the cold Lily started with and though I seem to have had it the worse and Lance the mildest, he either was feeling its affects yesterday or was just overly tired from staying up the night before and getting up really early or a combination of both. Despite Lance's grouchiness that was apparent at 9 am, we packed up the car and headed up the road to the Virginia Safari park where we paid a small fortune for some close encounters of the wild animal kind.


The drive-thru/feeding part of the park was fun since we could sit in our car and see the animals, but the walking around exhibits was a bit much, it was so hot and HUMID it was miserable and most of the animals were beating the heat by hiding or in some other not ideal for viewing position. So despite the heat and Lance's bad mood, we had a nice afternoon with the animals, we did get to pet a 12 foot python which was pretty neat. We got home and headed over to my mother's house for a cookout. The kids survived dinner, but it was obvious they were exhausted, Lance especially, so right after dinner we took the kids home and got them ready for bed, no fireworks on the actual 4th, which didn't really bother me, I guess I was too tired. So we celebrated America the American way- we went to a tourist trap and spent money and had a cook out. I am thankful for the white, rich, slave-owning Aristocrats so many years ago that didn't want to pay taxes who made this country, happy ____ birthday America.

the beach

the kids waiting for "GiGee" to come so we could pack up the van, we told her we would be ready at 8 am and we were, ready and waiting

lily taking it all in when we first got there

lance yelling at the ocean, he was so excited to be there and playing at the beach

on the 4th we went down to Wilmington to see the fireworks from the battleship, it was the best fireworks display and the crowd and their reaction made it even more fun, this is the 2nd year that we were downtown for the 4th and hope we can do it again

i love it, the scenery is beautiful, the crowd is fun, and the fireworks are amazing

one day we headed down to the aquarium because we needed a day out of the sun, this picture captures what life is like most of the time, lance torturing his sister in some fashion

the jellyfish, one of the many of sea creatures we saw at the aquarium

my favorite beach picture, the picture that you take by a fluke, the kids weren't posing, it wasn't planned it was just plan luck and I love it, once again it really capture my children

the beach from Lily's perspective, another neat photo that happened by chance

the older Lily gets the more her girlie she becomes and it is so much fun, I love the way she can play with trains and then grab her sunglasses and a purse and be a little diva

the only cloudy day the whole week, Jeff and I got up a little before 6 to see the sunrise unfortunately it was the one cloudy day and we missed it, maybe next year

with two young children it was a relaxing, restful vacation, but we had a lot of fun together and I can't wait to go back again soon, I would love to live closer to the ocean, but I wonder would I still appreciate and enjoy the beach or would life get in the way?  so after a week at the beach I am having a tough time trying to get back into the swing of things with housework, bills, bible in 90 days, work, studying, and just life and with the longest to-do list that keeps growing it makes me want to go back to the beach even more.