Charlottesville 2017

Anybody who knows my wife could guess that she couldn't long stand being close to Charlottesville without going for a visit. So we did this past weekend and had a great time. The weather wasn't perfect for us, but it was still a great trip.

On the way down, we stopped at Montpelier, the home of James Madison. It was a good stop on the trip. We have gone to Monticello several times, but had never stopped at Montpelier. There was a "Family friendly tour" with one other family that also had three kids in it. It was good, but a little slow moving.

This is the home. We got to visit the upstairs study where Madison spent months preparing for the constitutional convention, and I believe where he wrote many of the Federalist papers. The tour guide called it "the most important room in American history" which I thought was probably an exaggeration. The hospital room where I was born clearly outranks this room.

We visited our friends who lived across the street from where we used to live. It is amazing how much kids grow up in 4 years! I need to go to bed or I would find a picture of them all when they were younger. Such a great family, so glad we got to see them again.

Here the kids are on the Lawn with the Rotunda behind them. We enjoyed touring the beautiful campus, and we also made a little time to visit the law school.

I was glad to get this picture because the capitals had black bags over them the whole time I went to UVa, since there were problems with the marble. They got it worked out, though, so I could finally get a decent picture. Taken by Sabrina.

Ah, Ace Biscuit and Barbecue. Happy early father's day to me! Still the best biscuits and gravy anywhere. Clark told me that my pulled pork was better than theirs. That boy loves to eat, so I will assume he knows what he is talking about. 

A great big hollow portion of a log near one of our favorite hiking trails. The weather was not favorable to much hiking, but it turns out the trail was mostly washed out, so we didn't miss out anyway. 

Eliza crawled inside too, but didn't enjoy it very much.

One last stop at Carter Mountain for some peach picking before heading home. What a great trip! I think Yogurl is already planning another trip there next weekend.

Washington DC

Well we have been trying to make the most of our short time here in DC. This picture is at Great Falls, Virginia. It is a beautiful area, though, as one of my coworkers put it, they should probably be called "pretty good falls." The kids enjoyed hiking around the beautiful area. We saw a fair bit of interesting wildlife and had a good time. 

Since we are staying in Arlington, it was only a short trip to visit the USMC Memorial (also called the Iwo Jima Memorial). Sorry the picture didn't turn out better, but the lighting was really rough at the time. It was a good visit that let us talk to the kids about freedom and sacrifice. 

This picture really doesn't do the Air Force Memorial justice. I have long taunted it, but after actually visiting it I will say that it is quite impressive up close. Since our kids have family who have served in the USAF, we were glad to be able to honor their service with a visit here, too. 

Here the kids are at the National Zoo. While the zoo is free, the parking is not. Still a good deal. 

And here they are at the Natural History Museum. Their mom took all three of them on the metro by herself to get them there since she didn't want to drive in the district. Way to go!  

And finally, just a couple more pictures of Eliza. One happy one at a park, and one just after waking up from a nap with what her mom called "David Bowie from Labyrinth" hair. What a sweetie!

Ohio Visit

As you may well know, we are spending some time in DC this summer. On our way up to DC, we stopped by Oma and Opa's house. The trip up there was pretty rough. 21 month old children don't do road trips too well. We left after Sabrina had mostly finished her last day of school. We figured we would drive late into the night after the kids fell asleep and get some good miles in while they weren't fussing. It was going almost according to plan until about 1 AM when the kids woke up when we stopped to get gas. The bigger kids fell back asleep, but for nearly an hour we had a fussing Eliza. Then she started crying, "Want bed! Want bed!" Well my heart couldn't take that for more than a couple minutes so we stopped and got a hotel room. We got the kids down to sleep around 2:30 am. Then at 6:30 am, like always, Eliza was up and fussing that she wanted out of the pack and play. So we got up and ate our free breakfast and were on the road. If you had asked me at 6:30 if I thought this was a good way to travel I don't think you would have gotten a cheerful response. After all was said and done, though, I think it turned out pretty well.

The big kids got to go fishing with Opa. Sabrina had gone when she was younger and caught a lot of fish, but this was Clark's first time fishing with Opa. Every time he set the hook in the water a fish jumped right on it. I was worried he'd get bored fishing, but he never had a chance to get bored from catching all those fish.

One of many. 

The kids also got to go feed a pony and miniature horse.  

Oma had a bubble gun that would stick bubbles together like crazy all over the kids. This beard was my favorite, but there were also Mohawks that were really fun. Sorry for the cultural appropriation.

Two cute girls in a laundry basket because why not.

Clark's Graduation

Clark finally graduated from Pre-K. When I say finally, I don't mean like it took him a bunch of tries, I just mean that the boy is so ready for kindergarten.

Here he is getting his Pre-K diploma and his own "Ready to Play" award. Way to go, Clark!

Sabrina did a book report on Annie Oakley. As part of the report, the kids were expected to make soda bottle dolls representing their chosen person. Sabrina did some work on this, but her mom did the bulk of the work, mostly because she really enjoyed it. I will note that since we live in Texas, we didn't feel uneasy about sending the Annie doll in with as real looking a rifle as I could make with tin foil. 

So if you have never been friends with a pastry chef, I recommend fixing that. This was just part of the goodness that awaited us when we went to hang out with our friends that own a bakery. I really like them anyway, but this certainly didn't hurt. 

This is what happens when your young child can't tell the difference between panties and scarves. When she wanted them off I helped pull them off her head and she said, "Poop." True story.