Wow – it is already July!?!?

I realized that the last month and a half have been very busy and that I haven’t been doing very well with keeping up with my crazy life blog post in addition to my coupon savings blog post.  So, here is a a quick update of what we have done since the middle of May and I will hopefully find time to share more and some pictures in future posts.

May – During the last week of May the girls and I visited my family, Steve joined us Friday afternoon, and had a whirlwind time with celebrations.  My mom was an elementary school secretary for 24 years and officially retired the end of June.  The school had a retirement party for her and the other staff members who were retiring at the end of the school year.  That same week we had a bridal shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law, and a family birthday party to celebrate Megan’s second birthday.

June – We had a family day with Megan on her actual birthday.  Steve took the day off and we got pictures taken, enjoyed lunch together at California Pizza Kitchen, and went out after naptime for bowling and finished the day off with dinner and ice cream at Friendly’s. 

Steve and I were able to add a trip for just the two of us to the end of a business trip he had in London.  He left a few days before me and then I left the girls in very capable hands and flew over to meet him.  We had a great time together exploring the city together and enjoying some time just the two of us before baby #3 arrives in August.  We even happened to get a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth during a parade in her honor. 

July – My brother (who is 12 years younger than me) got married on Saturday.  The girls were flower girls and my sister and I helped with coordinating the wedding.  It was a whirlwind few days with last minute preparations, calming nerves, and making sure everything was taken care of.  The girls did a good job as the flower girls, they were not perfect angels, but they definitely provided some comic relief.

The next thing I have “on my plate” is a reception for a missionary family at my church Sunday evening.  After that the next plan of attack is getting ready for “Baby Brother”.  I have to finish getting the girls settled in their new room, get his room ready for him, and start getting the house ready for guests.  I also need to start thinking about things like packing a hospital bag and picking out a real name for the little guy.

These are just the highlights of the things that have been keeping me busy.  Like I have said before my life is always crazy, just some times are crazier than others.  :)

~Ann

My Crazy Week – Part I (Easter & Washington DC)

It must have been a crazy and adventurous week if I have to break it up into “parts”.  I mentioned earlier that we left Richmond mid-afternoon this past Sunday after a wonderful Easter service at church. 

Here are a few pictures of the girls checking out their Easter baskets before church.  I didn’t want to give the girls lots of candy (but everyone needs a chocolate bunny and jelly beans) so in addition to some books and granola bars I put new sunglasses, bracelets, and hair bows in their Easter Baskets. 

 

 

Here is a shot of how cute my girls looked in their Easter dresses after church with their babysitter Sarah and a friend she brought home from school also named Sarah.  Even Bitty Baby got a new dress to wear for Easter. 

 

After we got home we packed our last few items and the car and headed up I-95 to go to DC.  We got up there after a few minor traffic delays around 5PM.  We checked-in to our hotel, got ourselves settled, and then decided we wanted to get some dinner.  We found a restaurant we wanted to go to on-line that was about a mile away from our hotel.  We knew that the walk there would be entirely uphill.  So we opted to introduce the girls to the Metro (Washington DC’s subway system).  Because we were taking the Metro we knew we wouldn’t have to walk very far and decided to leave the stroller behind.  The girls were a little scared when the first train came into the station from the loud noise and the gush of wind that it brought.  When they realized what was going on they were fine and were waving good-bye to it as we waited for our train to arrive.  They really liked riding the Metro during our visit.  Natalie even became a pro at getting on and off the escalator. 

This shot is really from Tuesday afternoon.  Steve was on the escalator beside us balancing the stroller while I had both girls with me.  (How do you like that farmer’s “burn” I got the previous day visiting the zoo.)

 

We caught up with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew at the National Zoo on Monday and enjoyed a hot and crowded day there.  The girls had lots of fun and they got to see the panda bear, the zebras, a tiger, an orangutan, the elephants, and several other animals.  There is lots of construction and remodeling going on at the zoo right now so some of the attractions weren’t completely open and some of the animals have been sent to other zoos while their homes are being remodeled.

Here are a couple of pictures from our day at the zoo:

Trying to pose with the Panda statue

Emma, Ethan, Natalie, & Megan with the Prairie Dog statue

Natalie looking at the map with Aunt Heather and asking what animals can we see next. 

 

A crowd shot with our gang – Aaron is in the blue striped polo, Heather in the black dress, Emma in the blue t-shirt, my dad in the green shirt with a baseball cap, me in the pink shirt pushing the stroller, Megan is in the backseat of the stroller, my mom is behind me in the light colored shirt holding Natalie’s hand.  (Ethan and Steve were missing from the shot).

Playing on a hill during our lunch break.

The only picture I could find of Steve – holding Megan while they look at the tiger.

Exhaustion – she fell asleep in the stroller during the 15 minute walk we had back to the hotel.

 

On Tuesday we got to ride the Metro again (this time with a double stroller) and we headed over to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  It was a really hot April day in DC (mid 80’s) so we were thankful to be inside with air conditioning.  I think lots of other people had the same idea as us because it was really crowded at the museum as well.  Nonetheless we still had a fun time and got to see some of the exhibits and enjoy our time there. 

The American History Museum has been completely renovated in the last few years and museums have shed the “look but don’t touch” image I remember them having as a kid.  Natalie got to be a scientist in a section they call Sparklab which is an entire interactive area for kids.

Here is Natalie the scientist (they even gave her goggles to wear) doing an experiment dealing with color filtration.

We got to build structures with a model kit – we built a tower around Natalie.  (Megan wouldn’t stay still for us to accomplish this with her.)

Steve and Natalie got to learn and see for themselves how hard it is to balance and hold a windsurfing sail.

On Wednesday we slept in some and then packed ourselves back-up so that we could get back to Richmond before the traffic nightmares got bad on I-95.  We had a great time together and enjoyed Steve being able to take off a few days from work to spend it with all of us. 

Stay tuned for Part II of our crazy week. 

The Adventures of a Family Road Trip

We haven’t really taken our girls on that many long road trips.  Our normal road trips are to visit family about an hour away.  We decided to take a trip to Philadelphia because Steve was given free tickets to a suite for a Philadelphia 76er’s basketball game (against the Boston Celtics).  One of our babysitters, actually our first sitter she started watching Natalie when she was 3 months old, goes to school outside of Philadelphia so we saw it as a chance to visit her at the same time.  We looked at the maps and saw that it should take about four and half hours to drive the trip.  We knew that we were going to be going through some high traffic areas, like DC and tried to plan accordingly for traffic and necessary stops so we figured it would take us about 6 hours.

I made sure we had water to drink in the car and some snacks so that everyone would stay happy in between stops.  I even packed empty ziploc bags in case my nausea and a car ride didn’t agree with each other.  (That was probably one of my best ideas.)  We loaded up the car (we were only going to be gone one night so we didn’t need that much stuff) and left Richmond around 10AM.  We were “on track” for getting to the hotel around 4 and the girls were excited about seeing Sarah.  We had the GPS set with our final destination and we were ready to go. 

Then around 11 – I had to go to the bathroom.  I encouraged Natalie to come with me, but of course she had decided she didn’t want to wear her shoes in the car and it took me longer to get the sneakers back on her than to actually make the bathroom break.  We decide that since we had to drive 2 miles off the interstate to find the Wawa and that the GPS showed the interstate only another 3 miles up the road we would drive through Spotsylvania for another 3 miles listening to the GPS tell us where to turn to find I-95 again.  We get back on the interstate and continue heading North.

We got near DC – thankfully it was around noon so the traffic was not horrible, but the GPS started having problems on us.  We realized the problem was because so many of the roads ran parallel that the GPS (through Steve’s blackberry) couldn’t decipher for certain what road we were on and it would tell us too late that we should have been on an exit ramp.  We ended up going 495 and I don’t know what happened through this portion because somehow we again ended up in a suburban area.  We finally found our way back to an interstate around 1 and at this point I had pulled out goldfish to hold the girls over until we could find a place to stop for lunch.  I had been feeling nauseous for the last hour and had cracked and closed the window numerous times.  Somewhere between the combination of turning around to hand out goldfish, the way the sun was coming into the car, and my stomach getting empty I really started to feel sick.  I cracked the window again and ate a handful of goldfish then quickly realized that was not a good idea.  Thank goodness for the ziploc bag!  Poor Steve, the girls were hungry and fussy, I was sick, and he was trying to find a place we could stop and just get out.  I know he was wondering what did I get myself into?

Thankfully we found an exit in the next 10 minutes and they even had a Panera.  I could not handle the thought of greasy fast food and getting back into the car to ride for several more hours.  We stopped got lunch, got some fresh air, and then packed up everyone again in hopes that the girls would take naps.

Megan must have been worried about missing out on something because she just would not give it up.  We tried everything, a DVD, a CD, “quiet car”, she just was not going to go to sleep.  “Quiet car” did help Natalie go to sleep.  Megan did finally crash as we drove into downtown Philadelphia, about 30 minutes from our hotel.

We did have to make one more stop before we made it to the hotel.  Because of all of our suburban side trips during the day we realized we may not have enough gas to get all the way to the hotel and instead of play the where is the closest gas station in an unfamiliar area we stopped before we hit Philadelphia (and were able to squeeze in another bathroom stop).  We finally arrived at our hotel right at 5PM.  An hour later than we had anticipated, but we made it there safe and sound without any more excitement.

Sarah watched the girls Friday night for us so that we could go to the basketball game and they had a blast hanging out with her at college.

Here are a few pics of the girls with Sarah on Friday night and Saturday morning when we took Sarah to breakfast and visited the town near her campus.

  So excited to see Miss Sarah!

The first time they slept together – they look so sweet and innocent when they are sleeping.  :)

Exploring the town together – Megan loves her big sister so much that she copies everything Natalie does.

Thankfully our trip back home wasn’t as eventful and we were able to stop by Ikea so that Natalie could play in the kid’s area (Megan wasn’t big enough) and we could check out a few things.  We made family memories, but I don’t know when we will plan the next family road trip.