Spring Break 2016

This past week was spring break for Nina and Lyla. We headed out of town on Tuesday to arrive at Hartfield that evening.  We invited another family down with us and together we visited Colonial Williamsburg for the first time on Wednesday.

It was pretty much what we expected, and we didn’t book any of the tours or get tickets to the fancy buildings (since we had Cayenne with us), but we still got a feel for the colonial life which Nina is studying this year in Virginia history.  Since it was our first time there, getting in the stocks was a must!

   

Lyla loves horses and wanted to stop and pet any that she could, but this pair cracked me up.  The one is sticking out his tongue at me!

After spending the first part of the day in Colonial Williamsburg, we stopped through Yorktown on our way back to Hartfield.  Of course we visited Ben and Jerry’s then took in the scene along the York River waterfront. 

  

The girls love exploring around the river, and if we didn’t have oysters to pick up that evening, I think they could have been happy to stay there and play for the rest of the day.

 

After Yorktown, we headed back to the area of the house to pick up some oysters for the evening.  Virginia oysters have gotten quite popular, and we wanted to give our friends the experience of having some as fresh as you can get.  When we picked up our oysters, the guy we bought them from offered to let us try some on his dock.  We adults tried one right out of the river, but our biggest surprise was when he offered the kids one and Lyla accepted.  She ate it straight from the river – no cracker, no cocktail, and she kept it down!  While she definitely preferred the fried ones that came later in the evening, we were super proud of her for trying a raw oyster!

Once we got back to the house, Mark and his friend shucked them, and we enjoyed an awesome dinner of oysters four different ways.

  

We took the kids out kayaking on Thursday afternoon, but because it was really windy we thought they’d be better off going with an adult.  Mark and JT took out each of the kids, but it was Cayenne who was most impatiently awaiting her turn…

 

…and she finally got it!

All the rest of the pictures were taken with my phone.  It doesn’t have the best camera, but it does the trick when I don’t have the real thing with me.The weather was gorgeous while we were down there, and since the girls love horses we took a walk down the street to visit them.  Lyla spent all her time with the miniture horses while Nina preferred the full sized one.  They give them names, feed them juicy grass that they can’t reach from inside the fence, and give them plenty of attention!

 

 

We promised the girls we would take them to Busch Gardens on Friday if the weather cooperated, and it turned out to be another great day, so off we went.

Nina is the queen of roller coasters.  She goes on anything she’s big enough to ride, and this year she’s big enough to ride everything.  She wants to go from one big roller coaster to the next (and more than once at that).  In the middle picture below, she and Mark are in the outside left two people in the back row riding the Griffon.  She’s nuts, and she’s even wearing out Mark who is a roller coaster fanatic, so it takes a tag team effort to keep up with her. 

   

Most of the time Mark will want to ride the big rides with her, and I will wait with Lyla as some of them she isn’t tall enough to ride yet even if she wanted to, however even I have to take one for the team every once in awhile!

  

We had a fun day at Busch Gardens then made the decision to get on the road late on Friday so we could spend the day at home on Saturday.  It was a long and exhausting day, but the girls had a great time and it was a good way to round out the spring break week. 

We had to laugh with this last picture.  It looked like the eagle was perched on Nina’s head. 

Birthday Celebrations Continue

Last weekend the birthday celebrations continued to roll on in.  On Friday, I celebrated the big 4-0 and started the day with this very uplifting card from Lyla.  I looked at the front of the card (on the left) and asked her, “Is that me crying because I’m turning 40?” and her reply was that it was her crying.  I opened the card and felt even better!  So, Lyla, no we can’t go back in time, and sometimes I wouldn’t mind, but I had no idea it was bumming her out more than it was me!!

It was the warmest March 11 that I’ve remembered in a very long time, so Mark and I enjoyed a nice evening to head out to dinner at Reston Town Center.

I knew we were planning to have dinner at a fun restaurant there, Bartaco, but Mark surprised me with having Shen, G, and Bo meet us there for dinner as well. It was a beautiful day, and I got to spend it with some of my favorite people, so it was a good day by me – even if I was turning 40.

  

The next day we continued the celebrating with more of Lyla’s birthday.  This time it was a roller skating party with her cousins and a few of her friends from school.  The girls all had a lot of fun skating to their favorite songs and having pizza and cake.  Lyla said she had a blast, and she certainly didn’t seem to mind stretching out her birthday celebrating into the weekend!

 

    

  

Lyla Turns 8!!!

Yesterday our Lyla, or Honey Badger, turned 8!  It’s hard to believe.  Time has flown!

Lyla started her birthday off by racing downstairs the instant her alarm went off to check out what might be down at the table waiting for her.  She had requested cinnamon buns for her birthday breakfast, so she ate cinnamon buns and got two small presents, then it was off to school.

 

It was the most beautiful day for her birthday.  Normally it’s not over 70 degrees on March 8, but it was yesterday, and after getting a little homework done, the kids changed into shorts and ran out to play for the afternoon. 

Uncle Bo came for dinner so we could celebrate his birthday as well.  I think 31 and 8 are looking pretty good!

We had a fun dinner then Lyla got to open the rest of her presents (which she had been dying to do all day). 

 

Cayenne, who didn’t differentiate birthday from Christmas, thought maybe she’d be getting something and tried to do a little help unwrapping.

When she didn’t get anything from Lyla’s gifts, she thought she’d try finding something in Bo’s bag.

Since Lyla is having her birthday cake his weekend at a party with her friends, she requested a cookie bar cake for her birthday night, so we had some cookie bar cake, she played some with her gifts, then we called it a night.

While a lot has changed in eight years, we are so thankful for both Lyla and Bo.  They both bring so much joy to the family, and we enjoyed the chance to celebrate them both!

Mobil Upload Catch-Up

We had our annual burgers and ice skating night at Reston Town Center. It’s always a fun night and something the girls look forward to every winter!

 

The baby dog continues to manage to survive from one day to the next.  Her life is so hard…I’m not sure how she manages.

 

On Saturday, I got an early birthday day out with three of my favorite people!  Mouse, Shen, and Bo took me to the National Art Gallery to check out a photography exhibit and all the other famous art works there at the museum, then we went for a delicious lunch in Georgetown at Farmers, Fishers, Bakers.  It was an awesome day for me and I really appreciated how thoughtful they were in arranging that!

  

The Shortest and Longest Month

In my opinion, even though February is the shortest month, it can sometimes feel like the longest month.  Maybe it’s because I’ve had enough of the cold weather or maybe it’s because March has some fun to look forward to with lots of birthdays, spring break, and hopefully warmer temps, but either way, February is the here and now for the moment, so we might as well try to enjoy it.

The kids have enjoyed the snow and ice days off from school.  So far, I don’t think they’ve gone a full week since coming back from winter break.  Delays and days off make for a happy puppy.  She loves all the extra snuggle time in the morning and all the extra company during the day.

These two enjoyed a fun Valentine’s Day with parties, treats, heart shaped donuts, and funny conversations about Valendintes from boys (which I’m sure is only a sneak peak of what’s to come).

The ice and snow keep us from doing as many hikes as we do in the warmer temps, but we still get Cayenne her usual exercise and take advantage of opportunities to get out and explore when we can. 

The other day I had the opportunity to take her out for a bit one afternoon and just let her run and explore off-leash (which she loves).  At 2 1/2, she’s matured a lot, and we can trust her to stay with us when she’s not on her leash, and that makes for a nice break from her usual routine of walking/running on leash around the neighborhood.

There was quite a bit of noise activity on the pond.  I’m not sure what all the bird chatter was about, but on our walk around the pond, Cayenne ran up to a rock at the top of a hill to sit at attention and take in all the activity down on the pond.

It was a bit windy and cold, but at least the sun was out, and we both enjoyed being out.

Muse

Sometime back in October or early November, I heard that a band Mark and I like, Muse, was coming to DC to play at the Verizon Center on 2/1.  Since our anniversary is just 1 1/2 weeks before the concert, I thought it would be fun to do for our anniversary activity this year.  I called Mark and asked him what he thought, he was all for it, and said he would sort out getting our tickets.  Within the hour, we had tickets for the concert and were very excited. 

Finally, 2/1 came around and we were super excited to head off to the concert as our 14th anniversary activity, so my mom came over to watch the girls, and we hopped on the Metro and rode into the city.  We stopped at a little whole in the wall pizza place that Mark had read about, and it was so delicious.  After filling up for dinner, we walked over to the Verizon Center area to get ready for the show.

Our seats were awesome!  We were in the 8th row up from the floor, so we had great seats and a great view for the concert.  I only had my phone for taking pictures, so they’re not the greatest photos, but we had the greatest time!  Muse was amazing in concert, and it was such a fun way to celebrate 14 years of marriage!