Date Night

Mark and I did our date night with the girls yesterday.  I had something in mind already that I wanted to do with Nina, but Mark was racking his brain with what to do with Lyla.  When he asked her what she wanted to do, she told him “go look for deer signs.”  Just a little background on this one…Lyla loves deer signs.  We have no idea why, but whenever we’re driving in the car, she’s always looking for them and shouting when she sees them.  So, since that was really what she wanted to do, off they went to Algonkian Park to search for deer signs!  Mark said that they parked by the water then walked back toward the golf course to search for the signs.  They found six in all, but on their hunt for deer signs, they saw actual deer!  These are the pictures Mark took with his camera phone of Lyla, her deer signs, and some actual deer.  After that, they went to McDonalds for ice cream.  It was a very fun date for Lyla! (On a side note, Mark and I both had a laugh at the placement of the warning to watch for pedestrians.)

 

I got to take Nina on a date night that I had been thinking about for awhile.  She’s quite a good little biker, so I thought she was ready for a “long” ride on the W&OD trail.  We put the bikes in the car and drove to a parking lot not too far from the house where we could park the car and get right on the trail with our bikes.  Then, we biked from there (Rt. 28) into downtown Herndon.  Once we got to Herndon, we stopped at the Dairy Queen right off the trail for some ice cream, then we hopped back on the bikes and rode back.  It was eight miles round trip.

On our way back to Rt. 28, we were going along pretty fast when Nina’s bike pedal went flying off her bike. I was so proud of her for not freaking out.  She kept her balance and braked with one foot and stopped.  I hopped off my bike to retrieve the pedal and tightened it back on and we were off again.  It happened one more time going up a big hill, but by that time, we were close to the car, so I tightened it enough to get us to the car, then Mark fixed it when we got back home.  I did have her stop just as we got into Herndon at a sign that said “Grace St.” because her middle name is Grace. Once we got back to the car, she was hot and sweaty, so she poured the remainder of her water over her head to cool down.  We had a great time on our biking date.  I was so proud of her for doing such a great job biking, and it was a lot of fun biking and talking while we rode.  I’m looking forward to doing it again soon!

  

 

A Visit to PB

On Tuesday, the girls, my mom, and I went to visit PB at his house in Maryland.  As far back as I can remember, PB has always been a friend of birds and has fed them on his back deck.  So, shortly after we arrived at his house, the girls got to watch PB load up his bird feeders.  Because of is also long-standing battle with squirrels who try to eat the bird seed, he has rigged up a system where he hangs his bird feeders out into the air.  However, he will also tell you that despite all his efforts, the acrobatic squirrels still manage ways to get the bird seed out of the feeders.

 

After filling the bird feeders, the girls helped PB feed the koi. 

 

PB’s basement is a collection of eccentric things from his travels all over the world.  One of the girls’ favorites is the collection of Russian Matroyshka Dolls which they loved opening down to the itty bittiest last doll.

 

We listened to PB play some of his favorite old time hymns on the piano and enjoyed a nice lunch.

Before we left, the girls got their pictures taken on the deer in PB’s front yard.  When Shenley and I were this age (and younger) we would always get our pictures taken on this same deer also.

 

While we were at PB’s house, he showed the girls many of the pictures he had of my family from when Shen, Bo, and I were very young.  One of the pictures Nina and Lyla saw was a picture of Shenley and I in the dresses in the picture below.  My mom’s mom made these dresses for Shen and I when we were little, and when Nina saw the picture of us in them, she was obsessed with wanting to wear one.  After we left PB’s house, my mom found the dresses in their attic, washed them, and let Nina and Lyla wear them.  I wish I had the picture of Shen and I wearing them to put with this one. I know it’s somewhere, but I just have to take the time to find it.  These dresses are easily over 30 years old, and it’s cute to see them from one generation of sisters to the next.

Acrobat Show

This afternoon we went with some friends on our street to see the Chinese Golden Acrobats at Wolftrap.  It was an afternoon show, so we got some lawn tickets and got there early to pick out our place in the shade and enjoy the show.  Taking pictures during the show wasn’t allowed, so I didn’t bring my camera, but we took a few with the phone.  I wish I could have brought my camera.  The acrobats were incredible.  We were blown away by what they were able to do – amazing.  Despite being an August afternoon, we stayed pretty comfortable in our shady spot and the show ended just as a big storm was getting ready to roll through.  It was a fun afternoon!

Inspired by the performers, Nina tried some acrobatics during the intermission! 

Confession

After a few family games of Uno this evening, Mark randomly said to Lyla, “Tell me something about you that I don’t know.”  It was such a casually asked question, I really didn’t expect her to answer with anything, but she did.

Lyla: “Hmmm. I swipe food from the cabinet.” 

Mark: “Oh, really? What type of food?”

Lyla: “Treats”

Mark: “Treats. Ok. Did you swipe some today?

Lyla: “Yes.”

Mark: “What did you take?”

Lyla: “A peanut butter cup”

Mark: “Well, what did you do with the wrapper?”

Lyla: “I put it in the trash.”

Mark: “Well, thank you for being honest.”

WHAT A RASCAL!!!!!!

Not confession related, but something else funny heard around the house today was that Nina believes Mark speaks multiple languages.  She and I were talking at breakfast about communicating with people of other languages, and she was asking how that all works.  I explained what translators do and that they’re people who speak more than one language, and Nina says, “Oh yeah, like Daddy.”  Since Mark does not speak multiple languages, that left me with the question of what is she talking about? 

Nina says, “Well, Scottish of course…” (Mark reads books to them in a Scottish accent), then she says, “…and that other language…you know…the one he talks when he has his favorite sandwich…”  So now I’m really confused and asking Nina what she means.  She keeps with the language that has to do with his favorite sandwich, then I get it.  Mark loves a Chicago style beef sandwich (just called a beef by people from Chicago), and when eating it, he often breaks out in a full-on Chicago accent.  Apparently, Nina thinks people from Chicago also speak a different language too!

Let’s Go Racin’

We’ve mentioned on the blog before what a big fan of cars Lyla is, however she had never seen a real race until last night.  We met up with Mark, Jill, Jonathan, and Kate for dinner at their house then went over to the Old Dominion Speedway for a series of races called the YFT 150 to benefit Youth For Tomorrow.  How could we resist cars, races, people watching, supporting YFT, and hanging out, all while at such a fine Manassas establishment!

This picture cracked me up because I didn’t realize until I loaded my pictures onto the computer that the guys in the background were posing for the picture too.  Too funny!

I am no fan of car racing by any stretch, but I have to say it was actually fun to watch the races.  There were several different types of cars that raced, and the kids especially enjoyed shouting and cheering for the cars they wanted to win.

 

 

 

Another exciting part of the races was seeing the crashes.  Every time there was a wreck, we got to see Tow Mater, a favorite of all the kids. 

 

 

 

After all the preliminary races, the real race attraction was the late model cars racing in the 150 race, but by halfway through the race Lyla was asleep on the bleacher with her head on my lap.  She must have been exhausted to sleep through all the noise of the race, so we packed it up a bit early.  She never woke up as we carried her all the way out of the speedway and the whole way to the car and home.  The girl was tired, but we all had a really fun time!

Nina and Lyla’s Fun Day

Yesterday was a great day for the girls. They were invited over to Mousey and Poppy’s house to spend the day and night, so I dropped them off after breakfast, then they headed off for their first adventure.  They met up with Miss Connie, my mom’s really good friend, and took a tour of the Shenandoah Caverns.  I asked my mom to take some pictures for me of their day, and here are a few of the girls and Connie inside the cavern, and the girls and Mousey on a train ride after the cavern tour. 

 

After the caverns, they went to Connie’s house to swim in her pool!  Nina and Lyla were very excited to go to Connie’s private pool, and from what I heard, they had a great time swimming their little hearts out. 

After staying at Connie’s for most of the afternoon and evening, they managed to make it back to Mousey and Poppy’s house for some food and a couple games of Uno before bed.  While they were having fun, Mark and I were getting a bunch of our respective work done, then we met up at home in the evening and went out for our first post-surgery date night to our neighborhood Mexican restaurant and a movie.  It was a great day for the girls, and it was great for us too!

M.I.A.

Well, we’ve been M.I.A. on the blog for most of the month.  I think I’ve picked up my camera once to take these two pictures…

 

It’s not like taking pictures is a chore at all. I love it actually, but it just seems like every time we’ve been doing something, I don’t have my camera with me.  We’ve been swimming a lot on hot days, we spent a week with Shen and the girls after Hartfield, we’ve had date night with the girls, and Mark has been healing from his surgery.  

The surgery is four weeks behind him (almost), and while he’s still not back to his old self, he is much much better and able to do so many more things now than he could even two weeks ago.  He’s able to rough house some with the girls now which makes Nina, in particular, very happy.  He asked her the other day how she felt loved from him and her answer was “playing Tickle Tackle.”  It’s a dad thing.  Speaking of Nina, she is still wearing the dog ears every day.  I’m not exaggerating when I say every day.  They’re just a regular part of her deal every day, so we almost don’t even notice them anymore.

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer – we are, and it’s hard to believe it’s half-way over. Boo. I’ll be back with more pictures soon!