Harpers Ferry

Today was an absolutely beautiful day to be outside, so after church we packed up and headed to Harpers Ferry for the day.  We had planned to hike a 5+ mile loop on the Maryland side of the river, however when we got to Harpers Ferry, the parking lots were already full, so we had to park about 2 miles away from the town, hike to town, then opt for a much shorter hike once we got there, but we still got in tons of walking, saw some cool sights, and enjoyed the beautiful day to be around the water.  On our walk to town, we saw some interesting wildlife.

When we got to the town we were all ready for some big ice cream cones.  Even Cayenne got in on the ice cream treat!  We had an absolutely beautiful day to be outside hiking.  Surprisingly for June, it wasn’t humid and sunny but not too hot – definitely a great day to spend outdoors!

Nina’s Party, Last Soccer Game, and Ear Piercing

Thankfully it appears that my blog issues are fixed.  I found out that it wasn’t just my issue – actually everyone that uses Windows Live Writer in conjunction with Blogger had the same strange issues.  Anyway, thankfully, all appears to be fixed.

Last weekend we had Nina’s birthday celebration with friends.  This year, she chose to invite some of her girlfriends to the pool for a cookout pool party.  They had a great time!!

The Blazing Badgers had their last game of the spring season on Saturday morning.  It was a great game with both teams evenly matched, but the Badgers pulled out the win to complete their season of mostly wins with one loss and one tie.  They’re hoping to keep their team (or most of it) together for the fall season, so Lyla is looking forward to playing with her friends another season.

During the soccer season, Lyla asked us if she could get her ears pierced.  Honestly, I was very surprised she had any interest in it.  It just didn’t seem like something that she would be into for awhile, but she really wanted to get it done.  So, we told her after soccer season was over, she could get her ears pierced, so yesterday we went to Sweet and Sassy and she picked out her earrings and got her ears pierced.  The class pet, Andy, who we are in charge of for a couple days, came with her to get her ears pierced.  Of course, we’ll document this in Andy’s adventures!

Nina Turns 9 and Memorial Day Weekend 2015

Since Nina’s birthday this year fell on Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take an extended weekend away at Hartfield and visit Busch Gardens and Water Country while we were down there.  We got to Hartfield on Thursday night then woke up early on Friday to start getting ready for our day at Busch Gardens.  The weather was beautiful – a perfect day to be at an amusement park.  While both girls enjoy the rides and the roller coasters, Nina is nuts about them.  Now that she’s over 52”, she can ride any of the rides in the park, and that’s exactly what she did.

Her two favorites were Apollo’s Chariot (which she rode 5 times) and the Griffon (which she got to ride two or three times).  I was actually pretty shocked that she wanted to ride the Griffon, and and was the smallest person in line by far, but she loved every second of it.

  

She’s definitely fearless when it comes to rollercoasters.  When I’m riding with her, I’m hanging on and screaming, telling her to hang on also.  Meanwhile, she’s riding with both hands in the air, having a blast.  The apple doesn’t fall far from her father’s tree on that one. 

After a long day at Busch Gardens, we rode everything at least once, and we were all completely wiped, but we had a really fun day.  Cayenne, who spent the day at a doggie day car near the river house, was also exhausted from the day.  I guess it’s quite stressful to spend your first day at day care – even if you’re a dog!

   

Saturday was Nina’s birthday, and the Williams family arrived to help us celebrate. 

  

It was another beautiful day to be on the river.  The sun was shining, the water was calm, and everyone seemed to enjoy the nice ride on the boat.  Lyla reminds me so much of myself when I was her age.  I loved to drive my grandfather’s boat – it was absolute favorite thing to do when we were on the water. 

 

We dropped off the boys back at the house so they could go play nine holes of golf, and we girls took the boat back out for some more fun.  Even though the water was cold, all the girls (including Mousey) got in the river to swim.   They laughed, jumped off the boat, danced to music, and generally had a lot of girl fun.

   

They were cold when they got out, but that didn’t seem to last for long.  It definitely was a fun girls’ outing!

By Saturday evening, we were ready to celebrate Nina’s birthday, so she got to open her gifts and have her birthday cake.  Nina is a frog lover, hence the cake theme for this year. 

On Sunday, we headed out for Water Country USA – a huge water park that is a partner park to Busch Gardens.  We rode water rides for the day on Sunday, then again, made our way back to the house pretty wiped out.  Sunday was our last full day in Hartfield, so after a good night’s sleep, we packed up on Monday morning and headed back home. 

We made it home with plenty on Monday left, so we unpacked out stuff and spent a few hours at our neighborhood pool.  I’d say it was quite a full weekend, but it was a lot of fun, and a it was a great way to celebrate Nina’s birthday and enjoy a holiday weekend with family.

Mothers Day 2015

Mother’s Day was a week ago, but I’m just now getting to our pictures from Mother’s Day.  I feel very blessed to be the mother to these two little girls.  They are both very different, but they are both very sweet and loving girls, and I am so thankful to have them as daughters to celebrate on Mother’s Day. 

The day wasn’t without its mishaps, but it was still a good one. Mark started the day off by getting donuts for breakfast (my favorite), and trying to get them from the brand new Duck Donuts that just opened in Herndon.  He left at 6am, ended up getting lost on the way, and once he got there (still before 7am), there was a line out the donut shop over 100 feet long (not counting the huge line inside Duck Donuts).  So…after waiting in line and not moving for several minutes, he bailed on his Duck Donuts idea and picked up Dunkin’ Donuts and headed home.  I didn’t mind as I love donuts no matter what, but we’ll have to find a way to get those Duck Donuts somehow.  Obviously they must be pretty good!!!  Then after church we set out for a hike.  The girls love hiking and were having fun exploring and trying to catch the maple tree seeds that were fluttering down from the trees every time the wind blew. 

Cayenne was having fun racing through the trees, finding a friend to play swim fetch with, and stalking out all kinds of interesting things. The second mishap of the day came when Cayenne was swimming with her new found buddy and got trapped behind a log in the water that she couldn’t get over. Rather than realizing that she could turn around and swim back around the other side of the downed tree, she just kept trying to get over it to swim back to shore.  That plan wasn’t working for her, and she was starting to really struggle, so since Mark was a ways down the riverbank and not able to see what was going on, I had to take off my shoes, roll up my pants as high as they would go, and wade waist deep in very mucky mud and water to lift our baby dog over the log and let her swim back to shore. So, we all got sufficiently muddy, but we had a fun hike on a beautiful day.

 

After our hike, we got showered and ready to head over to the Williams house for a Mother’s Day dinner with the family.  This was the site of our third mishap of the day.  We were bringing over an appetizer, meat to be cooked for dinner, wine, and a cake.  All except the cake were in an insulated bag.  We all loaded in the car, and upon arriving at the Williams house, we realized that the bag full of all the food wasn’t with us.  Mark remembered setting it down on the counter when he gave Cayenne a treat just before walking out of the house.  So, he let us out at the Williams house and drove all the way back to our house to get the food then returned – still with time to get the meat on the grill, so all ended up well there also. Dinner was great, and this was our opportunity to celebrate our wonderful mother and all that she means to our family.  We had a great evening together, and it was a nice way to round out Mother’s Day. 

So, even though the day had several mishaps, it’s only fitting for Mother’s Day in a way.  A typical day as a mom never has everything going perfectly.  There are countless mishaps that happen all the time, and the best way to make it as a mom is to not get too worked up about the mishaps, and keep on going, hoping it all works itself out in the end.  So, in that way, this day was very appropriate of a true ‘mother’s day’ where there’s normally lots of love, some mishaps, frustration at times, and always times of joy – when at the end of the day, it all just works itself out.

Last First Grade Field Trip

This past Friday was Lyla’s spring first grade field trip which means this is the last time we’ll ever be on a first grade field trip.  Hard to believe!!!  I got to chaperone this trip, and it was all about visiting monuments.  I snapped a few pictures with my camera phone, and even though it was sunny, the weather was much more chilly than we expected.  Thankfully, we were slated to do a lot of walking which helped keep us all relatively warm (since we didn’t dress for the chilly temps).

We got dropped off at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, then we walked over to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

  

From there we walked to the Washington Monument and stopped for a snack and a class picture at the base of the monument, but it was incredibly windy at the base, so after a quick snack and picture, we set off to walk to the Lincoln Memorial.

 

By the time we got to the Lincoln Memorial, the wind had died down, and the sun was shining on the steps of the memorial.  It was warm and comfortable, so we hung out there for awhile, ate our lunch, and watched a dance performance being filmed at the base of the steps.  The kids got a chance to run around and play in the grounds near the memorial, then the bus picked us up there, and we headed back to school.  We had a good time, but we were exhausted when we got home!

 

Nina’s class had a short field trip the same day to the local high school to watch the first act of a play they were putting on.  It’s hard to believe the school year is winding down and planning for the end of the year is in full swing.  This school year has gone by so fast.  I can’t believe we’ll have a 2nd and a 4th grader in the fall. These girls are growing up fast.