aquarium and DC with Emalie

We figured it was time for another trip to DC before Emalie left us, so we packed up our stuff and drove into the city (how's that for brave?), managed to find someplace to park for a fairly reasonable price and walked downtown. It was only about a 20 minute drive, and I'd looked up 4-5 places that might be reasonable parking, the third was successful :). The kids were really excited to see the aquarium because we heard there'd be a touch-tank. Turns out, there was no touch tank, and the aquarium, unlike everything else on the mall, is not free... I was a little disappointed, but the kids still had a great time, and it wasn't too expensive, but it wasn't that big either. I think if we want another aquarium experience while we live here we'll go all out and drive the hour up to Baltimore.

Rayna loved the alligators, there were 4 babies in this tank

Afton found an eel (it's in a tank with an old propeller or something so the eel's up top)

both girls were excited to see the ray burying itslef

and this black hairy crab was one of my favorites.

Afton correctly identified this leopard shark at first glance, without needing to read the sign, I was impressed!

Malachi was a bit grumpy and spent most of the time in the stroller. We got a lot later start than we'd planned, so it was too close to lunch and nap time for him to be really happy. I guess that's what happens when you try to do fun things when mom and Aunt Emalie are sick... we get a late start-- sorry again for sharing that cold!

after spending some time at the aquarium we headed back over to the natural history museum for some lunch, and then we went back up to the bones exhibit that we didn't have time for. By this time, Rayna was getting pretty tired too, so we didn't see much, just the bones rooms, but there were a few things that managed to excite her just the same!

a giant leatherback turtle, and a little turtle-mimic

then Afton had to get in on the acting, hello ostriches :)

We took a lengthy walk around and back to find our car, but we managed to see a couple cool things on our way

The Washington Monument is under repair due to a little earthquake... it's still one of the girls' favorite things to see

And Emalie liked holding it up, she's SO supportive ;)

by this time I was impressed Rayna would even smile for the picture with the white house, but we'd just walked past the official Christmas tree, so I think that helped... and she knew we were close to the car...

then we saw this statue, and the girls LOVED it! I was amazed, suddenly no one was tired and grumpy, just posing for pictures!

I didn't get a chance to actually see who/what the statues were, but it didn't matter cause it made everyone happy... and by this time Chi had fallen asleep in the stroller, so that helped too :)

it was a long, hot day, but I think we were all pretty happy at the outcome. Thanks Aunt Emalie for coming downtown with us!

creek walk

so we've been pretty excited to find fun things to do near our new house, some have been rather a bust, but this creek walk is really nice, and the end/start is only about a mile and a half from our house, not quite close enough to walk to and from, but close enough to be worth while! and really pretty and green. it's a lot longer than we'll ever walk with kids, but it might make for a nice bike/running path too.

cute little bridge with cute little boy

pretty girls, happy to pose

serious and reflective... right?
I'm guessing she's thinking about wading in the water

nice walk-way

We enjoyed walking up and down, probably just a couple miles, but enough to feel the heat, it's a warm summer after all. and yes, the kids and I did go wading through the creek part way too... next time we try that we may have to bring swim suits so they can splash more... or I'll have to stay out of their way, since I'm the only one that doesn't like being all wet...

and that's what I call a tired pile of kids sleeping off a nice hot afternoon walk

COT --pictures from paul

So Paul's been at COT (commissioned officer training) for about 3 weeks now, and he's earned a bit more time off. This means we can talk for longer than about 5 minutes, and he can occasionally talk on the phone with the kids or even check things on email (ps, his birthday is Monday if anyone wants to send him a birthday message). He even technically had three hours off last night! He's been working hard though, and learning a lot about the Air Force, which is important. He did say there hasn't been as many physical training exercises as he expected, though there were some 'fun' ones, like these:

 



 

I don't know all the parameters, but I do know they had to duck below a certain height due to 'fire', and by the end of this lengthy obstacle course (they used another phrase, but I can't remember it), he had sore hamstrings!

they also had to carry a person through part of this scenario

Mostly though, Paul's been spending a lot of time in various classes. Lots of protocol, and a fair amount of learning what other AF goes through. They also have a 2 day field exercise coming up next week. I can't add any captions to these photos, just more of what he's doing.

Paul's done well with his briefings, his fitness goals and tests, and he said he's even been sleeping enough at night :) --always hard for him.

We're proud of all he does, and we're really excited that he'll be home in 2 more weeks... we've been counting down the days the whole time he's been gone.

our capitol fourth

we started out our capitol fourth in the capitol ward for the somewhat traditional bishopric pancake breakfast. I think the kids all had a great time, especially getting their faces painted, Afton got fireworks, Malachi got stars, and Rayna was a red/white/blue whiskered kitty with glitter. I'm pretty sure we all met some new people too, so success for us. that afternoon I'd promised the kids they could make bald eagle cookies, similar to an idea we saw in a magazine, though we couldn't find coconut so our 'feathers' are just frosting, and we liked almonds for the beaks and toffee candies for the brown feathers... if you click on the picture to make it bigger, I think it's a little easier to tell what they are ;)

after all three kids took real naps, we were excited to hit the road and find us some fireworks. we didn't want to be too close, because Rayna and Chi are both a little nervous if they are too loud, and I didn't want to try to hold both of them at once, so we found a place shooting fireworks a little farther from DC--and presumably not quite as busy/scary. then we found a park about a mile from the site where they were going to shoot them, and tried to drive there... unfortunately, that park was completely closed, and not knowing the area at all (and without GPS), I just picked a road at random and drove closer to where the fireworks were supposed to be going off. not quite half a mile down the road was a new housing development that still was obviously under construction, but it had a great playground and pond out front, so we parked there and decided it would do! there was one other family there, but they didn't look like they were planning on watching the fireworks, and they actually left shortly after we arrived, then about a half hour later, we could hear the police bullhorns announcing no more parking just to the south of us, and suddenly people started streaming into the park by us, there were probably over a hundred people that stayed at the park to watch, and a dozen other cars where the people parked and walked down closer to the stadium.

it turns out we picked a prime location! the kids had a blast at the playground, which was certainly the best we've found so far (we've seen 2 rather dismal 'playgrounds' close to our house, but haven't yet found anything worth returning to), and when they got bored we took a nature walk around the pond.

Malachi was probably the happiest to find a real playground, he LOVES playing at a park, and has missed it more than the girls.

Emalie dared Afton to climb to the top of this wall, which took her approximately 12 seconds...

Rayna also had a blast! she was very happy to be outside (which I assure you is only because she had a good nap!)

on our nature walk we saw quite a number of these 'dime' frogs, we had them all over the park near our house in TX, so the kids were all used to them and quite proficient at catching them, but Emalie is not really a frog-person, so she'd never held a frog before! the kids were shocked and quickly remedied that situation,

Emalie's first frog

and Afton managed to catch a grasshopper and keep it happy long enough for me to turn the camera on! also a major success, she loves grasshoppers, but they are usually too fast to hop away!

I didn't actually get any pictures of the fireworks, but it turns out we had an absolutely ideal location, we could see most of three shows. Afton was completely over the moon, and on top of the monkey bars, the better to view the fireworks, her only trouble was picking a direction to look! Rayna was happy at first, but decided her favorite vantage point was from inside the van, so she watched through the window for the second half of the show. ironically, the show we came to watch was the shortest, so it turns out staying farther north was the better idea, in fact, as far as Emalie and I could tell, one of the other shows that we could see was probably lit from the first park we tried to stop at! Malachi did well, he was afraid the fireworks would suddenly get louder, but he was fairly content to sit with me. really, I think he was just tired, even when he has a nap he's usually in bed before 9, and the shows started around 9:15. I was mostly just proud of myself for getting out of the house and doing something fun and exciting even without Paul! this is going to be a l-o-n-g month...

 

we sure do love our nation though, and we're excited to be living so close to the capitol. we're getting out just enough to learn our way around, so we're getting ready for visitors :).

 

Happy Independence Day!!!

a park trip

we've been having a fair amount of rain since we moved here, nearly every day for the last 2 weeks, though not too much on any given day. so when it clears up we try to get out on a walk or something. we made it to the nearest park one day, and were significantly less than impressed with it's completely un-stellar playground (one little slide, and a couple swings). there was a tennis court though, and that was exciting for my kids, and there were a number of pathways so we figure it'll be nice to go bike riding there sometime... maybe :).

anyways, long story short (too late), one afternoon we took our racquetball racquets and some tennis balls to the park after an early dinner as soon as the rain let up. I forgot to take pictures while we were actually playing 'tennis,' but I thought it was really cute! afton's a natural, connecting almost 50% of the time ;). rayna got bored after a bit, and malachi couldn't handle a racquet, but they both loved chasing the balls and throwing them over the net, which was ideal for the beginners trying to connect... aunt emalie had fun trying to keep the balls low enough to not go over the fence ;) but we remembered the camera as the rain started sprinkling again and we decided to rush back home before we got drenched:

i'm not sure where this pose came from, but they were cracking me up

malachi desperately wanted me to take his picture with his water bottle on his head... why? I have no idea.

rayna was also posing, but i'm not sure what she's doing either.

afton was showing off how her hand got all black from the disintegrating handle of her racquet.

again, I just think this kid's funny :D

new house

so some of you have been asking to see our new house... ta-da!

and since that picture isn't really exciting and doesn't really say too much about it, here's a few pictures of the inside too:

the tiny kitchen... please note, we've officially moved in, therefore there are baked goods on the counter! yum!
(fresh zucchini bread)

and because there's no pantry, and we like food, we bought this shelving unit to fill in the other side of the kitchen... maybe not super-cute, but it works, and we like it

and since i'm sure you noticed there's absolutely no room to eat in that kitchen, here's the dining room

the living room, it's only about half complete, we still need to move the piano up and in, and when that gets done (sometime next month) i'll put up the pictures on the wall.

right now the kids are all sharing this room, I hope it'll eventually be the girls' room, with the boys moved in next door, but since we've had company, and Malachi's not a good sleeper (especially alone), they've been sharing this one. and yes, they prefer to sleep on the floor... I've tried to get them to sleep in beds with bedding and everything, but gave it up a couple months ago as we started planning the move, at least here they're all on mattresses, even if they are on the floor...

the one major requirement the kids all gave me (and at separate times, not being prompted by each other), was a big back yard with a fence so they could play outside whenever they wanted... I think we delivered!!! I love this huge green space! my only complaint is that the only door to the back yard is in the dining room, there's not a separate entrance from the utility room, which would be ideal for us. oh well, if we were planning on staying here I guess i'd have a project, but since we're not, I won't worry :)

and just for show, here we are on the front porch, hooray that auntie emalie is here visiting!!! we're so blessed to have you here with us!

ps, please note malachi is wearing a tie... to go on a walk, never for church or anything shocking like that...

we don't have pictures of the rest of the house, mostly because it's a lot of boxes, but I figured that's enough to give everyone a taste of our place, and you're all welcome to come visit and see it all in real life! just let me know when you're planning on being here so I can make you some special treats :).    hmmmm... maybe I should have taken a picture of the playroom/guest room... it's huge, but it doesn't have much by way of furniture, so lots of space for people to spread out ;)