Newest family hobby

Super uncles Troy and Dan recently gifted all of their nieces and nephews with this book. It is awesome. We are hooked. Emma and Ben have been scrutinizing the pages (often together with their cousins), making notes and guesses and imploring me to look up interstate numbers and state mottos. We are filled with distress as more and more numbers are found and we may miss our chance at digging up real treasure. We're desperate for a clue pointing to east Tennessee.

So embarrassing

I am, that is.
To Josh.
In Target.
When halfway through our trip my flip flop breaks at the between-the-toe part and I am forced to alternate between trying to grip that part with my toes and kind of shuffle along but the whole thing keeps awkwardly coming off making progress very difficult and simply taking it off so I can walk quickly (being sure to hold it as visibly as I can so hopefully people will understand why I'm only wearing one flip flop...you'd get it, right?).
Josh let me know the whole time that I was really embarrassing him.
I was embarrassed too. I felt very conspicuous.
Lydia (riding in the big part of the cart) laughed and took her shoes off too, tossing them to the floor for Josh to retrieve.
What would you have done?

Our nation's capital -OR- we love business trips

Scott's business trip demands are very low. Usually just once or twice a year he needs to go out of town in the name of putting food on the table. I've been scheming to go along with him one of those times, but there always seemed to be something important going on with the kids' schedule, or a nursing baby, or some such preventing the perfect getaway. A couple of weeks ago he was required for a few days in our nation's capital to train the good folks at the Travel channel on some new computer applications. We seized our chance and gratefully accepted Grammy and Grandpa's willing offer to keep all five kids (thank you!) while we took in all our nation's capital has to offer.

Our nation's capital was chilly and cloudy and drizzly while we were there. We didn't mind, we were grateful it was not hot.

We were very impressed with the metro system. I don't know if it's just newer or what, but we found it much nicer than NYC's subways. I liked even the stations.

Our time in our nation's capital was short. We only had two actual days in town. The first day while Scott was engaged with his work stuff (you know, the reason we were able to do all this almost entirely for free, and stay in a nice hotel with made-to-order omelets as part of the included breakfast, instead of just muffins and juice) I spent the whole. entire. day. reading. Like this:

See? I was so pleased with my time I even set the camera timer to capture my hours of blissful relaxation. I brought four books with me (just in case!) but only made it through one. I wish there had been more days for just reading without having to stop. I don't know how many days it would take me to get tired of doing that, but I'm sure it is a very, very large number.

Scott was done by six or so the first night and by two in the afternoon the second day (on which day I did not read, but slept in then packed and went on ahead to meet him at the Washington Monument), which gave us plenty of time to tour all there is to tour along the national mall (except all of the museums, there are so many museums! we would have liked to spend half a day inside of each one, but time would not allow so we only stepped into about four). Neither one of us had been to our nation's capital since sometime in grade school, so it was much fun to see it all again. We are anxious to come back with the kids sometime. I loved showing them all of our photos and talking about what they were and having Emma and Ben frequently jump in with "Hey, we learned about that in school this year!"

A big, white house:

They drained the reflecting pool because apparently the water was causing some birds to get sick. Boo.

Scott made some demands.

We had fun.

It's been awhile since we indulged in some nonsense, hasn't it?

Bedtime wrestling match.
My first favorite part is when Scott pulls Lydia(who was minding her own business, for that moment at least) into the fray. My other favorite part is when Scott raises his arms, signaling that he declares himself the victor...and the incensed reaction of the kids.

Oh, and look who finished up their first year of preschool

I can't find the little notecard they gave me where her teachers had written up some qualities they had observed in her throughout the year, but I do remember that they mentioned how much she liked playing with Joey and predicted she would be a veterinarian.

A lucky mother, indeed

Scott got me the pair of dogwood trees I've been pining for. He even planted them firmly in the ground with miracle grow dirt and a mulchy top. I like the idea of a Mother's Day gift that draws such a nice parallel with motherhood...you know, planting and nurturing and growing something beautiful and all that. I wouldn't go so far as to call us a family of nine now, but I do look forward to watching these two little guys get bigger over the years. Thanks, Scott.

Lydia's pillow--finally

Featuring her favorite primary song.

I've decided I'm going to stick to cutting out letters if I make more of these. I like them better than the embroidered variety I tried out here and they are a bit less tedious for me. Oh well, live and learn. Just need to decide on what words to use for Afton...

Happy Baby, Laura