Blog Catch-up (LONG post)

I've been neglecting the blog lately.  So I decided to do a really long catch-up post, so I can try and start to keep up with what has actually been going on.  This post may someday be broken down into multiple posts, to someday go into a book, but for now this is what I have the time an patience for. 

So, first off, for anyone that I don't keep up with on facebook, we moved.  Not the blog this time.  And not just up the road a few miles.  Across the country, again.  We now live in Washington State.  Kinda crazy.  I like to joke that we took the long way up the west coast, made a quick 2 year stop off in DC.

We are loving our new location.  The weather has been very pleasant (although it's rained quite a bit, which is very unusual for the area, so I'm told.)  Harrison is loving school.  Noah started a preschool taught by a girl in our ward, and it's been the perfect thing for him. Both schools are less than a 5 minute walk from our temporary housing. I am loving the slower pace of life here, and the fact that I haven't been anywhere that is crowded yet.  I went to Costco and Walmart on the first Saturday we were here, and was amazed to find them less busy than I ever saw our Walmart or Costco in MD.  Such a nice change.  Another change I've had to get used to is that everyone goes the speed limit here.   I think it's a good thing, I've just had to train myself not to speed.  But since everything is within a 5 minute drive, I really don't mind.  I have yet to drive on the freeway, except to drop off the rental car at the airport.  I used to drive on the freeway several times a day: to get Noah to preschool, or go grocery shopping. I've noticed that I have a lot more free-time because I'm spending a lot less time in the car.  But most of my "free-time" has been spent on finding a home, and now working with the lender on getting everything ready for closing.  Oh, yeah, did I mentioned we are BUYING a home? 

We are so excited.  We should be moving in by the end of the month, just in time for our temporary housing to run out.

So now back to the catch up.  I'll just be catching up from where the photos started on our camera when I unloaded them on the computer here.  I know there's other stuff that I haven't blogged about yet, but those pictures on on my computer that is now sitting somewhere in storage.

One of our last weekends in Maryland, we picked up some Fried Chicken from the Dutch Market in Germantown.  We were told it was the best around, and it did not dissapoint.  We decided to take it up to black hill park and have a picnic there.  On our way up, we realized it was Monarch Fiesta day again.  We of course stopped off to particiapte in a bunch of the festivities.   We had a blast.

 

Harrison got to release one of the butterflies they were tagging.  This is him waving good-bye to the little guy.

Compare with last year: 

When we decided we would be moving for sure, and let the kids know, Harrison requested that we go to the top of the Washington Monument one last time.  We had gone before, but we all were excited to go again.We got tickets for labor day, and it was a great day to spend downtown. 

it was a gorgeous blue sky day, and we got really great views of the city.

After we came down, we met up with our friends, the Gathrights.  It was so great to get together with them one last time.  I only wished I had taken more pictures.  

We attempted to go see the White House, but shortly after we arrived, they cleared the area.  We hung around for a bit, and were able to see Marine One land and take off again.  

September is kind of a blur.  We were really hoping to get moved before school started, but with the way things worked out it was impossible.  So a few days before school started, we scheduled our move for the middle of September.  We had about 3 weeks to prepare.  Thankfully Sam's job really took care of us.  They arranged everything from the movers and packing to shipping our car, getting our flights, and setting up temporary housing for when we arrived. Since we were anxious to get moved, we decided to do our house hunting after we arrived.  I didn't take many pictures of the move, but here's what I've got:

The kids were pretty good about keeping themselves entertained while I tried to get the house ready to be packed and shipped.  My mom came for a quick visit on a business trip, and gave Olivia some fun stickers.  Needless to say, Olivia loves stickers.

The boys of course kept themselves entertained with Legos: 

The also rediscovered some new technology: The Television Set.  We've been without since we came to Maryland, but our Hotels and temporary housing came fully equipped.

They are still getting used to the fact that I don't control what comes on when, and we can't pause it.  Kind of makes me laugh.

The kids were really so good during the move.  They were pretty excited about it this time around.  The boys LOVED staying in the hotel our last night in DC.  We had a suite, so they had their own room, own TV and own bathroom. Harrison said, "This is the best hotel EVER!" 

The flight was pretty good.  We had 3 legs - DC to Detroit, Detroit to SLC and SLC to Pasco. We had a 3 hour layover in Detroit, which got shortened to 2 by a delay in DC.  Not a big deal. But then as we were leaving Detroit we got held back to get some luggage on the flight.  Not sure why they held up the flight for that, but we sat on the tarmac for 30 or so minutes.  We had a 45 mintue layover in SLC, so we missed our flight.  And it was the 2nd to last flight of the day.  At this point it was 8 PM in SLC, which was 10 PM our time.  Our kids were kind of loosing it.  They offered to put us on standby for the 9:30 flight, which would get in at 1 AM our time (DC time), but made no guarantee we would be able to get on, but we had confirmed seats for the next day.   So with kids screaming and going crazy, we decided to stay the night.  But, good old Delta, claimed that the delay was due to weather.  And denied us a hotel stay.  I am so glad we were in Utah - my parents were able to come pick us up at the airport, and we stayed the night at their house.  Without any luggage.  Note to self: always pack a change of clothes in your carry on!  I usually do this, but since our flights were being paid for, and we didn't have to pay to check anything, we checked EVERYTHING, except for what we would NEED to have on the flights.  Knowing that we had 2 connections to make, we didn't want to have anything extra.  But we all could have used a change of clothes!  But we made our flight early the next morning, and made it here only about 13 hours late.  

That day I went and registered Harrison for school.  Here's a picture of him the next Monday when he started: 

And going into class on the first day:

He made immediate friends with a little girl who remembered him from church, Abigail.  He seems to be loving school, and enjoying life in general.

Temporary housing has it's good points and bad points.  One of the good points: housekeeping.  It's not that big of a deal - they come once every 2 weeks, but it is nice to have someone else helping out with toilet scrubbing and vacuuming.  And it also helps me to make sure the house is nice and clean so they can do the detail work for me.  One of the bad points: it's furnished, but minimally. So there's no good place for the boys to build with Legos.  So this is what much of our apartment looks like much of the time: 

Okay, I think that's all I can blog for now.  I'll have to do the boys birthdays later.  But I'll leave you with a couple views off our balcony.

Good Summer

We have had an incredible summer, and are sad to see it come to an end.  You can read more about it here on Carrie's blog.

You never know what will happen on a Saturday

Our Saturday started out with rather mild plans. The national zoo was having an early opening with some kid-friendly events like animal feeding and birdhouse construction. We got out the door early and to the zoo by 8:30. It was a fun day for animal watching. It hit me that most animals are more active in the dawn and dusk time frame rather than the middle of the day (when most humans can get 3 kids dressed, fed, loaded in the car, and drive downtown.) Our first stop was the farm animals (cows and goats). Next was the big cats, where a tiger was out and active. It was pretty fun to watch the tiger prowl. He was hungry. He would go up to the door where he is presumably fed, and growl loudly. We then moved on to watch a squirrel taunt the prairie dogs by jumping in and out of their exhibit.



After regrouping we decided to try and catch the stingray feeding. It was in a obscure part of the zoo in an exhibit dedicated to the Amazon. We missed the feeding, but there was a very nice zoo employee who chatted to our kids for a few minutes about rays. Then we walked around the corner and found a huge aquarium. I swear, our kids could have been there all day watching these fish, some were as big as our 4 year old. There were a couple more aquariums and exhibits which were just as captivating. It was all the better because the exhibits were not crowded, and we could linger as long as we wanted.



We decided to walk back up and see the construction area where they made birdhouses and plaster molds. After that our eyes caught a chimp 40 feet up in the air. I've never seen this in a zoo before, but the Chimp exhibit is housed in two locations perhaps 100-200 yards apart, linked by something resembling a ropes-course (except, of course, that ropes-courses are modeled off cool jungle stuff. so it's moderately circular. but I digress). There were two ropes suspended between towers maybe 30-40 feet up. A series 4-5 towers made the skyway for the chimps to cross over into their other area. We watched three chimp climb up the tower, swing arm over arm and tight-rope walk, and then descend into their other house. It was pretty cool, and I bet that the animals loved it even more.







As were stalled trying to figure out what to do next or whether to go home, I heard, "Sam, Mollie." At first I thought it was one of our kids trying to get our attention (like after repeated "Dad" attempts), but it was Jason and his three kids. They were up for the day from out of town. We rounded up the kids and went to a local park and played for a while. Our kids are pretty close in age, so everybody had a buddy. I think that these ages are the best for playground fun. they are pretty much self-motivated and self-guided. Add in the excitement of having some new friends, and it was a perfect play date. Afterwards we went out for lunch.






All in all, a great day.

Spring at Mount Vernon

We spent the first day of spring at one of our favorite spots here in DC, Mount Vernon. It was a beautiful spring day, and we were lucky enough to meet up with our good friends, the Gathrights.

The flower gardens were just starting to get green - we plan on going back again soon to see everything in bloom.  This winter felt especially long, and I'm so excited that spring has sprung!

Olivia was not happy about posing for this picture - since the nice weather has hit she loves to go outside and run around, and Mount Vernon was no exception.  She often climbs all the way down stairs, finds her shoes and cries at the door until we let her out. 

I love this funny picture. There were a whole bunch of baby lambs in the paddock, and the kids loved watching them. I was trying to get a picture of Olivia and a lamb, and I caught this funny little expression.

And here's a picture with the 2 Gathright girls. Our boys just love playing with these girls. They were good friends at UCSD, and now they live in the DC area, so we've enjoyed keeping up with them and getting together from time to time.

Our year passes expire in July, so I think were going to try to make it out at least a few more times before then.  It's such a great place full of places to explore.

Powerless Weekend

As everyone has probably already heard, the DC area was hit by a major snowstorm this weekend. Call it what you will: snowmegeddon, snowpocalypse, or snowzillia. It was a lot of snow. I woke up around 4 AM to find that the power was out - we aren't sure when it went out, but sometime after 10.

This was the view from our back deck when we woke up. Snow still falling:

The house was 61 degrees in the morning, and with no heat, we knew it was just going to get colder from there. Thankfully we only lost a degree every few hours. The boys didn't seem to notice the lack of power - they just played with their legos all day. Harrison actually commented at the end of the day: "You keep calling today and emergency day, but it just feels like any other day."

The boys were disappointed to not go outside and play in the snow. But with no way to warm them up, or dry their clothes, we decided that playing in the snow wouldn't be the best idea. We were also trying to limit the number of times we opened the front door, to try and keep as much heat in the house as we could.

Sam did shovel a pathway to the car so he could listen to the radio and get updates on the storm and the power outage (we had some crank radios in our emergency kit, but they didn't pick up any useful stations. We'll be investing in some better ones for sure.):

There was definitely more snow than our storm in December. And we were very excited to see this site:

A snow plow. Thankfully our HOA seems to be really good about clearing all the streets.

Olivia preferred to hang out in a coat. And I don't blame her. It was cold.

And the snow kept falling:

When Sam measured it in our yard he got a measurement of 26 inches. The official measurement was 30.
We packed up our freezer stuff in plastic bins and stuck them in the snow. Then we loaded baking dishes with snow and put those in the fridge. At least the food didn't have to spoil with the power out.

Once the sun set, we were able to make use of our emergency kits. We had matches, candles and flashlights and batteries. We ate dinner by candlelight, and cooked by candlelight. Thankfully we have a gas range, so we were able to make soup, quesadillas and hot cocoa.

We felt very fortunate that we had both charged our cell phones, and the laptop had been charged. Our home phone forwards to our cell phone, so we didn't miss any calls, and we were able to keep our families up to date on our situation. They also tried to find information for us, but it seemed that the only information available was that a lot of people were without power, and it could be a while before we got it back.

Once dinner was over and Olivia was all bundled (tights, 3 pairs of PJ's and a furry lined jacket, with an extra pair of socks):

and in bed, we let the boys watch a movie:

that photo was taken with a flash. This is what it really looked like:

Sam taped up the doors with towels, hoping to keep the house as warm as possible. It was 57 by bed time, and we knew it would be dropping quite a bit during the night. The outside temp was suppose to fall to 12 degrees.
And then we bundled up the boys. They seemed kind of excited to wear hats and gloves to bed.

And everyone slept just fine. Each boy had several blankets, and Sam and I stayed warm with our new down comforter. We did get the power back right after putting the kids to bed, but it only stayed on for about 20 seconds. Just long enough to get our hopes up. But come morning their was still no power, and now the house was at 46 degrees, and dropping. BURRRRRRR. We ate breakfast (hot cocoa, oatmeal and eggs) and decided it would be best to go somewhere in the car. The car had heat, and we figured we could go somewhere with heat. So I threw a bunch of stuff in the car, while Sam dug it out and warmed it up. Olivia at this point was done with being cold. The boys on the other hand were back at the Lego table, and questioning why we were leaving. We finally got everyone in the car with extra clothes, blankets and food, and chargers for our phones and computers, and headed over to Sam's office.

Thankfully the roads were passable. But there was a lot of snow out there. The trees were all bent over with the weight of it all:

And their were huge snow banks at intersections:

We got caught up on email, tried to get any information we could and charged all our electronic devices. The kids loved wondering around, and snacking as we did.

Then we had to figure out our next plans. There was someone at Sam's office that lives across the street who offered to have us come over. But letting us know they have a small apartment with a loud dog. Regent, our sister-in-law, has family in VA, and they very kindly offered to pick us up and let us stay there until we had power. But we figured finding somewhere closer and more kid friendly would be a good idea. So we called our friends the Fredins. They were so kind to let us come over, warm up, and play. They fed us yummy lunch and dinner, and provided great company. They have 3 boys about the same age as our kids. The boys were able to go out in the snow, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. At dinner time we sent Sam back to our place to check if the power was back on. Thankfully it was. We are back home now, and enjoying another snowed-in day, this time with power. Sam has no work, the boys have no school (today or tomorrow) but I can do things like catch up the blog. And prepare for our next storm, headed this way tomorrow. The most recent prediction I heard was 12 inches. I thought I moved to DC, not Chicago. What is up with this weather?