Mount Vernon

Last Saturday we spent the day at Mount Vernon, so I thought I would post some pictures.

Harrison posing with the Washington's (George, Martha & 2 grandchildren).

I was so glad I brought the double jogger. Mount Vernon is so much more than just an old mansion. There are huge grounds filled with gardens, stables, farm animals, and all sorts of stuff that's great to go explore, but that require quite a bit of walking. This stroller was never empty, except for the walk through the mansion.

We brought a picnic lunch and picnicked in the Washington's backyard. It was amazing weather - low 80's, low humidity. Just perfect. And there weren't crazy amounts of people there either. We walked a ways away from the house to the shade of a large tree, and there wasn't anyone else anywhere near us. We had a view of the Potomac river, cows within sight (but not smell), and lots of space to run around.Here's Noah and Olivia sharing their lunches on the lawn. Harrison really wanted a picture in front of the river. Can you see it?

They had a great kind of scavenger hunt set up for kids, with a map, and clues to look for. Harrison was really into it, and would direct us where we need to go to find the answer to the next puzzle. Near the end of the day, we had one last puzzle to solve. It involved hiking a little ways to go to the grave site for the slaves that lived at Mount Vernon. On the way there you pass George and Martha Washington's grave site. Harrison had a one track mind to solve his puzzle, so he sped right past the Washington's graves. After solving his last clue, we started to head back, and we were about to pass the Washington's grave sites again. I was trying to remind Harrison to be respectful of the grave site as we approached.

I said, "Harrison, we are about to pass two mini Washington Monuments. They are the graves of George and Martha,"
Harrison blurts out in a very loud voice, "Who is George and Martha???"
I try to calmly and respectfully answer, "The Washington's, of course. This was their house we were visiting today, remember?"
Harrison again, just as loud, "They're dead??? Why do they have this house if they're dead?"

Our attempt at a family shot. Their is another family getting a photo behind us, so you can't really see Mount Vernon, but at least it proves we were all there together, right?

We spoiled the kids with some unimpressive soft serve ice cream at the museum cafe as we left.

We got year round passes, because there is a lot more to see there (we didn't explore the museums at all, and there is apparently a lot for kids to explore there), and I would also like to see it during different season, especially in the Spring when all the trees are in bloom.

recognition

Lately I've been feeling badly about how quickly (and with out any pomp and circumstance) we left San Diego when Sam finished his degree. Since UCSD only does graduate school graduation once per year, in June (and you have to have defended and been all signed off on your work before you can participate), Sam did not get to participate in his own graduation. No photo ops with big colorful robes and bright diploma. It was a huge accomplishment, but was kind of lost in the craziness that was our life as we had a baby and moved across the country. So, I'm not trying to brag, but I would like to say I am so proud of the work he's done. Here's a little highlight from what he accomplished.

Independance Day

I have not blogged in a long time. Every time I think I need to update the blog I just get overwhelmed by how behind I am. So I am just going to start updating, starting with the most recent stuff, and maybe I'll get to stuff in the past someday, and maybe I wont (I still have posts started from our family trips last spring/summer that I never got around to finishing...)

So we had a very happy 4th of July. Unfortunately I did not take hardly any pictures. Uncle John came down to visit for the weekend, and the boys just LOVE having uncles around. We went to Great Falls on Friday, and got some good pictures there. On the 4th we went to our ward picnic breakfast, and the big boys had lots of fun playing ultimate Frisbee. The weather was amazing - low humidity and low 80's for a high - very strange for this time of year, but we certainly aren't complaining.

I took a stab at a flag cake (recipe from my dear friend Ruth). I halved the recipe and they were out of raspberries at the store, so we went strawberries. It was good, but I'll have to try it again next year with raspberries.

The men cooked up a fine brisket dinner in Texas tradition, and then took the boys off to watch some fireworks near by. It was a fun, relaxing, laid back holiday.

a perfect fit

When we first moved here, it was with the hopes of renting for at least the first year, and then eventually buying. A few months ago, we started casually looking. We knew the market had been going down, and was falling fast from it's bubble peak of 2006, and wanted to see what was possible. Everyone was saying, "you should definitely buy - what a great time!" So we would head out to open houses that were in areas that interested us. And we became pretty frustrated. And depressed. Even though prices had dropped, the market still felt well over priced. The properties that were within our price range were not any where near my "want-range". Some where downright yucky. So we basically decided we were going to be renters for a while, and have started to look more at the rental market (which also seems to be falling...) - if we find a rental that is really great, we'll move - if not, we'll stay where we are for now. But I still have Redfin set up to send me emails whenever there is a new listing within our price-range in my favorite neighborhood. And yesterday I got an e-mail that floored me. The home above, in our price range, literally across the street from the elementary school (one of the best in the area, the reason I love the neighborhood), 2 blocks from the chapel, 1/2 a block from the community center with a huge outdoor pool, and large playground, large fenced yard, garage, finished basement, gas heating, gas range, open kitchen leading to deck, 4 beds, 3 1/2 baths, with a potentail 5th bedroom downstairs, large master bath with sperate shower and bath, his and hers closets (walk in!!!), large master bed with vaulted ceilings, sky lights... the list just goes on. It seemed to be a perfect fit. So, we went and saw it. Us and the rest of the world. When we walked through it was buisier than most open houses that we attended. There were at least 4 other groups of people there at the same time. It was labeled a fixer upper, so we of course wanted to see what that meant. It was filthy. But nothing majorly wrong with it. In talking to the agent, it's a Freddie Mac foreclosure, which has been vaccant for 8 months. So sad. The crazy part is it sold in 2007 for over 200K more than it was listed for today. And it had been a rental. And it had been abandoned, and just "trashed-out" today. When we got there all that was left were the crumbs and stains. But the home still had much more going for it that anything else that we had looked at. Curious story, and it makes me so glad that we did not move here sometime during the bubble. What a crazy time.
There are already 3 contracts in, and I'm sure many more are going to be put in over the weekend. I have started to hear about foreclosure deals that are getting into bidding wars similar to the bubble era, and it sounds like this is one of them. So, I think we'll pass and remain in our wait and watch mode. But it has begun to give me hope - maybe this is the beginning of the trickle that will start the flood of foreclosures that may make property values realistic. Not necessarily a situation that I would ever hope for, but an outcome that makes this area a little more livable.

I miss thailand

One of my frequent diversions in Thailand was finding bad english, on stationary or t-shirts or anywhere. If any of my Thailand pals have found their way onto the blog, just remember the "Emotiom" poem. Ah, good times.

Recently the boys got a monster truck at a garage sale, with a gem of bad english on the back. Let me know if you have any interpretation.

The Nursery is Finished

I know some people who try and get the nursery all ready before the baby arrives. I'm just glad I got it done before her first birthday. The nursery bedding (and coordinating accessories) were a generous hand-me-down. I had kind of planned on a pink/brown/green nursery, but when I was given this cute nursery set it turned into pink/green/purple.

Here's the view from Olivia's door:

and from the other side of the room:

The dresser was a garage sale find - $25 for dovetailed drawers. And it's the perfect height to double as a changing table. So far we just updated the hardware and we are thinking of painting it someday...

And my personal favorite part of the room, Olivia of course!:

Chair makeover take II

If you'll remember, a while back I recovered the arms and seat of my glider. Well, since then we moved across the country and took very little with us. When we arrived in Maryland we proceeded to replace much of our furniture that we left behind using craigslist. This proved to be pretty rewarding (good furniture for much less then we could have purchased it for new) but stressful (trying to drive all over the place picking stuff up with a newborn and 2 kids in tow, and trying to do it as quickly as possible because we literally had no where to sit or put our clothes...) But in the end I think I'm really glad we did it. One of my favorite finds was my glider replacement. After nursing Olivia in a folding chair for a couple weeks, I found one. For $75 I got a dutailier swivel glider and ottoman. The one problem was that the previous owner had recovered it (or paid someone else to do it) and it was in light blue, which showed a lot of wear and dirt. I knew I could recover it, and it was a bargain at $75, so I got it. Here's the before:

I had already covered the ottoman when I took this picture, but you get the idea. The arms were actually useless the way they had been done, and provided no padding. Well, 8 months later I finally got around to finishing the recovering job:

I really like how it turned out - and it was actually really easy to do. I covered the ottoman right away, because that seemed the simplest. Then I fixed the arm rests, because I really wanted some padding there. About 2 months later I finally did the seat cushion, and then for some reason I waited another 4 or 5 months or so to do the seat back. But now I really love how it looks. I actually found a small kid-size chair at a yard sale for $2 that I also recovered (forgot to take a before shot...), and I did it to match the glider. So for about $100 I got a custom rocking chair with a matching kids chair. This is why I love sewing and craigslist and garage sales.