Trip to the Big Apple

Gwen, Naomi and I flew to PA to visit my parents a few weeks ago. One of the things I wanted to do while we were there was visit "the city". To people who have lived there, there is only one place that qualifies for that name. Every other place pales in comparison. There are wonderful places all around the world and I've been to a few of them, but no place is as much of a city as New York. We drove to Staten Island and parked at the ferry terminal. Here is a picture of Gwen sitting on the orange benches on the outside deck of one of the new boats...

...and here she is on one of the older boats a few years ago.

What a cutie :)

Riding on the ferry and then getting on the subway brings back such a rush of memories for me. So many hours of my life were spent on public transportation - reading, talking, drowsing, pushing, daydreaming, flirting.

The first place we went was the Toys R Us magnet store in Times Square. They have a full size (three stories high) ferris wheel inside. Gwen is in the green car on the top right.

Each car had a theme.

After the toy store, we went to M&M world, which was a disappointment. It was just tourist stuff and m&m's for $9 a pound. At least the Jelly Belly Factory had free samples...

One fun thing that happened on our way out was running into a police dog (not literally). The officer kindly let Gwen hold his leash (the dog's).

The ferry has one of the best views of the Statue of Liberty. We also saw one made out of legos in the toy store and even a giant green m&m Statue of Liberty.

Last of all we went to the Metropolitan museum of Art. Here is Gwen entering the Temple of Dendur.

It was a wonderful day. We ate bagels, hot dogs off the street (better than it sounds) and pizza. We even tracked down a piece of cheesecake to take home to Stan. Thanks Mom for the fix. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the calendars!!!

Milestones

We've hit some milestones around here this month.

Here's Naomi on the day she turned ONE in her birthday sweater from Grandma :)

Happy Birthday Mo!!!


I reached the 3.9 decades mark (and the daffodils are blooming in our yard).

And, the station wagon hit the big two-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh...

The Great Park Balloon

A couple of weeks ago, we went and rode the Great Park helium balloon. It is large. It is orange.

It was hard to decide whether to look down at the ground...


...or up.



We rode it twice and some of us still wanted to go back and ride again.

Fruit Loops vs. Cherrios

Naomi likes Fruit Loops. Naomi does NOT like Cherrios. If we put Cherrios in front of her, she fusses. If we put Fruit Loops on the menu, she is happy. If we mix them together, she sorts through them and only eats the Fruit Loops. Here she is doing her "I have Fruit Loops" happy song and dance.

The other day, I was sharing my chocolate yogurt mixed with Cherrios with her. I would try to give her only yogurt, but if a Cherrio was hidden too well, she'd spit it out after sucking all the yogurt off it.

This morning she hit a new high on the caution scale. She would eat ALL the Fruit Loops except the yellow ones. Those she'd sort out and banish them to the "Something That Looks Too Much Like a Cherrio" pile.

And to close, while we were documenting this behavior, Michael said, "Take a picture of ME!!!"

Visitors

Last week, my brother Matt, sister-in-law Stephanie, their two darling daughters, Ruby and Coral, and my mom came to visit. We really enjoyed their company. Not only was it fun to see them all, they were the easiest house guests I've ever had because they took care of dinner every night they were here. My kids are clamoring for more Navajo tacos, so, Steph and Matt, if you have time to put your recipe on your blog...

Speaking of blogs, the credit goes to Matt and Stephanie for inspiring me to start blogging and for setting the bar high for what a stellar blog should be. I may sound like I am laying it on a bit thick, but their blog really is one of my favorites to read.

While they were here, they picked their new cocker spaniel up at the airport. My kids tried their very best to spoil that dog ROTTEN while she was here. Here is Rachel doing Science schoolwork on the back porch, holding Olive the 2nd, because, "she's LONELY."

Coral and Naomi are three months apart in age. It was fun to see them together.

Michael and Ruby are also three months apart and Michael had fun with another three year old to play with. Stephanie, Matt and Grandma took Coral, Ruby and Michael to the San Diego Zoo the second day they were here and I think it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Rachel is Twelve!!!

Happy Birthday Rachel!!!

The birthday girl had Baked Alaska for her cake...yum :)

Eggs, Fascinating Eggs

Last month, Violet and Lily, our late blooming Ameraucanas, finally started laying eggs. We were so excited - they both lay green eggs. Violets are slightly bluer and more rounded than Lily's. It makes for a lovely view when we open our fridge. Also, here is a second humongous egg from Buttercup, slightly larger than the first .

One of them, Lily or Violet, even laid a double yolked egg :)

Michael graduated from Nursery into Primary on Sunday.

Here's a copy of the picture one of the counselors in our Primary presidency posted.

James Dean, watch out :)

Christmas

Thanksgiving Trip

Here I am, finally blogging about our once-in-a-lifetime Thanksgiving trip. Who knows when I'll catch up on all that has happened since then.

:)

All nine of us left in the wee hours of the morning for the airport the Monday before Thanksgiving. We took two cars and had nine bags plus three car seats to check. The skycap guy EARNED his tip. Each of us had carry-on bags with books, toys, art supplies, games, work to do, and snacks, snacks, snacks. It was pretty exciting to go on the airplane. So exciting, that Michael was satisfied with the fun he'd had and asked at the end of the first leg of our trip out, as we were deplaning, "Are we back?"


I took this picture of Michael in one of the three airports we were in because I liked how his shirt matched the grey and yellow of the escalator. Notice his half on/half off suspenders. Michael's suspenders made their mark forever in the history of our family when they set off the metal detector at the security checkpoint.

We flew into Dulles, picked up the 12 passenger van we were renting, and drove to the Washington D.C. Temple. We met Aunt Sara at the Visitor's Center, took a couple of pictures, decided it was too cold for our thin-blooded selves and headed to our hotel.

I had written our congressman months before to get tickets to the White House, so Stan, the kids and I took off. I had grand plans about driving all the way around D.C., taking the Metro in and having a head start on our trip south, but rush hour traffic was not part of them. I don't know why I was so sure we could make it. I should have remembered from when we lived there, but we never would have attempted this trip if I wasn't an optimist, so we were lucky that Sara was back at the hotel, using the WiFi to do homework on her laptop. She found a Metro station online, got us to it and saved the day. We parked the van, bought some tickets, hopped on the train and made it just in time for our tour.

Our extended family reunion theme was "Concentrated Insanity", but our specific family sub-theme may have been "Security Checkpoint Mishaps." Summer set off the metal detector at the White House with her braces (as confirmed by the Secret Service guy using the wand on her after she made the walk-through alarm sound).

The White House was neat. I think my favorite parts of being there were the feeling of walking where so many admirable people have walked and also the paintings.

After the White House, we walked to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and met Sara there. Stan took a picture of the rest of us in front of the elephant in the rotunda.

One of the funnest parts of our day in D.C. was riding the Metro. I regaled the kids with stories of the times I rode the Subway in N.Y. in high school. They all learned why there are lots of things to hold onto while you stand.

We got back in the van, drove down the George Washington Memorial Parkway and stopped to see the house we rented while we lived in Alexandria. This is the house Heather came home from the hospital to, so we took her picture in front of it.

We headed to North Carolina Tuesday afternoon and stayed the night in Fayetteville so that we could spend the next morning with my sister Abby and her family. She made German pancakes and French toast for us for breakfast - very international and very yummy.

We drove from North to South Carolina Wednesday and got lost. We waited in a Baptist church's parking lot, overlooking the graveyard for my brother Tim to come rescue us and that is where we first met up with all the grandparents -- my mom, my dad and my Grandma Blanche -- who flew out for the reunion.

We finally made it to the condos on Lake Moultrie we were staying in, ate something, got the kids off to bed and made plans to play jokes on the aged father for his 65th birthday. Sara, Summer, Rachel and I got up at two and, trying to keep the giggling down, made a pyramid of plastic cups in front of his bedroom door and wrote a message with toothpaste and mini-mini marshmallows. His nickname is Mean Old Ugly Ogre, in case you are wondering.

Here are Summer, Rachel, and Heather playing football with their cousins and some kids that were staying next door Thanksgiving Day. They had a blast.

Everyone loves the Mean Old Ugly Ogre. He almost constantly had some admiring grandchild or another in his footsteps. Here he is on the Lake Moultrie beach with Adele.

We really enjoyed spending time on the beach. We never made it to the Atlantic, but the beach on the lake was nice, too. There were lots of shells...

...and Naomi discovered that sand tastes good salty or not.

Gwen enjoyed the sand too, even though she didn't eat any.

Summer, Rachel and various aunts cut cardboard mustaches out for us all to wear for the family pictures. Here is Kelly looking adorable with fake facial hair.

We ate all kinds of interesting things. Tim deep fried a couple of turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner -- they were delicious. We also ate fried okra, Moon Pie, Grandpa's donuts, Krispy Kreme donuts, shakes from Cookout's, and oysters on the half shell. One thing I love about Stan is his willingness to try new things. Here he is getting ready to swallow his first oyster, it's heart probably still beating.

After having a Thanksgiving, Grandpa's birthday and an all around blast with the family, we headed back north in the van on Saturday. It was fun to take a road trip together in one vehicle, which we haven't done since Mo was born.

We enjoyed seeing the scenery, especially the fall leaves, which, while not as spectacular as New England, were still impressive to us south westerners.


Our trip back to Virginia Saturday included the low point of the trip when I locked the van's keys inside...oops! Poor Stan waited outside near the van, so that we didn't miss the locksmith in weather colder than we usually see all year. Every cloud has a silver lining, though. He bought himself a jar of pickled pig's feet at the gas station we were stuck at. He's been trying to get the kids to try them for months and is planning on having these for his birthday dinner.

We went to church Sunday morning and headed to the airport. I ended up volunteering my seat and taking a different flight than Stan and the six older kids, but we still all made it home within an hour of each other. Stan and I looked at each other and said, "Whew, I can't believe we made it!"

Gwen's Story

Gwen had to write a story about pizza for her math class. Here it is, with minor editorial corrections.

Once, not too long ago, there was a boy named Hamlet. He loved pizza. When ever he saw it, even if it wasn’t his, he would yell, “Pizza!” grab it and eat it.

One day, Hamlet was visiting the queen and she was eating pizza for lunch. He lost control, yelled, “Pizza!” and ate her pizza! He was sentenced to die for his crime, but the queen had mercy on him and said he only had to stay in the dungeon for two years.

When the two years were over, he got out and guess what? Hamlet hated pizza! He never took a piece of pizza again, but he decided to become a thief, because of his hatred for the queen. Hamlet stole and stole and stole. He was finally caught and sent to back to the dungeon. One night in the dark, he was thinking about what he had done with his life and how the queen had saved him from death. When he got out of the dungeon, Hamlet told the queen he was sorry and never did anything wrong again.

The End

I've been tagged.

A friend of mine (hi, Emily) has a blog and tagged me, so...here goes, six facts about myself. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether they are interesting facts...or not.

1. I like to bake - bread, cookies, cream puffs, you name it.

2. I can't stand buying clothes for full price. I get so excited when I get a bargain. Just last Thursday I got a pair of pants at J.C. Penney for $0. Mom, my budget thanks you for the good training!

3. My two favorite authors are Leo Tolstoy and P.G. Wodehouse. Here's one of my favorite short stories of Wodehouse's, because obviously we have the same taste in literature.

4. I have Sargassumophobia, or fear of seaweed, especially of it wrapping around my legs while I swim. I can trace this directly back to Whaley Lake and all those summers of swimming tests.

5. I have seven kids. Ok, that is about the kids, but it also defines so much of who I am, and I love seeing the looks on strangers' faces when I tell them, so I have to include it.

6. I've always enjoyed creating art in one form or another. I even went to an art high school. Life is busy, and I don't get to do as much as I like, but these are my outlets. Once or twice every five years I break out my favorite watercolors. I bead when I get the chance (a day to just bead is one of my favorite b-day presents from Stan). I love taking pictures - can you tell from my blog? And...I paint my toes. I've done that for a few years, but ever since the YW president treated me to a pedicure, I've been trying to put designs on them and have been getting more creative with color. I even keep a blog as a record of what I've tried. As you can see, My latest pedicure is a combination of past designs, culled and combined from my online journal of toes.

And now, I will share the love and tag Steph, Sarah, Sara, and Claire. I'll be watching your blogs with bated breath!

Humongous Egg

Buttercup must think she is a goose or a turkey (someone should warn her of the dangers in that last delusion this time of year). She laid an ENORMOUS egg. It weighed 94 grams and was 7 full centimeters from one end to the other (measured flat, not curved around the egg).

Here it is in a carton next some others of hers and Rose's eggs.

And here it is next to a large egg from the grocery store.

LIfe is too busy for pumpkins.

We didn't get around to carving our pumpkins for Halloween. Starting three weeks before, we kept trying to do it for FHE, or on Saturday, but we were always too swamped. The kids got so desperate to unleash their creativity on the orange fruit in the living room that they dressed them up one day. If you look closely, you can see that each pumpkin has headgear, shoes, clothes and hobbies. The gourds are twin babies - a boy and a girl.

I finally promised Rachel one day when she asked me when, "Before Thanksgiving!" Well, we barely made it. Here they are yesterday, the Saturday before every self respecting pumpkin is a pie, carving faces.

Stan and I were (still!) too busy to help carve, so our pumpkin got dressed up again rather than going under the knife.

Naomi is...

...nine months old!

She celebrated by eating her first donut :)