Our Vacation in VA

Okay, so here's the story. I tried posting this yesterday, and it deleted all my text. So, I'm going to do half the intended post tonight and then finish it another day. We spent a week in VA, but before I get to that, here are some pictures from the first full week of the boys out of school. Alexander spent a day trying on all of his costumes. This, of course, was his pirate costume.

 

Alexander fell asleep wearing his Buzz Lightyear hat.

 

They had a sleepover one night. They usually take forever to fall asleep when they sleep together. But I must have worn them out that day.

 

Alexander loves watching his brother play Super Mario Brothers on his DS.

 

Glenn was reading Alexander "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" right before bedtime. I love when Glenn reads to his brother!

 

We left on June 16th for the Blue Ridge Mountains in VA. We stayed at a resort called Massanutten. It's a ski resort in the winter. We thought it was going to take 12 hours to get there. But we got stuck in a lot of traffic and it ended up taking 15 hours! Bob did all the driving because I got bronchitis. I had a cold the week up to vacation, but the morning we left, I felt miserable (achy, cough...). At least I didn't have a fever. I was actually sick our whole vacation (still coughing), but I just took medicine to help me power through. We didn't do everything we planned, but still did a lot. We had originally planned on a day trip to Washington D.C. But found it out it was two hours just to get to the western most metro stop. With me not feeling well, and the long drive up, we decided to do Washington on our way up to CT some time instead. So, we traveled on Saturday. On Sunday, we explored the mountain a bit. As we were taking this little hike, Alexander kept saying, "Guys, I'm not sure about this guys. I'm really not sure about this guys." It was cute. Then he got used to walking around the rocks and he was fine.

 

 

 

On Monday, we went to the ski lodge to do a craft. They had daily crafts for the kids and since we had activity passes, it was free for Bob and I, too. So we all participated. We did a craft sack (a canvas bag that we decorated with fabric markers) and wood crafts that we decorated. In the afternoon, we went to see the Luray Caverns. They are underground caverns with stalagtites and stalagmites. We went on a mile and a quarter guided tour of the caverns. This first picture is of the underground lake that is so still that the lake reflects the ceiling. Bob didn't even realize we were looking at the lake until he saw a ripple near the edge of the water. The boys really enjoyed it (Bob and I did, too).

 

 

 

 

 

There were deer everywhere on the mountain. We saw several deer every day. We even saw some walk in front of us on Sunday as we were walking on a path.

 

On Tuesday, we got stuck doing a time share talk in the morning. They billed it as a survey for those who are RCI members (we traded our week through RCI so we could go to this resort) to compare how their resort compares to others we've been to. We did do a survey, but it had nothing to do with the proposed topic. We made it clear from the start that we were not buying. But we did get free water park tickets out of the deal. Next, we went to the ski lodge for another craft. The boys and I used fabric markers to decorate kites and Bob decorated a hat. After lunch, we did a nature scavenger hunt. We had to find things around the ski lodge in answer to a list. We collected some of the items in a bag and took pictures of other things. Here are the guys searching.

 

Alexander's posing by a rock we chose for "something that has layers."

 

When we read that we needed to find "something that is loud," both boys pointed to the ski lift. In hindsight, this isn't exactly what they were looking for, I'm sure, since it's a nature scavenger hunt, but they gave it to us anyway.

 

After the scavenger hunt, we went back to the craft room to make tie-dye shirts. They are still balled up in bags, and we can open them on Tuesday of this week to see how they came out. I think I better wear gloves for that. Then we promised Alexander he could run with his kite. It wasn't windy enough to make it fly high, but he loved to just run back and forth with the kite trailing him. He HAD to do it every day thereafter. He had colored a fish on his kite (with the help of a stencil and Mommy).

 

Wednesday, we went to the water park. They have an indoor and outdoor water park on the mountain. We really liked the indoor water park. It had an enormous play scape with several water slides coming off of it and water shooting out everywhere. At first, I tried to wear my glasses, but quickly realized they were useless covered in water. We switched of following one of the boys. But Bob and Glenn spent at least half the day going down some slides that you ride on tubes (Alexander wasn't tall enough). It really was fun, but I don't think I have ever felt so wet in my life. I told Bob that if I were a kid, I'd want to come back again later in the week. But I am not a kid! I cannot do it twice in one week. We got there just after it opened at 10 and left at 4:30. It was probably the best day of the vacation because everyone was happy. On Thursday, we went on a hike. We packed up lunch and plenty of water and everyone carried their own on their backs... well, until about 20 minutes into the hike and Bob had to carry Alexander's bag. It was supposed to be 3 miles round trip, but at lunch, just past a mile, we decided we better head back so the boys didn't get too tired of hiking. We weren't carrying anyone. You can see in this picture Bob and Glenn's craft sacks they decorated.

 

We looked for clues of animals in the area. Alexander found a deer hoof print.

 

And we will continue with the story of our vacation another day...

May has been a busy month

We've been having a fun month. Alexander's school had a Mother's Day Tea. It was really adorable. We had to line up outside and our child met us at the door. Alexander said, "Mommy, I'd like to invite you to tea." Then he took my hand and brought me to our seats. We had muffins, fruit, and hot tea. They had a variety of tea bags to choose from and Alexander even wanted hot tea. He loved his pomagranate tea.
 

Then the kids went up on stage and sang songs for us. I especially liked the song, "Yes, Mommy Loves Me" to the tune of "Yes, Jesus Loves Me." Then they sang it in Spanish, too. It was adorable!

One of the staff members at the school is a professional photographer. She took pictures of us with our child and then put them in the kids' cubbies the next week. I thought ours came out great!


You know I love to take pictures of Alexander sleeping. Here are two pictures from this month. This first one, I had too keep myself from laughing too loud so I wouldn't wake him up.

His animals are all over him in this picture because he asked me to cover him with them before he fell asleep.

Alexander has been doing gymnastics. Last week, they had a program for the parents. It was funny and adorable. The kids were really cute. Bob enjoyed it, too and thought we should get Glenn into gymnastics, too. For most of the shots, he was moving too fast. But I did catch a few.

 

They did some stretches before getting started.

This is Alexander doing a bridge.

He did a back flip.

 

Holding on to the bar, he inched his way across.

Then he held his arm straight above the bar (needed a little help to stay up there).

Alexander likes to pose with the dogs. 

My brother and his family came in town for a night. The boys had so much fun, as you can tell.

 

We had some friends over to hang out at the pool on Saturday. Glenn got dress up for the occassion.

Did you notice the blue clip on tie?

They had watermelon after swimming for a while.

 

Alexander posing with the puppies, again.

 

I have finished my grading for my last term before summer. Bob is already lining up projects for me at the office. I had my first health blog post on our business website. Click the link to view it: What is COPD?

Alexander's 2011 Album

I finally completed Alexander's 2011 photo album. I did Glenn's months ago. If you'd like to view it, just click on the link (hopefully this works): Alexander 2011 If the link above doesn't work, you can copy and paste this nice long link into your browser: http://app.picaboo.com/WebView/Project.aspx?clientID=fa0fdccd9646549c25326e562d4f630e&version=226669&siteID=FB-WallShare&ref=nf

Gardening and other events

Last time I posted, Alexander was sick. Well, it appears he has the same virus again. It was just a cold virus, but causes high fevers in him. Last time, it took 6 days for it to go away. Hopefully it won't take that long this time. Here he is cuddling with Daddy (Bob asked me to crop him out).

 

My garden is doing really well. I built the squares and I had put pavers around them, too. However, Bob decided to redo it. It really does look better. The first square has several herbs, Swiss chard, celery and strawberries; it has a chive border. The middle square has tomatoes (three species), kohlrabi, banana peppers, and spinach; it has a small flower border. The final square has seedless cucumbers that will grow up a trelis to save space, green bush beans, eggplant, zuchinni, and pattypan squash; it has a marigold border.  

Everything is growing well, except the spinach. After I planted it, I learned I should have waited until fall; all salad greens grow better in the fall here. I'm excited to have a year round garden. I'll be growing salad greens, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflour and anything else I find grows well in the fall. Here's another view of the garden.

 

 

I have two flowers on the eggplants. I thought that the flower was so pretty, and I like the purple veins in the leaves, too
 

Here's proof that I have tomatoes growing. So far, the Big Boy and Roma tomatoes are producing. I can't remember what the other type of tomatoe plant is.
 

I have a lot of potted plants on our pool patio. Here are some more herbs, which are very convenient to have right by the back door (clockwise from left, Italian flat leaf parsley, rosemary and a small dill plant, Greek oregano, and chocolate mint that smell so yummy!).
 

 

I had to put in this cute picture of Cubby. He takes over his brother's bed whenever he can. We have a nickname for him, Cubby the Destroyer. He is a chewer. We have a ton of toys for him to chew, but he has found that puzzle pieces, ottomons and paper are much tastier. Alexander loves to get into London's bed and pet Cubby on his lap.

I also have some work related news. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed teaching two sections of a course, working three mornings a week at Bob's office, and the regular mom running around. It will definitely be a little easier once Alexander's in kindergarden and at the same school as Glenn, but that won't happen until fall of 2013 (and I don't want my baby to grow up that fast). So, I had told my boss that I would like to just do one section of the course at a time (one section has 30 students). I had also told her about my summer plans and had asked for her advice. She promised to give me a section when I'm ready to come back if I wanted to take a couple months off. So, after much though, I decided to do it. So, I will have all of June and July off. Although, Bob pointed out as I was telling my mother this news that I wasn't getting any time off from my other job (in his office). Thanks, Honey! But I'll actually get to enjoy the boys being home instead of trying to do work while they are playing. I will also be able to enjoy our trip to the Virginia mountains (which includes a day trip to Washington DC) and our cruise with Bob's family.