grandkids – Page 3 – ToadMama.com

February 16, 2014February 16, 2014

Best Birthday Weekend Ever

This post, which is [finally!] being published a week after returning from our fabulous trip, is dedicated to my favorite son-in-law, TJ, who has undoubtedly been thinking, “Damn, she ignored us AGAIN!” Or something to that effect, but probably a bit more colorful… (I still haven’t shared the pics and report from our visit in September 2013.)

February is a melancholy month for my mother-in-law. So this year, to give her something to look forward to and create some fun February memories, we decided to take her out to Washington to visit with Amy and family.

Since my birthday happens to be in February, I planned the trip to coincide with that date. That was a fabulous idea, if I do say so myself, because it ended up being the best birthday weekend ever.

While winter can be an iffy time of year to travel to or from the East Coast, winters in the Seattle area are typically pretty mild. February temps in Seattle average between lows in the mid-30s and highs around 50. Snow is pretty rare. They might get a trace of snow a few times a year. Every four years or so, they might get a big three-inch snowfall. And it doesn’t usually stay around very long.

When we were there, the low was 21 and the high was 31. It was windy, too, which meant it was COLD. As you’ll see soon enough. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Back to my birthday (February 6)…

We flew to Seattle on Wednesday. The grand kids all had dentist appointments on Thursday morning. TJ, who ferried the kids to the dentist, stopped at Legendary Doughnuts on the way home to grab my birthday breakfast.

The place is aptly named. Those things were OMG delicious.

After sampling pieces of several of them — they were HUGE — we all loaded into Amy’s friend’s Expedition, which seated all eight of us, for a drive into the city.

I’d been to Seattle twice previously, but had never made it to the world famous Pike Place Market. That’s the only touristy thing I really wanted to do. So my birthday seemed like a logical day to do it. I didn’t realize it’s an indoor/outdoor kind of place. With temperatures in the mid-20s, it made for a chilly excursion.

Chocolate-covered Washington Cherries (yes, we brought some home)

From the restaurant... a Washington State Ferry — From the restaurant… a Washington State Ferry

Sadly, it was too cold for the Ferris Wheel. But I was tickled to get such a lovely peek at the Olympic Range, the mountains on the Olympic Peninsula we’d visited back in September.

After a delicious lunch,we paused for a photo op…

…and then headed to another Seattle landmark.

Actually going up into the Space Needle is TERRIBLY over-priced — $19 per adult! — but we figured the kids and my mother-in-law would enjoy it, so up we went.

They took this cool group photo for us.

The view from the top was nice. There’s an outdoor viewing platform as well as a fully enclosed space, which is good, because it was REALLY cold up there.

When we left the Space Needle, Amy asked if there was anything else I’d like to do. She did a good job of not acting too disappointed when I said, “No. We’re here to visit with you guys. And since it’s so cold, let’s just go back and hang out at the house.”

Little did I know what surprise waited for me there.

Our oldest daughter, Shannon, had flown in from San Diego to spend the weekend with us, too. Hubby, MIL, and I were all completely surprised. And even more delighted.

But wait, there’s more. Shannon promptly got to work preparing one of my favorite dinners.

I love hot dogs and I love soft pretzels. So you can probably imagine how much I love pretzel dogs.

But wait, there’s still more. It was my birthday, right? So there was cake and ice cream, too!

Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing.

Man oh man. It really was the best birthday ever. And we still had a couple days of visiting ahead of us.

I was hoping to get down to Portland on Friday, but that city was frozen, literally, by an epic snowstorm. Instead, after the kids went off to school, the adults headed to the Sun Break Cafe for a light breakfast.

Half-order size of a chicken fajita omelet.

After breakfast, we went back to the house to relax. That afternoon, Amy and I drove to Sumner, Washington to visit Kristi’s Country Store, Amy’s closest Annie Sloan Chalk Paint retailer.

The mountain (Mount Rainier) was “out” (visible). Amy found a spot on the way back to her place where I could snag a picture.

BBWE_24a — Me taking pictures of Mount Rainier (as captured by Amy)

It’s a really big mountain. We weren’t close to it at all, despite what you may think from the pictures.

We drove past Sunset Park on the way back to the house. So later, near sunset, Gaige and I walked to the park. I told him I’d be REALLY disappointed if I didn’t see a cool sunset from the park.

I wasn’t disappointed.

That shot of Gaige is one of my all-time favorite captures.

Later that evening, it was more chillaxin…

There’s more, but it’ll have to wait until the next post.

Amy, I promise not to make you wait too long!

March 24, 2013

Farm and Park Fun

This is a continuation of our visit with the grand kids, from last weekend, that I started describing in my previous post.

Knowing the kids would need to burn off some energy after spending hours in a museum, I wisely did some research in advance and found nearby Frying Pan Farm Park in Fairfax County. As explained on their web site…

…the park preserves and interprets a 1920s through 1950s farm, agricultural process, rural community life and landscape for the educational, cultural and recreational enrichment of citizens and visitors of Fairfax County.

There’s a playground, equestrian center, carousel, general store/concession stand, and critters!

The horse appears to belong to or is being boarded by people living next to the park.

I loved all the red barn buildings!

And, look. A rare shot of me with the grand kids.

Speaking of me and the grand kids… I’m not sure who was more excited about seeing the critters.

Joey hollered “Ew, it stinks!” repeatedly about 20 times before we could shut him up. They are not exactly city kids, but they are FAR from farm kids, too.

The big pig outside was cool. But the animals inside the barn were cooler.

That was the sweetest little calf ever.

Prepare yourself for some serious cuteness here.

Ready?

Even Hubby said the baby pigs were WAY off the cuteness scale. I mean, how can you not think all these happy little pigs are cute?

I think the goat was happy to see our loud crew go.

When we got home, Hubby needed a power nap, so the kids and I went for a stroll around town.

The first stop was, of course, the caboose. Joey LOVES the caboose.

They were having fun hamming it up for the camera.

I explained to them about the slave auction block near the courthouse. Gaige declared it sad and told everyone they should look sad in the next picture.

Apparently, Joey was confused about how “sad” should appear. But he redeemed himself in the next shot, which I think is quite cute.

On Sunday morning, Hubby and I walked the kids up to visit the Old Jail Museum.

Isn’t my Hubby a handsome grandfather? I sure think he is!

And that was the end of the visit. Sort of. I did feed them before packing them in to car for the return drive to Maryland.

It was a fun-filled visit that went by WAY too fast.

The next visit will have to be longer so we can squeeze more stuff in. Of course, it may need to be followed by a day or two of vacation, too, so Hubby and I can recuperate. Those kids wear us out! But they sure are fun.

March 22, 2013

A REALLY Cool Museum

Last weekend, when the grand kids were visiting, we took them to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. As explained on the center’s web site…

The center is “…the companion facility to the Museum on the National Mall. The building opened in December, 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited at the Museum in Washington, DC. The two sites together showcase the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world.

It’s a REALLY big place. The artifacts shown in the photos are not scale models, they are all the real deal.

It’s quite an impressive place.

Saying it’s “really big” is a bit of an understanding. It’s ginormous. Seriously.

I didn’t take notes, so I can’t tell you much about most of this stuff. Sorry.

They had aircraft of all shapes and sizes. From a very wide variety of eras.

There’s also a cool observation area that simulates an air traffic control tower. It overlooks Dulles Airport and on clear days during busy airport arrival and departure times (it was overcast and slow while we were there), you can see lots of planes. You can even listen in real-time as the tower talks to the pilots. My geekometer was spiking a bit there.

Supposedly, lines can get really long to get to the tower, so we went early. Timing wasn’t great, but it was still nice to see.

Brianna got a big kick out of the various illustrations on the aircraft. The boys, of course, were most impressed by the missiles and guns.

The next picture is my favorite shot from the museum. Because the lighting is right and it just shows the wide variety of stuff packed in there.

This next artifact is the crown jewel of the center. Both because of its significance and it’s size. Again, this is no scale model.

The lighting made it tough to get good pictures. But I did my best.

It was quite interesting to get that up-close-and-personal with the real space shuttle.

There were all sorts of displays there.

The specially-equipped airstream camper served as a mobile decontamination unit for astronauts returning from the moon.

udvar-hazy-19 — Japanese Kamikaze Aircraft

I hadn’t realized the Enola Gay was there. So seeing that is what impressed me most that day. My grandmother knew the navigator who was on the flight that dropped the first atomic bomb, from the Enola Gay, onto Hiroshima, Japan.

The kids were really well-behaved. They held out until about 2:00 when we finally decided it was time for lunch. There’s a McDonald’s right in the center, which was convenient.

We only stuck around a little while longer after we ate. It became obvious that the kids were getting bored when we realized they were more enthralled with their Happy Meal toys than the airplanes and stuff.

So off we went to our next fun destination. I’ll have to tell you about that in my next post.

Is that a REALLY cool museum or what?

March 19, 2013

Snow Belt Confirmed

A little over a week ago, I did a post on what I thought was our last snow storm of the season.

I was wrong. We got snowed on again.

Lucky for us, we only got a few inches.

It was very cold, though. And downright miserable. I am really ready for Spring now.

The dogs didn’t mind the snow too much.

Bell and K Wrastling. — Belle and K Wrastling.

Belle, who is BADLY in need of a haircut, and K enjoyed some outdoor “wrastling” for a change. They usually wrestle in the basement.

I made a little slideshow of them playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2f10TWmSlQ&feature=share&list=UURk2SuI5Ak0Du7nVW5VaODQ

How badly does Belle need a trim? Our youngest, Eric, and his fiancee, Kelsey, came down for a visit last night. When Eric saw Belle, he thought she was a new foster dog I hadn’t told him about. As soon as it warms up, she’ll get bathed and trimmed.

The daffodils are blooming. It’s really time for Spring.

Saturday, it was like 60 and partly sunny. Really. Here’s proof.

The grand kids spent the weekend with us. On Saturday afternoon, I took them for a walk around town so Hubby could get a power nap.

They were hamming it up for the camera. And I wasn’t too serious about shooting, which is why this super-cute pic (I think) is blurry.

This next shot is my favorite from our stroll.

Gaige, Brianna, and Joey at the Courthouse

Although this next one makes me laugh. There’s a story behind it, which you have to read to appreciate the humor in the shot.

As we were walking through town, Gaige and Joey were walking ahead of Brianna and me. Since I was letting them be goofy in pictures, every now and then Gaige would stop and say, “Here’s a good place for a picture!”

As we neared my friend Janet’s store — The Empty Nest — I told them not to get too far ahead because there was a store window we had to stop at.

When Gaige got to the window, he looked in, and yelled back to me, “Brianna can stand in front of this one!”

It’s very pretty and VERY pink.

I made them pose there for me. The boys were not happy. Here’s that pic.

They DO make me laugh.

More kid pics to come in the next post!

November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

Thanksgiving Reflections

Thanksgiving 2012 has come and gone. Our house, which was a flurry of activity for several days, is once again quiet.

That’s good and bad. Good because Hubby and I aren’t used to that much excitement. Bad because it was fun having the parents, kids, and grand kids around.

For me, the holiday was bittersweet. It was our first Thanksgiving without Mom. And Shannon, who lives in San Diego, wasn’t able to come. Both were sorely missed. Lucky for me, I didn’t have time to dwell upon those absences. Instead, we enjoyed several days of frenetic activity and togetherness (i,e., chaos!).

I forced everyone to pose for a group photo on Friday afternoon before anyone could leave. Shown in the picture are:

Back Row, L-R: TJ (son-in-law), Mike (husband), and Eric (son)
Middle Row, L-R: Dad (father), Amy (daughter), Kathy (me), Kelsey (soon to be daughter-in-law), and Brianna (granddaughter)
Front, L-R: Gaige (grandson), Joey (grandson), and Mom (mother-in-law)

No one had the patience to wait while I tried to get the dogs to sit with us. But they were there, too. So was Dad’s cat, Sylvia, pictured below.

Just about everyone had a hand in dinner preparation, except for the animals. Gaige and Joey didn’t help with meal prep, but TJ and the Hubby did a great job keeping them busy.

Below are some images captured on Thanksgiving day. I wasn’t the only photographer. Brianna took some pics and so did Hubby.

Brianna Kneading the Dough for Dinner Rolls

Eric, who is attending culinary school, was in charge of making the rolls. He enlisted Brianna’s help and essentially just supervised while she did all the work. Brianna loves helping in the kitchen, but I had too much going on for that. Eric took it upon himself to get Brianna involved. He did a fabulous job teaching and she did just as well listening.

Have a look at the finished product…

Mike was going to let all of the kids do a project in the workshop, but Brianna decided she’d rather help in the kitchen.

I can’t show you what they made because it’s a secret gift for Mom and Dad. But here’s a shot Hubby captured of the boys working.

My brain was too fried for a card game. I enjoy cooking and don’t mind all of the work. But cooking a big meal like that requires a lot of thought. And I have a very hard time concentrating with all of the hubbub in the house. You know, kids playing, cheering during football games, dogs barking, kids screeching from being tickled, multiple conversations, etc. I try not to ignore people, but have a hard time coordinating everything that needs to be done and participating in lengthy chats. Hopefully I didn’t offend anyone!

Hubby actually captured that shot of Joey with K on his lap on Friday morning while I was still in bed.

And that’s it for the Thanksgiving shots.

I hope your day was as full of fun and love as ours was!

May 29, 2012

Holiday Weekend Re-cap

We enjoyed a very busy, relaxing, fun-filled holiday weekend with part of our family, chock-full of love, laughter, and lots of good food.

Amy, TJ, and the grand kids came down to visit, arriving on Friday afternoon and leaving around midday on Monday.

Getting to spend that much time with the whole family was a rare treat. Between TJ’s deployment and the family’s year-round busy schedule, I can’t remember the last time we saw them all together for an extended period. This was actually TJ’s first visit to our VA home. And we’ve been here for eight months! We were really glad he finally got to come down for a visit.

We had dinner at home on Friday and the adults had a chance to just visit while the kids entertained themselves with Lego’s (pricelessly pronounced as “Yegos” by Joey) and movies.

Saturday started off early with a trip to the little farmer’s market here in town.

That was followed by a trip to the caboose. Joey loves visiting the caboose, which sits on an old railroad siding near the Warrenton Branch Greenway, a railroad bed turned walking/biking path that’s only a couple of blocks from our house.

The caboose is a popular photo spot. As is the nearby shanty, where I’ve taken pictures of Amy and the kids on a couple of different occasions.

I couldn’t decide which shot I liked better (first one in the post or the one immediately above), so I decided to use both. Aren’t they a cute little family?

While we were out, Hubby got the grill set up to cook a big chunk of pork (8-lb Boston butt), which we were to have for a dinner of pulled pork. He’d made a couple of different sauces a day or two earlier, a NC-style sauce (thin, vinegary, and spicy) and a mustard-based sauce. The NC-style sauce was TJ, Brianna, and Gaige’s favorite. Amy liked them all. Hubby and I still prefer our Salt Lick Original Recipe BBQ Sauce (a story in itself).

While the meat slowly cooked/smoked, the adults relaxed and visited and the kids found various ways to keep themselves busy.

They were starting to get bored. Amy and TJ were going to take them to the playground, but it was sweltering hot, so I suggested we just set the kids loose in the driveway with the hose to cool off.

I didn’t capture nearly as many water pics as I’d hoped because either their backs were to me. Or the older kids saw me and got those cheesy expressions. Plus I didn’t want to risk venturing out there with my camera. An almost-five-year-old with a wide open hose is a scary thing.

That and I think the heat made me a bit lazy. I hate to sweat.

Here are a few of the not-so-great shots.

Outtake #3 (cheesy pretend-I-don't-see-camera smile)

Outtake #4 (let's look as bored as we possibly can)

After lunch, it was nap/chill time.

The downtime for everyone (I spent an hour inside soaking up the A/C!) was short-lived. Then it was back outside.

Joey is a funny little thing. He’s quite animated and kept everyone laughing with his antics.

That’s one of my favorite shots. Definitely one to show him when he’s all grown up!

I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the finished pork roast, which was a lip-smackin’, finger-lickin’ masterpiece. I guess it was because once it was done, we all switched to get-the-food-on-the-table gear. We’d been smelling that sucker cook all day long!

Saturday evening brought more relaxation. And then on Sunday, we all went to visit Luray Caverns, which is just about an hour west of here in Luray, Virginia.

Hubby gets the credit for thinking of that one.

Brianna, Joey, and Gaige at Luray Caverns

It was horribly busy (an hour in line just to get into the cave), but we made it work.

Which is good, because the kids had a good time. And it was really cool, temperature-wise, inside of the cave.

After about a one-plus hour, 1.5-mile shuffle (it was too crowded to call it a walk) through the cave with Joey maintaining a constant discussion about bats (where they live, where they lay eggs, how they drink, where they sleep, etc.), we ate a picnic lunch on the cavern grounds and then headed home.

TJ and Amy took us out to dinner that evening. They said since they were treating, I had to pick the place. I chose Rancho El Paso, figuring a tasty Mexican meal accompanied by a very large, very strong Sangrita Margarita would be a great way to cap off the day.

It was. But the rest of the evening was sort of a blur.

Joey finally got his turn in the hammock.

Loudest, most-animated application of insect spray ever.

We all sat outside for a while, then Amy and I took the girls for their evening stroll around town.

I always look like a giant next to Amy, who is all cute and petite. But since this is one of the few pictures with me in it, I decided to post it anyway. As the family photographer, I don’t get in many pictures (fine by me!) unless I remember to ask someone to take a picture of me.

While we were out walking, TJ got the kids showered and ready for bed. They all watched a movie while the adults stayed outside, visiting some more.

We got LOTS of visiting time in, which we really enjoyed.

Monday was fun, too. But I’ll have to save that for another post.

All in all, it was a lovely weekend. Hubby and I are truly blessed to have this crew in our lives.