It’s hard to believe that we hadn’t been down to visit Grandma & Grandpa since Thanksgiving (!), but we rectified that last weekend with a trip at the beginning of our spring break.  We began our Saturday at our preschool’s Eggstravaganza, and ended the day with the Grands.

The weather wasn’t perfect, but we still got in a fair bit of our favorite activities.

We’ve enjoyed a nice weekend with Grandma & Grandpa and I’ll get around to posting the pictures soon.  I just wanted to share a little funny anecdote before I forgot.   We went to the Grands straight from an Easter Eggstravaganza, so the kids arrived with bags full of candy they were constantly clamoring to eat.

One night, after dinner, the kids requested dessert.  And Grandma pulled out a heavenly chocolately cool-whippy concoction that was delicious.  But Sam said he didn’t want it, he wanted candy.  I told him that a homemade dessert is always better than something made in a factory and that it was rude to ask for candy instead of something the cook makes.

The next night, Grandma tells me that she didn’t make any dessert because Sam asked her not to.  I asked Sam why and he replied, “Because I want candy!”

Is that a kid a stinker thinker or what?

About two weeks ago, Adam came down with a “touch” of croup.  He’d been coughing and had a bad night with the barking cough that led to time in the bathroom with the shower running and a call to the night nurse.  Thankfully, his coughing subsided and we avoided a 2am trip to the ER.  I took him to the doc the next day and asked if croup would spread to my other kids.  She said that for older kids, it presents as laryngitis.

Fast forward days, and I wake up feeling crummy.  The day of Wendy’s field trip, I had a rotten cough and could barely talk.   That hung around for about 5 days, compounded, I believe by my annual bout with seasonal allergies.   So… all this to say, I’ve been doing a lot of laying around and not much else.  Mike has been great about picking up my slack.

We did have a beautiful weekend, tho, and Mike took the kids over to the football field to fly paper airplanes.   Sam received a paper airplanes kit and they had fun making them and testing out their models.  I dragged myself along but didn’t do much besides sit in a stupor and try and contain my running phlegm factory (sorry, gross, I know).

Wendy’s green flier was the big winner.  We also enjoyed a nice dinner with friends on Saturday — our oldest two kids line up, agewise, with their youngest two, so the kids had fun running around together.

On Monday, Grandma  & Grandpa were in town, so we had them over for dinner, along with Grandad.  It was great to see them, although I neglected to take any pics.

Slowly, but surely, I am feeling better and coming out of my fog.  I hope to be better about posting as spring is finally here and it is definitely photo worthy!

*** Giveaway alert!  I’m giving away a beautiful necklace, courtesy of Tracey Jolley Designs – check it out!! ***

I’m behind again on my photog-o-blogging, but wanted to give thanks for a great weekend we had over Thanksgiving with my in-laws.

It started with a super easy getaway on Wednesday night.  Despite leaving during  prime rush hour time, we hit nary a snag.

Amidst the scramble to get packed and out the door, this trio decided to plop themselves down in a fit of cute and mug for the camera.

Once we got to Grandma & Grandpas, we enjoyed great weather, great food and great fun.   Mike & I started the day with a Crossfit workout (no pictures available, since I don’t like to document my misery).  Then, everyone did what he or she did best.

Some played:

Some tasted bubble juice on their thumb…

Some worked out AGAIN:

While others prepped:

And still others napped:

While waiting for the turkey to cook, Grandma & Aunt Lana got in a quick game of competitive horseshoes.  They consulted the directions to make sure the competition was legit.

Grandma’s got her eyes on the prize.

Si-Guy enjoyed the two wheeler Grandpa found for him.

Finally it was time to eat turkey.   (And ham).

I made these delicious pull-apart rolls which were as scrumptious as they looked.

We ate at my in-laws, but were joined by my mom’s sister, husband and cousin.  I am so thankful that our families are so well integrated and get along.  It is a tremendous blessing.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

This half-pint couldn’t sit still through dinner, but found his seat and his daddy’s fork pretty quick when dessert was served.

After dinner, there was a little reading and a lot of being cute.

The next day, we celebrated Wendy’s birthday again.  She didn’t complain :)

I get to blow them out again?

It was a great time with family.   We are so thankful!

Last week, we had two teacher workdays on Thursday and Friday, followed by a Columbus Day holiday on Monday.   It meant five days of no school!

Mike took the kids (all three!) down to visit his parents in southwest VA, while I stayed home to enjoy a staycation by myself.  It was blissful to have a quiet and empty house and the freedom to do whatever I wanted.   I spent a lot of time just doing chores like laundry and paying bills but  I didn’t mind because there was no one to distract, interrupt or undo the work I was doing.  I also enjoyed the opportunity to be spontaneous and leave the house whenever I wanted without lining up kid care or having kids hanging on me.   I baked bread.  I went for a run!   I went to the movies and saw Whip It (loved it!).  I even got my hair cut:

It was a little strange to be home all by myself for so long.  And I did miss the kids and Mike.   One of the challenges I faced being home alone was not having someone who could help to when I needed to get to a hard to reach place.    Namely, I had a cut on the bottom of my toe and I couldn’t figure out if there was something in it or not.   What do single people do in these circumstances?   I did the only reasonable thing I could think of.  I took a picture and zoomed in:

Yes, I’m a dork, I know.  After a couple of days of “me time” I was ready to be around people.   I decided to drive south and visit my friends who just had a baby girl.

Isn’t she precious?   Only a week old.   It was so fun to hang with them and soak up the newborn baby bliss … especially since I didn’t have to worry about being up all night and still functioning during the day with a toddler.    Here’s some more pictures  — click to magnify the cuteness:

While I was enjoying peace and quiet, this is what my crazies were up to:

They had a great time in the country with lots of corn, cows, fishin’, and lovin’ from Grandma & Grandpa.

We finally reunited Monday evening and it was wonderful to have my wild and wacky brood restored to me.   Even if they brought back enough chaos and noise to fill a weekend of quiet — my staycation helped me love it all the more.

As if our summer vacation wasn’t full enough, we had the opportunity to go to Kings Dominion the day we got back from our New England Vacation.  Grandad’s work takes the employees and their families every year to Kings Dominion for the day, and for the past few years, we’ve managed to weasel our way into this trip as well.   This year was extra fun cuz brother Bear, auntie  M and cousin Owen joined in the fun as well.

I am not a fan of the jaundiced rhombus, but the kids were happy to be photographed with him.

Grandad had a great time watching the grand kids and riding the rides.   He’s quite a spry sexagenarian.

Kings Dominion, unlike Storyland, is a full-fledged theme park, intended largely for the over 48″ crowd.   Despite that, there were a number of rides the little ones could enjoy.

The old fashioned cars was one such ride.

The double triple stroller was another.

The Flying Eagles were a big hit with everyone except Daddy (cuz Daddy don’t do circles).

But Grandad does!

The Log Flume was also a lot of fun.   This was the best shot I could take during the ride.

But I caught this one of B, M & O on the big drop at the end (pre splash).

I’ve been to KD  many times, just about every year as child on the swim team.  This year was one of the best times I can remember in terms of being a perfect combination of gorgeous weather and hardly any crowds.   We were literally able to walk onto ride after ride.

Rebel Yell - photo courtesy of http://www.themeparkreview.com

Since we had a good ratio of grown-ups to kids, we were able to sneak in some adult rides as well.   Mike & I rode the Grizzly, and Barrett & I rode the Dominator three times in a row.   Bear, Mel, Mike & I all rode the Drop Tower – a 305′ tower which simulates sky diving as you drop 72 mph.   I don’t know which was scarier – the feeling of free falling, or the site of Grandad supervising four Grandkids 5 and under :) .  At the end of the day, Mike & I rode the Rebel Yell – as much as I love some of the newer coasters, the old wooden Rebel Yell will always be a favorite of mine.

After a while, we took a break and had lunch, courtesy of the Grandad’s employer at the picnic pavillion.   It was great to not have to pay for lunch or parking!

Then it was on to Kidzville, where there were tons of rides the kids could do – without any adults being forced to go around in circles.  (Click to view pics larger).

KD has a bumper cars just for little kids and this alone was worth the price of admision.   We were in tears laughing at the kids driving around.   Half of them can’t figure out how to steer and accelerate, so they either get stuck against the wall or do donuts until someone else crashes into them.   However, those that figure out how things work take great delight in crashing into their brother and cousin.

Fortunately, they liked it too.

As I mentioned, the kids were too small for most of the real roller coaster rides, but there were a couple they could ride.   One was the Scooby Doo Coaster – another ride I remember fondly from my childhood.  Both Wendy & Sam were big enough to ride this and they loved it.   We rode it over and over again.   Wendy even tried holding her hands up for the whole ride – it was so cute.

Another ride that Wendy was big enough to ride was Riccochet.  It reminded me of the rickety old Mouse Trap ride at Ocean City – it had sharp turns that had us both squealing.    Barrett took this great photo of us:

Barrett took a lot more great photos too – feel free to read his account of the day.

We finished out our day with a stop in the Water Works area.  It was nice to cool off in the lazy river and wave pool.    Alas, I have no pictures from this part because I actually put away my camera to enjoy the moment.

I had so much fun riding rides with my kids and watching them have a blast doing everything.   Despite the long day, they were very well behaved and had hardly any meltdowns.  We spent about 8 hours at the park and came home exhausted.    The next day, the kids woke up asking, “When can we go back to Kings Dominion?”    The answer is, “It’ll be a while.”  But I can’t wait either.

This year, we headed south to spend our July 4th with Grandma & Grandpa.  It’s been way too long since we got down there, and the kids were dying to spend some time with them in the country.  That, coupled with the long holiday weekend and the fact that it coincides with both of their birthdays, made this trip a no-brainer.

We decided to check out the Natural Bridge on our way down.   We always pass lots of billboards for it, so I was interested in seeing what there was to see.   There are several “attractions” in that area and they try and sell you tickets to bundled attractions to get more of your money.   Since this was just a rest stop on the way to our real destination, we only (over)paid for the Bridge itself.   It’s way too much money for what it is, but we did enjoy it (those of us who weren’t having meltdowns) – it’s very pretty.

Finally, we arrived at Grandma & Grandpas!   We spent the next two days soaking up the country and have a good ole time.   There were tractors to ride, ponds to fish,  gardens to harvest, golf carts to rescue, etc.   We checked out the fireworks display at the nearby town one evening, and shot of our own extravaganza the next.   I could blather on, but I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Thanks for having us Grandma & Grandpa!

Valentine’s Day, we headed south to log some quality time with the grands.   We got there in time for dinner and enjoyed a delicious spread, followed by the flourless chocolate cake I made for Mike (and the rest of us) to enjoy.

We spent the weekend hanging out and doing country things.  Enjoy these pics:

The post title refers to me and the hubs – see if you can guess which part refers to who(m?) …

A couple of Saturdays ago (1/24 – I’m still behind in my blogging!), we went down to my folks house.   They had a downed tree with that would be great firewood, if it was split.  The Youngs graciously brought their splitter and worked with Mike to split the wood.

Mike went down early, and the kids and  I left a little later, planning to join everyone for lunch.  We found Daddy and the Youngs working hard (as always).  I spent my time chasing kids and watching them have fun riding bikes and playing.  Here’s the pictures:

For most of our marriage (maybe all?) we have celebrated Thanksgiving with both sets of parents/grandparents.  They have taken turns hosting and it is always a great time of fellowship.  One of the things Mike & I are so thankful for is having two great sets of parents who like each other and get along great.

This year, the plan was to meet up at the Grandma & Grandpa R’s “country house”, down in southern VA.  My folks were going to bring their RV and join us, but unfortunately, mom’s recent hospitalization prevented that.  Although it was a bummer to not have my folks with us, we still enjoyed a lovely long weekend down home in the country.

We brought our Wii with us and had fun showing Grandma & Grandpa the ropes.

Grandma proved to be quite a slugger.

Grandpa was quite amused.

Until it was his turn to bowl.  Then he was all business.  Note the look of determination on his face.

I should mention – Grandpa is recovering from hip replacement surgery.  He is only a couple of weeks post-op but doing great.  We are thankful his recovery is going so well.  Apparently his surgeon recommended not shaving, so the kids got to meet “Grisly Gramp”.  He enjoyed giving them scratching kisses.

Mike & Sam spent some time working in the garden.

They found and dug up quite a few potatoes.

In the afternoon, we enjoyed a delicious spread, prepared by Grandma.

We all ate and ate until we were stuffed.  Especially this guy.

I think he ate more mashed potatoes than the rest of us combined!

In addition to the other yummy desserts, Wendy got another round of birthday cake.

The next day was a day to exercise and burn off all that turkey.  Mike decided to lift weights.

Then everyone went outside to run around and ride bikes, country style.

Check out Wendy tearing down the hill.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The kids had a great time riding/gliding down the hill — until Wendy had a wipeout.  Then she ran screaming and crying back into the house.  She was fine, but it was kind of funny – I wish I had gotten it on camera (she’s developed a flair for the dramatic).

Being hobbled didn’t slow Grandpa down – he just mounted his trusty steed golf cart.

The neighbors have a bunch of cows that are so funny.  They had their eye(s) on us.

Look how those mommas are protecting their babies.

They were especially concerned about Logan.

But the feeling was mutual.  Logan and one of the calves both carefully edged up to the fence and leaned in.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When their noses touched – both jumped back about 3 feet.  Everyone thought it was hilarious.

Except Bessie.

We continued to have a great weekend – Mike & I even got out Saturday night to see Twilight.

Too soon, it was time to pack up and head home.

Goodbye Grandma & Grandpa!  We love you!