Occoquan

On the last day of the year we took a short trip to historic Occoquan, VA.

It was an important river crossing in Civil War days and home of the country's first automated grist mill (mmm, grist!), but since then it's become mainly an important place to buy crafts and home of some delicious pie.

We stopped there for some warm pie before moving on down mill street to see Rockledge, a big house all the big wig Occoquanians lived in, and the Mill Museum, where the kids got to handle some old artifacts.

We stopped in a few shops, but most of them were either closed or too cutesy for us. It's a picturesque little town, though, and we had fun just walking around the old streets.

Redskins

One fun thing about being back in my ancestral homeland was being surrounded by so many Redskins fans. I saw the team logo everywhere, from jackets and hats to license plates and decals. I got to watch the last two games of an exciting regular season with my family. The Redskins beat rival Dallas in the last game to win their division for the first time in over a decade and advance to the playoffs.

They ended up losing that playoff game, but it was still a great game and season and it was neat to feel the excitement of the home crowd. Everyone was pumped after that Dallas victory, as you can see by this photo I snapped of a typical house in the neighborhood.

Snow

We were expecting it to be cold in Virginia, but we weren't expecting snow, since that doesn't usually happen until later in the season. So we were pleasantly surprised when it started to snow a little bit on the day before Christmas. We immediately bundled up the kids to play in it.

Don't worry, Carmen was just getting snow in her eyes, not crying. We weren't sure how much snow we'd get, so we even got a family portrait in the snow before it was too late.

As it turns out, we didn't need to worry. Two days later it snowed overnight and we had some slushy snow on the ground to play in. Olivia lasted about one minute before going inside again, but Carmen had fun in it.

Three days after that we got the best snow yet. Big fluffy flakes that stuck around for a while. Damon had fun walking in it, and Carmen played in it with me for an hour. Olivia didn't even bother coming outside because it was "too cold".



Then on our way home we stopped by Luray Caverns (more on that later), where there was a little bit of snow on the ground.

It was a little frozen on top, but the kids all had fun tromping and sliding around in it, and occasionally eating it.

Damon was perhaps the most impressed of all. This video still makes me laugh.

Washington DC, Part 2

After our earlier defeat by the cold wind, we decided to go back to DC for another try at the monuments. The weather was much more cooperative and we made the grand tour of the National Mall area.

We started where we left off last time and saw the Korean War Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial (it was the first time I'd seen it - very cool), and FDR Memorial.

Then we went to the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, World War II Memorial, and we got a glimpse of the White House as we headed back to the American History museum to warm up.

Unfortunately, as we were going through security at the museum, I dropped my camera bag and the lens mount on my lens broke, so it wouldn't stay on the camera, so pictures are sparse after that. Still need to see if I can fix that. Fortunately, I brought back-up lenses on the trip, and had our point-and-shoot still in DC.

That evening, Jason and his family brought my mom and we all went to see the Christmas trees at the White House.

Then he gave us a ride to the Botanical Gardens, where in previous years they had all sorts of fun trains and Christmas things. They have scaled it back, I guess, because it was not very festive this year.

By then it was time to catch the train and head home. It had been a long day.

Olivia, of course, wasn't tired at all.

Damon's first haircut

While we were in Virginia, Amber finally got fed up with Damon's crazy hair and decided to give him a haircut.

He was very good and didn't seem to mind.

It was a little sad to see those perfect curls get cut off.

But he looks a lot better now.

Christmas

Christmas morning was just our family and Grandma. Amber was exhausted, because Damon decided to stay up all night (he was sick for much of the trip). The girls were very excited to see their stockings and open their presents.

Especially Carmen...



Grandma was happy to have some kids around for Christmas, and for the treats in her stocking.

Damon, when he finally awoke, was happy to sneak candy and treats whenever we weren't looking.

And he loved his new toys.



After presents, we had a delicious ham dinner, then Jason and Heather's families came over and we had fun showing off presents and playing games.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, Amber made her traditional clam chowder in bread bowls, then Jason and Heather's families came over for my family's traditional Christmas Eve activities.

First we read inspirational Christmas stories, then I got to read the Christmas story from the Bible, then came my favorite part where we sat around the piano and sang Christmas songs.

Olivia was really excited about that because since she learned how to read she loves singing along to music. There was lots of yummy food there also and it was fun to have a big crowd. And the last tradition, which none of the kids forgot, was to open one present from one of the siblings or cousins.

Eventually, everyone trickled home, and some time during the night, Santa Claus came and filled all our stockings!

Washington DC, Part 1

We took two forays into Washington DC while on our Christmas Vacation. For this first trip we rode the metro up and had grand plans for starting at the National Mall and making the circuit of all the monuments. Here we are, ready to go in front of the Washington Monument.

It was about this time that we realized that it was a cold, windy day. Undaunted, we headed over to the Jefferson Memorial around the bend of the tidal basin.

We climbed up inside, said hi to TJ's statue, visited the warm gift shop and restrooms inside, then toddled back down the stairs.

Despite the friendly greeting we got from a freezing squirrel, Amber rightly decided the monuments could wait until another day when our kids wouldn't turn into popsicles.

So we backtracked to the Mall and spent the rest of the daylight hours in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History looking at dinosaur bones and mammals, where Damon thankfully fell asleep in his stroller.

When they finally kicked us out into the cold, we marched up to the Capitol to see the Christmas tree there.

We didn't want to make the long trek back to the White House to see the Christmas trees there, so we headed back to the metro and made our way home.

We only had two single strollers, so Olivia walked at least 5 miles that day, mostly in bitter cold wind, but was as happy and bubbly as ever. Some kids would fall asleep in the car after a day like that. Olivia just talked the whole way home.

Into the woods

One of the days at Grandma's house I took the kids into the woods. I've told them stories about my adventures in the woods so they were excited to see where it all happened.

We made it down the hill, then I let them wander around a bit and find sticks.

Then we headed down the electric line trail to the "beach" where I used to go to skip rocks.

Carmen had a great time. She jumped all over the rocks and threw rocks into the water.

Olivia not so much. She whined about the plants snagging her pants and didn't like to walk on the loose rocks because she might fall. She spent most of the time squatted in one spot gently washing rocks in the creek.

Damon mostly just tried to hurt himself in various ways, then pooped in his diaper. We will have to come back when he's older.

Washington DC Temple

The day after we got to Virginia, we headed up to Maryland to see the Christmas lights at the temple visitors' center and catch the nightly concert. We were supposed to meet Heather and Rachel there, who were coming from Tysons Corner, but as we were inching forward in heavy traffic on the Beltway I got a call from Heather who had somehow managed to get directly behind us. What are the chances?

We missed the first concert, but it meant we had lots of time to look at the beautiful lights.

Olivia had fun dragging Rachel all over to see the nativity and exhibits inside the visitors' center.

After waiting for what must have seemed like forever to the kids (and me towards the end), we attended the second concert of the night.

Unfortunately, the lights were much more enjoyable than the concert. We left underwhelmed, but glad that we went.

Grandma's house

It was fun to spend some time at my mom's house. I hadn't been there in a couple years, and the girls are just now getting to the age where they will probably remember the trip.

We bummed around the house quite a bit when we weren't taking day trips and it was nice to be able to stay up late, sleep in late, and have a hot breakfast from Grandma waiting for us when we stumbled upstairs. The kids were sick a couple days before Chistmas (Damon had fire poop much of the trip) so we did lots of shopping we didn't have time to do before we left, played with lots of toys after Christmas, and ate lots of yummy food, from Carrabba's (what H&R wanted as their present) to Denny's to Wegman's to Amber's home-cooked clam chowder and black bean enchiladas.

One of the first nights we were there we took advantage of having a Grandma to watch the kids and I took Amber to my high school to see their winter orchestra concert. Another night we slipped out to go see Les Miserables, which was well worth the exorbitant ticket price.

I was able to help out a bit around the house, like fixing the ice maker, showing my mom how to do things on the computer, and moving lots of heavy boxes of music back upstairs that had been in a huge pile (see pic) since mom got new carpet.

The kids got lots of quality time with their cousins. Jason's family and Heather's family came over several times and we made a visit to each of their houses and it was fun to watch them play together. And of course it was nice to spend some time with my mommy and for my kids to get to know her a little better. They were good friends by the time we left.

Driving to Virginia

For Christmas this year we decided to visit my mom in Virginia and figured the time was about right to make a road trip out of it. I saved up my vacation days, we packed up the van, and hit the road.

I'd never driven through this part of the country, so I enjoyed watching the scenery change as we went further east and north. We drove across the swamps of Louisiana, then saw the rolling hills in Mississippi and Alabama turn into mountains in Tennessee and Virginia.

We stopped the first night in Mississippi and the second in Tennessee, where the Smoky Mountains were actually smoky because it rained all that day.

My favorite part of the trip was taking a shortcut (intentionally) through some rural areas north of Richmond, where we got to see lots of rustic farms and small towns and drive on hilly, windy roads.

The kids did surprisingly well in the car. We bought DVD players we could strap to the seats in front of the girls and we brought both iPads, so we weren't too worried about them, but even wiggly Damon was a good sport about staying in his seat for long periods of time. Nobody even mentioned stopping the car to pee.

We went at a pretty easy pace, and didn't really stop to see anything (we saved that for the trip home) so we had plenty of time to unwind at the motels (for Damon this meant messing the air conditioner and climbing on everything).

Even so, we were glad to get to Grandma's house and be out of the van for a while and have a home cooked meal instead of fast food.

Kid update

I've had a draft of this sitting around for a long time and with our trip coming up I want to get it out, ready or not, so here goes.

Damon is alternatively ridiculously cute and aggravatingly needy. He really wants to be grown up and do what everyone else is going and is very good at mimicking our behaviors. He sustains people at random times during church, folds his arms for prayers (and tries to end them early with his "nay-neh" version of "amen"), talks on toy phones, and loves playing on the iPad. My favorite is when he tries to put on his own shoes. He grabs his foot with his hand and tries to put it in his shoe.

He's starting to talk a little now, and will say things he hears often, like "no no no", and "sit down" (he always stands in his chair at dinner). He can also say "doggy" and "meow" (while snuggling up to you like a cat), but by far his favorite word is "mommy", which he says constantly as his word for "I want". It's a good thing no gypsy caravans have stopped by recently, because after 20,000 "mommy"s from a kid that won't stop following her around and tugging at her leg and getting into everything, Amber might have already started him on his circus career.

He is still constantly getting into everything. Trying to open drawers, grab things from countertops, put his fingers in things, you name it he does it. His most recent love is getting a stool, then opening the silverware and rearranging all the silverware. We've mostly given up on trying to stop this one because he loves it and it keeps him out of our hair for a few minutes and it's relatively simple to clean up.

The girls have started to play with him more, and every once in a while you run into the three of them all laughing hysterically about something. A few nights ago it was putting a blanket through the mail slot on the fold-up play house. Damon was laughing so hard he got the hiccups.

Carmen is... Carmen. It's always hard to write about Carmen because so much of her personality is hard to put into words and she's much more introverted and often defers to Olivia's whims so we don't get to see her shine as much. That said, she is definitely growing up and starting to assert herself a little bit and even stand up to Olivia on occasion.

She still has problems with her Rs and Ls, and still has her cute cheeks, so she is still certifiably cute in looks and mannerisms, but every once in a while I'm starting to see glimpses of her as less-cute, more-pretty older girl. She has never been into active learning like Olivia was, instead preferring a passive approach of watching and listening and figuring out things on her own. I feel like I haven't spent enough time teaching her the alphabet because she was never interested, but somehow she knows most of the letters and will even surprise us occasionally by reading a word.

That quiet introversion has always made her quirkily funny, but it also translates into a little bit of sneakiness. Carmen has an unhealthy obsession with my iPad. If given the option of going outside on a beautiful day to play with me, or sitting alone in a dark room with the iPad, the iPad would win no question. Recently I've found that when I come home from work and open the cover of my iPad it was left in a kids' game. Unbeknownst to Amber, Carmen has been sneaking into our room and playing on it. We'll have to keep an eye on this one.

She loves daddy and sticks to me like glue as soon as I get home (unless the iPad is an option). She is very sweet and snuggly and always wants me to pick her up and carry her everywhere, or wants to sit in my lap, or follow me to the bathroom, etc. She likes to do puzzles and play games like Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, Uno, and she's surprisingly good at Memory. Unfortunately, she often gets the middle child treatment and Olivia will be a stinker about turns or not winning or something, or Damon will come try to destroy whatever we're doing.

Speaking of stinkers, Olivia is growing up a little too fast for my liking. She's getting more independent and sassy, probably picking up a few tricks from kindergarten. She absolutely, positively must win or get more than someone else of whatever it is she's doing, whether playing a game, walking to the mailbox, or horseback riding on daddy. All of those examples are real situations that have resulted in meltdowns when I helped Carmen win, or gave Damon more rides. She's started this new thing where when she doesn't get what she wants, she'll hit or kick the object of her frustration (not very hard, it's still stick-girl Olivia we're talking about here) before storming away.

Overall, though, she is still a very good kid, easily one of the best in her kindergarten class in behavior and I assume in reading, too. She is extremely good at reading, testing to the end of the 1st grade level before they stopped her because she was reading too fast to remember and comprehend what she had read. Her ability to read has translated into a love of singing Christmas carols. Now that she can read the words from the song books, we often sing at the piano and afterwards she will sit by herself on the couch, singing Christmas carols to herself, reading all the verses. She's even sounded out some of the melodies on the piano on her own.

One thing that has never changed about Olivia is that she never stops talking. It's the first thing new babysitters mention when we get back, "Everything went fine... Olivia talks a lot." She gets kind of offended when we tell her stop talking, but for our sanity it's not an uncommon occurrence. Luckily she's very forgiving, often switching from unhappy to giggling in just a few minutes. She also loves to make things with paper, like cards and drawings.

Recently she found herself in her room, not happy about something. While cooling down, she found a card that Amber had made for her, thanking her for the birthday present she had given to Amber several months earlier. Olivia was so touched by the card that she immediately felt better, and made a very sweet card for Amber, with pictures and glitter and a message something along the lines of "Thank you for what you taught me". After telling me this story, she showed me the thank-you card from Amber, then tucked it away in a folder and told me, "I'm going to keep my folders when I grow up and move away so I can remember these things."

And finally, some old quotations that were in another draft. There were a dozen more I wish I had written down, but these will have to do:

[Coming up to me with her crayon box]
Olivia: Carmen wants to put blood on all my skull heads.

Olivia: Who wants a punch in the face?

Olivia: I want to be mommy, not a kid
Me. It's good to be a kid too. Do you know what mommies have to do?
Olivia: Wash dishes and have babies.

[From bathroom]
Carmen: Mommy, come help me wash my hands!
[Within seconds, in perfect frustrated mommy voice]
Carmen: Mommy! Uggggh! How many times do I have to ask you?

December weather

I went out yesterday in the late morning to rake up the pine needles and leaves from the front yard. In the past this has been a pleasant activity, but yesterday, December 1, it was in the mid 80s and very humid. By the time I was done I had worked up a good sweat and had to go inside to cool down before taking the kids to the park in shorts. I'm excited to go somewhere where it will actually be cold for Christmas.

Thanksgiving

We did Thanksgiving on our own this year. I wasn't sure if it would feel Thanksgivingy enough with just us, but it turned out to be a really nice day. Most of the morning was spent preparing food and watching parades and football. Here are the womenfolk planning out the feast.

Olivia and Carmen had fun helping to make rolls, pie, and stuffing, and shucking corn.

And of course we had some fun in our down time, too.

The meal turned out perfectly. I'm thankful to have a wife who among her many talents likes to cook and does it well. We had a turkey with real stuffing, real mashed potatoes with real (yummy) gravy, home-made cranberry sauce, corn on the cob, home-made dinner rolls, an olive platter, sparkling cider, and pumpkin pie (from a can, but only because our pumpkins rotted while we were in Miami) for dessert. It was a classic Thanksgiving meal and it was delicious.

We just "happened" to time the meal during Damon's nap, which made the experience that much more enjoyable. Damon got to try some later in the evening when he woke up, but didn't seem to appreciate it as much as Amber and I did.

I took full advantage of being in my own house to watch football most of the day. I saw my "away" team, the Texans, win a crazy overtime game against the Lions before dinner, then afterwards capped off a wonderful day watching the Redskins beat up on the Cowboys in Dallas early then hold on for the victory. Can't ask for a better day than that.

I even found some time to reflect on how grateful I am for what I have: a beautiful family, a nice place to live, a steady job that pays more than I need, a knowledge of the gospel to keep me going in the right direction, and of course, RG3. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!