Washington DC - June 30 - July 1

Finally some vacation photos. Is it lame to post photos from a vacation that was almost a month ago?

Here's some patriotic music for your enjoyment (I'm into music these days. iPods can do that to you.)

On our way to Rochester, NY we stopped in Washington DC. We stayed in Springfield, VA and took the Metro into the city in the morning. Our main destination was the Air and Space Museum. Bradley really wanted to go. He is my vacation planner. He LOVED the Air and Space Museum! I really wanted to go to the Lincoln Memorial. If you scroll through the pictures, you will find out if we made it or not:

My birthday dinner (June 30) at Cracker Barrel. Happy 35 years! My age is evenly divisible by the number of kids I have. That's cool. Unfortunately Wendy and I didn't get our themed cakes this year (our first initial in M&M's), but I didn't have to do any dishes on my birthday, which seems to be a good trade-off.

My husband insists that we have a milkshake stop everyday during a roadtrip. It gets kind of expensive, but sooo worth it! 

We spent most of July 1(Wendy's Birthday) at the the National Air and Space Museum

A lunch stop at the McDonald's food court at the museum. Emily is deep in thought about chicken McNuggets.

All day Wendy asked when we were going to ride the escalator. I think it was the highlight of the day for her. I should take my kids to the mall more often.

The Wright Brother's Plane

Eating Astronaut Ice Cream

The birthday girl by the Washington Monument.

The WWII Memorial

Taking a break and cooling off.

Ice Cream Sandwiches for dinner.

George fully enjoyed half of mine.

A Polish Sausage for the Daddy.

We made it! 

It seemed about four score and seven miles, but it was about two miles to get there from the Air and Space Museum and it was totally worth it. It's too bad you can't sit on his lap. I vaguely remember seeing the Lincoln Memorial when I was about four years old. It was more exciting this time.

I was kind of bummed that the reflecting pool was missing. We'll have to go again.

After seeing Abe, we walked to the Metro Station at the Arlington Cemetery (another mile) and rode the Metro back to Springfield and headed to Harrisburg, PA.

A stop at the Washington DC Temple at 10:30 PM. It was worth it too. It looked beautiful at night.

Thanks for looking. I hope your finger isn't fatigued from all that scrolling. More pictures coming. Don't worry. I'll start combining more days together. This was just one of the more exciting picture days ...

Gosh, with all this blogging, I haven't had time to watch any movies this week!

Tonight Tonight

First of all, this is my favorite pop song right now. I could listen to it over and over. It's called Tonight Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae. I think I like songs that mention California or things related to California because it's nostalgic (I grew up from age 8 to 23 in CA). I could go a good dance next to the Hollywood sign right now. That sounds like fun. You can play it while you read. I'll bet you're tapping your foot or bopping your head within 25 seconds.

So now that I have an iTouch and feeling really hip and cool, I've bought 4 songs on iTunes. Woo hoo! I'm very selective about my song purchases. If we expect our children to live up to the standards we teach them in their youth, I feel we have to live those same standards. There is a lot of really good music out right now, but the lyrics are so bad. For example, the Avril Lavigne song titled, "What the Hell?" It has a catchy little tune and reminds me of the 80's song Hey Mickey. But the chorus says:

All my life I've been good.

I'm thinking what the hell?

All I want is to mess around.

And I don't really care about...

The LAST thing I want my kids to hear is that message! I feel like I work so hard to teach them to choose the right, I don't want one line of a song to stick in their head when they are teenagers or young adults and have them think, "Avril Lavigne messes around....."  So my finger immediately goes to the Scan button when the song comes on the radio in the car. I think I rather have my kids hear swear words than that chorus. 

I really wish Katy Perry's, California Gurls, had better lyrics. I won't buy it, but I'll admit that I listen to it on the radio for the California aspect, because I like to daydream about the days I used to have sun-kissed skin that was so hot it would melt your popsicle.

Some songs are questionable. Tonight Tonight has a line that says, "I woke up with a strange tattoo."We also have taught our children that tattoos are not a good choice and that we should treat our bodies like temples. I think I might have gone overboard on the subject because the other day Wendy said to me very seriously, "Mommy, we were watching How It's Made and they had how tattoos were made. We fast forwarded it." I told her I didn't mind if they watched how they were made. I did buy the song, Tonight Tonight. If I get too picky, I will only have classical and ragtime music on my iTouch.

Secondly, the movie Diamonds was HORRIBLE! Don't ever watch it unless you enjoy watching a grandfather, son, and grandson go to a brothel in Reno, NV. I didn't finish the movie because it was gross and boring. On the other hand, I also watched Kate and Leopold. That was a good movie. I love a love story. I love sap.

Now here are some pictures from this week:

I checked on the kids before going to bed one night and George was sleeping in his sunglasses. I love moments like these that you make you smile.

Sarah's new instrument, thanks to Craig's List. My husband's dream is beginning to come true. One of the reasons he enjoys lots of kids is so he can have a family band (kind of like the Partridge Family). My husband is a musician at heart, so one day he will compose some rockin' music for the kids to play. Let's just hope that Sarah has some rhythm. I think we should name the band 401K. We are hoping to have a retirement fund of some sort one of these days. This might be it.

Rachel's half birthday was on July 22. I forgot to make a cake, but since she can't read a calendar anyway, we celebrated 2 days later.

Bradley's giant paper airplane. He taped four 8.5  x 11 sheets of paper together and folded it up. He also taped two coins to the front of the plane to make it glide better. I don't don't know how he knew to do that. I think my kids are getting smarter than me.

This is George's frustrated face. He was frustrated that he couldn't fit the ball into the toy. The picture doesn't show the face as well as it could, but his frustrated face is very ugly.

I love how George has the coordination to fit the square block into the square hole, but not the coordination to get his hands together when he claps. All in good time.

Rachel's favorite game right now is War. She loves flipping over the card and yelling "King!" for every face card she sees.

I know I still need to post pictures from our vacation. I've just been really lazy and frustrated with my uterus....

Just Checking In

I just wanted to check in. I'm a flaky blogger lately. I've been in a blah mood. Nothing has been normal since my miscarriage and the doctor thinks I have a polyp in my uterus. I go back to the doctor in about a week and a half and if it's still there, he will remove it. I'm not looking forward to that procedure. So that's about it. No pictures. No nothing. I've just been watching a whole lot of Encore channel movies. Let's just call it Movie Madness. I'll let you know if I recommend anything. Right now I'm watching Diamonds. I don't know if it's good yet.

I lied. Here's a picture of some progress I made yesterday. Underneath my bathroom sink was a complete mess and I organized it:

Before

After

That's about as exciting as it gets. Until later......

Potluck Picture

I know I said I'd keep ya'll updated on my vacation. I don't know what I was thinking. I plan crazy busy vacations and there is NEVER enough time for blogging. But I just wanted to keep you posted and let you know that we are back. I've been posting pictures on Facebook at the expense of neglecting my blog. I'm so sorry.

I have to give a talk at church on Sunday, so that is weighing on my mind right now too as to my topic and outline.

I think I might have to do some retroposts later. I'll be in touch. Really... I will. I'm almost finished with my post vacation vacation. Whenever I get home from traveling, I just want to crash and do nothing. I've decided to spend summer evenings watching movies that are on the Encore channels. I have a whole bunch set up to record. Last night I watched Greedy. It was pretty bad and my husband couldn't bear to sit and watch it with me, but I still think Micheal J. Fox is super cute. Did anyone else have a crush on him in the 80's and 90's like me?

Anway, I'll leave you with one Pot Luck Picture*:

Lock 32 at the Erie Canal

July 6, 2011

I was so excited to be able to show my kids a lock in action at the Erie Canal. Bradley's favorite part at the Children's Museum is the lock model they have in the water room. Thank goodness the actual Erie Canal lock operator doesn't open the lock doors like Bradley does at the museum. The people on the boat would get quite a ride if he did. (Just imagine the boat being on the high water side and those doors opening really fast.)

*Pot Luck Picture - random photo chosen when I close my eyes and click on a random photo in my computer photo folder. This method is used when it's late and I'm too tired to put thought into what picture to post. (Now say "computer photo folder" really fast 10 times.)