Summer Adventures #2-4

Last week Greg had to go to Manassas, VA for three days for work. The kids and I tagged along with him to enjoy the free hotel room. The first day there, I took the kids to the National Zoo in D.C. (Summer Adventure #2). I was so proud of myself for taking them all by myself and driving in the city, which makes me SO nervous. The weather was HOT and HUMID! Luckily, they have several misters all around the zoo where the kids liked to stand until they were soaking wet.


They were troopers and didn't complain too much about all the walking. They decided they wanted to walk all the way up to see the giant pandas and it was well worth it. We got to see both of them up close, feasting on bamboo.


Right before we left we decided to check out the Kid's Farm exhibit. It was great because there was hardly anyone there and they were allowed to touch the animals. Audrey was the only one brave enough...


There was also a giant rubber pizza that the kids had fun playing on for a long time while I got to sit and rest.

On our second day in Manassas we went to a community waterpark (S.A. #3). It was perfect for little kids. We stayed there all day and the kids had a blast. It was so kid-friendly that I was able to let the big girls play on their own while I played with Emma.


On day three we went to Manassas Battlefield National Park (S.A. #4). We decided to take the driving tour since it was so hot. We stopped at almost all of the points on the tour and I read aloud the information about that spot. After that we went to the Manassas Mall where we met daddy and headed home.

Summer Adventure #1

For the first time ever, my youngest is two and I do not have a newborn nor am I pregnant. I'm beginning to feel so much more mobile--it's easier to go places than it used to be. So I've decided that I want to have as many adventures with the kids as I can this summer. For our first adventure we went blueberry picking at a local farm. The kids LOVED it! The blueberries were at just the right height for them and there were so many of them. And they were so delicious and sweet, not tart. Even Emma spent the whole time picking (and eating).


I think more ended up in her mouth than in her bucket.



On the way home, Carolyn said, "I thought this summer was going to be really boring but that was a lot of fun!"

Wow

That's the only word I could think of when this happened:


On Friday evening we had a brief but intense storm with a lot of wind and rain. Shortly after it passed, we found that one of the biggest trees on our lot had fallen down and of course it had to be one of the two we had the hammock hanging on. Luckily, it didn't hit any houses or cars and the only casualties were a bush and three small landscaping lights of our neighbor's. I guess this is the part where we realized that we were actually blessed that it happened this way, instead of causing any major damage, which it definitely had the potential to do. A blessing of paying tithing, perhaps?


It left a hole in the ground, probably about six feet by eight feet and two feet deep. So Greg and I spent the rest of the night, until it got too dark, chipping away at the dirt that got pulled up around the roots. Here in Maryland our ground is clay, which meant it was really hard and dense and difficult to break down. It was such dirty and hard work. Carolyn "babysat" (put in a movie for her sisters) so we could get the work done. Here's what it looked like after all of our chipping:


The next morning Greg went out and bought a chainsaw and we got to work. We got our neighbor's yard cleaned up pretty quickly. My parents and our home teacher came over and later, a friend with a bigger chainsaw also came over to help (more blessings). By mid-afternoon we were left with this:


And this:


The rest of the tree we managed to discretely dump in our "woods." We're still not quite sure what we're going to do about that stump. Greg wants to become one of those chainsaw artists and carve it into a bear. I think we'll keep digging around it until we can cut the roots and then I'm not sure what.

Here's the part where I turned lemons into lemonade. We've had these stones in the back of our yard that I've been wanting to use to make a firepit. I finally put it together yesterday and not only do we have a firepit, but we also have seating for eight and plenty of wood to burn. Anyone want to come over and roast marshmallows?