Happy Birthday Opa!

Happy Birthday Opa! We hope you have a wonderful day. We are thinking about you and wish we were with you to celebrate your special day.

Love you lots!

First Day of 1st Grade!

Today was Aidan's first day in 1st grade. We've been talking about starting school for the past few weeks. Let's just say that he was uninspired. Every time we asked him if he was ready to start school he would say, "no". Every time someone asked him if he was excited about going back to school he would say, "no". Plain and simple...he did not want to go back to school. Needless to say we were feeling a bit nervous about him starting school all the while trying to talk school up and say how great it was going to be (was it?), how nice his teacher would be (would s/he?) and how much fun he would have (would he?).


There were a few clues that gave us hope. He got this "snake eyes" shirt a few weeks ago and he said he wanted to save it for the first day of school. When we talked about his old friends from kindergarten he seemed happy and talkative. When we went shopping for his Marvel comics backpack and school supplies he was excited and into it. So we held on to these little pieces of hope and continued think things might go well on the first day.

This morning was fine (not great but fine). His mood was kind of up and down and bit sporadic but I think it was the nervousness and part excitement (yes, deep down in there I think there was some excitement!). He took a shower, put on his new snake eyes shirts and shorts and we remembered that we had a new pair of sneakers for him and he thought that was fun.


We got in the car and he did great. We got out of the car and I could tell he was nervous but still fine. He got a little clingy when we went up to the door and Jason said we couldn’t go in. I saw that there were parents going in so I said, "let's go in" and we all headed in. Leo was asking if we had to go in (yes, “had” to go in). Then when we went in Leo said, “can we go home now” – he had bike riding on his mind. Aidan was doing okay when we were waiting outside the door. On of his friends from kindergarten was also waiting outside of his classroom and she said "Hi Aidan" and he mumbled "Hi" back. The rest of his class came up from the gym and it was finally time to go in. Sadly, he hid his face in my shoulder and arm and cried. I felt so bad. I told him how brave he was, how big he was and how much fun he would have but he wasn’t buying what I was selling. I was trying to hold out until his friend William arrived because they were great friends (& Kentaro who he misses so much) and we found out on Friday that William sits in his quad of four desks (plus!). It was starting to get late and William had not arrived so I finally scootched him to the door and his teacher saw him crying and took him by the hand to hang up his backpack and sit in the circle with the other kids. His teacher and I gave each other the nod…mine indicating “he’s upset and nervous” and hers indicating “I understand. I got it from here. Go ahead and go”. After that I went out of the classroom and I told Jason “let’s go”. After we left, I cried too. I just feel so bad that he feels so nervous and unsure. I wish there was something I could do or say to make him feel less nervous, unsure and secure but I couldn't think of anything and anything I could think of didn't work. Jason gave Aidan a special coin to hold in his pocket and touch whenever he felt nervous but he still felt nervous.

After school we all picked him up and he was smiling and happy. He said he had a good day and only cried once in the morning. He said he liked his teacher and said his favorite part of the day was recess. He said he was tired at recess and had no energy because they don't eat lunch until 1:00pm and have recess first. This we thought was crazy...I'm hungry (seriously) by 11:30am. They have snack time earlier but the grapes we sent "were too sour" so he didn't eat too many of them. He said they did computer lab and he was quite talkative (always a good sign). After school we went to DairyQueen for blizzards (Aidan had M&M, Jason had, you guessed it Butterfinger and Leo and I shared Thin Mint). We came home and boys rode their bikes and played with the neighbor kids. Aidan is playing Wii for a bit, Leo is watching Polar Express and playing with a lego car and we will eat dinner soon.

All in all, it was a great day (no throwing up!) that got better and better. I'm sure tomorrow will be better!

More Bike Riding

We put together Leo's bike on friday and it is non-stop bike riding. If they are not already outside riding their bikes they are asking if they can! Leo can not get enough. He rides for about an hour, needs a 5 minute break, and he is ready to go again. All the other activities of the day are just distractions!

Where's Patrick?

Our "distractions" of the day included breakfast in the morning with Doris and Patrick. I had brought back (Puyallup) fair scone mix and jam from Seattle for Doris and instead of giving her the mix I offered to make the scones for her so that was the focus of our breakfast but we also had sausage, eggs, pancakes and fruit salad. Then the boys went out to ride their bikes some more. After riding bikes we raced over to the Air and Space Museum out at Dulles airport. We didn't have too long to spend out there because Patrick has a work dinner tonight (after all he did come to work) but it is such a great place we wanted to give him a tease so that he'll want to come back.

I love the Air and Space museum at Dulles. I like it because it is really, really big so it never feels crowded, there are great exhibits (and I'm not even an aircraft lover), and the kids can have fun and be kids (if you know what I mean) and remain unnoticed. They can talk loudly, run every once in a while, be silly and see cool exhibits (transformers, star wars, space shuttle, helicopters).

Finally Something to Write About

Our week was pretty quiet. Besides Doris finally coming home from Puerto Rico on Tuesday we haven't really been doing very much. But that all changed on Thursday when Patrick arrived from Seattle. We were so happy for him to get here. He arrived in the early evening so we went out to dinner to Uncle Julio's a Mexican Restaurant. We hadn't been there since Patrick was in DC celebrating his birthday 2 or 3 years ago. The boys had a busy day, they all came in to town to have lunch with me and Doris and Becs and visit my friends and colleagues in the office. When I got home they still seemed to be pretty happy so we decided to go out and they were great at dinner too. By the time we got home, they were exhausted so putting them to bed that night was a piece of cake.

Yesterday (Friday) was also a very important day (VID). Aidan had his open house where he got to meet his new teacher (Mrs. Hornstein - Aidan got the good teacher!), see his new classroom, find his desk, and see what friends are in his class. He wasn't exactly excited about it but I have a feeling that this school year will go really well, especially the first day. There may be some nervousness, an upset stomach and possibly some tears but I'm confident there will be no throwing up! Mrs. Hornstein is great and we are so happy Aidan is in her class! We also went to see Mrs. Stewart his Kindergarten teacher last year-she is fantastic. Afterwards we went out to ice cream and celebrated the start of a great school year. Aidan seemed happy and talkative so I am happy for and proud of him.

Friday night I went out to dinner with some girl friends-we were celebrating a special birthday. We started off at the Russia House in Dupont Circle and then had dinner at Buca di Beppo. We drank great beer at the Russia House (maybe a little too much) and then had good Italian food but all together we had lots of fun. The Russia House is known for its vodka but after reading the reviews I was a little afraid of getting into the vodka so I passed and had some great Russian beer. Becs is my beerfriend. The boys all had Ledo's Pizza for dinner.

Today, Saturday we had bagels for breakfast and then we all went to Mt. Vernon, Washington's Estate. It was a bit hot and humid but great fun because we had not been there for a really long time. It has changed so much. They now have this fantastic museum and education center that was really fun to wander around in. My favorite part of the visit was sitting on the back porch of the house and looking out into the Potomac.

After a couple of hours at Mt. Vernon we all went to Elevation Burger in Arlington (don't be jealous Heid!). It is a great burger place that uses organic, free-range, grass feed cow meat and olive oil for its fries. It is all about the ingrediants they say. The have great milk shakes too! Plus it's nice that they buy their meat from humanely raised cows.

Tonight Jason and Patrick are going to get out of the house and see a movie. I'm not sure if they decided which one to see yet but let's see if I can convince Jason to write a movie review. Don't get your hopes up but I'll try.

One last exciting thing that has been going on over the weekend...BIKES! Jason finally put together Leo's Thomas the Train bike. Leo got his bike from Pa and Crow for christmas but his mom and dad have been slackers and only now put it together. The boys have been riding their bikes like crazy. They rode yesterday afternoon. The rode before we went to Mt. Vernon and they rode after we came home from Elevation Burger. We left Mt.Vernon because the boys were exhausted but in the same breath they asked if they could ride their bikes when we got home. Leo has only been riding for two days but he is already a pro and Aidan has really become much more confident on his bike. He rides fast, wants to ride up the curb, and while he disagrees, I think he is ready to take off the training wheels. I predict it won't be long. They are both super cute on their bikes.

Our weekend

The highlight of our weekend was a visit from our friends Rachel and Curtis. On Sunday, Rachel and Curtis came over for dinner (Curtis' daddy is busy working on a huge home rebuild and works tirelessly every weekend). Curtis was born February 4 of this year and is almost 8 months old. It was really fun to have a baby in the house. The boys were really excited for him to come over and thought about what toys he might like to play with and what toys had small pieces. Curtis entartained us all.

Jason BBQ delicious hamburgers and hot dogs and I made a fruit salad and a carrot salad (the recipe for the carrot salad is on the lower left of the blog). Leo as usual did not eat much except a hot dog bun and half a banana and while Aidan is generally a good eater he did not eat much tonight either.

Curtis was happy eating his own carrots and rice cereal. He is pretty new to the world of food so we had a lot of fun watching him eat and remembering how fun it was to have a baby around. He made all kids of funny faces, noises and had a messy face!

Curtis tried for the very first time, mashed banana. As you can see from the picture above he was not particularly thrilled with the banana. He made a funny face and spit it back out off of his tongue. We all got a great kick out of that. Aidan thought he was pretty funny!

When they first arrived we were downstairs playing and Leo went into the back bedroom and came out naked. He said he likes to be naked. We were all surprised and laughed! Well to be honest I'm not so surprised! Rachel took a bunch of baby clothes (18 months - 24 months) which I was so happy about! I'm so glad that Curtis can use them. P.S. Curtis is wearing 18 month clothes now! He is SO cute!

The rest of the weekend was not fun at all. We (read: I, Amy) decided it would be a good idea to clean out the storage area in the basement. We took everything out, cleaned up the area, filled a whole "big red car" full of stuff to go to the dump and bought some storage shelves from Ikea. Unfortunately, Ikea did not have all of the pieces we needed so we have to wait a week. We ended up having to put everything back in and we will have to take it all out again next week when the rest of the pieces come in. Ugh! It was exhausting but its always nice to get rid of stuff and organize a bit. The boys also had fun taking stuff out of the storage space at least for a couple of minutes anyway. We also started to clean and get ready for Patrick's visit this coming up weekend! We can't wait.

Butterflies!

I missed a few weekend posts so I am backing up a bit, sharing stories and pictures. The weekend after we got home from Seattle (August 7th and 8th) we went to Brookside Gardens which is a huge park with beautiful gardens, fountains, ponds, koi, frogs, bunnies and other wildlife. For anyone who lives in our area I absolutely recommend it. We saw a frog and a bunny which was pretty neat. We walked along a large pond and we stopped to see if we could find any fish or frogs and Aidan spotted the smallest gray frog sitting on a gray rock. The frog was about 1/2 inch and looked almost exactly the same color as the rock he was sitting on. I have no idea how he saw it but he must have the eyes of a hawk.

One of the best exhibits at the Brookside Gardens is the "Wings of Fancy" Live Butterfly Exhibit which goes on from May through September (September 20th). At the start of your visit their is catepillar exhbit where you can see different butterflies in different states of their life cycle. Then you enter the main exhbit where there are hundreds of butterlies flying around. They are so beautiful. There are orange, blue, green, red, black, spotted, striped, patterned butterflies flying, resting, and eating fruit. It really is fun to see.

They also have an indoor learning center, gift shop and other special exhibits. Sometimes they have plant sales, gardening classes, etc. It's always nice to go in the center when it is hot and humid outside like the day we ventured to the gardens.

They also have a small kids area, where the kids can learn about gardening vegetables, pollinating insects, and play in a hollowed log, sweep (or pretend they are a witch flying on a broom stick), play in a house and gnome hut.

After we left the Brookside Gardens we went to lunch at potbelly's and walked around. We had breakfast late that day and ended up eating lunch at 3pm which seemed crazy but it was lazy, breezy Saturday.

Ce Weekend

On Sunday we went to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. We decided to go because I guess I was feeling a little bit nostalgic for the Puyallup Fair. I have not been to the Puyallup Fair in probably six or seven years, maybe more. I remember as a child going every year. I think we may even got to take the day off school. I remember the rides of course - the roller coaster, the zipper, the black octopus, the teacups, the swings - playing the games and trying to win the most gigantic stuffed animals. I also remember the craft and collectible houses, the displays of fruits and vegetables, the gigantic vegetables, the fishing area and one of my all time favorites...the "as seen on tv" area with the demonstrations (cookware, cooking tools, ring cleaner, etc.)...this is where my early love for QVC came from! I remember the food, the YoungLife BBQ, elephant ears, the earthquake burgers (I never had one but amazing nonetheless) and of course the piece de resistance the fair scone. The best part about the food was going with Unyun because he always wanted to share everything so that we could try everything! I also remember the chameleons and gold fish. Remember, Heather, we would get the chameleons (they really were not chameleons but some kind of lizard) and let them run loose around the house in Mom's plant display. We always wondered where they went when they disappeared until Unyun told us they went in the vents and died or the cats got them! Why did we get them every single year?

So those are my memories of the Puyallup Fair and I thought we would start some memories of our own and the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. It pales in comparison to the Puyallup but despite the excruciating heat we had fun. We had BBQ (a 5.5 on a scale of 1:10), we saw animals, there was a small "as seen on TV" exhibit, we enjoyed some rides and we had some laughs. It was not nearly as good as the Puyallup Fair but we had some memorable moments.

First, we unexpectedly saw a baby calf that was born less than two hours earlier. We saw signs for the milking area which I thought would be fun but next to the milking area was the birthing center. I walked in first and saw the rear of the cow with the tail hanging down and the placenta. It was disgusting so I told everyone to go around to the other side where the front of the head was. We went around and we saw the front of the mama cow and the calf. The calf was really cute and the boys sat on a bleachers to see the baby cow. The mama cow turned around and Aidan said "yew...what is that?" So I explained that when babies grow inside their mommies tummies they grow in a sac. He said, "that's disgusting. let's get out of here." We all agreed. The joys and lessons of life on the farm. Later, after we left, he asked "did you have that sac when I were born." Great...the Montgomery County Fair leads to lessons on birthing and babies!

Another memorable (G-rated) moment was when we watched the pig races. We got there 15 minutes early because the pig races draw a big crowd! There was a pig caller from North Carolina MCing and calling the pig races he was really funny and very southern. For each of the races he would select someone from the crowd to cheer for one of the four pigs/animals that raced and if your pig won you would get a prize. For the first race he picked Leo to cheer on the brown tagged pig and said "that little boy has never seen a pig in his whole life". That was probably true! We laughed and we cheered on the brown pig. He came third! Then they raced miniature goats, ducks (of all things) and teeny little pigs. For the last race, they wanted women to represent because they were going to crown the queen of the pigs! Leo was sitting on my lap was trying to get me to raise my hand. I didn't want to be selected because winner had to kiss a pig. He stilled tried to push my hand up! The pig races were really fun and probably best part of the Fair.

We also played the squirt gun game. Mommy won! And Aidan and I rode on the Ferris Wheel. We were all going to go on together but Leo was not going to have any part of it. I thought that was funny because Leo is usually the one that wants to go on the rides. He had already been in the moon bounce and on a train ride but the Ferris Wheel he would have no part of. Aidan totally stepped up to the plate and rode on the Ferris Wheel with his mom and he had a great time. He wasn't afraid at all. We looked at the huge park from way up high, spotted a monster truck, tried to find our car in the parking lot, and we looked at all the rides to see if me or Pa and Auntie Heather had ever gone on them.

It was a hot, hot day but we had a lot of fun! Afterwards, Leo took a nap, Aidan and I planted a few end of season flowers to spice up our yard and we washed the car and played in the sprinkler. We were exhausted but we had a great, great time.

I had a lot of work to do today. I lost a little sleep over the weekend thinking about how I would get the work done on Monday. I decided to go in at 8am, cancelled a 10am meeting and planned to work on something that was well over due from 8am to 10am. At 11:18am I finally finished the document I was working on and I went to the bathroom. When I got back to my desk I had some crazy error on my computer screen and all of a sudden it said "Windows is shutting down". I didn't save my work (I don't need a lesson on saving) and I started to freak out! Doris the kind friend that she is came over to console me, called our computer center, and they were able to find the recovered version of the document. I thought about what I would do if I couldn't get the document back: go home, go crazy in my cubicle. I seriously wasn't sure what might happen. It's probably not appropriate but I wanted to kiss the computer guy. I was SO relieved. I felt like I couldn't do anything else for the rest of the day.

Good night.

Voicemail Message

The video is just sound (no picture) but I received this message on my telephone at work from Leo when he was just learning to use the potty. In particular, he was learning to go poop in the potty! It is such a wonderful, happy message so we wanted to share it. As you can hear it was a very exciting moment for both Leo and Daddy.

Seattle Trip: Seattle Mariners and Safeco Field

View of downtown Seattle and Safeco Field

Just a quick current time update: it's 8:25pm and the boys are in the bathtub. I am sitting outside the bathroom trying to get in a quick blog post. It has been incredibly hard getting back to east coast time and going to and funtioning at work. Aidan and Leo are still sleeping in until after 8am (unheard of!) and Jason and I are still exhausted at 6am. I am finding it almost impossible to get to work and it has proved equally impossible to want to be at work, do any work or function at work. I guess I still have vacation and Seattle on the mind. When will it end?

Now on to the vacation memories...

Did I mention that I spent the first week of vacation sick? The first day that I actually felt better was Sunday when we met Heidi, Patrick and Laurel for a fun day. We went over to their house and had fantastic breakast/brunch full on with a Patrick-inspired and delicious brunch dish, french toast, fruit and coffee. After brunch we all packed up (seven of us) in the gi-normous van and headed down to Safeco Field for the Mariners vs. Indians game. Jason and I (or the boys) had never been to the stadium so it was a particular treat for us. I was a bit worried about going to the game because did I mention it was horrendously hot in Seattle the ENTIRE time we were there. I was worried about the kids sitting in the hot sun all afternoon and getting hot and cranky but it did not happen.

Ichiro Jersey Day at Safeco Field

Heidi and Patrick worked some magic and got us these fantastic seats on the 300 level, above first base and in the shade. Awesome! The tickets could not have been better. We felt like we were part of the game but it was not hot at all and we actually had a fantastic breeze. At one point Aidan actually said he was "cold". I don't think he ever said that again during our entire trip. We walked around the stadium, had some snacks (the food at stadiums these days is crazy) and enjoyed a day at the Park. We had such a great time! Aidan, however, descretely (not!) pouted the whole game (day?) because he missed his cousin and could not bear to be away from him for more than a couple hours. He could have been at Disneyland and he would have pouted because he was not with Ethan.

After we enjoyed the game (the Mariners majorly lost) we went back to H & P's house and Laurel and Leo played outside in the little pool and with the little sprinkler and bubbles. Leo loved spraying the hose, any where and every where and Laurel loved dumping the bubbles on the deck and cleaning the deck.

Laurel cleaning the deck with spilled bubbles

We ended our great day by having dinner and milk shakes at Dicks Drive-In. It was yummy! I had not been to Dick's since probably college over 15 years ago. We had Dick's burgers, fries and ice cream/milk shakes. We at in the gi-normous van again and the kids got to play around in the back. It felt like the old days when we used to travel around in the "ship of fools"--good times.

Leo playing with hose

Cousins Chillin' in Seattle

C-Force

From the moment we walked in the door of Auntie Heather's house Aidan and Ethan were the best of friends. They hung together just about every moment of every day. The only time we saw the boys was when they got hungry or when they wanted something to drink. They jumped on the trampoline, played Wii, swam in the pool together, played legos, watched TV and movies (including Sponge Bob-we have a rule at home: no Sponge Bob cartoons except at Crow's house--or Auntie H's), slumber partied it up, played little Star Wars guys, caught bugs, dug up rocks, and so many, many other things only kids can think of. The "big guys" and the "little guys" as they became known to everyone, played so well together. Aidan and Ethan included Leo and Riley in most of their games and the four of them played and laughed. Only occasionally did the "big guys" ask for "alone time". The wanted "alone time" in the trampoline so that they could jump as much and as high as the wanted to and they wanted "alone time" in the swimming pool so they could splash and jump around in the pool as much as they wanted.

Leo, Ethan and Jason's legs in the pool

Aidan and Ethan swimming and playing

When the four of them were jumping in the trampoline it was so much fun to watch. They jumped, made up games where the little guys chased and attacked the big guys. Brothers on brothers (Leo chasing Aidan/Riley chasing Ethan) and cousins on cousins (Leo chasing cousin Ethan and Riley chasing cousin Aidan). They played a game invented by Uncle Jason that including placing coins on the trampoline and jumping and scrambling to collect the coins. Even Pa and Grandpa Russ jumped on the trampoline. Grandpa Russ did a flip! The often went from the swimming pool straight to the trampoline. For the first few days, they went non-stop from activity to activity and game to game. They were exhausted by the end of the day but they were happy.

Leo: out like a light

After a few days of not seeing very much of Aidan, I started to miss him and occasionally went to find him just to give him a hug. On the other hand, I really felt like he was growing and becoming more independent and it was a great thing to see. Leo's favorite part of Auntie Heather's house was the two kitties, Leia and Raven. They are beautiful kitties and they are very well behaved and very good with kids. Leo spent his days following them around and when he disappeared and was no where to be found we always knew we could find him upstairs in Heather's room or her bathroom where the kitties like to lay in the two sinks.

Best Buds!

The first couple of days of our trip we we hardly went any where and we did not do too much because I arrived sick. I started to feel like I was coming down with something on Saturday or Sunday before our trip. I ended up having a work-related training on the Saturday before we left and I just think in planning and preparing for the trip I was run down. I don't take vacation very often; it had been March 2008 since the last time we travelled to Seattle. I was so disappointed to spend my first week of vacation sick. We arrived on a Tuesday and since I was not feeling any better by the Friday I decided to visit a doctor. He gave me some meds and over the next couple of days I started to feel much, much better. The first time I literally made it outside Heather's house was that Friday when I went to the doctor and afterwards Heidi had so kindly met me and we had a DQ blizzard and talked for a couple of hours. It was great to get meds, get out of the house, and especially to see Heidi.

During the first few days of being home we visited with family and got a chance to see Grandpa Russ and Grandma Joan, Pa and Crow and Oma and Opa. We had BBQ's, pizza and enchiladas. Although I was feeling under the weather and probably not very social we had great meals, fun visits, and the kids got a kick out of hanging with their grandparents.

Did I mention Grandpa Russ is the Dog Barber Whisper? Teddy got a shave to beat the heat!

Back from Vacation: Back to Reality

Well, we made it back safe and sound. The airplane ride went well. We still had a vomiting incidence but really, what's a plane ride without vomiting? Fortunately it was only at the airport and not on the airplane. We were all a bit sad to leave. I cried outside at the drop off (Unyun drove us and Auntie Heather and Ethan came along for the ride to say goodbye) and Aidan cried at ticketing. Fortunately, we had a smooth ride home without any theft. The boys were terrific: the family in front of us even commented on how good the boys were. The father said that they didn't even make a peep. I'm so grateful for two fabulous travellers.

Emanuel picked us up. When we were in his car sadly it felt like he had just dropped us off. We didn't get home until about 11:30pm but we were all hungry so Jason picked up McDonald's happy meals for us all. No one was really tired but everyone was hungry. We finally fell asleep at about 1am. On Tuesday, we woke up at about 9am to the alarm because I had made an appointment to use my birthday gift certificate to the Elizabeth Arden Spa. I got a massage, facial and manicure and pedicure. It was a great way to relax after a pretty busy vacation and long airplane ride home. The massage and facial were terrific but to be honest I really just like the manicure and pedicure at the little nail shop close to my house. It's not nearly as expensive and just as good. Of course I scratched one of my nails and when I got home Aidan accidentally stepped on my big toe and squished the polish. That's life! We also went to the grocery store because we had no food in the house.

Today, Wednesday, was my first day back to work. I started by having to wake up at 6am and could not drink coffee or eat because I had a cardiologist appointment at 8:30am. I was TIRED and GRUMPY! Jason got up with me (sorry ladies but he's the best husband in all the land) and the boys slept in until almost 9:30am. We are all still jet lagged. Only three hours difference but it terribly difficult to get back on east coast time. The doctor's appointment went well (I have high blood pressure) and the doctor said I am doing great. The kidneys are fine and my heart looks fantastic and I shouldn't worry anymore. I go back in 6 months for a check up. He is a wonderful doctor and is listed as a top doctor in our city. After my appointment I went back to (ugh!) work. On the plus side it is a Wednesday and I didn't make it in until noon.

Everyone was really happy to see me so that was nice but to be honest I didn't want to be there. Jason and the boys gave me a ride in and then went to the American History Museum (Leo wanted to see the trains!). I wanted to ditch work and go with them. I felt a little numb being back and just took it easy and checked my email. While I was away I didn't check email once. I only got on the computer two times and that was to get directions to Heidi's house and download a recipe and oh to look at the QVC website (oops, Heather!). On the down side I had an enormous amount of emails to go through. I still have not finished.

It is about 9:15pm and the boys are finally asleep. I have so many stories and photos to share with you all about our trip. I will try to post them over the next few days. We had such a wonderful time and enjoyed visiting with everyone. We are particularly grateful to Heather, Ethan and Riley for putting up four people in their home, having a ton of extra dishes and laundry, constantly having people come and go through their home, being patient with all of the suitcases and clothes every where, and making us feel especially welcome. More to come...