The "No Dam" Vacation--- Day 1

Last week we sent Spence back to JMU.   He took our minivan stuffed full with the gear he and his cat Zeus will need for his sophomore year of school.  Our house was instantly quieter and cleaner, but still we all miss him like crazy.  

Shortly after that, Cami went to the courthouse for her driver's licensing ceremony.  Virginia state law requires that new drivers dress up in their finest and have the bajeebies scared out of them one last time before handing them their official driver's license.   Let's hope they scared her good!

After that we packed up our car and headed to North Carolina for a much needed vacation.   

On the way there, I officially quit our homeschool co-op for this coming year.  It was a very difficult decision to make, but in the end I decided that it was going to be the best thing for our family.  I hope that I can find a regular social outlet for them (and for me) that will be as meaningful to us as the co-op was this past year.  

We are staying in this beautiful cabin near Asheville, NC.   It was cheaper than a hotel and way, way, way nicer.  We love the great location and all the space to spread out.  

And the kids are loving the hot tub! 

The fire pit though, was not a success.   The damp air proved to be too much for these two boy scouts ... even with a lighter, several "helpers", newspaper, kindling, and logs.  

 We never did get more than a quick little blaze going! 

 Thank goodness for stovetops though, so we could still have our s'mores.  

We've only been here a day, but we've already gone to church in a very small branch,  played in a waterfall...

and climbed a mountain!  

 It was a long, steep hike that challenged the olders of the bunch (Glen and I)...

but it was also fun.  

There were streams to ford, cool log bridges to pass over, rocks to scramble over, and...

 an absolutely stunning view when we got to the top! 

 We are all excited for a great week of relaxing and enjoying spending time together in this gorgeous part of the world….  

…even if it means allowing myself to appear in a few of the pictures.  Boy, there's nothing like a photo to give you a good dose of reality about how you really look! :(

On another note, my kids found this notepad in a gift shop and instantly decided that I "needed" it.   

I don't know what they're talking about though...

 I haven't been on a dam hike in at least two weeks.

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In the Last Week….

• Spence got a cat and headed back to Harrisonburg for his sophomore year at JMU!  I am not pleased with JMU apartment cleanliness standards and opted to use the restroom at the gas station rather than using the one in his apartment that clearly had not been cleaned in a very long time.  Ewwww! 

• Everyone in my presidency was out of town and I manned the food at a stake dance almost entirely by myself.  Thank goodness the Bishop's wife stopped by and stayed to help for a while! 

• Cami got her wisdom teeth out and hiked up a mountain (Old Rag) with friends.  (see pics below)

• Glen's been working like crazy lately.  He will be more than ready for our vacation when it rolls around!

• I've used Nyquil and Benadryl for the first time in my life (not at the same time though!) so that I can get a little sleep with this nasty cold I've had that's going on two plus weeks!  

• Glen got a new calling in the HP and will be released from his Primary Chorister calling soon.  He is bummed.

• I took Ellie, Adam, and Emma to a Lego Fair.  It was very cool (see pics below)! 

• Cami and Emma have been avoiding eating dairy and gluten.  Why?   Just for the heck of it.

• Ellie and Adam both bore their testimonies on Fast Sunday and melted my heart!

• We saw a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron hanging out at our pool the other day.   It's endangered in several states, so we felt very cool seeing it!  (see pic below)

Cami and friend, Graham

Cole, Maddie, Graham, Cami, Katy, and Frank at the top of Old Rag

Immature Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Wisdom vs. Ice Cream

Random Fact #1:   I am 41-years-old and still have 3 of my 4 wisdom teeth. 

Random Fact #2:  As of Wednesday morning, Cami now has 0 wisdom teeth. 

Random Fact #3:  According to my calculations that fact makes me approximately 3 times wiser than Cami and  the average American.

Random Fact #4:   Cami comes out of anesthesia really really talkative and giggly.

   

Through the whole drive home, Cami carried on a mostly one-sided bubbly, unfiltered, gauze-mouthed stream of consciousness conversation with me!     

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Cami:  "Mom, I rea-wee want to go on a Ssssegway tour."

Me:  "Should we see if we can do that when we come for your follow-up?"

Cami:  "No!  I want to go now!  Can you imagine how it would feel to ride a Segway down the sidewa....Oh! Did you see that lady?   She looked like Emma!   Do you think there are deer in the city?  I like baby deer...I wonder where they live in the city.  Let's stop at Jamba Juice!  Oh!  Sister W asked me to babysit tonight!  Segways are sooooo cool. "  

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Random Fact #5:  In the last 24-hours Cami has consumed every variety of frozen treat known to man. Ice cream, frozen yogurt, frozen custard, smoothie, slurpee, etc.

It's enough that I am thinking of getting my wisdom teeth out now too.



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Saying Goodbye to the Chicks

Remember the little baby chicks in our bathtub from a few weeks ago?  

Well, I am pleased to say that with Ellie's, Adam's, and Emma's tender loving care that...

Rose....                                            Felix.....                                                and Stripe....

are all grown up....

and now free ranging it at Shelly's farm (pics coming soon)!  

And the best part of all?

Getting rid of the chicks meant we had room for Spence to bring home a new pet.    

Spence adopted Zeus from the animal shelter on Saturday.    Spence and Zeus are only here for a couple more days until Spence heads back to school this week, but Zeus has already become a well-loved figure in our home.

Except for Rocky (our dog).  He hates Zeus with a passion and barks incessantly at the closed door where the cat is staying until Spence leaves.

I think that he thinks that he's protecting us from the "big, bad" cat, that's actually quite sweet and nice, but all he's really doing is ensuring that the next pet we welcome into our home is more likely to be a quiet, easygoing feline instead of an obnoxious barky, underwear chewing canine.

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Adventures in Philly

Visiting a new city is exciting, but I love going back again the next time even better.   There's not as much pressure to see and do everything at once and it feels like you can actually enjoy the city for what it is.   

It took us 14-years of living in the east before we visited Philadelphia as a family for the first time.   That was Spring Break 2011 and we jam-packed as much into that trip as we possibly could.   This trip to Philly felt much more relaxed since we'd already seen and done all the big stuff last time.   We had a little more than 24 hours to spend there and I was not interested in waiting in long lines and feeling stressed, so we just planned for fun instead.    

Instead of touring all  the history sites like we'd done before, we decided to listen to stories!   They have 10 storytelling benches set up around the city near historical sites.  Between 11-4 they have professional storytellers sitting there waiting to tell a story for free to anyone who comes by to sit on their bench.   It was very fun and I enjoyed the stories as much as the kids.  Here is the Once Upon a Nation website if you're interested in trying them out:  http://historicphiladelphia.org/once-upon-a-nation/storytelling-benches/  

The only site that my kids were really excited to see again was the Liberty Bell.   

Luckily we got there before 11:00am and missed the crowds.  When we walked by later that day, the lines were around the building!   I highly recommend going in the morning!   

The storytelling benches got us walking all around the historical part of the city and at one point right by this cute little bakery.   The macarons were pretty amazing and my kids were enchanted by the fun fairy tale decor!  

 

 We ended up with an afternoon to spend, so we opted for the Franklin Institute science museum.  We spent five hours there and could have easily spent even longer!  

They played and played and played some more...

 Most of the activities had educational knowledge they could gain...

but mostly they just had fun running around and being together!  

They fought a little over activities that they could only do one at a time like this one where they attempted to create a building with magnets and metal rods that would withstand a fake earthquake.  When their building fell apart, they all wanted to keep trying to build a better building.  They kept fighting over who took whose piece and finally we had to start taking turns! 

There were a couple of activities that had this warning sign in front of them.  

The first time Ellie noticed it, she was almost in tears that she couldn't participate in the activity because of her seizures.    One of the activities I completely understood why it wouldn't work for her to have a seizure on it, but on another one we decided that there was no danger for her to have a seizure while doing it, so we just never mentioned it to the workers and decided to go for it anyway.  

We waited in line for over half-an-hour to try it out and Ellie must have asked me nervously a dozen times whether I was sure it was okay for her to do it with her seizures, but in the end it was a fun experience she was glad to have tried!  

Here is Adam timidly trying it out.   

 Emma doing flips and tricks on it....

 and Ellie just enjoying being up there.  She had that smile glued to her face the entire time she was up in the air (and she did NOT end up having a seizure)!

Our last stop was Reading Terminal Market where we got fresh juice, Philly Cheesesteaks, and a jar of honey.  The kids (especially Ellie) were completely WORN OUT by the time we left there to pick up Cami from her conference.  

We were excited to see her again and spent another hour or two at Valley Forge with her  to allow rush hour to end before trekking home.  

 It was a fun day and I now like Philly more than ever and look forward to our next visit there!  

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Ellie's Ears

My family moved from Vadnais Heights to Blaine the summer between my fifth and sixth grade years.   It was a rough time to change schools and I do not have fond memories of being the new girl for the last year of elementary school.   I'm not sure what the difference between the two schools actually was, but I was very much an innocent little girl in my old school.  I had waist long hair which I wore in piggy tails and  I still wore cutesy sweatshirts with kittens and Holly Hobby.   And most importantly, I felt like I fit right in with the rest of the girls.  

The new school was a different story though!   Maybe it would have been the same had I stayed at the old school, but to me it seemed that Johnsville Elementary was peopled entirely  with mature girls that had  permed hair, pierced ears, and name brand clothes.   Throw a couple of mean girls into the mix and I was turned upside down socially.   Over the course of that year I desperately tried to fit in by cutting off all my hair, getting a home perm, and talking my parents into letting me pierce my ears.  

I hoped that by trying to fit in look-wise that I would finally be a little cool, but as you can see here, I never was really successful at fitting in or being cool.   :)

So, why do I share all this?

Because  my baby got her ears pierced yesterday and it brought back all sorts of memories for me!  It made me think of why I got my ears pierced in the first place and then what a disaster it was thereafter.  I am pretty severely allergic to metal and my ears reacted in a painful way to having metal placed into them.   Any sane person would have realized that they were allergic to metal and instantly decide that it wasn't worth the pain and effort to keep wearing earrings, but not me.  I was convinced that wearing earrings was important  to my social status and I am embarrassed to admit that I suffered with itchy, red, crusty ears for way too many years!

I can't remember exactly how it was that Glen and I decided that nine-years-old was the year we'd let our own girls get theirs pierced, however I'm pretty sure that it may have had something to do with a visit from Grandma Sandy when Cami was nine and them taking a grandma/granddaughter trek to the mall together.

Cami in 2006

After that, whenever our girls turn nine we say yes as soon as they express interest.

Emma in 2009

 Ellie turned nine in March and actually hadn't mentioned it yet.  Then Cami came home from California talking about how their 6-year-old cousin Madeline had her ears pierced and suddenly Ellie couldn't stop talking about anything else!

I told her that she needed to read 3 chapter books before I would take her, but if she did that then I would be more than happy to let her.    This week she finished her 3rd chapter book and yesterday we took a trek to the mall for some ear piercing fun!

She brought along her cousin McKenzie for moral support...

and she held tight to Cami's hand while they poked the holes!

Thankfully none of the girls seem to have inherited my allergy to metals...

which means they get to love every second of earring wearing!  

I, on the other hand,  haven't worn earrings in many years and haven't missed them a bit!