The Outerbanks

To begin with, the draft of this post looks much better than when it posted. The pictures are all messed up now . . . I'm not sure why. Oh well, just know that I tried hard to make it look cute, and that I don't have the patience or know-how to fix it!!


Ohh . . . what a dream. I just smile thinking about it. We spent Spring break in a beach house with our great friends (or "fr-amily" as the Chipmans would say) the Brimhalls, the Rogers', and the Chipmans.

We left in the afternoon on Friday, March 27th. The plan was to stay for two nights in Washington D.C. since we couldn't check into the beach house until Sunday afternoon. We stopped at a travel plaza in Somerset, PA to eat dinner and to burn off some energy. The kids were sad, and a little fascinated, with a dead blackbird they found while running up and down a hill.

We finally made it to our hotel just before midnight, thanks to the dark, the rain, and the insane individual who designed the DC roads.

This is what our kids looked like for the last couple of hours that Chris and I were driving, bleary-eyed, to our hotel. We were so excited when they all woke up at midnight, ready for action.

After a not-so-great night's sleep, we explored DC . . . all day. We had a great time, but we were so exhausted by the end of the day.

On the subway, the cherry blossoms, and on the top of the Washington Monument

This is in part of the Smithsonian - if you look close at the fossil behind us, you can see a smaller fish inside it.

Washington monument, at the WWII memorial, and at the Lincoln memorial.

The next day was Sunday, so we found a church where we could go to Sacrament meeting, and then we drove the last few hours to Duck Beach, in the Outerbanks. We stayed until Saturday morning.

Good times on the beach (the water was pretty cold, but we had a great time on the sand)

This was a dead sting ray that washed up one morning; the kids were fascinated! The other picture is of all of Noah's beachcombing treasures.

On Tuesday afternoon we went to Jockey's Ridge State Park, which is a bunch of sand dunes. We had a great time, and we would have liked to stay longer than we did, but it was a bit too windy and cold.

Flying kites:

Eating sand:

Races up the dunes:

Crazy dads - Chris, Jeff, and Greg:

There was a clubhouse by our group of beach houses, so we spent some time swimming in the pool, and playing tennis:

After about two minutes of playing tennis, Brig got tired of it, so then he just played in the nets.

We also went to Kill Devil Hill:

Chris had the kids race against the time it took the first

airplane to go the same distance.

Good times at the beach house:

Bowling, playing the Wii, matching bracelets, posing outside the beach house, and playing on the playground.

One of the highlights of the whole trip was the treasure hunt. On the way down Chris told a story of one of Blackbeard's men hiding some treasure somewhere along the beaches of North Carolina - treasure that has yet to be discovered. On Thursday morning we all went on a walk on the beach, when the kids found a bottle, which had a treasure map inside of it. The kids had to follow some complicated directions, and they finally found the right spot to dig, where they found buried treasure! They were sooo excited. After they opened the treasure chest and saw all the "gold" coins, Will Chipman bit one and yelled, "It's real!!" I can't believe all the work Chris went to to make this happen. I must admit, my kids have the coolest dad.

Finding the bottle, and then reading the map inside.

Counting the number of steps to get to the right spot; digging, and digging . . .


. . . and digging! Finding the treasure box! Reading the warning message in the box.

Dividing the spoils.

The last night we were there we turned on some music and had a dance party. There was some sweet dance moves, and all the kids also had a chance to stage jump. . . multiple times.

One of our favorite parts of the trip was that after the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up and talked or played games. This also included doughnuts . . . a lot of them . . . every night. Because of this, it was so fun when Greg and Stacey surprised the rest of us with these OBX bumper stickers with a doughnut in place of the "O."

We packed up and reluctantly left on Saturday, April 4th. We left a little before the other families, and began the longest two days of our lives. We planned to drive to Shippensburg, PA that day to stay with our friends, Nathan and Valerie Goates. Because of multiple traffic jams we got to their house 4 hours later than we planned. The next day we were stuck in more traffic. We were so frazzled by all the driving, and I forgot to take any pictures of our time with the Goates :( It was so fun to see them, though.

Whew! What a post! This took me much much longer than it should have. Despite the bummer ending this was one of the best vacations we have been on. Thanks, Huffmans for the idea! We wish we could have done this with you guys the year before too!

(Not so) Happy Anniversary

This afternoon I realized that a year ago today was one of the saddest days our young household has experienced thus far. It was the day that both of the kids' pets died. Many of you know that we used to have a guinea pig (Annie's) and a parakeet (Noah's). Read on, but you may need a kleenex!

A few days before this all happened, Lily the guinea pig was acting sick. She wasn't eating or drinking very much, and she just kind of hunkered down in the corner of her cage. Lily was over three years old, which is around middle age for a guinea pig, we discovered. We had treated her for mites the year before, which turned out to be very expensive (more than we paid for Lily and her cage and initial food and supplies combined), so we warned Annie that there wasn't really anything we could do for her, if she really was sick. And so she was . . . I remember the moment so clearly: we were finishing up with dinner; Annie ate quickly and went up to hold Lily. A few minutes later we heard her cry, "She's dead. Lily's dead!" We all ran up, and there was Annie sobbing and sitting in the hallway with Lily in her arms. She'd died in Annie's arms. I wrapped Lily up in a towel and we buried her in our backyard under one of our lilac bushes. What happened next was the bizzare thing.

Noah had chosen Flutter for his 6th birthday just 3 1/2 months before. I remember earlier on that crazy day seeing Flutter scuttle around his cage, chirping away. He was acting completely fine, which is why this was such a shock. So after we buried Lily, we were all settling down, and Chris sent Noah up to his room to get his pajamas on. As soon as Noah got to his room, he yelled out, "Flutter!" He walked down the stairs, crying and carrying a stiff Flutter in his hands. Sometime during the day, the poor bird died too. We somehow got Flutter buried next to Lily, with both the kids sobbing. Chris and I kept looking at each other in bewilderment. This is too much sadness in one day, I kept thinking. I started questioning my decision to let our kids have small pets (who obviously don't live very long) at such a young age. At some point that evening, Annie asked, "Why did Heavenly Father let them both die on the same day??" I didn't have an answer. We finally got everyone ready for bed, read scriptures, said a prayer, and we all sat on the bed and talked for awhile. Annie smiled through her tears and said, "I love this family."

We let Noah sleep in Annie's room that night. After we closed the door, Chris and I could hear them both sniffling, which gradually turned into talking, and eventually turned into giggling, before they went to sleep. The next day when I dropped Annie and Noah off at school, I watched them walk toward the school with their arms around each other. I had my answer to Annie's question the night before. Their grief bonded them closer together, and they were helping each other cope.

If you're not a pet person, this may seem a little dramatic, but for an 8 and a 6 year old, this was a big deal. We are currently petless, and we will be until (as I have told Annie and Noah over and over) "we have a yard big enough to fit a dog, and we are finished having kids."

Mother's Day

I know I have many many things to update from the last couple of months, but I wanted to add this in, and be up-to-date on something: my Mother's Day. I'd add pictures, but we currently can't find our cameras . . . hmmm.
6:30 am - I get out of bed, prepared to get myself and the kids ready on my own for 9:00 church, since Chris always has early meetings. Chris informs me that he only has one meeting, so he doesn't have to leave for another hour. Yesss . . . I take an extra long shower while he and the kids make me breakfast.
7:00 - I eat my toast and omelet in bed with the kids bouncing around me. Presents include a big handmade card, a handpainted flower pot with marigolds in it, and a picture frame full of shots from a recent vacation. Chris soon leaves for his meeting and we finish getting ready for church. As we are driving to church the boys are fighting, as usual. Annie tries to get them to quit, but to no avail. Even my comments of "Wow, your fighting is sure making my Mother's Day nice" didn't help. I'm not sure why; sarcasm is always a great tactic with young kids.
9:10 - We arrive late for church, and Sacrament meeting is a doozy. Hudson has decided that that he will no long stand for the confines of a pew. I spend the meeting up and down, and in and out of the chapel, with him yelling and flailing in my arms. The words of my grandma run through my head, "If you take your kids out of sacrament meeting, don't you let their feet touch the floor, or they'll learn that all they have to do is yell, and then they'll get to run around the foyer." Those words kept running through my head as I follow Hudson down the hall. They are still milling about as Hudson finds a basketball in the gym and rolls it with his head as he crawls after it. Great, I think, he's ruined. On the bright side, the parts of the talks I do hear are excellent, and all the moms get chocolate bars afterwards. And these are not just Hershey bars, they're Lindt, and mine is dark chocolate with orange and almond pieces. YUM. I eat half of it while I sit in the foyer (yes, Grandma, the foyer - I'm sorry) during Gospel Doctrine feeding Hudson cheerios and raisins. Relief Society starts out great - we get wraps and chocolate dipped strawberries to eat while we listen to the lesson. But it basically has the same ending as Sacrament meeting: me in the hall with Hudson. Lest you think that Chris is a deadbeat church dad who doesn't help, you must know that he was giving out callings and helping out in primary. That's why I was in charge of the 1 year old.
2:00 pm- After getting home from church and eating lunch, Chris says, "You go do whatever you want, I'll watch the kids." Those words are the best present he could possibly give me. I sit up in bed, reading the latest conference issue, until I nod off. I wake up a little while later to the sound of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, on NPR (I love laying in bed, listening to NPR!). I then go downstairs and make a feeble attempt to catch up on some scrapbooking while listening to my book on tape. I also eat the rest of my Lindt chocolate bar, feeling only a little guilty for not sharing it with anyone. Throughout the day, I keep hearing the kids say, "Mom, you shouldn't do any work today." They're so sweet.
4:00 - Chris leaves with a friend to try and start up his dead car, which is still at the church (that story is for another post). He doesn't get back until after 5:30. He and the kids want to make dinner, but there isn't a whole lot of time, and we are low on a few staples. So we end up with a rag tag dinner of a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches, spaghettios, tuna and crackers, and carrot sticks. I loved it because I didn't have to make it! My day ended with talking to my mom, and catching up on some blogging.
So there you have it, with probably more details than you needed. Thank you Chris, Annie, Noah, Brigham, and Hudson, for making my Mother's Day so lovely, so memorable, and so . . . real. I wouldn't change a thing.

Columbus

So, I've said before that Chris and I can think of plenty to complain about when it comes to the Clinic, but one of the things we have loved is that Chris is able to go to tons of conferences (paid for by the Clinic). If they're close by, we all go together. We get all these mini-trips pretty much paid for. On March 13-15, there was one in Columbus, so the kids and I went with Chris. Hudson's birthday was on the 13th, so we brought his presents down for him to open in the hotel room. (More about his birthday in the next post).

Here are the kids camping out in their forts. They were so excited about them, we almost had to knock them down so they would actually go to sleep. Having all six of us crammed in one hotel room always makes for a fabulous night's sleep :)

On Saturday we ate lunch at Potbellies - YUM. I still dream about my sandwich. We also spent time just browsing around Barnes and Noble - one of our favorite things to do.

Big 1 year old boy!! Do you like the garbage bag wrapping? I didn't have time to wrap his presents, but I figured he didn't care.

Happy birthday Hudson, we love you so much!!

Saturday night there was a dinner at a conservatory in Columbus. It was pretty cool, but the dinner was not kid-friendly. There were cocktails for the first hour, and the dinner was very long and drawn out, where they give you like 45 minutes between each course (most of which, our kids wouldn't eat). Luckily, the bread and dessert saved the day. We don't exactly fit in with Chris' colleagues. Those who actually have kids are much older, and they have one or two, NEVER four. I've actually come to enjoy watching their reactions when they realize how many kids we have. Anyway, we took a table in the back corner (nobody sat by us, which Chris and I prefer - it means less people we have to apologize to :) I followed Hudson up and down the stairs while Chris and the other kids ate. Chris then took Hudson so I could eat, but the other kids were also finished eating, so they left too. So I sat trying to look like I was enjoying myself while I ate alone.


After dinner we found some cool rooms to explore. The chair behind us is covered in cacti.

Hudson was fascinated by the macaws! We got back to the hotel late that night. We ate a brunch at the hotel the next day, found a church to go to sacrament meeting, and then we came home. Good times for all.