Our Shenandoah Trip

This is a long post about our weekend away ... with just a sampling of my favorite photos from all the ones I took ... I'm almost finished with the video montage of the trip which has more photos and some funny videos ...

We set out for our big weekend away at 9:30 (that is after getting coffee of course) ... so we did fairly well ... we put Lincoln's big car seat in the car which he was thrilled about (he never ever really liked the infant seat) and we hooked up Skye's movie player to the seat in front of her and she got a new movie for the trip ... Mickey Mouse Playhouse in Wonderland ... I also remembered to bring headphones which schwoooo for that one ... she watched the movie the entire trip ... never changed the DVD ... we only had a 2 hour car trip and all in all we had a great time on the road ...

When we got to the caverns we had planned to visit I decided it wasn't the right one ... it was deserted and very cheesy looking ... just didn't feel like it was going to be good ... and we saw tons of signs for Luray Caverns and I had seen commercials for the place before ... so we looked up the address on the Pre (have I mentioned before I am in LOVE with this phone) and plugged it into the GPS ...

Once we got there everyone was a bit hungry and needed a bit of a break ...

After lunch we headed into the Cavern ... and it was AMAZING ... a little tough getting down all the stairs with a stroller and an excited 3 year old but we made it without any stumbles or falls ... Skye was worried it would be really dark down there so we got her a head lamp and she was way excited to get that puppy on ... let me tell you it was a big hit with everyone down there ... she got so many comments about how cute it was and what a great idea and not once did anyone get annoyed that she was shinning that thing right in their eyes ...

The formations were gorgeous ... Skye thought it looked like a cave from Dragon Tails ... and she oohhhed and aahhhed the whole way through ... so did David and myself ... even Lincoln stayed awake the whole time craning his neck to get a look at everything ...

We stopped for a quick push-up break when we got out of the caverns ... and to get a look at the garden maze we were about to enter ... it looked amazing from up above and we couldn't wait to get inside ...

The maze was so cool ... there were cute butterfly and bee wind socks that spun around ... and misters all over the maze ... tons of dead ends ... and 4 stamp stations ... I think that was Skye's favorite part because she got to stamp her card herself ... so each time we would finally find one she ran to stamp her card ... we did pretty good ... and no one got frustrated even though it could easily happen ... and the secret message from all of Skye's stamps ... "Mazes Around The World" ...

After the maze it was time to head to our hotel ... Skye has stayed in a hotel before but doesn't remember at all ... she thought it was so cool that it was "her home for tonight" ... she checked everything out and was excited to find out there was a playground right outside our room ... after a bit of rest we decided to take a drive around town and through the countryside ... saw lots of farms and the most amazing full moon ever ...

After our drive we wound up back at our hotel at the Johnny Appleseed restaurant ... Saturday night was Prime Rib night and David can't miss that ... he got the biggest piece of prime rib ... even the waitress was impressed with the weight of the plate ... Skye was just excited to get some strawberry ice cream as a vacation treat ...

Once back in the room we all just hung out having fun ... lots of tickling going on ... movies to watch ... snuggling ... it was awesome ... everyone was just so happy to be together ... hanging out ... new scenery ... it just rocked ...

I loved seeing Linc and Skye hanging out together in the morning while I got everything together ... they are going to have such a great time when he is finally big enough to play with her ...

After a quick breakfast at Burger King (where they had what I can only say was a 3 story play land area with the longest slide) ... we hit the road to drive through the Shenandoah National Park ... we were really hoping the trees would have changed more and that fall was more apparent ... but regardless it was gorgeous ... the drive was wonderful and peaceful and beautiful ... you can't go over 35 MPH while on Skyline drive so it was just a nice relaxing Sunday drive ... we stopped at several of the lookout points and the view just takes your breath away ...

After our drive through the park we all got situated again for our ride home ... several times on the way home Skye would just proclaim, "I had a good time!!" ... which made me so happy to hear ...

I did post to the blog from my phone on Sunday morning ... I am going to start planning these little trips more often ... it is good for all of us to get out and do something different and fun ...

Me and my Daddy

This was during hours and hours of screaming ... the little guy was just so sick and felt so horrible ... we both had been trying anything and everything to help ... suddenly Linc curled up with David and was quiet ... for like a good 20 minutes ... it was wonderful ...

Rock Band

So we have our own Rock Band now ... and it is the favorite family activity lately ... Skye wants to do it every night ... once we move it downstairs it will be even better ... more room to really rock out ... but I gotta say for a 3 year old she is doing really well ... and even David and I are getting better with every jam session ...

Rock Band 8/29/09

Back Up and Running

So for the last week or so I've been working on setting up a new server ... so any spare moment has been allocated to that ... it has kind of been like old times for David and I working on a server together ... seeing as when we met I looked forward to the times he and I worked on a server together ... in fact I started to reminnesse about it today with him and he just rolled his eyes and said "yea ok whatever" but for me it did bring back sweet memories ...

but I digress ...

so our new server is all set up and with that I also set up a new domain for my blog ... it will always be accessable with the http://familyandthesuburbs.wordpress.com ... but also familyandthesuburbs.com comes to the same place ... now if I could just find a new photo that includes both my cuties for the header ... especially since the last one is from October and we are almost at October again ...

Anyway there were a bunch of technical problems we encountered while setting up the server and I must say I am very proud of us ... we worked and researched and tried different things until we solved the problems ... very satisfying ...

Now that I don't have to worry about what I posted to move it to the new server I can get back to posting ...

Knock Knock

We are in the process of replacing all the doors in our house ... the ones attached to rooms that had work got replaced as part of the work ... the other 7 David is doing on his own ... and has decided to go the "from scratch" route ... so he has to do everything involved ... this is a video of the first door he did ... it came out GREAT ... I can't wait to see them all done ... even if we have to do it bit by bit and will take some time ... he did such a great job the house is going to be rockin' when he is finished ...

Making A Door 7/31/09

Tuna Fishing

Yesterday David left at 1 in the morning to head to Ocean City Maryland to do some tuna fishing with several of his friends ... they had been looking forward to it for ages that he couldn't even snooze a bit before leaving ...

The drive was long but the excitement fueled them all ... by the time they got there they were ready to catch some big fish and set sail at quarter to 5 ... they sped out about 40 miles from shore ... David couldn't believe the size of the waves, some even coming up on deck and how fast the boat could go ...

The early morning wake up call ... the fresh air ... the speed of the boat ... the excitement to catch fish all caught up with most of the group ... naps were plentifully and there was even a bit of sea sickness ... David said he felt a bit queasy but did alright ... and slept like a log during his nap ...

They caught 1 tuna ... 2 mahi-mahi ... and 1 wahoo which is what David caught ... their boat caught the most that day ... he was so excited about all the fish ... unfortunately as they were getting off the boat the 1st mate dropped one of the mahi-mahi into the water and lost it ... kind of a bummer ... but they still had plenty of fish for the 5 of them ...

There is a "fish cam" at the doc that David had been watching for days before hand to see what people brought in ... so we had it on throughout the day ... I knew he wouldn't be in till late afternoon/early evening but checked it every once in a while ... and as I sat down to give Lincoln a bottle at 5:30 I suddenly saw their group and started calling up to Skye, "Daddy is on the fish cam ... Daddy and Norbert and Aric are on the fish cam come see" ... I was able to grab the 2 screen shots of them bringing in their fish ... it was just so cool we caught them on cam ...

David didn't get home until about 22 hours after he left and he was just exhausted ... so no fish for dinner last night ... but tonight he made the most gorgeous plates ... the tuna steaks tasted like fillet Mignon ... it was amazing ... I can't wait till we get the rest of it ...

Now Skye wants to go fishing with her daddy ... I am thinking they need to start off going to a lake or the Potomac ... but she so wants to spend the day fishing with her daddy ...

Garden Delights

Schuyler and her daddy have been working on the greatest garden this year ... it is beautiful and this was a recent big haul they got ... everything they have grown so far has been so delicious and Skye is just so proud of it all ...

BTW the new umbrella in the photo ... well she has wanted her own umbrella for some time ... when we were in Target the other day and saw these adorable monkey ones I told her she could pick out her very own to get ... since we didn't have to buy pull-ups anymore because she is a big girl that uses the potty we could afford the umbrella ... she thought that was an awesome trade ... and of course proceeded to tell me over and over how she likes using the potty ...

Second IM Update

David: schuyler got up off her bed went in the bathroom pooped wiped and put her panties back on by herself while i was down stairs

First IM Update

David: oh it's going good

the first sink was leaking underneath right ?

lincoln pooped

and ate again

now he is in the swing

schuyler pp'd

no poop yet

man I miss them oh so much today!!!

Poop Glorious Poop

So we finally had poop in the potty ... and I don't know that David or myself would ever be so happy to see shit ... but there we were cheering and clapping ... all while Skye kept saying, "too loud mommy ... not so loud" ...

And she did it all on her own ... she went to the potty a lot yesterday with no results so I just figured she was trying ... or just wasn't totally sure when it was going to happen or what not ...

But then while I was feeding Lincoln I saw her jet to the top of the stairs and then back toward the bathroom ... I asked David if he would go check because she either needed to poop ... pooped in her underwear or pooped in the potty ... when I heard him cheer I know what the answer was ... she kept telling him not so loud so Lincoln and I had to run right up to check it all out ...

I was just beyond proud of her ... and she was beaming herself ... so even though I told her I was taking the dollhouse toys back she asked if she could have one so we went downstairs to pick one out (she picked out the nursery furniture) and we went and laid Lincoln down and sat and played dollhouse till dinner time ... it was fantastic ...

While we were playing she said, "Mommy I so did it. I soooo did it." ... I told her how proud of her I was and she said, "It is so much better to poop in the potty." ... I told her that is what I have been trying to explain for sometime now ...

And woohoo check off potty training Skye before returning to work ... with a few hours to spare ...

Five Years

Five years ago today David and I got married ... it really was such a great day ...

Last night we sat outside after the kids went to bed reminiscing about our wedding weekend ... the flat tire I got while picking Kris and Heather up at the hotel while David was off golfing ... the huge thunderstorm on our wedding morning and my awesome bridesmaids went and got David and I breakfast ... the killer suite we got to stay in ... the fact that the minister forgot to say, "you may now kiss the bride." so as he was announcing us married I stopped him and said, "Do I get to kiss him now?" ... how the photo in this post was taken in pitch blackness and we both felt so weird posing for photos when we couldn't see anything at all ...

So first thing this morning we put in our wedding DVD ... we hadn't watched it since the day after the wedding ... and it was awesome to see ... and it was great watching it with Skye ... she kept calling me a princess ... and asking where she was ... and she couldn't believe how little Ellie was ...

And seeing all of our honeymoon footage ... our cruise was awesome ... just made me think that we need to find some way to take a cruise ... it was so good for both of us ... and it would be so good for the whole family ...

It has been an amazing 5 years of marriage ... highs and lows ... ups and downs ... unwavering love and unmitigated anger ... but at the end of each day I couldn't be happier about laying down next to him ... and so hopeful each morning about starting the new day with him ... with my family ...

I'm so glad we picked the 4th of July for our wedding day ... it is one of my favorite days of the year for 2 reasons now ...

Does This Look Like Play-Dough?

So it was somewhat of a hectic day ... mostly because it was too hot out for Lincoln to really hang outside and it was too boring for Schuyler to really stay inside ... so what is a mommy to do? ... Well she asks her husband ... these wonderful children's daddy to take Skye to the store to get some play-dough ... she had only one little can of it and it was not in good shape ... I even went on to the website to point out a couple of the bigger play-dough toys that she would enjoy ... so she had something really fun to do in the house during the times I couldn't give her all the attention she deserved ...

An hour later they walk in with a huge box ... with a tricycle in it ... and the loudest bike horn EVER ...

I looked at David with a "what-the-hell-is-this" while Skye is screaming, "I got a bike mommy a bike, can you put it together? I wanna go outside and ride my bike ... can we go outside ... I wanna ride my bike mommy ... look at my horn ... I want to put it on my bike mommy ... you're going to put it together right ... I wanna go outside ... I wanna ride my bike outside mommy ... come on lets go outside ... " ... David looked at me and said, "She didn't have any interest in the play-dough she said she wanted a bike." ... ohhhhhhhh well if she said she wanted a bike by all means ... I mean she is 3 ... she would know best ...

Are you kidding me????

Did he think she wasn't asking to go outside enough before they left the house that maybe she needed inspiration to go outside ...

So what does mommy do?

I'll tell you a smart mommy would have taken it back and gotten the play-dough they had set out to get ... I am obviously not a smart mommy ... I sat down on the floor and put that bike together ...

And the second we went outside she was beyond happy to have her very own bike ... but secretly I would have still rather them gotten the play-dough ...