Washington Snowstorm

So I'm finally figuring out this blogging thing, I know, you'd think I'd have it down by now. But with the shear volume of photos I take and the size of these pics it has been difficult and time consuming to load them. I finally got smart and while I won't bore you with the details you can expect to see more photos up here in the future.

So, we got snow, lots of it. The kids really enjoyed playing and sledding. I enjoyed toting around my camera and creating memories, lots of them!

The above picture was taken standing at the end of my driveway looking down our street towards the first cross street (which you can't see here).

Ok, I am totally not a bird person (those who know my Ocean City story know why), but I am a total camera freak so while I had a moment I stood at my back door and snapped a couple pictures of the birds playing on a bush in my yard.

I got MJ to smile AND look at the camera by saying he could throw a snowball at me while I took his picture. Thank goodness for my zoom lens, gave me some distance. I don't think I will make the same offer next winter, it was close!

Do you remember the picture of MJ and Mike during a freak Thanksgiving snow in NOVA where they are catching snow together...I tried, Annabelle mostly thought Mike was weird!

Here's our house with snow, thrilling, I know.

MJ is a man with many hats...this happens to be one of my favs. I got it when he was a baby. Still fits!

Belly was waiting at the top of a hill for the sled to be brought back so she could have a turn. She just looked so cute standing there with her hat.

This picture is at that first cross street from our street. It was tough getting places in this. Hey Dad, this is what Mike drove in to get your special package to you. Don't you feel loved??

Same street, other direction. I hope I'm not boring you.

This is looking down our street from that cross street. Ok, Kristi I know, you want pics of the kids.

Here they are.

Does this picture make you dizzy?

I loved this shot of him kicking the snow.

Sorry about the logo...snuck on there somehow.

Are you familiar with The Little People (I mean the Fisher Price ones)? Annabelle totally looked like one of those little people (especially the ones in the anamated movies) in my gloves but they stayed on, stayed dry, and she stayed happy so who cares, right? If you look close you can see the clear packaging tape sealing her boots up. It was quite a production getting the kids ready.

Enough of the kids! Ha! Here's a picture of the trees in front of my house. We're all thawed out now but it sure was pretty when it was here. I'm hoping that was our one and only storm.

Ok, stay tuned for some pictures from Christmas.

We're Here!

After more than 3100 miles of driving we finally made it to Washington. I have so many photos to add so I again may have to break this "catch up" post into several smaller posts. Let's start with Halloween. MJ's school had trunk-or-treat where the parents decorated their trunks and the kids got to go trick-or-treating in the parking lot.

Afterwards we got to go inside and join the kids for pizza. Annabelle was more interested in playing with the toys as she always is. I was really happy that we got to stick around Newport long enough to allow MJ to participate in this. On his last day at preschool we had to pick him up early to make it to Mike's graduation. The kids were all outside playing when we got him. It was really tough to leave as we all became attached to his school. It just was a fantastic place for him and he LOVED going. Anyway when we took MJ all of the kids ran to the fence and waved and called out goodbyes to him. We put him in the car and moments later I hear a weak, "Mommy" from the back seat. I turned around and MJ was crying. Sad to leave his school and the strong bonds he had formed with some of the kids.

We then took the kids trick-or-treating at a couple of the military neighborhoods since we were with out a neighborhood of our own to go to. Annabelle got into the evening a bit and even picked out some candy and put it in her bucket. I wish she would have worn the little tweener things on her head, but she was cute enough with out them.

Annabelle was pooped after a while but MJ wanted to keep going so we did. This house totally freaked him out! And back at the hotel the kids did the typical loot examination.Annabelle obviously approved.

I will post more about our drive and the house later. Time to go grab some breakfast.

On the move!

Hi all! I am just popping in to give a quick update on us. We have moved out of our house in RI and are living out of the Navy Lodge until Mike's graduation on the 5th. On the 6th we will begin our cross country drive to Washington.

Our stay at the lodge has been uneventful for the most part. The kids got to go Trick or Treating on Halloween and had a blast. Annabelle has discovered a love of mini M&Ms. MJ just loves candy in general so the two buckets worth he got from school and Trick or Treating is a huge excitement for him. After getting back to our room at the lodge and eating some dinner MJ collapsed into bed with his clothes on and not having brushed his teeth. Mike was yelling at him to come brush his teeth and MJ would not budge. Mike called and called MJ's response to Mike, with his head on the pillow was, "You're not going to win this battle!" Mike was less than amused, I on the other hand stood at the other side of the room stifling a laugh. When I recounted the event to Mike yesterday he was able to see the humor in it.

Anyway, we will be available on our cell phones until we get to Washington. Once I get set up I will post some photos of Buzz Lightyear and the most adorable Lady Bug you've ever seen.

Mini Maine Vacation Part 3

Our final day was the first day of less than perfect weather. It rained in the morning and then was much cooler for the rest of the day. We decided to stay in Freeport and look around in the shops. There are tons of outlets there, best known for the LL Bean store and outlet. We had to make a stop. There was a giant boot out front and tourists we were so pose we did!

Inside there is this aquarium where you can duck your head into this bubble thing and have the fish swim right around your head. All of us got a kick out of it!We managed to escape LL Bean with out sharing our credit card information. One store down, 25 to go...

By accident we found a place called Wicked Whoopies. I had seen this store on Oprah, famous for their Whoopie pies. I had to get one for us to share. I think the kids liked it, eh?

The lady in the store laughed at us as we kept returning for more pies.

Since we couldn't possibly fill up on Whoopie pies and Harry and David samples we stopped at a little shop for our first Lobster Roll. Good thing we waited till the end of our stint in New England because those things are good...and expensive! Oh look, you can see all of our Whoopie pie boxes in the stroller! We hit a few souvineer shops but our only souvenier from them was this picture of Annabelle wearing a lobster claw headband. And these pictures of a beautiful tree outside of a jewelery shop. After spending the afternoon shopping in Freeport we headed back home. I am so glad we got a chance to see some of Maine. It is beautiful. No wonder it is the vacation state.

Now that we are back here we will be working on planning our move out west. Only a couple more weeks left here in Rhode Island. It has been a great year and as much as I hate our nasty rental, I'm sad to have it coming to an end.

Mini Maine Vacation Part Two

On our second day in Maine we headed south to Portland. We hopped a ferry to one of the small islands of Maine called Peaks Island. Since it is the off season not much was open, well there's not much there anyway. We took to the island by foot and found a gorgeous beach to walk. At the end of this steep walkway was the beach.Here's the view from the path.We spent most of our time there picking up beach glass and climbing on the rocks. It was so peaceful. I braved handing my camera over to a stranger to get a picture of all four of us together. After walking the beach we went to a little restaurant that was feeding all of the island's visitors. I don't think they were expecting so many people but the day was so beautiful I think a lot of people did the same as us and just ventured out. MJ and Annabelle got nice cold beers aka Captain Eli's Blueberry or Strawberry soda. OK, Annabelle just got a sip after which she shivered and made a funny crooked face and went back to her water. After lunch we headed back out to explore the island further and found another rocky beach with more glass to find and rocks to climb.

Annabelle is on her feet more often. Walking still isn't her method of choice 99% of the time but she's getting better at it. She had lots of chances to practice this weekend

As he did on the day of his birthday party, MJ stripped his shirt and went for some exercise. He loves to run shirtless on the beach. He then drops to the ground for some push ups. I had to get pictures this time. I was so bummed to have missed this photo op last time!

The sun was setting and it was beautiful. I trusted more strangers for another family picture. And then I trusted MJ for some pictures of just Mike and I. It was a bit scary to see MJ holding my camera and for those of you who have seen it with the flash attached you know it is almost as big as he is. But he was THRILLED to have the chance to use it. I was relieved not to have to make a claim to insurance on it.

We caught the ferry back to Portland at sunset. It was beautiful both looking back at Peaks Island,

And looking towards Portland.

I have done nothing to these photos, this is exactly what it looked like when we were there. It sure would be fun to sharpen them up and saturate those colors!

On our way out of Portland we stopped at Whole Foods to try and find some of that Captain Eli's Soda "beer" and ended up making dinner out of it. The kids were so tired there was no way we were going to make it through a sit down dinner at a restaurant. Once we got back to Brunswick Annabelle got a quick diaper change and in the bed she went never waking up. MJ on the other hand had to be encouraged a little...we had 10 minutes to get him to fall asleep so Mike and I could have a date with hot chocolate and barely audible Desperate Housewives. :)