Tag: virginia

Summer camp recap

We (the boys and I) got home yesterday from ten days in Virginia and I’d better write it all down before I forget. The beginning of our trip already feels like a lifetime ago (but like, a really fun lifetime.)

We arrived after an early flight at around lunchtime on Saturday the 9th. Kiki picked us up, and we headed to my sister’s house to drop the boys off for their first day of Camp Aunt Jenny. She made shirts. After lots of hugs and pictures, Kiki and I left to go have lunch at a Mexican-Indian restaurant. (Yum!)

Then we got to go back to give hugs and goodbyes again because I left my wallet at my sister’s. (Convenient!)

After shopping for a lot of booze and food, we headed to Kiki’s house and got ready for Camp Kiki. I made shirts. We had a very fancy Wagyu steak for dinner. It was sublime. Also Maxie is very cute.

We loaded up Kiki and Mike’s car Sunday morning and drove a couple of hours to an amazing airbnb in Charlottesville. On the way, we stopped at winery #1, Early Mountain. We drank wine and ate delicious food, including this couscous that I need to figure out how to recreate. It was incredible.

The airbnb was amazing – very clean, well stocked, and with a huge pool, hot tub, and a gorgeous view. Perfect place for Camp Kiki!

Day 2 in Charlottesville:

Kiki went for a walk, then hit a few wineries before spending the afternoon in the pool. Everything was delicious and the scenery everywhere was stunning. We made s’mores around the firepit later and saw lots of fireflies, which was exciting for me.

The next day, Kiki’s friend Jess arrived, yay! That day we hit up a winery and a brewery, had more delicious food, more pool time and then some rousing rounds of Shithead.

Wednesday was the day for lunch at Pippin Hill, which was just breathtakingly gorgeous. We also hit a cidery afterwards, where I got to see apple trees and a cute dog.

More pool time and more Shithead followed.

Sadly, Wednesday was our last night there. And of course that’s when I discovered a friend lives less than ten minutes away from where we were staying. Isn’t that always the way?

But I couldn’t be too sad because the next phase of Camp Kiki was a trip to New York City!

We got back to Woodbridge Thursday afternoon, did a shitload of laundry, and repacked for the trip to NYC.

Friday morning, we hopped on a train like the fun-loving globetrotters we are.

After a few hours we arrived at Penn Station, and then made our way to our hotel (not before having some lunch and wine.) The hotel was adorable. It’s called the Library Hotel and see if you can guess what the theme of it is.

After relaxing, we headed out to dinner at a wine bar, and then to a play. The play was the main reason we went to NYC. One of the stars is Noah Reid from Schitt’s Creek and maybe you don’t know this about me but I am a little obsessed with Schitt’s Creek. Surprise! I was supposed to go in May but because SOME CHILDREN I WON’T MENTION got covid, I had to cancel that trip. So I’m glad I got to see it finally. Even if it was…weird.

The wine bar we went to was fancy (like us) and we had some delicious wine and food before heading to the theater. Our seats were very good, and it was neat to see Patrick Noah Reid up close.

We were only there for one night, but we made the most of our morning before the train back to DC. We walked down to the Union Square Greenmarket, which was very cool. And then wandered around for a while. Kiki was THE VERY BEST FRIEND EVER and agreed to let me go to Mood. Yay! I tried to be as fast as possible, but I get decision paralysis at smaller places than this, but I went in with just one goal (some cotton poplin) and I made it out with just that. Whew!

Afterwards, we got our stuff from the hotel and I cursed my sandals for reactivating my Achilles tendinitis, but it was worth it. We hobbled our way back to the train station, and, well, the rest of the day was fairly uneventful.

I mean, we’ve done so much already, wouldn’t you think our trip was almost over by now? It’s only Saturday at this point and we didn’t go home until Tuesday!

Sunday, we went and retrieved my offspring from my sister’s house. They had stayed up until 2am because my sister had promised them middle of the night ihop, so they were pretty tired, but we had a baseball game to go to!

Mike and Kiki have season tickets to the Nationals so that’s how we spent Sunday. We ate delicious food, drank delicious things (including a bloody mary with a raw oyster on top), and were good luck charms for the Nats, who won for the first time in a little while. Yay us! It was overcast, too, which was nice.

We were all pretty exhausted after that.

Monday was our last full day, boo! We took the boys to see the new Thor movie, which was fun. And then we picked up some dinner, and saw a rainbow, and packed up our stuff, and watched the Home Run Derby.

Tuesday morning we went home. Everyone (except us, apparently) is getting covid and it sucks. But it was nice to see Ziggy again and to sleep in my own bed. The end.

The Great Road Trip of 2019: Part 2 (off the road)

So I’ve already blogged about the two days we spent in NYC as well as the fun we had getting to Virginia. But most of our trip was actually IN Virginia and we did a lot there, so I need to post about that now!

So uh let’s see. We arrived in Virginia Thursday night and were all pretty exhausted. Dinner. Wine. Sleep.

Friday we walked to Chipotle for lunch. Then we got ready to go our first professional soccer game. The boys were very excited. We went to Audi Field to watch DC United play New England something. I can’t remember. The boys got free scarves! The sunset from the stadium was gorgeous. Anyway, ultimately the game ended in 2-2 but we didn’t mind because it was exciting.

Outside the stadium
In front of the field – check out Miles’s new “smile”.
Beautiful sunset view. Look, the Washington Monument!
Linus
Miles
Ollo

Saturday, the boys and I drove to my sister’s in Clifton. It’s about half an hour from Kiki’s, and it’s a pretty drive if you take the shorter (I think) route but it’s also windy and hilly so I prefer to take the boring highway route. I know, it’s bad but what can I say?

I’m going to put the rest of this behind this link. There’s a lot.

The great road trip of 2019, part 1

I already blogged our road-trip-within-a-road-trip, and now it’s time to post about the rest of it. I’d better start with Part 1: Getting to Virginia.

Kristina flew down Sunday night, and we spent Monday getting ready for the trip. Packing, laundry, making sure we had a plan for our roadside attractions. Oh, and eating delicious meals at Picnic Provisions & Whiskey and Molly’s Rise and Shine. Highly recommend both. Also visiting Terry and taking the boys to Dollar Tree to pick out road trip snacks (I gave them each a $5 budget.)

Monday morning, we hit the road with my new cargo bag on the roof. First stop, the giant catfish in Slidell! (Huge thanks to the website Roadside America for all of our stop ideas.)

A couple saw us pulling off to take a picture with the fish, and thought it was hilarious, so pulled over as well and offered to take a picture for us. Thanks anonymous Slidell couple!

Lots more road trip adventures inside!

A trip to King’s Dominion (367 days ago)

The subject of King’s Dominion theme park came up this morning in conversation at work and so, as I do, I went to my blog to illustrate the conversation with photos, and *gasp* I realized I hadn’t really blogged about our trip that day! And it was a really fun day! I posted a bunch of pictures on social media, but that’s not good enough. So I hope you don’t mind a little trip down memory lane. Kristina and the boys might have to fill in some gaps for me later, though.

(I know it was 1 year and 2 days ago, thanks to FB reminding me Saturday.)

So let’s see…we were visiting Kiki at that point in our trip to Virginia, so we left Woodbridge and headed to wherever King’s Dominion is. I remember we stopped at a rest area and saw something on the news. Oh yeah, the flooding in New Orleans. 😦 Anyway, we got there and it was pretty empty, which was awesome! I think it was some day in the middle of the week, I guess that’s why.

I was excited to see that King’s Dominion was basically Peanut-themed! SO MANY LINUS PICTURES!

Anyway, we rode lots of roller coasters…that’s a lie. Kiki and the boys got me on ONE roller coaster and after that evil ride, I was like NO THANKS and stuck to things like the swings that go in slow circles and kid rides instead. Much better.

Before the evil roller coaster of doom
Miles was proud of the bloody lip he got on it!
Just Kiki and Linus on that one
More my speed.

Later, we headed to the water park area, where Linus impressed the hell out of me by going on this terrifying water slide where you stand on a platform and the floor drops out from under you and you fall down this tube and well no thanks, but I can’t believe one of MY children did that. (Also Kiki did, but she is super brave and makes me sit in the back car of roller coasters so I’m not surprised.)

Also there was a water slide where we all sat in a huge round tube together and that was really fun but sadly, no pics from the water park because my phone was in the locker and I didn’t bring my waterproof camera. DANGIT.

Anyway, we rode more rides after, and there was a cute part later where the kids got to drive around a tiny little town with roads and traffic lights and stuff. And then they got their caricatures, and then Miles kept falling down, and was getting really pissed, so we decided it was probably time to go, so we did. But it was a great day! Yay! And I’m glad it’s now been recorded on my blog.

Decorating the stairwell

When we were in Virginia, we spent a very very fun day at the King’s Dominion theme park. I told the boys they could get one souvenir each, and after passing a caricature artist, Oliver declared that’s what he wanted. So at the end of the day, just before we left, we stopped and Oliver sat for his portrait.

Well. After that, I couldn’t resist having the other two get their portraits as well. (And yeah, this meant I had to buy second souvenirs for all three.)

I finally got around to buying frames for the pictures and hanging them…(well, I say finally but let’s face it, it took me less than six months so it’s really quite fast for me.)

Hard to get pics in the stairwell, but here they are! Love them so much.

 

 

6 years ago and tonight

The boys and I are visiting Kristina and Mike, and I was reminiscing about the first time we all visited when I realized it was six years ago tonight that Mike made the boys giggle like crazy by laying on the floor in the kitchen, pretending to be hurt.

Because we’re all six years older, I didn’t make Mike recreate one of those pics, but instead one where everyone is standing up.

August 7, 2011:

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August 7, 2017:

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Look how short they were 6 years ago! So teeny!

9 years, 8 months

This month, co-starring Andrew, who has lost his first two teeth since we got here and is totally adorable. Emily gets home from camp tonight, otherwise she’d be in the picture as well.

The 8th month photos seem to be on trips a lot. Makes sense since that’s when we usually travel.

Washington DC trip

The boys and I got back Monday evening from our trip to Virginia and Washington DC. It would be a really long post if I recapped in detail (and I know no one wants to sit through all that), so I’ll just hit the highlights.

Plane ride went fine. iPads FTW.

We met Emily at the bus stop.

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Much soccer was played in the backyard.

I got some Andrew snuggles.

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We went to the Natural History museum one day.

Emily had her First Communion.

There was a crawfish boil after.

The next day, we went back into DC to go to the Air and Space Museum.

After, the boys and I spent some time with Kiki and Mike and some other friends I don’t get to see very often. This is how their kids reacted to the boys:

Not really. I was just taking pictures of them because they’re so cute and their backyard is awesome.

The next day, before heading back home, we took the boys to the Lego store and visited Mike at work.

The end!

Virginia recap: Friday

So Friday. We slept in until about 8, and Kristina made the tiny pumpkin pies for the cupcakes. Our plan was to head into the city to go to the zoo, but we were in no rush.

After a torturous journey on the Metro, we made it to the zoo! And we were smart to borrow strollers from my friend Anne so the kids wouldn’t get too worn out. My friend Chris met us there (he lives and works in DC) and hung out for the afternoon.

We saw elephants and foxes and zebras, oh my!

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But Linus’s favorite was all the giant boulders. He liked to try to pick them up.

After the zoo, we headed over to the Mall (the one without the shops) to ride on the carousel. Yay! Linus was thrilled, especially after the previous weekend‘s heartbreak. After a whirl on that (I was riding, so no pics), we headed over to the Natural History Museum so they could see more rocks. (Too dark in there to get decent pics.)

Then we headed back to meet up with our friend Anne, and had dinner with her and her son, Whitman. We went to a Chinese restaurant where Emily and Linus declined to eat dinner, and they had minor melt downs. They were tired. Back at my sister’s, the adults stayed up way too late finishing the cupcakes and drinking wine. Ahh, good times. 🙂

On Saturday, I had plans to meet up with some other moms of multiples for brunch. Even though I was somewhat hungover, we all had a great time. There was good food and lots of cute kids.

After that, I was dying to go to Trader Joe’s, so we took a quick trip through, even though I didn’t get to really buy anything. So sad.

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We headed over to Kiki’s house later that day, and due to my “wine headache” (ahem) I kind of forgot some important things (i.e., my suitcase) at my sister’s house. Fortunately, Kiki holds her wine better than I do, and she drove me back to my sister’s house, half an hour away, to get it. The rest of the evening involved attempting (and failing) to get Linus to fall asleep.

I’d noticed a rash on his neck that morning, but it didn’t seem to be bothering him much. But later on, I noticed it was on his arms and torso as well. He was extremely uncomfortable later, and he just couldn’t sleep. (Turns out it was poison ivy.) He finally fell asleep with me, but that meant I got very little quality sleep. Ah well, who needs it?

Virginia recap: Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday was the first day of our trip to Virginia. It started off by bringing Miles and Oliver to Granny & Grandpa’s house. My friend Stephanie was kind enough to drive us to the airport. Linus showed his gratitude by screaming the entire way. He calmed down once we got through security (how DARE they make him take his shoes off and put his magnadoodle in the bin!) and we got some pizza to eat.

The flight itself was generally uneventful, thank goodness. But we had to exit the plane via a very steep set of steps, and because I was also carrying a toddler, I was too preoccupied trying not to plummet to the ground to remember to pick up our gate-checked bags. Whoops. So we had a bit of a wait at baggage claim.

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Then we went to pick up Emily from daycare. Linus and Emily haven’t really seen each other for a long time (has it been over a year? I can’t remember!) and in any case, they’re only now really old enough to play together. It was really cute to see them play.

Emily has a very, very, very pink room. And she is somewhat dramatic. Ahem.

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My sister and brother-in-law left early the next morning. Kristina came over to stay with us and help with the kids, thank god. We spent Thursday morning at Cox Farms. There were tons of slides and we went on a hayride and ate our weight in kettle corn. Fun!

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Linus got a bit turned around on this one.

(Then I put my camera down and retrieved my crying child. He wasn’t hurt, and was soon going down slides again by himself.)

On the hayride with Kiki:

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Picking out pumpkins:

Later that day, after naptime and a meal, we went to TOY STORY ON ICE! Gaaah! It was pretty exciting. For Linus, I mean. Not me. No, not me. Nooo. I’m a grown woman, after all. Geesh.

Coming up next…Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday! Yes indeedy!