KS visit

Our dear friends the Eriksens moved from WA to Kansas last spring, and Goose and I flew out for a long weekend visit with them. The flights - Richmond to Tulsa, OK through a Charlotte NC connection - went well, and Goose was a great traveller. (HF and the other 3 praycreekcrew kids held down the farm at home.)

We had last seen the Eriksens ages before in June 2011, camping in Oregon. At that time Mouse was 8 weeks old and their youngest, Thomas, hadn't yet been born (he's 3 now). We had a lovely time visiting them - playing Sleeping Queens and the piano in their house, visiting local attractions like Laura Ingalls Wilder's real-life "little house" and the zoo, watching their kid's basketball game, etc. Jo Ella and I even got a great dinner out in nearby Bartlesville, OK while Jeff watched the kids. Goose adores her godparents as much as we do (no surprise there).

Blue Ridge Mountains

Yesterday we took an outing to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah State Park. About a two-hour drive, and completely worth it in every way. Beautiful shady day; nice colors almost reminiscent of New England; John Denver singing about this very mountain range as we wound our way through the park roads; solid effort put forth by our troupe of hikers. What could be better?

We picked a doable 1.6-mile loop with a good rocky outcrop at the top - achievable success and enjoyment for all. Our trail crossed the Appalachian Trail and we chatted briefly with some through-hikers, which made it all the cooler. Milkshakes from Chick-Fil-A on the way home rounded out the win! (Great call, HF)

Summer, belatedly

Here's a post I prepped on July 27 and see now that I never posted. Better late than never, I guess! Pictoral journey of our July days (largely in VA/DC but a few in CT and MA during our 48-hr turnaround trip to pick up our new dog Jack), many with our Project 143 host son who was with us till Aug 3.

Museum of Natural History in DC

Twins James & Kathryn above, Davis & Winslow below

Richmond zoo with VA friends and their Latvian host son

New dog Jack!

Roo with school bestie Hope on Hope's birthday

Mouse with pal Kate in the baby pool

Roo on the blocks at one of many swim meets

DC outing day

Yesterday we took a pass on swim team practice and the kids and I met up with some old friends from NH days for a Washington DC outing day. They live in Frederick, MD and have been in the area for quite some time; they are very familiar with the ins and out of DC (unless us). Cari and her three kids - boys ages 8 and 7 and girl age 5 1/2 - took us through the Museum of Natural History and the bottom section - lit-up moving walkways! - of the gorgeous National Art Museum. (We'll have to go back there for real sometime; what a place! Artist Roo in particular is eager.) Added bonus: there were some phone booths, now empty of phones, for the kids to pile into and play around in. Funny archaic items… Good fun on a HOT, hot day. We rounded it out with the fountain and some ice cream, and everyone was happy!

Events and Easter

Monkey is on a soccer team this spring, the "Giants." So far so good:

The two oldest rocked their science fair presentations on Thursday; tons of hard work put in on the experiments, the boards, and the oral reports. The judges were impressed! So proud.

We went to DC yesterday, the crew and I. No trouble getting in and we parked right on the mall in a free, 3-hr space (then instantly found another, 3 spaces down, when the first 3-hour slot was up). Amazing. The mall merry-go-round was a big hit:

We had some time to wait to meet up with our friends the Schumans, and we spent a lot of it running up and down the steps of the National Gallery of Art, Rocky style, and timing ourselves:

Great time on the mall with the Schumans and their crew, including picnic, soccer and red-light/green-light, Air & Space Museum, and ice cream.

The dads were off on a surprise 40th birthday hiking venture with a bunch of other men in the Shenandoah Valley (not pictured here. But good times!)

Easter today was fun! The Johnsons came up from Richmond to share Easter dinner with us, and play, and do a farm egg hunt. Gorgeous day! Gorgeous kids--

We are blessed! And He is risen!

Firehouse, Alabama and infants, science fair, peacocks

Goose had a field trip to the fire station! Siblings came too (her best friend Abby has twin brothers)

Roo and I went down to AL for four days to help Aunt Katie & co with adorable new baby Charlotte while Uncle Mac was out of town. So fun! And great bonding time for Roo and me to be off together on a venture like this. Rest of the family went to CT to hang with Nona, Grandpa, and the crew up there.

My dear friend Christie from CA moved to AL (her home state) with her family of 7 two months ago to become full-time farmers. I took Roo and her two oldest cousins to visit them at their new site for the day. So very fun and refreshing to be with them.

April is science fair month for the two big kids. Monkey is doing "which kind of wood burns the fastest?" and Roo is doing "what liquid cleans pennies the best?" Here we see the wood-burning-experiment (round 3):

Our neighbors have a peacock, and he's been frequenting our yard. Here he is on our (theoretically) screened-in-porched off our bedroom. Hilarious:

In mom news… I ran a 15K race this weekend! My farthest distance in 10 years. Made good time (for me) too; I was very pleased. 

Normans

My oldest friend is Kari Norman, with whom I went to preschool in Bronxville NY in 1981. She is also one of my dearest friends. In addition to preschool, we also went to summer camp together for years in NH, and then Williams College together. We love her husband Matt as well and have had so many adventures together over the years - canoeing on the Saco River, playing on hay bales in MN, setting them off on a cross-Canada biking adventure from Portland MN. They are family. Their twin 6-year-old boys, Luke and Andy, plus our four kids equals a motley but fabulous crew of six, which blessed our home and company for the past three days when they visited.... As seen in the photo nearby.

We had some significant adventures this time too. Small ones, like the monkey launching a 'missile' of a stuffed animal that a cup of water next to Uncle Matt's cell phone, dousing it. HF and Kari put it in a cup of rice, which we read somewhere on the "interwebs" as the optimal solution, and it dried out OK. 

HF and Kari drying Matt's phone

...And bigger adventures too, like the Normans realizing their return flight from DC to MN had accidentally been scheduled for one week later than they intended to fly... Making it necessary for them to (after exhausting all possible flight exchange/re-booking options) rent a car and drive the 1200 miles back to Minneapolis yesterday -- and today, actually. Since I think at this moment, they are not yet quite home. We were amazed and humbled by the humor and grace with which they handled this difficult and frustrating wrench in their plans, and the fact that they did not let it ruin the remainder of their trip. They just embraced it as an adventure and went with it, which was truly inspiring.

We went to Colonial Williasmburg the first day they were here, a destination we had been eager to check out. We found it overpriced, and it wasn't the optimal place for a group of young children; just not much for them to do or play with. Sturbridge Village (where, incidentally, the Normans got married) is a better site on both counts.

Nevertheless, we had a fun time and enjoyed ourselves.

Mixed in there we had fires, s'mores, pizza swimming, drawing, a trip to George Washington's birthplace, legos, and endless fun. Thankful for these friends and deep, enriching, humor-filled, lifelong relationships...

Monkey with Uncle Matt, as Luke looks on

Happy trails, Normans! We love you!

Memorial Day fun and progress

All kinds of headway and fun happening in these parts lately! We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend in which we picked strawberries at a nearby berry farm and made shortcake for dessert; HF repainted his newly-purchased commuter motorcycle (bought from his fellow gear-head Joe last week) and completed the wiring in the living room (hooray!); the girls and I attended a last-minute family gathering in MD to celebrate cousin Julie's recent marriage; and we hosted our old friends the Johnson for a cook-out-and-play day on Monday. Our combined seven children had a great time playing together; nerf guns were a particular hit for the boys. The cook-out required a grill, which gave us the push we needed to actually purchase one over the weekend - so pleased to have that done. The weather was cool and sunny, and we had a couple of backyard fires too - added bonus.

Newlywed cousin Julie, center, surrounded by parents and aunts

Cousins Holly, Carrie, and Helen

And in other big news - the chickens have a new home! HF completed an outdoor mobile chicken coop which now resides outside: