Tuesday, October 26, 2010

City Sidewalks, Busy Sidewalks

We posted about Nora's first steps a while ago, but in the last month or so she has really taken off. An update seemed in order so everyone can see how fast our little baby is growing up.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

White House and Pumpkins

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We knew this was going to be a busy weekend. Saturday was booked up with a birthday party for Owen's friend Daryl, and volunteering for the latest Peabody fundraiser, the Capitol Hill Renovator's Home Tour, and Sunday we had plans for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch at Butler's Orchard, and dinner at Mom Mom's house. Then we found out that White House Fall Gardens and Grounds tour was open for Executive Office of the President staff, but it looked like we would be too booked up to make it until Peabody called to move my time volunteering for the fundraiser from Saturday morning to the afternoon. With our morning cleared up, we decided to visit the White House. The kids had fun touring the grounds, although there were a few times they were ready to run off somewhere the Secret Service agents probably didn't want them exploring. Owen particularly liked seeing the White House Kitchen Garden with its bee hive that has produced 170 pounds of honey this year, and Nora was just excited to walk wherever we would let her go.

Sunday morning we drove up to Butler's orchard, where we've picked pumpkins the last few years, with the Brown's and the Stiver's. This year we decided to partake in the Orchard's Fall Festival. The kids had a great time on the giant hillside slides, playing in the hay barn, exploring the corn maze, and taking the hayride to the pumpkin patch. And of course all the boys thought the giant pumpkin cannon was really cool.

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Monday, October 11, 2010

Mountains and Caves

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Columbus day weekend greeted us with spectacular weather, sunny skies and late summer temperatures with just a hint of fall as the leaves started to take on their autumn colors. We decided to take advantage of the long weekend with a Sunday family outing to the Shenandoahs. I've been reading the Hobbit to Owen, and he wanted to see the Misty Mountains, and the cave where Gollum lived, so a trip to Skyline Drive and the Luray Caverns seemed to be perfect. The whole family had a great time enjoying the views in the mountains, and Owen had a particularly good time not eating his picnic lunch and convincing a little girl that she should play football with him. Then Mommy was quite the trooper descending into the cave with us to see some beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, and an underground lake that might just be where Gollum lived...

(click here for all the pictures)

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