A new distraction

My first post from the blogger app! I'm not sure if it's a good thing that I know how to do this now or not :)
Note: This didn't quite work as I'd hoped. The blogger app didn't want to publish this post with the photo attached, so I ended up doing a fun technology work around: took the photo on my phone, emailed it to myself, downloaded it into Picasa and then easily blogged it here. Not too bad....but still required pulling out my laptop. Anyway...

Update 2: the original way I tried to post the photo didn't work either, so I had to relink it into the post. Should work now! Sorry about that.

It happens periodically that I slack off on posting here. The reason is always different - sometimes work, kids, lack of desire, etc. This time it's my other hobby (not photography): cross stitching! I started a new pattern for Natalie's room and I'm really enjoying it. here's the first 3 nights of work on my new one- can you figure out what it is?!

 I'm also about to order some new fabric so that I can work on a large one for someone in my family...the goal was to finish that one by October, but I highly doubt that will happen now. However, both of these should be great projects to work on!

Rockstar performance photos

Three posts ago I said that the next post would be of Natalie's rockstar performance, and that would get us caught up through end of June. Evan and I both posted something else in the meantime, so I'm only a liar by two posts, right? Anyway, this one will get me fully caught up through end of June...and then I get to tackle the 600+ photos from the beach, trying to pick out the few of my favorites to highlight here!

Before that, let's detail Natalie's rockstar performance. I've previously posted videos of the performance, and the photos from rockstar camp taken by Ms. Helen, so the last thing to show you are the photos I took during the performance (while Evan did the video recordings).

Our rockstar!

Preparing for the performance (with plastic mics in hand!)

During the performance

Natalie and Ruth during the "free dance" portion (highlighted in the "giggling" video on the earlier post)

These two are my favorite photos. I love how happy both girls look, and the way they're looking right at each other. Best friends!

Weekend with our friends

This past weekend was really great - we were able to spend just about the whole thing with our friends, which happens periodically, but not often at our house! Normally it's for an event like Foxfield, but this time we were at our home and a bunch of friends came to visit us. Despite the weather interfering with our plans, we had a fantastic time!

The original plan was for my friends Kelly and Beth to come Saturday morning with their families so we could all go swimming together. However, as anyone who lives near us knows, this past weekend turned into 70 and raining - not very good for swimming! So instead we hung out at our house for an extended 3 hour play date - the kids had fun, the adults had fun catching up, so all in all the morning wasn't lost. The most fun was had with our car race track - all of the kids loved watching the cars race around. Unfortunately we only had 3 working cars, so it turned into a good lesson on sharing! I didn't really get a lot of photos of the playdate, but I did grab this one of Henry. This may be my new favorite photo!

After a late lunch Kelly and her crew headed out, and during naptime Beth, Jason and myself ran over to the outlet mall for a bit. I'm always up for a trip there, and with the rain it wasn't too busy despite being the weekend. The best part for me (apart from being with friends) was that with two coupons I had, I ended up only spending $22 over 3 different stores. I love a good bargain!

Then it was time for game night! 5 more of our friends came over (9 of us total) and we played a number of different games (two card games and a nice 3 man/team game of Trivial Pursuit). Everyone was here til about midnight - not super late, but since we started around 7:30 that's a pretty decent time for games! We had a blast - it's always fun when we all get together. Plus, my friend Emily brought chocolate mint wine with her (basically similar to Bailey's, my favorite alcohol), along with alcoholic whip cream, which when put together was absolutely amazing. Mmmm.

Beth and her family spent the night and hung out a bit on Sunday (before heading to Wegmans, where they'd never really shopped before - Beth is now a convert to the most amazing grocery store ever!). Evan went to church, which gave me the opportunity to get the house cleaned up. I'm lucky that the kids think cleaning is fun (another way that I am 100% sure they are our children!), so I gave them a spray bottle and paper towels while I got the floors and bathrooms cleaned.

Sunday afternoon I met up with my same friend Emily mentioned above at Spa World. It's a Korean bath house about 30 min from Leesburg (pretty much dead between where the two of us live) - this place is amazing. We both had Groupons to use for admission that were about to expire, so despite it being super crowded we both really enjoyed ourselves. There's a bade pool for relaxing/bathing (split by gender, as all who enter are naked), then a public area with refreshments, different saunas, and a relaxation area for reading, etc. You can also schedule different massages, and even sleep there - admission is for 24 hours. We were there about 3 hours and I definitely felt relaxed when I left! Can't wait to go back again. I think that I would call this weekend a success!

Meeting Another Dad

So a couple weeks ago, I met another dad. He was like me, working for his kids and family.

Well, maybe not exactly like me.

I was even able to watch him work a rope line, and see the energy he gets from it.

It was an awesome event. If you want to know how it happened, here's how:

A couple weeks ago, I got a phone call from a member of the political staff at the Virginia Obama campaign headquarters. They offered me a "VIP Ticket" to the President's rally in Centreville. I was excited, but anxious as I am pretty sure I didn't do anything to deserve such an honor. But the Campaign was clear this was my ticket and non-transferable.

So I went, along with about twenty-five other lucky Loudoun Dems who had tickets of various kinds to the Rally. It wasn't until I got there and discovered that I didn't have a ticket, but was rather on a list with people like Congressman Gerry Connolly and State Senator Mark Herring that I truly realized I was going to get the opportunity to meet and take a photograph with the President.

We were escorted to a back door of the school, and waited in the heat and sun until the Secret Service let us in. We were led to an indoor volleyball court where we awaited the President. There I was able to meet and talk to a number of amazing Virginia Democrats. And finally the President walked in the room. The group of us respected and respectable (well, everyone other than me :) ) went wild for Barack Obama. The room was deafening.

We were arranged in a line for our five or ten seconds with the President, which would include a photo taken by the official photographer. A photo I received in my email today.

I was able to talk to him for about ten seconds while the picture was being taken. I said to him in my moment, "Mr. President, it would be great if your campaign could have daycare at events like this." And he replied, "Evan, that's a good idea...a good idea." And I was whisked away into the rally.

There he gave his standard stump speech, and what amazed me was how he seemed to draw energy from the crowd. He got stronger as the speech went on, he seemed to rally to the rally itself.

I am proud to be an American, and to have the opportunity to fight for that man to be re-elected as our President.

Dance camp photos

Five weeks ago Natalie and her friend Ruth attended a week long dance camp at Tiny Toes. The girls had the BEST time! The theme for the week was "Rockstar" which resulted in the absolutely adorable videos that I posted previously, on the last day of dance camp. Miss Helen took photos throughout the week and gave each of us a CD containing those photos, so I can show here some of the fun that they had during camp when we weren't there.

First day of dance camp!

 Ruth and Natalie playing dress up

 Princess Natalie!

 Storytime

Practicing their routine 

 In "costume," just before the performance on Friday.

 As I linked above, I previously posted videos from their performance. Next post will have photos I took during the performance...and then I think I've finally caught up to July! Lots to report from this month...hopefully I can keep up with it all!

Budding Photographers

Before getting my "good" SLR camera for Christmas, I was always very hesitant to let the kids play with my point-and-shoot, as it was the only camera we really had and I certainly didn't want anything to happen to it. However, now that I have the better camera I'm much more willing to let them play around a little bit. A couple of weeks ago the kids both took some photos with it, and since they're not half bad I wanted to share them here!

These first three were taken by Natalie of Henry, Evan and myself.

Henry then took this pretty great one of his big sister.

I love that they enjoy taking photos! It'll be fun to really teach them the bit I know about composition, etc, as they get older. And with the price of digital cameras having come down so much over the years, it will be easy to get them their own cameras when the time comes as well. 

At the park with Ruth

As I mentioned in my previous post, about a month ago (on Father's Day weekend), we kept Natalie's friend Ruth for the day. Her parents had tickets to a moto-cross race/event which isn't really kid friendly, and we were happy to help out. Evan had a political event in the morning, so I packed up all three kids for a trip to the library and then the playground at Ida Lee.

Natalie & Ruth

Since the girls were playing so nicely together, and Henry needs a bit more supervision, I ended up taking lots of photos of him. Plus, he was freaking adorable that day so I couldn't really help myself.

Here is Henry showing off how strong he is!

I hate being sick

I had every intention of spending this week getting all kinds of blog posts written and up here last week, to at least get updated through the end of June so then I could concentrate on sorting through the 500+ photos I ended up with after our beach week. I figured I'd have plenty of time to do this, as we didn't have the kids Monday-Thursday of this week (they stayed with my parents). So even though I had to work, plenty of free time, right? Yes, there was...but turns out that when the kids aren't around, the last thing I want to do is hop on a computer at night. Evan and I had two wonderful date nights out, and then just relaxed after that. It was so wonderful to not be woken at 6:30am by Natalie coming in our room, or at 5am by Henry randomly calling for us by his crib. It was lovely to get to stay out at dinner as long as we wanted to and not worry about getting home to relieve the babysitter. Or not have to worry about staying late at work and figure out who was going to pick up the kids. Don't get me wrong, I missed them like crazy. But those couple of days were pretty darn nice...and a good way to relax back into life after our 10 day vacation.

However, we only got to enjoy the first two nights - little hang up on Wednesday morning when I woke up in pretty awful pain. I thought at first it was gas (I'm prone to pretty bad gas pains), as that's where the pain seemed to be localized. I went to work, where it continued to get worse throughout the morning. It ended up feeling like someone had punched me in the uterus, for lack of a better description. I started to get worried that maybe something had happened to my IUD, as that was the only thing I could think of that might be going on in that area. I called my midwives, who had inserted it, and based on my symptoms they wanted me to get an ultrasound. I did that on Wednesday afternoon (can I just say that an internal ultrasound when already in pain is about the worst thing I've ever been through!!), and everything looked fine. No obvious cause for the pain + more pain = extreme frustration. To the point of crying, actually. Midwives then asked me to come in on Thursday morning to do an exam. Great, more poking. When I got there I of course had to pee in a cup, and based on the quick dip they did they were pretty sure that I had a "rampant" bladder infection. She said I didn't need an exam if I didn't want one (oh thank goodness), gave me antibiotics and off I went. They sent out for a urine culture so I should know for sure what's going on tomorrow.

We got the kids back on Thursday afternoon - I wish I'd felt better when we saw my sister in picking them up, or had been able to enjoy their homecoming more! Unfortunately I was irritable and still in pain, and Evan had to go to a meeting that evening so I had the kids to myself for bedtime. Sad to say, it was not a great night. Henry was totally fine, but Natalie was tired and cranky and I was in no mood to deal with her. I may have texted my friends and told them my daughter was being a b----, and I was too. So sue me. Like I said, grumpy and in pain.

After two doses of the antibiotic I felt much better on Friday. Yay! That night was a lot better, had fun with the kids, went and walked around downtown Leesburg with my friend Deb to take some photos - overall feeling a lot better. Then Saturday morning...wham. Evan let me sleep in some, and when I finally got up around 10am I was feverish and dizzy. I used to get dizzy a lot when I was sick when younger, but that hasn't happened in a while. I hate it. So I spent the morning on the couch. Evan had tickets to an event with President Obama on Saturday afternoon (he actually got to meet him, shake his hand, and talk to him briefly!), and I was worried about my ability to take care of the kids on my own. A few weeks ago we had watched Natalie's friend Ruth for the day, and her parents told us they owed us, so we thought that might be a good time to ask for them to return the favor. They were happy to help and took both kids from about 11am-6:30pm. It was wonderful - I was able to lay on the couch and pretty much just zone all day. I don't really remember much of yesterday - I read, watch a movie (no idea which one now - something on HBO), and dozed on & off. 

Today is better - just one dizzy episode today and I actually left the house for a quick trip to the store. Hopefully after getting another night's sleep tonight I'll be feeling back to my old self...just in time to go to work tomorrow!

Trip to Nelson County

A month ago I took Natalie with me on an overnight to Nelson County, VA. It's where I grew up - since my parents moved away 10 years ago I don't go back very often, and I do miss it periodically. It was such a wonderful place to grow up, and I have so many good memories there. The reason for our trip was to see an old friend of mine, Matthew, perform with his dance troupe at my old elementary school (which is now a community center). I hadn't seen him in a few years, and hadn't seen him dance since I was at UVA, so I decided it was worth it to take the trip down. I thought Natalie would really enjoy seeing the dancing, and a girls night away sounded nice to me.

We left Friday afternoon, but due to traffic heading south on Rte 29, were unable to get to my friend Maya's house (where we were staying) before the show, so we just went straight over. I actually ran into another old friend from high school, Cynthia, so it was also nice to catch up with her. We barely got in (it was basically sold out, but the lady who runs the theater was nice enough to get us in), and then we settled in for the show.

It was fantastic! I have a bunch of photos, and will be sharing more on the photography blog, but wanted to put a couple of my favorites here.
The dance troupe does a mix of Irish dance, flat-footing, tap, clogging, and some modern twists as well. They were great and so much fun to watch.

My friend Matthew is third from the right in the photo to the left.

Left is a solo shot of Matthew - I was able to capture him as he was doing a little back-and-forth with the live musicians. They were also fantastic! I have some close-ups and group shots - below I posted one of the group shots. The flutist third from the left is Matthew brother Aram - their father makes wooden flutes and Aram is a fantastic player (he also plays fiddle). The music was definitely one of the best parts!

We were able to speak to Matthew briefly after the show - he invited us to come back the next afternoon while they had some workshops going on so that he and I could catch up a bit more. We drove in the darkness to Maya's house - she lives a couple of miles down a gravel road (very much what I was used to growing up!), which was very different for Natalie. She mentioned at one point how quiet it was everywhere, and I stopped in the road and turned off my headlights so she could see how pitch black it was outside. I liked showing her the difference between Nelson and Leesburg!

The next morning we went over to where Maya keeps a few of her horses (she runs Hope's Legacy Equine Rescue - a very worthwhile cause!) so that Natalie could see the horses.

This one (I unfortunately don't remember her name!) was very friendly - she pushed Natalie with her head (as horses like to do), but since Natalie weighs about 1/4 (or less) of what your average adult weighs, she pushed Natalie pretty far! So Natalie was a little hesitant, but still thought the horses were great.

Natalie and I then headed into Nellysford, VA to get some lunch. While driving there we passed the Nelson County Farmer's Market so stopped in there for a bit to see the local vendors. We then went to Wild Wolf Brewery for lunch - it's so strange to me that Nelson now has multiple breweries and cideries! I love how much Nelson is "growing up". I took this photo with my phone outside of the brewery.

We then headed over to my old elementary school to meet up with Matthew. He was busy on and off with the dance workshops, but his wife (third from the left in the group shot above) was also there with their daughter Lydia, who we discovered is only about 2 weeks younger than Natalie. The girls got along really well and played in what used to be the auditorium (which was a bit strange for me!), enjoying playing with ponies, running around, and doing some yoga while Emily and I talked.

Since the girls got along so well, and I had so much fun catching up with Matthew (and getting to know Emily), we're really going to try to get together this summer, as they live about an hour away from us in Maryland. I hope that our schedules allow for that to happen!

We made two final stops on our way back home: the first was at Small's Grocery, which was a little grocery store just up the road from the house I grew up in. It's actually called Patrick Brothers now, and when I walked in I was blown away! The store used to be this old, cramped, dark little convenience store, and now is fully modern and new inside. It was so strange - same outside, brand new inside! Really neat to see.

And last we took a quick stop to see the house I grew up in. You can just see it at the top of the long driveway, partially hidden behind the trees! Those trees were always there, but of course they've grown a lot taller in the past 10 years. Again, so many memories...but I always like when the memories are good ones.

Vacation's almost over

Wow it's been a while! I know that I said in my last post that I was going on vacation, and therefore likely wouldn't be posting for a bit, but I thought while on vacation I'd get at least ONE post up here! Guess I was having too much fun to hop onto the old computer (which honestly I was). I've got just over 500 photos from our week away (which technically doesn't end until tomorrow, as we're still at my parents' house tonight)...it's going to be nearly impossible to post all of the amazing photos up here that I took, so I'm going to have to do some serious picking and choosing of my favorites.

Quick overview of vacation: we arrived at my parents' house on Friday June 29, where we spent the night and on Saturday June 30 headed over to our rental house

It was in Southern Shores, Outer Banks, NC. 7 bedrooms, one giant living/dining room on the top floor, 8.5 bathrooms, pool and hot tub in the back, and right across the street from the beach. We couldn't have asked for a nicer place with a better location! We needed the space to house us all: 10 adults and 7 kids for the week (kids ranging from 5.5 months to 6.5 years old).

We had the best week. 4 of the 5 couples routinely stay together for various events, at least once a year, so we knew we'd get along very well, and the 5th couple was a great addition. This was definitely different from other beach weeks and group vacations that we've done - less drinking and going out (due to the kids), but just as much fun: lots of swimming (pool and ocean), hanging out, playing cards, talking...just a nice relaxing week. Our rental ended this past Saturday; at that point everyone else headed out while we went to my parents' again, as we didn't want to fight get-away traffic over the weekend. Evan and I head home tomorrow (Monday), and my parents then are keeping our kids through Thursday when we'll meet them to get them back. 3 nights at home with just Evan, myself, and Calla - it'll be like 5 years ago before kids! We'll miss them like crazy but they'll have a blast with Grandma & Pop-Pop.

So, in addition to the other back-log of items I am planning to post from last month, I now have beach week photos to get up here too. I'm hoping to get some good blogging done this week, but between having to play catch-up at work (gone for 7 work days - yikes!), relaxing at home, enjoying time with Evan, finishing the really good book I'm reading (The Passage - second time through and it's better than the first time!), and cross stitching (which I only did once this entire trip!), who knows whether I'll be up to doing a post here more than once. On that note, I wrap this up and pick up that good book I just mentioned. Good night!