More from Natalie's swim lessons

I posted about 6 weeks ago regarding Natalie & Henry's swim lessons in September. Henry's ended the following week (it was only a 4 week class), but Natalie's continued through October, and actually ends for the session tomorrow. Ooh, that reminds me - it's time to sign them up for the next session! Anyhoo...

Two weekends ago I took Natalie to her lesson along with my mother-in-law; since Evan's brother and his wife were still visiting, they all hung out at the house until we got back - no real need to have 8 people troop over just for a swim lesson! I did grab a few pics, as this time Natalie was in the big pool.

I love getting a candid shot that the subject doesn't even realize is being taken!

 But the posed ones are pretty darn cute, too.

 I didn't take too many of her in the pool this time, but I like how intent she seems

And this type of post wouldn't be complete without a video of her progress. I'm hoping in the next session they are swimming more without the belt, but I think it is working!

Trip to UVA

This week I was fortunate enough to get to spend almost three whole days in Charlottesville for work - I gave a talk at UVA on Tuesday, had a couple of sales visits on Wednesday, and conducted a training session on Thursday. I also went for two 3 mile runs (first one through Grounds, second to the Downtown Mall and back up Preston Ave), ate at 3 restaurants that I've always wanted to try, and saw two old friends. The weather was beautiful (cool and partly sunny), and the town was lovely in the fall.

I was fortunate to be able to spend more time than normal (for a trip to C'ville) at the Downtown Mall. It's a place that always feels like home, no matter how long I am away. I spent so much time there through my senior year of high school, and throughout college - despite the time away, it feels like I never left! I was there for dinner each night, so I grabbed a night photo of the hanging lanterns.

 On Wednesday night, I met up with my friend Jay (we've known each other since middle school) and his wife and their son for dinner at Zo-ca-lo. The food was fantastic, the drink was amazing (I would have had one of almost everything on the list), and the company was great. All I could ask for!

Fun on my birthday!

And I've caught up to October, finally! What happens at the beginning of October? My birthday, of course! This year my birthday was a bit different - we spent it traveling up to Vermont for Evan's brother's wedding. We needed to arrive in Vermont on my birthday (October 3), and we not only wanted to get there early afternoon, but I also did not want to spend my whole birthday in the car. So, we made plans to stay with my college friend Amy and her fiance in New York the night before - it broke up the trip, we got to catch up, and celebrate my birthday! It was tons of fun.

We arrived in New Paltz on Oct 2, while she and her fiance were still finishing up at work. They are both professors at SUNY New Paltz, and Alex was nice enough to host us in his lab for a bit! He's an paleontologist and had all kinds of cool stuff for the kids to look at in his lab: fossils, live animals of all sorts, rocks...the kids had a blast! And I think Natalie may have learned more than she would have in school that day. 

While they both finished up, we spent a few minutes outside at the pond nearby feeding the ducks. They like goldfish (who doesn't!).

We then went back to their house and headed out to a yummy dinner in downtown New Paltz. The best part: salted chocolate cake for dessert. Oh so very yummy! Amy and I then got to hang out until well after midnight (and everyone else had gone to bed), so we rang in my birthday together. It's been a long time since we got to do that! After birthday breakfast, we headed up the last 4 hours to Vermont, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way. Amazingly, we showed up at the ski resort (where everyone was staying) in line with both of Evan's brothers - all 3 cars arrived at once! We then spent the afternoon together at the resort. Evan's parents bought the kids two wooden airplanes, and we had a blast throwing them outside! So much fun to get to play together as a family.

Aunt Claire throwing to Natalie

Grabbed this shot of Todd throwing a plane, very cool-like.

LOVE this shot of Henry and his Daddy!

Henry had a harder time throwing the planes (but he did try); Natalie picked it up fairly quickly!

 

The bride and groom came back from running a few errands, and we all headed out to a family birthday dinner. It was a really great couple of days of celebrating - even better than I could have expected, given that I knew we were traveling for most of it. Thank you to my family for making my birthday so wonderful!

Temple Hall Farm

The last weekend in September, my parents came up to spend the weekend with me while Evan was away at his brother's bachelor party. I had just taken the kids to Pumpkinville the weekend before, so I didn't want to do that with them. Instead, I thought we could try out Temple Hall Farm - just north of Leesburg. I'd heard that it was a great fall farm location, but we'd just never made it. I'm really glad we went - we had a blast, and it was cheaper than Pumpkinville. I would definitely go back next year! More than that, their season pass deal is so good - for the price of two trips for a family of 4, you can get a season pass an go as much as you want in the 7 week season. If I knew we had time to go again, I would have bought it, but I knew how busy the rest of the fall was going to be so I didn't think it was worth it this year. Hoping it will be next year!

Of course, I realized as we were pulling into the parking lot that I'd left all cameras at home. At least I had my phone - and I had fun editing in Camera+ before posting the pics here!

When we arrived the kids received fire hats and climbed on some fire trucks.

 

The first big thing we saw were the giant jumping pillows, which the kids made me come on with them (i.e. would not go by themselves, at least at first). It actually was really fun, and even better because we didn't have to share the pillows very much (the cloudy weather kept a lot of people away, and it was the first weekend they were open).

The kids spotted the big corn maze, and really wanted to go in. I was hesitant, but my dad also really wanted to, so we ventured in. Turns out that there was actually a guided map and numbered markers to help guide you through...but we went in the wrong way, and didn't find this out until we were almost out. Luckily Dad and I have a good sense of direction, so we were able to have fun walking through the whole thing and get out with only one or two wrong turns :)

 

The next big attraction was the camel ride! Natalie really wanted to go...and so did I! So, I ponied up the cash for the ride and up we went. It was very cool. The owners are from Bar C Ranch, west of Loudoun County, and let us hang around for a while, asking all kinds of questions about the camels. We even fed our apple cores to the 6 month old baby they had on site (not the one we rode).

We then walked further into the farm to where the hay ride was. There were three possible: one to go out to the pumpkin fields (which we didn't do), one that was a tractor ride pulling multiple wooden cars (that one we did first), and the last was a kiddie ride that I did with the kids. While on the tractor ride I grabbed a few shots of the beautiful scenery. I was sad at first that it was cloudy, but turns out that it made for far more interesting pictures!

The third ride (second one we did) was the cow card ride. Natalie had done rides like this before, so she went in a car up front by herself. Henry insisted he and I ride in the rear car, which turned out to be a less than bright idea, as we felt every single bump x3...and it was pretty darn bumpy! Turns out that it actually freaked Natalie out quite a bit, but she was too far away for me to know that during the ride (not to worry, she was ok).

One thing that happened from the ride being bumpy is the photo below. I must've taken it right as we hit a bump, and I almost deleted it, but I decided that I actually really like it! Yay for abstract art :)

We then met up with my parents by the animals.

This guy was NOT happy. Could've been because of the (small) open would on his side, or just because he's a 2,000 pound bull (he was about 6 feet tall). Right after I took this photo, he kind of threw himself up against the fence a bit, so we all quickly backed away. Henry was excited to "pet a cow"...and then he realized that was not going to happen.

We then went into the store for a quick treat (lollipops and apples), and took a couple of photos at the big chair. A nice girl walking past grabbed the family photo for me.

 

Pumpkinville 2013

Previously I posted about our trip to the National Zoo with friends in September. After everyone spent Saturday night at our house, we hit up Pumpkinville, as it's a fall tradition for us to go! As I posted last year, we've gone every year since Natalie was born, except for 2010. This year the price went up, which I wasn't thrilled about, but there was a lot more to do, so I did feel like we got our money's worth.

Here are the kids right before we went inside.

And my two at another sign inside near the petting zoo.

When we first entered the petting zoo, there was an animal encounter going on in the African tortoise enclosure. There are two (a male and female), originally from an island off the coast of Africa. The male just turned 100, and weighs about 500 pounds. The female is about 55, and weighs 350 pounds. The female got up and started walking towards us, and shoved me out of the way - I was more than happy to let her go around me! She was very gentle and let us touch her pretty much everywhere - back, neck, top of the head, and legs. Very cool chance for the kids!

 After the petting zoo, we headed over to the slides, which were a big hit for the kids! Henry wanted us to go down with him, and after watching the fun Evan and Henry had, I wanted a turn as well!

 Unfortunately, I did not put Henry into the appropriate position on my lap, so as we started going faster and faster I lost control, and we slid down sideways as you'll see in the photo below. He thought it was awesome, I was terrified of losing him, and I managed to scrape my right arm down the side of the hay (which is super scratchy).

 Yup, I'm an idiot.

 The girls loved the slides!

 The kids then enjoyed a small hayride

 Before we all went on the big hayride. Here are the girls waiting for the tractor to come back.

 We then headed back into town for lunch, and went back to Pumpkinville for a short while afterwards. When we arrived back, I had the two girls with me. My friend's daughter said "look, a tiger!" What tiger? They don't have tigers! Turns out that she saw this beautiful guy - a 3 month old African serval cat. We all got to pet him - it was awesome!

I then let the girls go on the slides some more, and head over to the one part of the farm we hadn't seen yet (climbing/play area).

 The kids certainly triumphed over their day at Pumpkinville!

Henry photos from school

Two posts ago, I posted my photos that I took at Henry's preschool field trip. His teacher, Ms. Erica, had also taken some photos of all of the kids that day. She's also taken some at other school events, and has created a Shutterfly share site so that we can all look at them. In going through the first three albums she posted, I found some pretty great ones of Henry!

First one is during the fall party, which was just a gathering in the last week of September where parents could come at the end of class, and snack was outside at the playground. Unfortunately I couldn't make it, so I'm glad to have this great photo capture of him!

 This one was of art time in class. Henry is making a sheep!

 And here are the two from Great Country Farms that I really loved. Me and my big guy!