Washington D.C.

Do you ever think you have a a great idea, but then it turns out to be a TOTAL bust? Well, that pretty much sums up our day trip to Washington D.C.  I thought it would be fun to see some of the sites in D.C. that I/we had never seen before while we were visiting The Wilkison's in Maryland.  And crazy me, I thought the kids would like it too!  Don't get me wrong, there were parts of the day they enjoyed.  But, I think the day would have been better spent relaxing at the swimming pool!  Lesson learned!

They loved riding the Metro into D.C.

Katie and Anna Belle listening
to some tunes on the way!

Brady and John relaxing and enjoying the ride!

I think they even enjoyed seeing the monuments.  What they did NOT enjoy was the walking and the hot sun!

The kids smiling faces in front of the
Washington Monument. 
Yes, those are mostly smiling faces.
Just some squinting eyes because of the bright sun!

By the time we made it around to the WWII Memorial they were well on there way to a  melt down. 

I joked that they made these beautiful faces because they didn't want to live in Iowa, but the truth is they were just hot and tired.  Heck, by the time we made it around to Texas the boys refused to even get in a picture!

I think this picture best sums up the day!

Thank goodness we found some ice cream and some shade so we could all cool off and take a little break from the walking! 

 

By the time we made it to the Lincoln Memorial it was the kids who wanted to climb up all the stairs to see old Abe Lincoln.  They thought this was pretty cool!

 Of course, after climbing down all the stairs they were hot, tired and hungry for lunch!  So we made the decision to put an end to our sightseeing and head back to the Smithsonian.  The walk back to the other end of the Mall was PAINFUL!  Lots of crying and whining.  The low point was when I was walking holding both boys hands, while John was crying that he was hot and tired and hungry and thirsty (we had plenty of water to drink).  I asked him to please stop crying and told him that everyone was looking at us.  To which, he responded, I know I am making them think you are a bad mom!  Seriously, I wanted to kill him!  Thankfully for the both of us we were very close to the museum at that point.  Air conditioning and nice lunch at the Smithsonian saved him!  We were able to check out some of the museum before ending our D.C, adventure!

The boys loved the dinosaurs!

I think this was just one summer adventure too many!  When they look back on this day, I hope they remember the best parts of the day and forget about the miserable parts of the day!  I know I will! I can't wait to visit Maryland again!  We are already missing our sweet friends! 

...the ups and the downs...

Life is full of these moments. 

When I woke up yesterday morning , all I really wanted to do was enjoy a relaxing day at the beach with a few friends!  I must have been crazy to think a day at the beach with 5 mommas and 16 kids could be relaxing. 

Most of our beach babes!

And in between the moments of pure fear from not one, but two lost children during the day, there were many great conversations and lots of laughter. Those are the moments I wouldn't trade for anything. They are what keeps me sane these days!  I am so thankful that the lost children were not my own, and everyone ended up back in their moms arms!

 Luke napped on the beach during the chaos!

Fast forward to the end of a long day at the beach.  You get the picture, hot, tired, and sandy!  My car won't start.  Again, I am thankful to be with friends who can give me a jump and help get me home.  And while this is the last thing I want to be dealing with it isn't the end of the world. I make an appointment to get a new battery, make sure I have roadside assistance in the event this happens again (something I should have done before Donnie deployed), problems solved, right? Wrong!  I decide I can jump my car with Donnie's truck to go get the new battery.  Nope, he has a dead battery too, with all of our summer fun and travels I haven't been driving his truck once a week as I had planned.  Now I need two new batteries.  The Crow's saved the day again! Mark helped me jump both vehicles and get my car a new battery.  I hoped after the drive the truck would be good as new.  No such luck, it was dead again this morning.  So after a minor melt down (I think I was due for a good cry).  Deployment life is STRESSFUL!  I pulled it together (with the help of Mark and Krissy), and I now have two new batteries and two working vehicles in the event of an emergency (God, I hope not).

The downs are usually followed by an up, and thankfully this was no exception.  Luke ask me if he could ride his bike without training wheels. I tell him sure we can give it a try after I get the laundry out of the dryer.  He goes on out to the garage to wait for me, I think . When I get out there 5 minutes later he has Donnie's tools and has taken off his own training wheels.  There was no stopping this boy!  He was cruising up and down the neighborhood in no time!

And this boy knows how to make his momma feel good. He told me that I am better than Dad at teaching bike riding.  This probably isn't true because there isn't much I do better than Donnie, but I made me feel like Mom of the Year!

I am so proud of you, Luke!

 

 

 

 

Maryland Adventures...

Urban Pirates

We had a great time on our pirate adventure cruising the Baltimore Inner Harbor.  Arrgh!

I love this group picture!

Shortly after our two families met at West Point we went on a little pirate adventure together!  Flashback!

Brooke and I back in 2008
We were some young looking pirate wenches!

Luke, John, Katie, Anna Belle, and Brady

 

Look how little our
pirates were back then!

Luke was just a little baby pirate and
Anna Belle wasn't even born yet! 

 

The pirate cruise was so much fun! They dressed you up like pirates as soon as you boarded the ship.  The kids all got cool pirate names and picked out pirate tattoos.  Once we were all dressed like pirates we set sail on the Fearless.  They taught the kids how to sing, dance, and play games like salty dogs!



 

The best part was shooting the water cannons at the evil pirate Mad Dog who was trying to steal our precious treasure!  In the end the pirates saved the treasure, and everyone got to take home some pirate booty!  After we got back to land, I asked Luke what his favorite part was and he said, "Shooting the cannons.  I can't even believe we defeated Mad Dog!"  Love it!

 

I think Brooke and I are crazy because after our pirate adventure we hit up the National Aquarium with this tired bunch of kiddos!  Good thing the sharks didn't get us!

Hobo dinner...

...in a fully restored ex-Erie-Lackawana boxcar!

 

This was a one of kind experience that we were lucky have thanks to Mr. Stewart Perkins at Black River Paper Co.  Donnie and I won this Box Car Hobo Dinner at the kids school fundraiser earlier in the year.  Unfortunately we were not able to have our dinner before he deployed, but it made a summer evening fun for us! 

LaGrange Hobos
(John didn't want to dress like a hobo,
but he did let me use his hillbilly hobo teeth)

Mr. Perkins was the perfect host and
he was so cute in his train outfit!
He showed the kids how to work the coupling.

The kids inside the box car before dinner.
This sign was taken from the end of the railroad tracks.

Our dinner set up!

Dinner was Hobo stew with pig toes, hamburgers and hot dogs, root beer, and oreos (there is a story to the oreos).  We even drank out of tin cans like real hobos! 

Oreos originated in this building.
The company got into financial trouble was a part of a
merger of several baking companies that formed Nabisco.  I thought that was so cool!

 

The building where Black River Paper Company is now used to be the home of H.H. Babcock a famous carriage maker.  Mr. Perkins gave us tour of the old carriages and Model T they still have in the Babcock Museum part of the building. 

The carriage was built in 1898
and has been beautifully restored.

The boys set upfront in the carriage.

The ladies (Katie and I) set in the back.

1914 Model T Ford Chassis
1917 truck body built by H.H. Babcock
in Watertown, NY

We had such a fun evening and learned a lot about trains, carriages, cars, and some history about Watertown, NY.  Mr. Perkins even said we can come back for another dinner when Donnie gets back.  Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Perkins for being such perfect host! 

Maryland

We did it! The kids and I made the 8 1/2 hour drive to see our best friends from West Point! It was sooooo worth it to spend 6 days together!  Of course, after such a wonderful trip, it makes me miss having them as neighbors even more.  I am praying the Army brings us back together again someday!

We had a few adventures (more to come on future blog post) while we were in Maryland, but most of our days were spent hanging out like we used to.  The kids loved seeing each other as much as Brooke and I did.  It makes my heart happy to be with my bestie and watch our kids laugh and play together! 

Brady, Luke, Katie, Anna Belle, and John

Katie jumping off the diving board!

The boys taking a snack break in the picnic area!
(This is one of many)

ICE CREAM!
No joke, these kids had at least 2 ice creams a day!

My kids couldn't get enough of the Razor Big Wheel!

I love that Luke drives with his tongue hanging out!

Bart was amazing with the kids!  He watched them ride bikes, played catch with my boys, took all 5 kids by himself to the park to play baseball, drove the kid car around town so Brooke and I could have a kid free car, and watched the kids so Brooke and I could go and get a mani/pedi and do some shopping!  AND he made sure Brooke and I had wine to drink everynight!  I honestly can't put into words how good it was to have time with Brooke and know my kids were being taken care of another Dad that loves them! Thank you, Bart!

We can't wait until we see y'all again!