Cherry Blossom Festival

For adventure number two we decided to go down to D.C. for the Cherry Tree Festival.  When we found out we were moving lots of people told me about the Cherry Tree's in D.C.  Apparently its a really famous thing that people from all over the world come to see, though to be honest I had no idea what it was.  Don't worry I did my homework.  I guess it started in 1912 when the mayor of Tokyo gifted the country with over 3000 Cherry trees as a symbol of their growing friendship.  The trees were planted and have been celebrated every year since.

It really was beautiful!  The weather wasn't cooperating, but despite the drizzle/downpour we were still able to see plenty.  This was my first trip to D.C. and it was amazing!  The trees are mostly planted around the Tidal Basin so we only saw the monuments that circle around it.  We started with the Jefferson Monument.  This was by far my favorite.  Its just so beautiful and powerful I guess.  That sounds weird, but it was!  This was Kaden's favorite too.  I think he mostly liked all the stairs and columns, but I'm still glad we agreed.  He was so funny the entire time.  Someone gave him a map and from that point on he was The Navigator.  (The kid is really into maps.)

From there we walked to the Roosevelt Monument.  This was pretty too, but not nearly as impressive in my opinion.  Plus it had a few quotations Kimball and I thought were a little interesting.  "Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear."  Freedom from want, and fear...really?  But that's a whole other post.

Last we saw the Martin Luther King Jr. monument.  I thought they did a good job on this one.  I wish I had taken a picture of the main phrase they used because I liked it, but I can't remember it.  Something about hard things coming out of a mountain.  I was expecting it to look weird.  Kimball and I had heard lots funny things that went wrong in the making of the monument, but either they fixed all of them or they were never really bad to begin with because I didn't notice anything strange.

After that we started getting rained out and the kids were exhausted so we headed back to the car.  I'm looking forward to visiting again when its not so busy.  With the festival going on there were way too many people to take our time with anything, or maybe it was the rain.  Either way I'm looking forward to bringing all my soon to be visitors back sometime.  Hint, hint.  Plus, I haven't seen the Lincoln monument yet and that's the one I was most looking forward to!  To say it simply, its going to take a long while before we are done with D.C.

In case any of you want to see the Cherry Trees some year here are my two bits:  Either be flexible or don't make your enjoyment require you see the blossoms in full force.  I stalked the peak blooming dates for weeks deciding when we should go see them.  Our plan was to go just before the peak season began.  Hopefully catching a ton of blooms, but before the crowds were bad.  The day before we went I rechecked the dates and surprise!  They had changed the peak blooming date to be that weekend!  It worked out great for us, because we got even more blossoms than expected, but what if we had planned to go during the previous peak days?  We might have completely missed them!  D.C. has a lot to see, but I think if I had bought plane tickets to see the blossoms only to arrive and see them nearly gone I might be a little sad.  My last bit is to expect a lot of people.  It was ridiculously crowded.  Kimball visited last August and said he had the monuments to himself.  I can't wait to go back sometime after tourist season.  That's all the preaching I have today so I'll shush myself now.

Love and miss you all!

Ashley

Chesapeake Bay

Our first adventure was to Sandy Point National Park, right on the Bay.

The high points:

Beautiful!!  The beach has the perfect view of the bridge and it is amazing!  I have no idea how long this bridge is, but it seems to go on forever.  Kimball and I have seen a few bridges including the Golden Gate, in San Francisco, but we both agree the Chesapeake Bridge takes the cake.

Quiet. We were the only people there that day so it was kind of cool., I've heard that once the weather warms up though this is by far the most popular beach in the area, so I don't think I can count on peace and quiet next time.

The low points:

Freezing!!!!  Earlier that week the weather had been unseasonably warm, up in the 80's, so we decided it would be fun to go to the beach that weekend.  We really should have checked the weather first.  That day the temperature plunged back to the 40's.  We weren't expecting to go frolic in the water or anything, but we had hoped to spend a couple hours enjoying the sand and the view.  Nope, my poor kids had their winter coats on and were absolutely frozen.  We didn't even get Savannah out of the car.  This probably had something to do with how deserted the place was.  In fact I'm sure it was the only reason, who else is crazy enough to go to the beach when its 45 degrees out!

The cost.  :(  Since our visit was so early in the season we only paid $3 for the car, but once things warm up the price jumps to $6 a head.  Ouch!  I'm trying to find another beach that isn't so pricey, but so far no luck.  Don't worry though.  I'm very determined, so I'm sure if there's another option I'll find it!  Should anyone have some advise for me on this matter I'd love the help.

 Overall, it was still a fun adventure.  Kaden asks every weekend if we can go back to the beach, but until the weather gets a little warmer he's just going to have to wait and save up his pennies for the admission!

The Move to Maryland

All right.  I know I have some explaining to do.  Almost no one knew we were moving to Maryland, mostly because until a week before the move Kimball and I weren't sure it was happening either.  We knew there was a possibility for a few weeks before, but we were always told someone else had to give the okay until one morning Kimball finally received his orders requiring him to check in the day before.  That's not even me trying to make a point, Kimball was seriously a day late the morning he received his orders.

Kimball called in and explained that since we lived in Utah we would need at least a few days to get out there.  They gave him about a week and a half.  So that afternoon we bought a bigger car to haul the family across country and I scoured the internet looking for a place to live.  It was probably about three days later that we began our 35 hour road trip.

The trip was actually a lot easier than I expected.  Kimball is a marathon driver it turns out.  Over the whole trip I only drove for about 3 hours.  We listened to audio books the whole way and thanks to our awesome new car the kids were able to watch movies and even play the wii.  It cracked Kimball and I up because most times we stopped the kids would complain about us interrupting their game or something.  Apparently its a different world now, but at least it helped the trip go by smoothly.  Savannah was the only thing dragging down our time on the road.  We had to stop at least every four hours during the day to feed her.  All in all, she did great too and it was probably the best thing for everyone to get out and stretch.

The kids had a cush ride.  Poor Savannah!  You can see how things piled up around her.

The first day we made it just outside of Independence, MO.  We woke up the next morning and did a little site seeing.  Kimball was born in Independence so we drove through his old neighbourhood and even stopped at the house he was born in.  The family who lives there now let him walk through and see the room again.  It was a fun little detour.

Independence, MO LDS Temple

Kimball was born right inside those upstairs windows!

After that we headed on to St. Louis.  This was a really cool city to drive through.  We didn't stop to save time, but I got to see the arch from the car!  Woo-hoo!!

St. Louis, MO LDS Temple

By the time we got to Nashville it was dark, but it looked like it was probably a neat place to see.  We finally finished day 2 of driving at about 2am in Johnson City, TN.  Kimball's brother Warren, sister SaraLyn, not to mention oddles and oddles of fun cousins all live near here.  We had so much fun!  Kaden is crazy about Warren's boys and had the best time wrestling with them on the trampoline.  Jo had fun just having so much attention, and I don't know that Savannah cared either way about the whole thing, but she probably liked being out of the carseat!   Two days later we piled ourselves back in the car to finish the last leg of our drive.  I'm proud to say that in a 35 hour drive we made it about 34.5 hours without incident.  Unfortunately about a half hour away Jocilyn got car sick and threw-up all over herself.  When we finally made it to Odenton (our town), we toured two town homes signed the lease on one and kicked the realtor out the door so that we could give Jo a bath.  The last 30 minutes were nothing if not eventful, but we did it!

Now that we're here we're working to make it home.  Kimball and I aren't sure how long we'll be in MD, we would like it to be for a while, but with our track record who knows.   Kimball loves his job!  He's working hard and doing great from what I hear.  Kaden is having a great time at school.  Jo and I walk him to school every morning while Savannah helps Dad get ready for work.  When I pick Kaden up at the end of the day he always has a bunch of friends saying good bye to him which eases my worries a ton.  Jo stays home with me and Savannah each day, but I'm working on getting her in preschool and hopefully some dance lessons soon.  I'm keeping myself busy just getting unpacked and trying to get things in order.  Almost every weekend we've gone out for an adventure somewhere.  Maryland has been a fun place so far, so I'm counting on having a lot of family come to visit, hopefully this will help bridge the gap a little.

Cute Kaden

Yesterday Kaden came up to me and said, "Mom, I think my destiny is to do whatever I want."

What do you say to that?  I love my little guy.

Savannah's Baby Blessing

My little Savannah was blessed October 2011.  She was so sweet and absolutely silent during the whole blessing.  I couldn't stop crying pretty much the entire sacrament meeting.  I couldn't help it, it was just wonderful having my whole family there, watching Kimball bless our baby, and I could feel the spirit so strongly.  Add all that up together and you get waterworks.

It really was great.

Afterwards everyone gathered at my parents house for a late breakfast.

Thanks to everyone who was able to come.  Love you guys!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2011 was a really fun one for our family.  Kaden had his heart set on being a mummy for some reason so I decided we should all dress up as classic spooky Halloween monsters.  Kaden was of course a mummy.  His costume was pretty easy.  I just tore up an old sheet and hot glued strips onto some old clothes.   He loved it!  Especially when I brought out the spooky makeup.

Jocilyn was a princess-witch.  That was the best compromise I could get out of her.  She really wanted to be a princess, but of course that didn't go with my spooky monster idea so Aunt Mo convinced her that being a princess-witch would be even better because she could have a magic wand.  It worked out in the end.  All she really wanted was to wear pretty sparkly makeup.  And she wore a witch hat for our pictures so I was happy too.

Kimball and I were going to be Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein, but I wasn't sure if Kimball would be back from his course in time to go out so I never put his costume together.  Luckily about an hour before trick-or-treating began Kimball walked through the door and I immediately plastered him with makeup, so he could go as a spooky something or other.  I was lucky enough to find an old formal at a clothing swap so I had my Bride of Frankenstein ready to go minus one Frankenstein of course.

Savannah stayed inside with grandma and grandpa not being spooky at all, but was still very cute.

Next year I'll try to get Kimball's getup pulled together so that we can really be The Frankensteins.  I don't think it turned out bad for a first attempt though.

The kids had a great time.  We borrowed my dad's four wheeler and drove through the neighborhood all night collecting candy.  Overall, a very fun Halloween night!

Happy Birthday Kaden!!

Actually Kaden's Birthday was way back in October, but as you all know I'm playing catch-up.  The point is still the same.  My sweet little boy is now 6 years old and in Kindergarten!  I'm so glad we were back in Draper when school started.  Having lived here off and on through the years Kaden has a few little buddies he's gotten to know pretty well.  I don't know if he was more excited to start school or ride the bus, but he was one happy kid when he got home that day.

Kindergarten has brought its own new challenges to our family.  Just getting to the bus stop in time has given me more stress than I expected.  On top of that I am constantly on the look out for bullies.  He had a little problem with an older boy on the bus, but from what I could tell that boy was mean to everyone, so at least Kaden wasn't being singled out.  A great relief has been Mikey.  He's the older brother of one of Kaden's friends, and rides the bus home with Kaden in the afternoon.  Mikey is a very kind and cool kid, the best part... he's in the sixth grade and is very tall for his age.  No one messes with Mikey or his friends.  :)  I'm thankful his big brother protection extends to Kaden as well.  I don't know why I worry so much about Kaden being bullied.  He's a really nice kid and makes friends easily.  I guess I just don't want him to go through any of that and me not even know.  Either way, knowing Kaden has people to look over him when I can't makes me feel better.

Now on to the Birthday.  Because this was the first year Kaden had some real friends in addition to family he was really excited to have a fun party with everyone.  I was pretty excited too, and will be the first to admit I probably went a little overboard.  But it was so much fun!

We had a Super Hero themed party and thanks to Pinterest I found some really cute ways to make it really fun.  So if you want more details on decorations just go to my birthday file there.

All the kids were told to come as their favorite super hero or make-up a new one.  We had an obstacle course set up outside, water balloon target practice, and silly string the bad guy to keep the kids busy.  I also made a back drop out of an old tablecloth of a city skyline to take the kids pictures in front of.  At the end of the party we gave them the photo in a super hero frame I made as a party favor.  I thought that would be pretty fun, but I still had a couple kids ask me if they were going to get candy to take home too.  Well, at least the parents probably liked the pictures.

It was a really fun party.  Kaden loved it.  And other than all my planned activities being over an hour before the party ended everything went smoothly.

Kaden was also very excited to open his presents from Aunt Mo and Uncle Scotty.  Mo gave him tickets to a Real Soccer game complete with cotton candy.  Thanks Mo!  And Scotty gave Kaden his first piggy bank.  He was so excited.  I'm glad Kaden had such a special day.  He's a very good, sweet kid it was fun to give him all the attention for a day.

The only downside is that now Jocilyn's expecting a big beautiful princess party.  I may have to give it to her.  How can I give one child a big fun party and not the other one?  Next year though they both better be expecting cake and ice cream at home with mom, dad, and Savannah because there's no way I can do this every year!