museums, memorials, and monuments

Allen had a meeting in DC and so we made a family trip of it. We had not been there since we were kids. Carter and Jared had been asking to go for awhile. We had a great time. There is a lot of walking involved in seeing everything in DC in a long weekend, but the kids did great. Claire especially surprised me with how good she was when most things were not geared to her. It is nice to know we are at the phase of life that we can take our kids anywhere and have a great time. As we were walking around the last day, Allen and I commented how we were glad we didn't come by ourselves, it was more fun with the kids. Allen used his iphone to give us little bits of information as we went to each sight. It was fun to learn with our kids. Like the soldiers at the tomb of the unknown solider--they work 24 hours and then are off 24. They get a hair cut every other day and shave 2 times during the 24 hours they work. Since they started guarding the tomb, it has always had someone on guard, 24/7. This was a great way to talk about respect to our kids.

Our favorites:

Allen: holocaust museum

Julie: holocaust museum, Arlington cemetery

Carter: holocaust museum

Jared: museum of natural history

Claire: swimming at the hotel pool

Some memories of the trip:

-Carter wanted to find his name on the wall at the Vietnam memorial.

-Jared saying that he thought the animals at the museum of natural history were going to be alive. Jared also informing me that he likes animals, but not to hunt and kill them, but to see and watch them.

-After hearing the record of six minutes to run up the stairs at the Washington monument, Carter in all seriousness, while staring at the monument, said,"I can beat that, someone time me" (Carter is the ultimate competitor)

-At the museum of air and space, a Chinese woman who didn't speak great english asked me to take a picture of HER with OUR kids with her camera. She grabbed Claire and put her on her lap and hugged the boys close. I must say that is the strangest thing that has happened to us associated with Claire being adopted from China.

best buy ever

These princesses were the best $20 I ever spent. Claire loves them, Claire plays with them all the time, they are small, they are easy to take with us (only 2 at a time though), and there are no small parts to get lost. Claire calls them her "hard princesses" because they are made of plastic. She will say, "I'm going to go to my room to play with my hard princesses". I have to explain to guests what she means. I have to thank a friend for turning me on to these wonderful gals. And of course the wonderful people of Disney.

Carter's first game

This past weekend Carter attended his first UT football game with his dad, Allen (notice the label, Allen). Carter had a great time despite the heat. It was in the 90's and felt like 100. But the boys stuck it out and cheered on the Vols to a nice victory over what I am told was a really easy team and so "the Vols better not get too cocky because we have Florida coming up this weekend", or some rant like that. Anyway, my baby is growing up. Go Vols!

Oh, by the way, the photo was taken by Allen's iphone and emailed to me. He was very proud.

my favorite rocks

When Jared was four...three and a half?...four and a half?...ok my memory is bad and that's why I am doing this blog/journal thing. Jared picked out this "beautiful" frame all by himself for Christmas one year and the Love rock for my gift. And so it sits on my desk. But it's the other two rocks that are among my favorite possessions. These two rocks were also given to me by Jared and they were taken from his prized rock collection. He told me they were his favorite and he wanted me to have them to go along with the love rock, because he loved me. So, when I am at my desk, I love to look at the tacky, I mean beautiful framed picture of Jared and all his love rocks. And my day is then brighter.

Label envy

The other night Allen spruced up my blog and added some gadgets on the sidebar. As he was adding the "label" bar, he noticed he only had one label. I tried to reassure him that this was mainly for my memories about the kids, but he still looked envious.

So, here is a memory of Allen. Last Saturday he spent 3 hours helping me with a yucky statistics class I am taking. He is a very good teacher and helped me get the big picture. I am grateful for this wonderful husband. He also has listened to me talk about other classes I've taken, like Psychology of Gender. A subject that I find very interesting and he has no interest at all. But he sat there and listen to me tell him "interesting"things I was learning. Things like, Female patients are more likely to have tests ordered for them by female doctors than by male doctors. Isn't that interesting? And because of these great qualities of Allen, it is easier for me to look past the growing pile of dirty clothes on the bedroom floor or the sweaty basketball clothes over the tub that are still sitting there 3 days later. Balance is the name of the game I guess.

Do you feel better now Allen? I hope so.

more divaness

OK, I just have to keep documenting the girlyness (is that a word?) of Claire. She loves all things girl. She gets me to put on her makeup and then goes around to every member of our family and tell them to look at her pretty face. This is after looking at herself in the mirror and admiring the colors of choice for that day. She is so funny. Is this normal for girls? I don't know; she is my one and only girl and I think I'll have my hands full with just her.

bye-bye summer, bye-bye boat

As the summer ends and we are in the throngs of school, soccer and cross country, it's almost time to say good-bye to our boat. We still have about a month left of good boating weather, but because of said activities, our time on it has been less and less. Because of Allen's job, we don't travel a lot in the summer. And so we spend a lot of time on the boat. We have made some of the best memories on our boat. And so I am posting some favorite pictures and telling some favorite times: Jared's big grin when he got up and stayed up on the wake board. Allen's grin as he improved his jumps this year. Claire on the knee board as Jared held it steady behind her, the kids on the tubes-they love to do "tricks" when it is going slow enough. And Carter loves to do a "crazy ride" where he and his tube will be perpendicular to the water and he still holds on. (He is the daredevil of the family) Swimming around with my family in our not so pretty lake. Watching beautiful sunsets. It was a great summer...I can't wait until next year.

Carter's birthday

Carter turned 10!! I have a child in double digits! This is very unsettling to me and Allen.We have asked our children on multiple occasions to please stop aging-we like them the way they are and even more important, they like us the way they are now. But, they keep getting older. And so Carter turned 10. He got a wii fit from us, which made his day. I let him wear a sleeveless shirt for his party/pictures. (I HATE sleeveless shirts on little boys, but Carter loves them-I don't know why I hate them, maybe for the same reason that I hate camouflage on little boys, which Jared loves. So Carter gets to wear them to bed, in our house, for sports practice and on his b-day. It's all about compromise. Oh, Jared's lunch box and extra blanket are camouflage-compromise) His friend party was on our boat and they had a blast. It was a great night. The actual day of his birthday I had put up a few streamers and homemade signs for when he got home from school. I don't always do this and have never done the homemade signs before, but I had for Jared's and decided I better for Carter's. Well, when he saw the kitchen he smiled and ran up stairs (I figured to check his room-I had done signs in Jared's room-a first) and he ran back down and gave me a big hug and said thanks. Wow, what a mommy moment. I truly didn't think they would care that much about the signs. Thanks Carter.

mornings

I am not a morning person. I don't like to talk a lot in the morning. Few things make me smile in the morning. But this sight does-Jared eating 3 bowls of cereal every morning. Each morning I stumble into the kitchen and see Jared at the table with his bowl, spoon, milk and cereal box always in the same place. I don't know why it makes me happy, but it does. And I want to remember this years from now, so I am posting about it. He is just so cute and growing up so fast.