Family Reunion 2019

We have just returned from a wonderful family reunion with my husband's side of the family. It was great to see everyone. My sister-in-law hosted the entire family at her home. Wow, she is an awesome hostess! We did tons of fun events. We ended up taking Faith (Dean's) girlfriend at the last minute, because of a family crisis going on in her family. She just needed a break and to be away from all of that. It was a bit more work for me to chaperone and keep line of sight 24/7, but we were delighted to have her along. She fits so well into our family. I can't believe that Dean and Faith have been courting for 2 years already.

We went on a beautiful hike.

We went rafting down the James River on a party float that had to be towed by the uncles in kayaks occasionally when the wind and current was not strong enough to move us along.

We spent a few lovely hours at the Science Museum in Richmond. The highlight was the Pompeii exhibit. This traveling exhibit is amazing. I strongly recommend going to see it if it comes near you.

Bread that was excavated from the site

We had so many marvelous meals both at home and in restaurants. The conversations were wonderful, too.

Oh, the desserts were to die for! My poor diet. 

When the reunion was over, we decided to travel a few hours further north to see my stepmother and take Faith around Washington, D.C. She had never seen D.C. before, and it was so exciting for her. It was fun rediscovering my hometown through her eyes. We started with a morning at the zoo.

The pandas slept through our visit but were great to see anyway.

Then we walked around the Vietnam Memorial and the Lincoln Veterans Memorial. We wrapped up our tour by driving by as many of the iconic sites as we could.

Lastly, we attended the ballet, Swan Lake, at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. It was performed by the American Ballet Theater. We hoped to see Misty Copeland, but she wasn't performing that particular night. It was absolutely fantastic anyway. We had seats in the orchestra. AMAZING! 

We had a lovely trip and are now home for awhile.

Blessings, Dawn

Vacation Day 6 ~ Frontier Culture Museum and Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library

Our last day of vacation found us 3 hours south of Washington, D.C. in Staunton, Virginia. We came in the night before and stayed in a motel. Our Washingtonian grandparents followed us down so they could spend the last day with us.

We visited the Frontier Culture Museum. I visited this museum as a child when it was still under construction. It is complete and even more wonderful than I had remembered. You "travel through" old world Europe and West Africa. After seeing how people lived in these different places in the late 1600's and 1700's, you immigrate to the New World.  Then you visit the American Frontier and see how the people are living in their new home.

First up ~ West Africa to learn about how the people were living there before being kidnapped and sent to America as slaves. It was really impressive to see how much cooler it was inside the hut. Those thick clay walls made a huge difference. In each home an interpreter was available to answer questions and show a skill of some sort. At the time of our visit, the interpreter in West Africa was making water jugs out of gourds.

We then moved on to see an upper middle class English home in the late 1600's. As with most of the farms at the Frontier Museum, this home was actually moved here from its site in England, so it's the actual home that people lived in. They really lived pretty comfortably. The kids tried to visit with the cow (who still had her horns), but she chased them off. She charged them as if she were a bull!! I'm glad she was tied to a tree. In England the children had an opportunity to stir a pot over a fire and help make cheese.

Next, we visited Ireland. This stop was lovely to me. I love the whitewashed walls of old Irish homes. The kids were completely enamored with the pigs at this stop. We also enjoyed visiting the forge and watching the blacksmith make spoons and pokers.

Our last stop in Old Europe was Germany. This was the kids favorite stop because there were so many things of leisure to do. The kids tried their hands at playing musical instruments, bowling, feeding chickens, drawing well water, wearing wooden shoes, dancing around a maypole and dressing up in native costumes.

We then "immigrated" to America. We saw a one room school house, a small starter home and a much more glamorous frontier home complete with a spring house. The kids played checkers for a long time at this stop.

We finished our tour of this museum with a visit to a Native American Indian village.

The kids worked on a dug out canoe for a few moments. Overall, it was a great experience for them.

My Dad was with us and as always was behind his camera. I caught him taking a picture of me behind my camera. LOL!

After lunch we drove into the town of Staunton and visited the Woodrow Wilson Museum and Presidential Library. The main goal here was to learn a bit more about WWI history. The kids really liked the scavenger hunt and the WWI trenches exhibit.

 

What an awesome vacation! We drove into the night and arrived home shortly before 11 pm. We had a great trip, but really wore ourselves out. I got a nasty cold promptly after arriving home. We have slowly worked our way through this week. I am glad I didn't schedule us to start our new quarter until next Monday. We needed a slow move back into our full routine from our adventure.

Blessings, Dawn

Vacation Days 4 and 5

To see days 1, 2, and 3 of our vacation go here.

Day 4 ~ Due to the government shutdown during our vacation, we decided to head east to Rehoboth Beach on the Atlantic. We were excited to have a day at the beach. We live about 6 hours from our closest beach, so having one 3 hours up the highway was wonderful. This was the fourth time of seeing the ocean for our youngest two. They loved every minute of the day. The cold ocean was of no concern to them. Several people walking on the beach commented on their bravery in the cold water. (They are used to wading/swimming in mountain streams so cold water is nothing new to them.) They had a blast! At the end of the day, we got ice cream and headed on the long drive back to my parents' home.

Taken by my Father...They loved jumping the waves.

Boomer (who is afraid of water) wasn't sure hanging out on the beach was such a great idea. It was the first day of the off season so leashed dogs were allowed on the beach all day long. He spent the first hour or two facing away from the ocean. After all if you can't see the ocean, it's not there ~ RIGHT! Timothy tried to get him to play "chase the waves". However, Boomer thought that playing "run away from the waves ~ all the way to the boardwalk" was a better game. He finally decided that he would have some fun digging in the biggest sandbox he had ever seen. What a silly dog.

Of course, there was the fun of being buried in the sand. (Photo by my Father)

I will save you!!

"Oh Tim, This is not a good idea!"

"I don't know about this place, Grandpa!"

Day 5 ~ We were worn out after our day at the beach. We decided to take it easy and got a late start to the day. The two Grandmas, Tom Sawyer, Little Red Riding Hood and I decided to go looking at thrift shops for winter clothes. Everyone else took it easy back at the house and watched cable TV (we don't have cable at home). Grandma Sue knew of a huge thrift store with tons of clothes. The place did not disappoint. It was amazing. We found lots of shirts for Goldilocks, three dresses for Little Red Riding Hood and several outfits for Tom Sawyer. The clothes were good name brands and in super condition.

In the afternoon, we gathered most of us up and went to the Pentagon to see the September 11th memorial. This memorial is beautifully done. I was very impressed with the artistry and beauty in such a solemn place. One hundred eighty four lives were lost at this spot between the people on the plane and the people in the Pentagon.

Each person who died here on this day has an individual bench. The bench is like a wing and there is a bubbling fountain of water under each one. The sunlight was reflecting the water perfectly off the bench when we were there (see the light reflections on the side of benches). I hear it is amazing at night time, too. It is open 24 hours a day and wasn't affected by the government shutdown.

The open part of the bench indicates whether the person was on the plane or in the building. If it is open toward the building, it was a person on the plane. Those that were in the building have open benches pointing away from the building. Also, each row of benches holds only those born in the same year. Tim found the row of people born in 1990 (the year of his birth) -- there were three 11 year old children on the plane. (There are benches for several younger children as well.)

Lastly, we had a really nice evening with my husband's sister and family.The kids enjoyed seeing their cousins. What a busy and enjoyable vacation! Just one more day of vacation. I will hopefully post about it tomorrow.

Blessings, Dawn

Washington, D.C. Vacation ~ Days 1, 2 and 3

We just returned from a vacation in Washington D.C., where I grew up. We were fortunate to be able to stay with family who live in the area. This trip was different from others, because Goldilocks asked us to let her stay behind. She really did not want to make the trip with us. She presented valid reasons why ~ long car ride in a crowded car, the boring "school field trips" we planned, and all of her emotions with seeing relatives/distant friends. We talked it over with her therapeutic respite care provider and made the decision to leave her in respite care. Not having her along completely changed the dynamics of our family and gave us all a well needed change of pace. Goldilocks had a good time in a safe environment, and we were able to relax without behaving as a therapeutic family the whole time. My mother joined us for the trip. We also decided to take Boomer (dog) with us. I have never had a dog who wanted as much attention as he does. He is a real people dog. We knew that he wouldn't get enough attention back at home from the lovely family who came in to care for our 15 year old dog Lady. We are glad we took him. Boomer was a wonderful traveler. We couldn't have asked for an easier time managing him. If you are visiting the area, I would suggest that you accept that you will not see it all. Instead, try to create a theme or focus for your visit. Since we knew we could only see a little bit of what Washington, D.C. has to offer, we made the focus of our trip be about the United States in the 1900s, since that is what we are studying in American history lessons. To that end, we saw memorials and exhibits about the 20th Century.

Day 1 ~ We spent the entire day on the road. We stopped for a nice walk and picnic in a park. We got into town around dinner time.

Day 2 ~ We were aware that a government shutdown was looming and wanted to get to as many federal sites as possible without overwhelming the children. We started our day off with a tour of the Manassas National Battlefield. While it wasn't the time period we had targeted, my husband really wanted to see the Civil War battlefield and it was a good review for the kids. We figured that the outdoors would be relaxing and make it easier to visit museums in the afternoon.

We dropped Boomer off at my father's home and had a quick lunch. Then we were off to see a museum or two. We decided to split up for a little while. Tim and DH wanted to see the Natural History Museum. This museum never gets old for my nature loving son. I wanted to see the Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes exhibit at the National Gallery of Art with Tom Sawyer and Little Red Riding Hood. This impressive exhibit was perfect for my theater loving kids. It was filled with costumes and films of many different ballets.

What am I going to do with this 11 year old boy? I hope the funny face stage will end soon. They are with my step-mother.

After the exhibit we walked over and joined my son, father, and husband at the Museum of Natural History. We took a quick tour of a few rooms. Then it was time to get home for a barbecue to catch up with friends and family.

Day 3 ~ We visited the Air and Space Museum first. This is a huge museum. The plan was to see the Wright Brother's exhibit and let the kids wander through a few other exhibits if they were interested. The Wright Brother's exhibit was a nice review of what we learned at the beginning of this year. Then they wanted to do some hands-on activities around the museum. They especially liked the huge planes hanging in the main gallery that showed the history of flight all in one place. They also liked walking through some of the airplanes and space modules.

Next, we headed for the sculpture garden on the mall for a nice bite to eat in front of the fountain. My kids remembered playing in this fountain a few years ago. It was fun for them to see it again.

After lunch, we headed for the American History Museum. We had several exhibits on our list to see at this stop. We wanted to see the history of Food: Transforming the American Table 1950 -2000. This was right up our alley since we are constantly trying to get back to unprocessed food made from scratch. It was amazing to see the changes that have taken place in the past 50 years. We then moved on to the exhibit on Money. Little Red Riding Hood loves coins so this was a perfect exhibit for her. (She's wearing a bear hat that my step-mom bought for her.)

Lastly, we enjoyed the exhibit about presidents and first ladies. The kids were excited to find the first teddy bear which was created when President Teddy Roosevelt refused to kill a baby bear on a hunting trip. They really enjoyed the story about the original teddy bear that we read earlier this year. It was great to see it in real life.

We finished the day with a quick stop at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. I must admit that I really didn't like it. I suppose the artist was going for a look of determination, but instead he made Dr. King look angry and cold. I also didn't like the materials used by the Chinese sculptor, Lei Yixin. Unfortunately, I didn't feel a sense of peace or hope at the memorial, so I didn't think Dr. King's message was carried out well. It was a disappointment all around. (Can you tell that my mother, an artist, raised me to critique art work?) I much prefer the memorial for Martin Luther King, Jr. that I saw in Atlanta, Georgia.

The first few days were a whirlwind. As you know, the government did shutdown and we had to find non-federal things to do for the rest of the week. I will tell about those tomorrow.

Blessings, Dawn