Happy New Year!
When I last wrote there was ice on the ground. Now it is almost short sleeve weather. Jenna, Ben and I went out yesterday to take down the outdoor Christmas decorations. We had light jackets on but shed those really quickly.
OUR TRIP TO VIRGINIA. We left Tuesday morning to visit Vicki's brother and family in Waynesboro, Virginia. It is a ten hour trip but it passed quickly because the kids were great travelers. We were happy to arrive so the fun could begin. Five excited children was all that was needed for the party to start.
One of the highlights was meeting Emily for the first time. She is now three months old. She really is cute and when she is awake she doesn't miss much. Her smile lights up the room.
FUN OUTINGS. On Wednesday we loaded up and visited the Frontier Culture Center. The Culture Center is actually four working farms showing how 17th and 18th century peasants and farmers lived in Germany, Ireland, England and Virginia. The European farm interpretations are included to show what life was like for the people who immigrated to America before they came here. We topped this off with a trip to Cici's Pizza.
We went snow tubing on Thursday evening at Wintergreen Resort. For those of you who haven't done this they have large inner tubes that you sit in to slide down the hill in the snow. The hill is dressed with wide grooves to keep you on your track on the way down and a bank of snow is built up at the bottom to bring you to a stop. Then you get in line for the tow rope and ride back up. All the kids enjoyed it and like last week all you could see of Nate was a hat and two rows of teeth.
OTHER FUN. The kids all played together very well whether is was playing with toys, watching a movie, playing a board game like Cranium Cadoo, or a computer game like Polar Bowler. The adults also played several games after the kids when to bed. Scrabble and Scattergories were the favorites. Thats when the adults got silly. Surprisingly the laughter did not wake the kids.
OVERHEARD. Will and Darice have a split level house and Ben and Zachary decided it would be fun to throw UNO cards one at a time down one of the flights of stairs. About the time they got through with the 112 card deck Will came around the corner and found the mess and told them to clean it up. After I heard Will give the order I got up to check on things because, well, I know my son. As I rounded the corner I was pleased to see Ben doing his part. But my timing was perfect as I heard him tell Zachary, "My dad is nicer than your dad." He was unaware of two listening fathers until he heard us howl with laughter.
PHOTO SESSION. Nate will ham it up for the camera when he wants to. When he is in the mood and sees your camera he'll say, "CHEESE." And when the flash goes off you'll hear, "aawww." Well, we decided this visit would be a good time to get a picture of all the cousins so we set up a makeshift studio in the family room and sat the kids down for pictures. Nate was not in the mood for this. Of course, getting six kids who are nine years of age and younger to pose for a picture is a pretty big challenge. Did I say Nate was not in the mood for a picture? We have several interesting shots. Fortunately, everyone looks pretty decent in maybe one.
After the photo session was over we got the kids ready for bed. During the hustle of this process Nate wandered back downstairs where he sat and posed all by himself for Will. When I came down to get him I heard about three repetions of "CHEESE-click-aawww." One of these days, when he is a dad, he will pay for this and I will smile.
STRUGGLING TO REGAIN NORMAL. We came home on Saturday. Went to church Sunday morning and had Mom and Aunt Mar over for supper that night. Yesterday and today have been devoted to putting all the Christmas stuff away. School and work get under way tomorrow. I keep hearing that song Back To Life, Back To Reality....
MISTAKEN IDENTITY. It's Sunday night and we are getting the kids to bed. I was putting Nate's pajamas on him when Vicki decided to double team the job and brush his teeth as I work. After brushing his teeth she left to rinse the toothbrush and returned to brush again. By this time Nate was sitting in my lap so I could button his pajamas. That is when I noticed Vicki trying to stick Nate's toothbrush into my mouth. She didn't realize what she was doing until I gave her that "Woman, what are you doing?" look.
Joe
