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After what seemed just like a short nap, our wake up call was ringing at 6:30am. Time to get cleaned up and head downstairs for the first of many breakfast buffets consisting of powdered eggs, bacon, sausage, cold cereal and pancakes. By the end of the week, I think both of us had enough buffet breakfast to last a lifetime. If I never see a big vat of powdered eggs again, I will die happy.

After breakfast, we left for Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Our tour guide, ironically also named Virginia (which she pronounced Virginer), took us on a tour of the historic area.

It was a beautiful day in the sun in Williamsburg, just slightly humid but not uncomfortable. One of our first stops was at the Tailor shop. They had several displays of period clothing, all stitched from hand, including his entire wardrobe.

One of my favorite stops in the town was at the Silversmith shop. Not only did they have beautiful displays, but the silversmith was super funny and kept us entertained. Did you know that cups were made for ‘cup stuff’?! Unfortunately, the shop was really small and I was in the back, so I didn’t get a very good picture of him but a great shot of the kids standing in front of me!

After visiting with the Silversmith, we went to the Blacksmiths shop. Another pretty cool trade back in the 1700’s. The walls were painted white and had a slight dusting of soot, which I imagine is how you would go home everyday as well! The Blacksmith was pounding out nails from iron bars. It was pretty cool how he would heat it up in the coal then strike the bar with the hammer and sparks would shoot out everywhere! I also thought the big bellow were interesting to watch.

The last of the trade shops we visited was a saddle shop. I thought it interesting all the different types of ‘leather’ they had tanned in the shop, including if I remember correctly, frog….

After visiting the trade shops, we stopped by the Jailor’s house and cells. It was facinating that they actually kept people locked up in there. The back side of the cell had a small hole where food would be passed from the kitchen into the cell. Apparently these cells even housed some of Blackbeards pirates!

At the backside of the house, you can see a replica of the gallows in the distance. Creepy.

Can you believe this beautiful view is just down the street?! How gorgeous it must be in the fall with all the changing colors and leaves on the ground.

The end of our visit we spent touring the Capitol which was built in the early 1700’s.  The kids had fun sitting in the general court area. I thought it would be funnier if they were wearing those long white wigs. Kaileigh scrambled and got a great seat on the left side. I sat behind the barrier where the spectators would have sat.

After touring all over Williamsburg, we were free to go our own way for a couple hours and had lunch and shopped a little bit. It only around 2:00 and we still had to visit Jamestown, Yorktown, drive for a few hours, and eat dinner before checking into our hotel for the evening. More about that in the next post!

Look who was lurking in our back yard last night….

That’s the smaller of the two we’ve seen this month!

Also, wishing this blog a Happy Birthday! It’s two years old today!!

Kaileigh and I woke up at 4:00 in the morning to drive up to SFO airport to catch our flight to Norfolk, Virginia, the starting place for our whirl-wind week trip to the Washington DC area. We arrived at the airport at 6:00am and gathered with the rest of the kids and parents who were on our flight. We took off on-time and stopped in Detroit where we had a two-hour layover. We grabbed some lunch and were off again for Virginia.

Waiting for our flight.

Kaileigh and her boyfriend David on the flight.

We finally landed in Norfolk, Virginia, grabbed our luggage, and loaded on the bus. After driving for about 30 minutes, we stopped in Williamsburg and had dinner at one of the many buffet’s we would eat at that week. After dinner, we loaded onto the bus again and headed for our hotel. Finally, at about 10:30 the same evening, we checked into our hotel room and crashed, exhausted for the night.

Kaileigh took this beautiful picture the other day. It’s now the desktop on my computer screen.

Saturday, we spent the day at John’s alma mater, UC Davis. Every year they have a “Picnic Day” and open the campus up to everyone to check out what’s going on at the school. It’s sorta like open house. This was our second year attending and I thought this year was even more fun than last year. The weather was slightly breezy and a little chilly in the morning but at least it wasn’t raining like the previous year! We left Morgan Hill a little around 6:00 in the morning and got up to Davis by 8:30ish. We easily found parking and got seats for the parade. The parade was lots of fun!

They have a huge marching band which was awesome! It was cool watching these guys dance around with the big tuba’s and stuff.

I liked these guys all dressed up on the big bikes.

Can’t say I’ve ever seen a band play on their backs while doing the Rock Lobster before.

John-John got to milk a cow. His response: “Whoa”.

We watched Border Collies heard sheep, which was amazing!

And John-John got to sled down a big hill of snow!

It was a great day! I’m looking forward to next year!

Apparently we don’t own a Sega 3 we own a Sony Playstation 3. Sega stopped making systems back in 2003, or so I’ve been told…

We bought the kids a Sega 3 for Christmas this year. Honestly, I’m not sure who has played it more, the kids or the parents. Last night John came home with two new games, including a new game for me! LOST! Just like the TV series. We played it for about 30 minutes. I have to say, it was pretty cool. Scenes from just like in the TV series. I think the thing I liked best about it was when you finished a level, it cut out like it does at the end of the show and shows you the trailer from the series. Thank you honey!

Yesterday we attended the Kindergarten Round-Up for John-John. We went to his new school and met with the Principal and he went off with the other little kids to sit in on the Kinder class that was already in progress. He looked like such a big boy following the teacher out of the room. The Principal then went over a bunch of readiness information and what to expect the first day of school. I started getting teary eyed already knowing that my baby boy is no longer a baby any more. I think what bothers me most is that I know on the first day of school, I’ll be the one who is all upset and he’ll be like “ok, Mom, you can go now”.

So apparently I’ve blown my “blog every day for 30 days” deal with myself already. Does that mean I have to start over? Hmmmm. Since I made the deal with myself, that means I can bend the rules a little. Right?

The weekend seem to just fly by, especially Sunday. I had forgotten we had made plans to go to a friends house for dinner that night. I quickly made an apple pie and off we went! The kids played terrific together and they had a new puppy which was absolutely adorable. The company was entertaining and we had a great time.

This morning the power went out about 8:30ish and it’s almost 4:00pm and it’s still out. If it wasn’t for John getting home, I’d still be sitting here waiting. At least he was able to hook up the generator and I can surf the net blog. I couldn’t even get the garage door open because I didn’t know where the key was. And the fuel oil went out yesterday so we haven’t had any heat since he left on Thursday. Now he’s on his way down the hill to buy some diesel so we can warm up the house tonight. What would I do without him?! Probably freeze to death in the dark I’m thinkin….

What a long week. John has been down in LA since Thursday morning and is due home tomorrow. The kids are at the tail end of their Easter vacation, and I’m ready for the weekend. Should hopefully be pretty quiet. We’re supposed to go over to a friends house Sunday night for dinner, so that should be fun. Other than that, I’m staying home and doing laundry and hanging out in my jammies. I can’t wait…

I have to admit, it’s good to be back. I’ve been wanting to post for so long now, but just didn’t know where to start again. I think I almost threw John into heart failure last night when I told him I posted something to the blog. His surprise then turned to slight disappointment when he said “it’s kinda short”. Better than nothing, right?! And now here it is 9:00 and past my bedtime. Another short one today…

Oh my gosh. I cannot even begin to believe how long it’s been since I’ve posted. So much has happened I’ll never get caught up! Nani had a birthday. Pat had a birthday. Valentine’s Day. Alanna got her driver’s license. Kaileigh won Best Smile for 8th grade yearbook. John-John has grown about 6 inches. So much going on, and so little time to write about it. So to get back into the swing of things, I’m committing to writing every day for the next 30 days (again). I’ve gotta get caught up!

On the way home from work today, we saw a UC Davis Medical School RV turning off the freeway. This brought up the following conversation:

K: What did Dad major in in College?

M: Engineering I think, but more like skiing.

K: Were you in a fraternity?

M: Um, that’s for boys.

K: Oh, I mean a maternity.

M: Maternity? Yeah, when I was pregnant.

K: Huh?  That’s not what it’s called? I totally used that word today.

John-John, is Froggy a girl or a boy?

A girl.

How do you know that?

Because she has a brother.

So are you a boy or a girl?

I’m a boy.

How do you know that?

Because I was the last baby from your tummy.

And how did you get in my tummy?

God.

And who’s God?

The guy who lives in the sky and makes the storms and stuff.

…that you got a new camera and you’re still trying to figure out how to use it and you think I’m so cute that you need to take a gazillion pictures of me! I’m not falling for that trap. Earn your own money. I’m not Chuck.

I finally pulled into the driveway last night around 7:30. Upon entering the house, I hear everyone cracking up. Apparently, John-John heard me opening up the garage door and started running the house around yelling “Duck and cover, duck and cover! Mom’s home!”

And I thought he missed me while I’m at work.

but I so want one of these!!

With a built-in GPS and WiFi!! Supposed to be launching in September 2008. Guess I’ll have to wait a few months. It’ll give me time to save my hundreds of dollars pennies.

I just got home from Ashes Ashes CD release show at MACLA. It was the first time I’ve been to this particular venue and I have to say, it’s a great place for an intimate show. The stage is up just high enough that everyone in the back can see and not too big that the band gets lost. It’s really dark and the music is really loud. 25 years ago, I would have lived in this place.

The show was really great. The kids were so excited to officially release their new CD, they all worked so hard. I think the fans were just as excited. Everyone with their hands in the air, singing along, and cheering. It was pretty cool to watch!

It was a pretty bad storm yesterday. Luckily John-John had a doctor appointment and I worked from home, so I didn’t have to commute in the storm. Just getting down to the doctor’s office yesterday was a challenge. I was surprised by how many streets were flooded! It was a torrential storm out there! When I came back, our recycling bins had fallen over and paper was blown all up our driveway. I had to stop and fix the bins and then picked up the papers. What a mess! I was soaking wet by the time I got done, and I was only out there 10 minutes and I didn’t even get it all picked up!