FHE-apalooza!

So we had the Lollapalooza of FHE's yesterday evening.  And when I say that, I mean we had singing, dancing, people running and hiding, people acting just this side of crazy, and even a poop in the bucket (say what?!)!  Everything you'd see at Lollapalooza right?!  Or so I'd imagine.  Nonetheless, what a very crazy afternoon/evening we had...

It all started off with the random poop in the bucket.  I'm telling you all about this because it's a milestone for our sweet Lauren.  Not the way I pictured it, but it is what it is.  So we had multiple (as in like four-five) flash rain storms yesterday.  Enough to keep you from going to the park, but not enough to keep you from your backyard.  So there we were, playing in the back yard.  The girls were playing with their water table and I was whacking down ivy and tree sprouts about 20 feet from our back door.  It went from a spotty sunny afternoon to a torrential down-pour in no less than 10 seconds.  By the time I literally put down the pruning shears and headed to the back door, approximately 5 feet from the water table where the girls were, I was soaked through to the skin.  Since our kitchen is right off the back door and it's tile, I decided I was going to strip the girls down to avoid a mess and slipping hazards if possible.  I took Lauren's clothes and diaper off first, then went to work on disrobing the howling Olivia.  The flash rain storm had her all out of sorts, which I get.  She's 20 months old and not used to the mood swings of mother nature yet.  At any rate, by the time I got her clothes and diaper off, the rain had lightened a little and Olivia had calmed down.  Just then, Lauren runs up to me and says, "Momma, I went poopy!"  What?!  At this point in time I had a flash of the Lysol wipes commercial on the TV, where the little boy makes the same exclamation to his mother; however, he pooped in the tub and not the toilet.  So where on earth did she poop, or did she even really poop?  So I said to Lauren while panning the patio for poop, "Where did you poop sissy?"  She replies with pride, "In my bucket mom!"  Just then I spot the bucket she's motioning to inside her playhouse, where she was sheltering while I was taking Olivia's clothes off.

Lauren's first sit-down poop

The scene of the pooping

Lauren was so proud of not pooping in her diaper.  If only I could've been equally ecstatic.

Nate got home just in time for me to borrow his iPhone to take pictures of the whole scene before we got flash rained on again.  He asked, "Are you really going to take a picture of the poop in the bucket?"  I said, "It's her first non-diaper, sitting position poop.  Of course I am!"  If only he/everyone knew how hard I've tried to persuade Lauren to use the big girl potty, he/everyone would be very understanding of this picture-worthy "progress", however misplaced it was!  Unfortunately I took too long in taking pictures though, so that when I got to taking care of the poop bucket, the humidity had already gotten to the poop and began wreaking.  Oh well, at least Nate was home to give the naked girls a bath while I got dinner on the table.

I love Olivia's many "cheese" faces!

After dinner, but before we had family home evening (FHE) the girls gave us a music moment.  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  Sure we'll take it as an opening song for FHE!

So for FHE, Nate taught the girls the story about the Miracle of the Gulls that took place in Salt Lake City, 1848.  Story line: swarms of insects (now termed "Mormon crickets") threatened to destroy the crops that would literally sustain life for thousands of pioneers.  However, legions of seagulls appeared to devour the insects, providing a life-saving service for the Mormon pioneers.  That story told, Nate then spread "insects" (teddy grahams, Snicker bits, vanilla puffs) on the floor of the living room and told the girls that they needed to be like the seagulls and eat the insects to help save the pioneers' crops.  It took them a second to get into it; but they did get into it!  Lauren even played through a nose injury sustained while doing a particularly deep and aggressive swoop for a teddy graham.

 

Nose injury just happened

Throbbing nose = sad face

Daddy found his inner seagull too! Much to the girls chagrin!

Olivia let Lauren play the gull role while she played the candy-napper role!



This daddy seagull is so fun to feed!

Sugar rush is kicking in!!!





Then to run the sugar out of the girls before bed time, Nate kicked off a rigorous game of hide-&-seek.  Much to our surprise, Olivia wanted to be "it", and even counted to 10 all by herself!  I was shocked that she could do it without Lauren or one of us talking her through it.  But luckily she did it multiple times, enough for me to actually catch it on video.  So here's Olivia's first time counting to 10, unassisted!  As for understanding how to play hide-&-seek, well, we're going to have to work on it! :0P

Temple Time & Burke Lake Park

Yesterday Nate and I were able to go and do a session for our first time in the Washington D.C. Temple.   Man, what a beautiful temple!  By far the largest temple I've ever been in before.  So large that there were numerous times we were concerned that we were lost or heading in the wrong direction, only to find a temple worker waiting around the next bend in the hallway to direct us.  Regardless of our "waywardness" in the temple itself, it was certainly great to be there to get away from the calamity of life.  To get a refreshed perspective on what's important and feel the love of our Heavenly Father... Mission accomplished! As the spirit at the temple yesterday was overflowing. We Olsen's felt greatly refreshed and more at peace with the happenings of life after leaving the temple.  We are recommitting to get one of us to the temple monthly, even if it means we do so separately.

So where do we head to after this wonderful temple experience?! To pick up the Calamity Twins from our dear friends, the Finnegan's.  Then after a quick lunch and nap time at home, we headed outdoors to "spend" some little people energy (i.e. wear out these Olsen Irish twins!).  What better place to use up some energy than at a new, never experienced before park?!  Some girlfriends from playgroup told me about Burke Lake Park in Burke, Virginia.  Highlights of the park being: a carousel, a train, an ultimate Frisbee course, and a mini-golf course!  After a 25 minute car-ride, these girls were stoked to get out and play...uh, kind of?!

Lauren refused to nap at home when Olivia did,
so she napped on the car ride over. Popsicle stick and all.

Olivia is less than impressed on the car ride.

We bought tickets for the train and carousel as soon as we got there, but apparently we just weren't moving fast enough for these girls.  Olivia picked no less than 15 different seats/train carts to sit in while waiting for the train to leave the station.  She was moving around so much, that she caused Nate and Lauren to lose their seats to oncoming passengers and all four of us ended jammed into a cart meant for two.  Poor Nate's knees took the brunt of Olivia's wild ways. :/

Olivia is searching for her next cart to explore, while Lauren and Daddy say "cheeeeeeese"!

Olivia disembarking the train cart, first of fifty or so times



Olivia found her next cart...for about 10 seconds

Not even Lauren could tame this crazy girl...
Olivia's middle name "Wild" couldn't fit her
any better than right now!

The content passengers before they got seat-jacked while trying to corral Olivia.

After the train ride, we headed directly to the carousel to wait in line.  It appeared that they weren't operating the train/carousel simultaneously, so if we didn't get on this go-round, it might take about 20 minutes until we got another chance. 

What great little girls waiting in line for their turns

Nate rode the carousel with the girls, both of which seemed to enjoy their rides.  Lauren was a bit more hands-in-the-air, whooping out loud impressed.  While sweet Olivia maintained two hands on the pole, binkie firmly in mouth, smiling and swinging her feet.

 


This picture makes them look like they're streaking by at a
high speed, when in fact my iPhone camera just must have
that slow of a shutter speed.

Here you see Olivia trying to go back for seconds. Not a chance with a dad that has a wingspan like that!

After the carousel ride we went to the playground located about 30 yards west of the carousel.  Not a huge play area, but it didn't seem to matter as there were kids-galore.  Lauren and Olivia were captivated by people/kid watching at first, but then they got down and dirty (figuratively and literally) with the mulch/slides/monkey bars.  These two are hilarious in their love for the monkey bars.  They obviously can't do them on their own, but they love it when you hold the bottom of their feet and keep them elevated enough to go from bar-to-bar.  They have the hand work to be good monkeys; however, their wingspan and height need to improve...by about 5-7 years! ;0P

Notice the stick Olivia is clutching.  She went into the forest and
found it herself...then proceeded to walk the play area with it. 
I'm sure she made more than one parent nervous with it, this parent included.

After about 40 minutes in the playground area Lauren was wondering off, looking for some food because she "want breakfast mom!"  Breakfast is what Lauren calls every meal, so we knew she was now hungry for dinner.  Lucky for us, this great park was located only 3.5 miles from Café Rio, where we were able to partake in some delicious sweet pork salads, homemade tortillas, and queso.  Yumm-O!  What a day!

Sunday Funday!

This past Sunday was such a beautiful day, that we just had to get out of the house!  Nate's coworkers had been telling him about Jones Point Park, a park right under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge (I-495/"the beltway" runs across it).  I was a bit skeptical about what we'd find under the bridge of one of the most highly utilized interstates in the country, but hey, no hurt in checking it out.  If it did end up being a great park, then it would be yet another one in our growing repertoire of outdoor play spots. 

The view of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge from the playground at Jones Point Park.

But before we could head out to Jones Point Park, we had to get the girls out of their Sunday clothes and into play clothes.  The girls had other plans.  Like sucking their dad into letting them walk/jog on the treadmill.  That's right folks, my girls' have fun by having some treadmill time! What a GREAT example Nate is to Lauren and Olivia, with his ever-constant working out.  As for mommy, well, ah,...she needs to work on it...work out that is! ;0P

So we finally talked Lauren into putting on some clothes, but only after we whispered sweet nothings about a new park with "big kid" swings.  We had her at swings.

 

So look what we found at Jones Point Park?!  With a backdrop as lush and green as this, you would've never guessed we were about 100 yards away/below the Woodrow Wilson bridge.  To make it even better, there was no noise pollution.  No constant indicator that we were so close to a major thoroughfare.  Brilliant idea City of Alexandria, or whomever is responsible for this park--sheer brilliance!  Quite apparently Olivia thinks it's a great find too!

What a happy little shark-rider!

While at the playground part of the park, we talked to another parent that began to tell us all about Jones Point Park.  There are multiple full-length basketball courts directly under the bridge (and a good game taking place while we were there), multiple cement slabs for kids to ride bikes/scooters/skate boards on, a historic lighthouse complete with history of this area, and lastly, the fishing pier and ever popular banks of the Potomac River.  Again, what a find this place is!

So after Lauren and Olivia played their little hearts out, we grabbed the stroller and took a little walk over to the historic lighthouse.  Between the playground and the lighthouse was some crazy lush vegetation, and a ton of animal life.

Lauren was pretty pumped about the change of scenery, so she ran ahead, quite a ways...

Lauren was super stoked about the lighthouse.  Well, the water pump at the lighthouse anyway.  She kept holding on to the handle and posing for me. 

Nate had to lure her down with questions of the unknown, "What's over here Lauren?!  Should we go check it out?"

Lauren: "Yeah daddy! We go!"

Lauren's attempt to get the wind-swept Pocahontas look.  That's our favorite movie this week BTW.

So we all took off towards the fishing pier, in hopes to catch a glimpse of someone reeling one in.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see the excitement and the fight of the catch, which was surprising with the sheer number of fishermen that were there.  But we did get to see the catch-of-the-day for a man that was getting ready to relocate to another fishing area.  He really did have some nice size fish, one in particular; however, I'm not going to estimate it's weight because I learned early in my childhood I really am not good at it.  Tough to admit, but I tend to always grossly overestimate.  Guess it's a good thing I'm not a carnival worker, manning the weight guessing booth.  I'd probably acquire a lot of black-eyes from offended patrons! ;0P  So I'll just say that his largest fish was approximately the same size as Nate's forearm.

I was impressed.  Lauren was slightly appalled.  Olivia was pretty indifferent.  And Nate quietly stated while walking away, "There's no way I'd eat anything caught out of the Potomac!"  His colleagues, local men for 50+ years, apparently say the same thing.  I guess with them all being engineers for a base that sits directly on the Potomac River banks, they probably know what they are talking about.  Like what ends up in the Potomac River water that they wouldn't want to consume!  Oh well, I'm still going to try and lure my dad out for a visit with promises of fishing.  Catch and release anyone???

Olivia: So Tired!

There isn't really much to this story, other than it was pretty entertaining to find Olivia like this after leaving her literally 15 seconds earlier (to take her lunch and tray into the kitchen). 

We had a busy morning going to Music Makers and Home Depot, but I didn't realize it was so draining that a highchair nap time was in order.

BTW, we took the picture of Olivia and I just three minutes before I came to find my sweet girl had climbed back into her chair and zonked out (I checked the time stamp!).  So I guess you could say that our Olivia can go from 60 to zero in three minutes flat!!!

Memorial Day Fun - NOVA Style!

A great perk of living in Northern Virginia (NOVA), is that you really don't have to "go" anywhere to find something new to see on a holiday weekend.  This Memorial Day we went on three different "adventures", as Lauren and Nate call them...

We went to the National Harbor to play with "the Man in the Sand" at the riverfront sand pit, as well as to check out the brand new carousel.  We didn't ride the carousel though, as we decided to save that adventure for Nana Barbie when she comes out June 13th! But we had a great time feeding the ducks cheesy crackers off the pier, as well as practicing our letters on the walk to and fro (National Harbor is spelled out on the pier). Don't you know that Lauren loved the "L"!

We also visited the Oxon Hill Farm in Maryland, where the girls got to see cows, pigs, and horses.  Oxon Hill Farm evolved from a plantation home during the War of 1812, to a hospital farm for St. Elizabeth's, to the national park it is today.  It was crazy that this place was literally right off the beltway/I-495, because it didn't feel or sound like it after you entered the park.  We were enveloped by dense forest and green grass...and not a traffic noise could be heard.  It really was amazing.  To get to see (placards placed throughout the park) the history that was lived here too was pretty impressive.  We even had a rooster chasing Lauren down for her apple, but I neglected to get pictures because Nate had Olivia down visiting the pigs, so I had to pull "protector" duty.  And when I say "protector" duty, I mean I grabbed the apple out of Lauren's hand, bit off a piece and chucked it about 15 feet away to divert the rooster from my delirious toddler's path.  You really would've thought she was missing a limb!  But first-time animal fear may feel pretty close to that yeah???

 

Our third adventure of the weekend took us into D.C. proper, blocks away from the Washington National's Baseball stadium, to a place called The Yards Park.  It's located on the Anacostia River and is known for it's interactive wet/water features.  Lauren was out-of-her-mind excited, even though it wasn't the warmest of days.  Olivia on the other hand, well, she needed some warm up time (metaphorically and literally); but she got into the swing of things after an hour or so.  We ended up spending about 3 1/2 hours here, having lunch on the grass right in the middle of everything.  I definitely see repeat trips to The Yards Park in our future; but next time I'll make sure the Nats are playing out of town so parking isn't such a beast!

The word ecstatic doesn't even begin to capture how excited Lauren was...

 

Olivia is finally acclimated and having fun!

 

Lauren is always able to make a friend wherever we go!

 

Why Am I Dressed Like...

...I'm going on a motorcycle ride you ask?!

Long story short, we are carrying out a poison ivy-excavation in our back yard! :0(
We had a repairman come to assess the damage done to the back fence of our rental house on Tremont Court (damage sustained last fall from fallen tree), and he informed me that we have a serious poison ivy infestation along our back fence!  Say what?!  So we've been playing amongst poison ivy for nearly two months now?  And neither Nate nor I noticed this?! AND neither of the girls has touched it yet?!  We are ripe for a "lesson" from Mother Nature, that's for sure!

So that's why I'm covered from head-to-toe in 90* weather with 80% humidity, looking to get a case of heat stroke! We've toyed with Mother Nature for nearly two months now and I don't want my luck to run out this week. So I've been digging out decades old ivy vines and poison ivy from our fence line (this poison ivy is DEFINITELY older than the 10 months we've been here) for approximately six days now...and we're still not done.  Even with Nate coming home and pulling evening ivy-excavation shift after he gets home from work...we're stiiiiiiiiiiill not done. *agh*

Hopefully we'll get it all dug out by tomorrow...and then we'll have to figure out how to get rid of the 40+ yard waste bags (no lie) that we've accumulated.  On the bright side (if there is one), Nate and I can spot poison ivy from 20 yards away now!

Oh! And we've experienced our first run-in with the Virginia tick...well Lauren has anyway.  With all the time we've been spending outdoors excavating this week, it was bound to happen.  I don't have pictures to commemorate this event though, because it took me to hold her down and Nate to pry the tick off her back with tweezers...and then the second one off her thigh.  Oh poison ivy, I guess you did "get yours" via your little tick friend!

Delaplane Strawberry Festival

So Nate has a thing with finding us new, never-been-done-before activities (by us) each weekend we have free.  With it being strawberry picking season, he stumbled upon the Delaplane Strawberry Festival advertisements, and he knew what we were going to do this weekend.  So we jumped in the car about 9AM, and a little over an hour later we were navigating the rolling hills of Delaplane, VA, being traffic-controlled to our "parking spot" out in the middle of a field on a slightly descending hillside.  It was beautiful. 

 

And even more beautiful in that the car-ride up wasn't a train-wreck, minus Lauren asking, "Where are we going Daddy?", literally every three minutes.  You just have to stop answering after a while, right??? 
So in that hour we went from the warm, densely populated city of Alexandria, to the sweeping views and rolling green hills of rural NOVA.  But it seemed that we went through not only a culture warp, but a weather warp as well.  People were not rushing at 100 MPH, nor did they give you the impression they felt that they themselves were more important than you (oh East Coast, don't get me started)... 
At any rate, at this slightly higher elevation on an unseasonably mild day, it was a bit chilly and the wind was definitely cooling it down that much more.  But it was completely tolerable with a jacket, which unfortunately Nate forgot to bring. *insert goose bumps here*  So he wore his goose bumps with pride and toughed it out Colorado-boy style.  He was not about to let the wind and chill get in the way of the girls' fun-day. 
So we went straight to the hay bale maze!  It was a one-way maze, so of course sweet, energizer bunny Lauren tore through it like it was on fire.

Then she had to be redirected by the staff not to go in the exit a couple times, in her attempts to go find Olivia.  Olivia, she who knows and goes a normal toddler speed, verses Lauren's full-throttle, full-time.

Next we went to the potato sack race area.  Olivia was content in daddy's arms, while Lauren wanted to get inside a sack and jump with the other kids.  Once the lady said, "Go!", it was like a herd of cats were being released into the wild, going every which way.  Lauren made it about halfway down to the turn-around, before she took a spill and flailed like a turtle on her back for a minute or so.  She then saw an older girl on her way back to the finish line, decided to get up and follow her across the finish line.  So it looked like she finished in 2nd place, but was technically the 1st place finisher in the disqualified bracket!  That's our competitive sweet girl!  All the while Olivia is hollering from Nate's arms for Lauren to, "Mere 'Livia"! (translated to "Come Here, Olivia").  Yes, that's right. Olivia calls Lauren by the name Olivia.  Even after we ask her to repeat the name Lauren back to us while pointing at her sister, Olivia will still call Lauren by Olivia. Every. Single. Time.  I just hope Lauren doesn't begin to think her name is 'Livia!

We then ran over to the cake-walk area, and walked from red square to red square with the rest of the kids at the festival.  We went about 13 rounds before Olivia was lucky enough to have her number called (#25).  It was perfect timing really, because the girls were losing interest and asking for a treat by this time.  So they split the mini-cupcake, much to Olivia's disliking.

Then off to the face-painting booth where the girls chose what they wanted on their cheeks.  Lauren chose a strawberry (probably because pictures of them were all around us, and it was the first thing she saw/thought of), and Olivia chose a flower.  They both sat extremely still and didn't even smudge their face-paint before it was dry.  Yeah for non-ruined clothing!

 

We then headed towards the festival's craft tents, which had quite the assortment of craftiness.  Everything from giant marbles, to animal figurines made out of pots and pans, to knit owl hats--which were adorable!  They even had them in Denver Bronco colors!  But since we already have owl hats for the girls, Mr. Nate wasn't feeling it...so we walked on...mostly just to keep him warm. :0)

 

The infamous owl hats! Who could have too many of these?!

 

We then stumbled upon the self-titled Virginia Jelly Bean Queen, whom does not sell jelly beans, but instead makes balloon animals/shapes.  So we stood in the barn to keep out of the wind, and waited for the girls to get their 3 foot long flowers.  They loved them, but had a hard time keeping ahold of them in the wind.  And when they were holding them they were swatting things with them; therefore causing petals of their flowers to pop/"fall off". 

 

We then got to see a small hand-held monkey (not sure of the breed), whom took quarters from people gathering around to see the spectacle.  But the kettle corn smelled too good and was apparently calling the girls' names, so we headed to the food booths for some fresh-out-the-kettle popcorn.  It really was delicious!  From there we walked and munched on popcorn.  We saw cows, horses and ponies, and even raced tractor-like tricycles.  The crowd was really beginning to swell by this time, so we decided to call it a day and head for our car.  The girls were content because they had their popcorn and a nice car-ride/nap time coming their way.  What a day!