Met-My-Mate Mondays

My friend LL over at Vita Familiae started Met-My-Mate-Mondays and I thought I would join in. If you want to join in or just read her story, click on the button above.

I met Chris is the fall of 1993 while we were both working in the photocopying office in the library at Virginia Tech. We had the glamorous job of refilling the copiers, handing out change, and photocopying articles for inter-library loan. When I first met him, I thought he was so cute. He had a slightly better paying job and was able to delegate tasks to me but I remember that he would photocopy the journal articles for me if I stood there and talked to him (a lot later I would learn that his primary love language is companionship). We went out to dinner a couple of times and I watched a movie at his house once. He had a laser disc player and was very in to home theater type stuff. I don’t think either one of us thought of these things as dates.

At some point things started to go downhill. I remember asking him one time to help me with phyisics (he was finishing an electrical engineering degree and I was a biology major). He said he would when my shift was finished but at the end of the two hours, he refused to help me. Physics was my toughest subject. I could do the calculus but I had trouble understand the physics concepts. I took Biology 101 and 102 my senior year of high school instead of taking physics and I was at a significant disadvantage compared to my friends in the class.

Around this time, a coworker, Jeff, asked me to go to lunch with him and Chris but Chris actually said he didn’t want me to go. That was a little weird. We started not getting along at work. I don’t remember any of the specifics but my parents and my roommates at the time remember me complaining about my coworker Chris. He can be a bit of a smart aleck sometimes so maybe this played into our not getting along.

I was “promoted” to a supervisor position like Chris and we started working opposite shifts. In March of 1995 he moved to Northern Virginia. When someone at work mentioned that he had moved I didn’t think too much about it and I didn’t expect to see him again.

So, how did we get from there to getting married? Stay tuned….

Cooling Off at the Pool

Our neighborhood has an adult pool but no kiddie pool. Thankfully, Wesley is independent (well, with close supervision) in his water wings. This allows me to take both kids to the pool by myself. On Friday, Chris got home in time to join us at the pool and I was able to take some pictures.



Lydia is crazy in the water. She thinks that she can swim but of course she can't. She loves to splash and drink the water. Wesley started getting out of the pool and jumping in so that his head would go under water briefly. Lydia was sitting on the edge of the pool watching him jump in and she did it too from a sitting position! Chris was right there watching her but he didn't have his arms out to catch her so she wasn't expecting him to catch her right away. He let her go under and then grabbed her. She loved it! She has no fear and that makes her completely unsafe around the water. But she is a lot of fun.

Wolf Trap on a Hot Summer Day

We went to the Children's Theatre-in-the-Woods at Wolf Trap on Friday to see Dinorock. Last year we got rained out when we had planned to see Dinorock and when we went to see Rocknocerus it was one of the hottest days for the summer. So, the mid 80s and high humidity wasn't too bad. The kids seemed to enjoy the pirate themed showed about recycling. After the show we had a picnic in the shade. Notice that Lydia's hair is not standing up in this photo.

Like Wesley, when Lydia gets sweaty, her hair gets curlier. Here Wesley is trying to style it while Hunter watches.

Do you like his handiwork?

Lydia fell asleep before we left the parking lot but I bribed Wesley to stay awake by offering to take him to the carwash. He loves going through the automatic carwash. Yes, he still occasionally puts stickers on his face but it seems like he only does it now when he is tired.

Turning Three

When we got home from Day Out With Thomas, we had dinner and cake and Wesley opened his parents from us and my parents. One of my friends made this adorable cake and Wesley was very excited to have a train cake.



Wesley loves this Elefun game. He doesn't exactly play by the rules but it has already provided hours of entertainment.

We gave Hunter a scooter for his birthday and Wesley became obsessed with getting one for his birthday. He even told his teacher at school that he was getting a scooter for his birthday. Thankfully it wasn't a very expensive present and my parents got it for him. Notice the elbow pads and knee pads. He practiced the next two days with my parents on the flat bike path in the woods. My dad said that he could lift up his foot and coast a little but he was often distracted by other things. I heard he spent some time study an earth worm.

A few days later, Hunter gave him a present. When I told Wesley that he could open his present from Hunter he asked, "Do I have to share it with Lydia?" I think we are going to be working on this sharing thing for a long time.

Day Out

Since we don't have parties for Wesley, we like to take him special places for his birthday. Last year we went to Sesame Place a few days before his birthday (so he could get in free). This year we went to Day Out With Thomas in Strasburg, PA on his birthday. We left about 7:30 Saturday morning and it took us about 2.5 hours to drive up there. We had to park in a big field and ride a school bus to the train station. Wesley and Lydia were excited to ride the bus and we were impressed with how well organized and quick the buses were.

We thought the highlight of the day would be riding Thomas.

Wesley was excited to ride Thomas, but he liked the "big black train" better. This train ride was also longer but I think he mainly liked it because the engine was bigger and it unhitches from one end to move to the other end of the train to change directions. Thomas first pushed the train backward for ten minutes and then pulled it forward to return to the station.
Here is Wesley watching the big black engine moving to the other end of the train.

My parents went with us. Didn't you know that they have always wanted to ride on Thomas?

Lydia wasn't feeling well all weekend, but she did perk up at times.

We walked by a woman eating ice cream, and Wesley said, "I want some of that white ice cream!" I was so grateful that this total stranger chose vanilla!
If you have a Thomas lover in your family, I highly recommend going to Strasburg for Day Out with Thomas. There was a huge crowd on Saturday, but everything was very organized. There were also other activities for the kids. We did some of them, but not all of them, and we were there for four hours. Wesley slept all the way home. He woke up a few minutes before our house. As we pulled into our neighborhood he said, "Are we going to ride on Thomas and the Big Black Engine tomorrow?"

Partying at School

I am not yet ready to throw birthday parties for my kids but I knew Wesley wanted a party. Since we don't go to a lot of birthday parties, his expectations weren't very high. So we did the party at his school. Chris, Lydia, and I showed up after naptime right before snack time. Wesley was thrilled to have his classmates sing Happy Birthday and to blow out the candles. His school is rather small, so the $15.99 cake from Costco fed everyone there. I got a chocolate cake with choclate mousse from there because it really is one of my all time favorites.

Wesley will often ask me when we talk about someone's birthday, "Are we going to eat the birthday?" After this weekend, he may or may not realize that a birthday and a cake are two different things.

"Moon Bounce Church"

Our MOPS group had an indoor play date in the church’s gym last week. We had a moon bounce and moms brought their bikes, scooters, and ride-on toys. The moms also brought picnic lunches. At some point the gym started to get crowded and some moms went out to the playground to enjoy the nice, comfortable, low humidity day. This is a relatively easy event for Michelle and me to plan and execute. One of our fabulous mentor moms manned the moon bounce for the second year in a row. She made sure that we never had an unsafe number of kids in the bounce. She stuck to the schedule of the under three crowd for thirty minutes and the three and above crowd for thirty minutes. Since this was three days before his birthday, Wesley did double dip a few times, but I tried to make sure no one was waiting for a turn when he climbed in.

Lydia had a turn in the moon bounce before anyone else got there and right before we turned off the switch to deflate it. She also enjoyed scribbling with crayons on big pieces of paper that we had taped to the floor. Yes, she did nibble on some of them. She also enjoyed pushing some of the ride-on toys and riding on them. I did notice that if another kid had the toy she wanted, she was usually able to get it without the other kid walking away crying.

Wesley learned how to really ride his tricycle on the flat, smooth gym floor. He had been trying to ride in our driveway and on the sidewalk but he could only pedal a short distance. As soon as he got on his tricycle in the gym, he was able to go all the way across the gym and turn around and come back. He was trilled!

Tonight, Wesley wanted to ride his tricycle in our neighborhood and we were pleasantly surprised at how well he did. He was even able to pedal up hill a little bit. I had to slow the tricycle down when he rode downhill. On the flat bike trail he could go pretty fast. He did get very tired and I had to carry him home (uphill) while Chris carried the tricycle and Lydia.

The day after the indoor play date we drove out to Burke to pick up Wesley’s birthday cake. When we passed Burke Community Church, he asked, “What is that building?” So I told him and then I asked, “What church do we go to?” He immediately said, “Moon Bounce Church!” (We go to Immanuel Bible Church.)

Wesley now regularly wants to say the blessing at dinner. We sometimes have to remind him to thank God for the food but he is getting very good at thanking God for “Mommy, Daddy, and Lydia” and for the fun things he enjoys. For instance last night he said, “thank you for us going to playground and for us playing play dough.” For a few evenings after the indoor play date we heard, "Thank you for the moon bounce."

South Carolina

For Father's Day weekend, we drove to SC for a quick visit with Chris' family. On Saturday we went to the children's museum in Columbia, EdVenture. All the kids, ages 15 months to almost 9 years, had a great time. Here is a picture of us in front of the World's Largest Child, Ed.

Here is a photo of Chris' dad climbing up Ed's spine.

Fireman Daniel driving the fire truck.

Isn't this a good photo? Someone at church asked me if I was Tricia's sister and I took that as a compliment.

Lydia spent a lot of time playing with these air tubes that shot balls out.

Jacob is ten months old than Wesley who is standing on a step. What do you think of that curly hair? I did get it cut a few days after these photos were taken.


Ryan and Daniel racing boats.

Lydia soaked herself with the water. She loved splashing in it and trying to drink it. She would have climbed in if we had not stopped her. Before she discovered the boat race, she kept kneeling down and trying to lick the puddles of water on the sidewalk. When my mother-in-law tried to make her stop, Lydia just laid down on the wet cement. She is obsessed with water.

Elephant Bath

I love being a FONZ member beacause the free parking encourages me to go to the zoo more often. One morning a couple of weeks ago we went the zoo with friends to see the elephant bath. This was such a treat. Two of the elephants get a bath early in the morning before the elephant house opens but one of the elephants gets a public bath at 10:30. The elephant keepers start by giving him water to drink from the hose. That night when I gave the kids a bath, Lydia tried drinking the water as it flowed into the tub.

The elephant was rewarded with treats for being so cooperative.


Here are the kids taking a break in the bird house. Wesley's favorite animals at the zoo are the elephants and the birds.
Michelle and Hunter looking at the cranes.

Victoria

The ship docked in Victoria while we were eating dinner. Due to US regulations any foreign-flagged cruise ship that leaves from an American port must stop in a foreign port before returning to the US so we were docked in Victoria from 7PM to midnight. After dinner we walked downtown with my parents and took a carriage ride.

This is the government meeting building. I forgot the name of it.

Chris got hours and hours of digital recordings of our vacation. For some reason Wesley was sucking both thumbs the night we were in Victoria.
Here is the horse that pulled the carriage and the driver.

We truly had a wonderful vacation. Alaska is absolutely beautiful in late May and we hope to return in five years or so. We saw a lot of eagles flying around the ship and ports but the only bears we saw were at the zoo in Seattle. The biggest thrill was seeing whales on night at dinner!

Chris gave me such a hard time about going back a month and recording our cruise on my blog but I wanted to preserve the memories and share them with you. Thank you for reading and looking at the photos.

Ketchikan

Creek Street


In Ketchikan we walked around and then went to the Lumberjack Show with Chris' parents. My dad said he had seen it on tv so he and my mom skipped this. The kids really enjoyed the show but Lydia was very restless when the host was talking in between the events. She was enthralled when the events were taking place. She even liked the chainsaw. One of my favorite events was the pole climbing. This guy did make it to the top very quickly.
My other favorite event was the log rolling.

I dropped my carema while we were in Ketchikan and the image stabilization mechanism broke. Chris tried to fix it when we got home but was unable to so he got a new camera for Father's Day.

Juneau

In Juneau, we took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier. In Juneau, we took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier. Juneau is the stat capitol but it is only assessable by air or water because the mountains that surround it are so rugged.


My in-laws.
We also went up on the Mt. Roberts Tramway. All the trails were closed because they were still covered in snow. The kids had fun standing on and touching the snow near the gift shop.

The beautiful view.

Hubbard Glacier

It was cold viewing the Hubbard Glacier. The temperature was in the high 30s so we bundled the kids up for some scenic viewing before naptime.
Since it was early in the cruise season, there was a lot of ice in the water. At this point, we were going through a large ice field. We could hear the ice clinking against the ship.
I think we were 2 1/4 miles from the glacier at the closest point. Later in the summer, the ships will be able to get closer. Our captain could've gotten closer but it was such slow going that he ran out of time.
My parents were tough and stay on the top (coldest) deck of the ship for a couple of hours. Here is a picture of them on their deck.