Fossils, wild ponies and the beach!

We started this very busy day with blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Yummy! Then the maids showed up and we got on the road. The first stop was the Aurora Fossil Museum. The town itself was dead quiet but the museum seemed to be the only place that had people in it! It was a nice little place with a bunch of fossils...shark, whale, spears etc. Travis was bouncing off the walls because he wanted TO DIG! Across the street from the museum was a large pit you could dig in. They had all kinds of fossilized shark teeth, coral, shells etc. I'm not sure how old the stuff in there was supposed to be but Travis was LOVING IT! He was all about digging and asking what each thing was. He found some teeth, shells and coral. Eventually we were able to pry him away and move onto our next destination.

Next we went over to Minnesott Beach to try to catch the ferry. Notice I said "try". Apparently the ferry service has had some problems lately and the next one wasn't for an hour and a half (normally they run every 30 min). Al (Evan's Dad) got a little lost to try to get to Beaufort. Just a little yelling in the car--lol. We eventually got to Beaufort at around the same time the ferry would have been picking us up at Minnesott Beach. Not too bad! We had lunch by the water and I think everyone had a great lunch. The places looked over the dunes where the wild ponies are. At one point we saw the ponies but they were tiny specks in the distance. You would really need them to be on the shore to see them and binoculars would have been helpful too. :)

After lunch we stopped for fudge and ice cream. We haven't eaten the fudge yet but I'm sure we will make a dent in it after dinner tonight. Then we headed over to the North Carolina Maritime Museum. Unfortunately you can't take pictures in most of the places in there but Travis had a great time checking out all of the boats etc. Everything was "cool". There was a cool boat he could sit in that you could take a picture in as well so that was the only picture there-lol.

We made it a few miles down the road to Atlantic Beach. Travis was beyond excited since we typically only go to the beach once a year! All of us headed down to the beach and Travis wanted in the water immediately! He got knocked over a few times but came up smiling every time it happened! Eventually it got too hot for us there and we packed up into the car to head back to the house.

Tomorrow should be another busy day! I think we are headed to the boat for a nice ride! Who knows what else we have planned.....

Not too shabby.,.....

On the road to Grammy and Poppy's!

We left around 7am today to get on the road for the 5+ hour drive. Thankfully this is about the time Travis goes to school so it wasn't too hard to get him going in the morning. After about an hour and a half on the road Evan couldn't stand Travis running his mouth anymore so we stopped for breakfast....for both breakfast and to give Travis his meds! :) We stopped at Chick Fil-A and that was exciting to Travis because of the playground and exciting to me since I love the Chicken Minis. When we piled back in the car Travis watched a bunch of movies. I think it was "Spongicus" and "Clone Wars". Once the movies were over-we were almost here!

Jamey, Travis and I headed into town to run a few errands and visit with the people down at the POG (Purpose of God). The POG is a religious based group and the people in his parents neighborhood volunteer over there all the time. Travis was there when he was a baby and they all wanted to see him again. The people that work there are all so nice. They have 57 kids in the daycare/summer camp type program there all run by a person the call "The Bishop". Travis wouldn't talk to anyone when we first got there but the Bishop won him over. Next thing I know he is getting candy and going back to the game room with him! The Bishop taught Travis how to play Foosball-Travis wasn't very good at first but he got the hang on it in the end! Later we went over to WalMart to pick up a few things and Travis asked for and got a mask and snorkel-he was so excited!

Travis opened his birthday gifts and got a VT/UVA checker set and a red Cypress Landing Yacht Club shirt with his name on it. The shirt is just like Al's so hopefully he will wear it on the boat tomorrow! After a great dinner of brisket, green beans, missy potatoes and fruit salad we took Travis out to the golf course to hit the ball on the 17th green. He loved it! It was his first time on an actual course. Video to come in another post. Hopefully he is going to sleep soon....full day tomorrow!

Lazy Sunday

Sunday was a cloudy day so we spent the entire day in the house. I did a ton of laundry-even all of the sheets! Travis watched a bunch of TV and played Legos as well. It feels good to get the laundry basket empty but of course it does get filled up eventually. Oh well. It’s nice when it does last. I spent the late afternoon packing everything for our trip down to North Carolina to visit Evan’s parents. We will be there Monday-Thursday of this week. Travis is very excited since we are going to take him fishing and he will get to ride on Poppy’s boat. Not sure which days we are doing which things but there will surely be blog entries about these adventures! Stay tuned. :)

Video of Travis being cute with Evan on the 4th

4th of July

Travis slept in until 9:30am which never happens but that is since he fell asleep around 11:30ish the night before because of the party. After having breakfast we decided to head over to the pool for a few hours. I have once again failed at bringing my camera to the pool however. One time this summer I will get some pool pictures I promise. Travis is getting better at swimming underwater-just need him to be able to swim better in general so we don’t have to watch him so closely. We will get there eventually.

Later that afternoon we headed over to Chris and Missy’s for a BBQ with them and Chris’s parents. The kids had a blast running around in the backyard and at one point were having a marching band in the backyard. Travis was the harmonica player-lol. It was very cute. Then later I heard a horn of some type and went to find out what it was….Travis had found Chris’ French horn and was playing it. He wasn’t half bad! I guess playing the tuba at Skippy’s last fall paid off!  Evan made his famous burgers (1/2 beef and ½ sausage) and everyone really liked them.

After we all ate we packed everyone up and headed over to Bready Park in Herndon to watch the fireworks. When we got there we realized there was a small carnival there for the 4th of July. Of course the kids all made a beeline for that but it was to be expected I guess. Once they came back the kids wanted something else to eat so Evan, Chris and his dad went to stand in the line. Now this line was the worst thing-it wasn’t really that long but it was incredibly SLOW! They were standing in line for probably 30 minutes? When Evan got back he said it was just one lady working it and she was slow. Yikes. The kids thankfully ate the various things that the boys brought back and then we were waiting some more for the fireworks. Finally at around 9:30 they said it was time for them to start and they turned off the lights. Of course they didn’t actually start until about 9:50 but they were pretty impressive. Travis liked the big ones the best and I liked the ones that looked like swarms of bees the best. Once the show was over we practically ran back to the car to try and beat the traffic. Well we got in the car, pulled out and didn’t move anywhere for about 20-25 minutes. I started to have Nissan Pavilion flashbacks. Finally the people started to move once the people trying to direct traffic let you turn either left or right. The hold up was the fact they were only letting people turn left out of the lot and going left was jammed solid. Travis fell asleep in the car again and was in bed around 11pm.

Video from Friday's fireworks......

1st day of vacation

Thankfully we took more than a week off for the holiday. The maid showed up at 8am and we had to get the house tidy and us dressed quickly so we could get out of her way. We all headed to “The Fractured Prune” for breakfast. I wanted to see what this place was all about. Basically it’s a donut place where they have all kinds of crazy flavors to choose from and they make them all fresh right then for you. The Carnival flavor was my favorite and Travis liked the Rolo one. It’s kind of expensive but nice for a treat-way better than Dunkin in my opinion. The original plan for the rest of the day was to spend most of the day at the pool but Mother Nature had different ideas. It was a cool day on Friday and the clouds just kept rolling in. At one point we even had some rain so instead of going to the pool we spent a good chunk of the day in the basement. Travis played video games and I did a few pages in my scrapbook.

Later in the day we got ready to head over to Traci and Mo’s for their annual 3rd of July block party. I have heard about this infamous party before but this was the 1st time we were invited. :) Mike, Chris, Knut and Andy were the main attraction at the party with their rock band “4 kinds of Meat”. It was kind of funny to see how nervous they all got before it was time for their set to begin……the neighborhood will never be the same-lol. A good time was had by all-Travis ran around like a mad man with Tommy and some of the other kids. When it was light out I had no problem keeping an eye on him but when it got dark it became a challenge. Though when it got darker the sparklers came out and boy were they a hit! The only issue was that Travis thought it was funny to fling them at people…..I had to make a quick stop to that. After the band played their last song it was time for the fireworks! I’m not sure where they got the fireworks but I am sure they weren’t legal. :) It was the best non-professional fireworks display I have ever seen! Travis spent the whole time in awe of the display with his hands on his ears of course. I will post a short video of this in another post as well. After that we let Travis play a little more and finally left around 11pm. Travis fell asleep in the car on the way home of course!

Very proud 2 star boy!

Travis got another green star at TKD yesterday! Master J LOVES his yelling/enthusiasam and that is why he got it. He was beaming from ear to ear. Then later in the class 2 kids were going to be chosen for a kicking contest to break a board. Travis and another kid were chosen for that and he broke the board! He was all smiles......I will get a pic of his new star soon. :)

Trip to the Capitol!

Yesterday we went on a tour of the Capitol. Well we were supposed to be touring the White House but the girl I sent the email to dropped the ball. She claims it was in her spam filter but Evan said there is no way my reply to her message was in a spam filter. Of course she finds it the day before we are supposed to do and it’s too late to send the White House our info for background checks etc. We will reschedule this soon of course but it was a little disappointing.

Travis was excited about riding the Metro but wasn’t a fan of how loud it was when it pulled into the station. His hands were on his ears for a good amount of time. Once we got there we met up with my parents, Mandy and Charlie. The tour itself was pretty interesting but we were bummed when they said the House and Senate were closed that day and would be open tomorrow. Of course we had passes to both of them-maybe on our next trip to DC (when we finally reschedule the White House tour). Evan was even more upset when he realized that Al Franken may have shown up today for the first time and he was hoping to see him be sworn –in. Oh well. Some other tour group will get lucky in that respect.

Travis went back with my parents and Mandy since sending him to school for about 3 hours before TKD seemed silly. At first he was upset for some reason about going with them but then realized he would have fun. They went out to lunch at Mike’s and took a trip to the toy store-I’m not sure who enjoys this more…..my Dad or Travis! :)Mandy took Travis to TKD and he did very well!