Washington DC Temple at Christmastime

Georgia McMinn Cousins!

Trenton and Cami (along with their parents) came to see us for a few days on their way up to Delaware for Christmas. We all had a great time. We all went out to dinner at Carolina Barbeque, where everything is either stewed, fried or unrecognizable. For some reason, everybody loved it but me. The kids loved it because there's a soft serve ice cream machine. Doug, Connor, and Steve loved it because it's all you can eat. Amanda and I tolerated it becasue they had hush puppies. After that, we headed down to Bass Pro Shops. Bass Pro Shops? Yep, it entertains the kids and wears em right out. Nuff said. Doug and Steve took the kids to the Festival of Lights in Newport News and Amanda and I headed to Wal-Mart for some groceries. Who says we don't know how to live it up?

Trent and Ellie

Nielson, Cami and Huddy.

Nielson did have a plate, I promise. He threw it on the floor!

Connor and Nielson at the beloved barbeque joint.

Cami and Daddy Steve

Hudson trying to figure out why the combination of melted butter and chocolate syrup is not coming off his hand.

Who cares? I got ice cream!

Test drving the ATVS at Bass Pro Shops

Taking a five second break. Literally. That's all it was.

Ellie showing off the fish tank.

The kids with Cami and Aunt Amanda.

Can you say DISTURBING????? They have a whole Santa's Village and the target shooting booth is in it! Do my kids want to see Santa? Oh No! They want to shoot guns. Pink guns. Yikes.

Trenton and Hudson at church. So cute!

Random

Hudson is about 99% potty trained. EXCEPT when he sleeps. When he conked out on the couch the other afternoon, I thought I could just wrap a diaper around the outside of his pants and not disturb him. WRONG. Thank heavens for steam cleaners! He's going to hate me for this picture when he's older...

Here's Hudson in his element-OUTSIDE! Taken after church a few weeks ago.

Nielson after his Sunday afternoon nap.

I took Ellie to see the Nutcracker in Richmond a few weeks ago. I used to go as a child with my mom in Chicago and loved it. Ellie was pretty quiet during the entire show, except towards the end when she kept asking if it was over yet! I didn't think she liked it very much until I heard her talking to other people and saying how "cool" it was.

Ellie in the Landmark Theater

Before the show

Is it over yet?

Hudson's 3rd Birthday

It was the year of the Deere....John Deere, that is. Hudson still has JD on the brain all day every day. With that in mind, we had his friends come over, eat tractor-shaped cake, play on a hay bale tower and go on a tractor (ok-riding lawnmower attached to a trailer covered with aforementioned hay bales) ride for his birthday. We all had a great time, and Huddy was able to add to his ever growing collection of all things John Deere with several new tractors and his requested scale model of a Cotton Picker. I'll thank the "All About John Deere" dvd series for that request.

All ready for the tractor ride.

Check out that cotton picker ready to destroy my masterpiece. The big yellow clumps are supposed to be hay bales. I panicked and didn't think I'd have enough cake so I slapped those together, obviously!

Hudson still hasn't quite mastered blowing without some accompanying spit. Yum!

Moving the hay bales. Thanks, Connor!

Hudson and his pal, Jackson.

Ellie and Bryan, the boy next door. I'm still not worried.

Fishing on the Chesapeake Bay

We were able to keep our somewhat informal annual tradition of going fishing with the Lynch family every year in November. It was COLD, but we had a great time. Thanks again to Grandma Judy for watching the kids so I could go!

Doug looking like he walked off the set of "Deadliest Catch."

Doug and our nephew, Connor.

This is what happens when the fish aren't biting. Conor Lynch starts speaking Democrat and his Dad starts debating whether or not to give him a ride home.

Conor mugging while poor Mike is freezing trying to put on the whatever you call the thing which keeps the wind and water out of the boat!

Fish on!

Our one catch of the day

Yes, that is a container ship in the background.

Mike Lynch and Doug

Maureen Lynch and I. I know I look doofy but I had everything draped on me that I could find to stay warm. Vanity went out the window the second we pulled away from the dock. I think it's a cute picture of Maureen though.

Oyster Festival

Doug and his partner, Irv participated in the Urbanna Oyster festival again this year. They tried something new and had roasted oysters in conjunction with the company booth, which turned out to be a roaring success.

It's a festival, for Pete's sake. Food, booths, fake pirates. Where do my kids want to spend their time? On hay bales.

Behind..again!

I wonder if there will ever come a day when I'll sit down in a chair and drum my fingers, wondering what to do. Doesn't seem likely anytime soon! Once again I find myself with a solid month and a half of things to blog about. As Bill Murray once said... baby steps! Here goes:

The third week in November I was fortunate enough to go out to Utah for my friend, Amy's wedding ALONE! I can't post any pictures because I didn't have my camera (long story) and SOMEONE (ok Camille) was supposed to send me some of hers. No matter. I had a great time and loved the fact that I got to spend some time with my parents all by myself. This makes it sound like I don't love my children. That is not true. Any mother will tell you that a break from the kids is good every once in awhile. I love my kids, always will. Taking occasional breaks from them ensures that I will continue to like them. Any mother that says she doesn't need a break and wants her children by her side 24-7 is lying, by the way.

I digress. I stepped off the plane and was picked up by my mother, who whisked me off to an afternoon at the Grand America Spa. Kill me now, it was incredible! We each got massages and then I got a pedicure and she got a manicure. I really didn't want to change out of my robe back into my real world clothes. Couldn't I just live in the lounge area, with the gorgeous basket of red apples and enormous glass dispenser of cucumber lemon water? Alas, it was not to be and we eventually had to leave. Met my niece, Rachel for a late lunch at the restaurant downstairs and then Rachel and I went shopping for awhile. What a great day!

The rest of the weekend was a blur of non-stop activity. I really didn't have a ton of time so I tried to see friends and relatives who I hadn't really been able to spend time with in August when I was there. Anybody reading this who I didn't get a chance to see, please forgive me and I owe you Cafe Rio the next time I'm in town.

In a nutshell, I had a great lunch with two of my cousins, saw some great movies (Secret Life of Bees and-what else?- Twilight!), had breakfast at the Pancake House with just my dad, did some shopping, went on walks with my mom, and had dinner with my brothers Joey and David and their families on Sunday. There's more that I'm forgetting but it's a month later and I'm tired so I'll fill in the blanks later.

All that outside of the glorious wedding of Amy and Mike. I just love it when one of the "good ones" gets married. Amy is the best of the best and I'm so happy for her. She looked absolutely beautiful and the events were a perfect representation of her. Another side benefit was being able to catch up with another old friend, Camille. I loved meeting her sweet baby, Madden and actually having a conversation with Dean, her husband. I just wish all these lovely people would move closer to the east coast! I miss them.