Being A Goof

I love taking pictures if you haven't guessed.

I'll snap a picture of anything that I see that strikes me as pretty, unique or a snapshot of real life. Sometimes I'll get an idea and will run with it.

This is one of those times.

The Washington Monument isn't as big as you think it is.



Owen is always up for being a goof with me.



The Capitol isn't that big either.




:p

Mispronunciations

My kids aren't little anymore. *Sniff.*

They have pretty good command of the English language. Even the 7 year old. Gone are the days of mispronouncing "spaghetti" as "pshgetti" or "caterpillar" as "catapitter." I kind of miss those days.

The other night, Shane was lecturing Owen on the fact that he always says one thing and then does another. Of course it escalated into a huge fight in the back seat (and there's nothing better than THAT!).

Owen got frustrated with Shane and yelled up to me "Mommmmmmy........Shane just called me a hippiecrite!"

*Snort*

Cherry Blossoms!

We live outside of Washington, DC and although we do take the kids up to the museums and other "touristy" stuff, we avoid the high peak tourist season like the plague. I see no reason to go and fight the crowds of people if we don't have to.

The city has amazing Cherry Blossom trees that unfortunately bloom only once a year for about a two week period and those trees bring in throngs of tourists. I have avoided those two weeks more than any other time. You will see more fanny packs and double strollers in one day in DC during this time period than any other time in your life combined. And that's saying something!

But this year we decided to brave the crowds and do it. It was about 75 and BEAUTIFUL! And except for losing Owen in the tulip patch, it was a great day. Here's some of my favorite pics from the day.

Enjoy!















Hope you enjoyed them as much as I liked taking them. :)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, y'all!

I know that I'm a "little" late in posting these but I did admit that I suck about posting pictures when I started the blog! And better late than never!

We spent last Easter in New York City and went out to the NJ suburbs to see Ken's cousin Sonia and her family. They have two kids. Katie is Shane's age and Johnny is a teenager. They decorated eggs and did the whole Easter thing.





I think that was the last haircut Shane had.







Apparently even though they live states away from each other, they have a lot in common. I guess the hate for Barney is universal. Obviously I wouldn't sing these songs myself but kids are kids and kids will do what they will do.



So, yeah. Don't judge me because my kids hate Barney and sing mean songs about him. I didn't teach them to them (when I sing them, I do it away from them). Besides, if you judge me then you also have to judge Sonia! Sorry girl. I'm not going down alone and your daughter knew the song just as well as Shane. :p

Happy Easter!

Vacationing in a Foreign Land

I suppose that some things really are regional and unique to where you live. With this age of the internet and everything being so globalized, I don't really consider that anything is foreign unless you're traveling overseas where there is a language barrier and the culture is different than what we are use to in the USA.

I never really thought about things being so, well, foreign when traveling in the USA. I got a reminder this week when my cousins were visiting from New Jersey.

They decided to run to the store around 9:00 one night. It was dark outside and they had been gone for quite some time. Considering that the store was only 2 minutes in either direction, I thought that I was going to have to go out and hunt them down.

Then I heard them come in so I went downstairs to see what was up. (OK. I went downstairs because I heard Shane jumping on some plastic bags and making really loud popping noises.)

Anywho, Bonnie and Kathy were at the table giggling like crazy. When I asked them what in the heck was so funny, they told me through the giggles that they had just pumped gas for the first time ever in their lives. (For those that don't know, all gas stations in NJ are full-service.)

They said that they gassed up before they left NJ and then as soon as they crossed into Pennsylvania, they realized that they were going to have to pump their own gas. I can only imagine the conversation that they had about how they were going to do it.

So they couldn't put it off any longer and headed to the gas station. They sat at the gas station and finally got up the nerve to do it. They said that it took both of them to figure out how to work the pump and select all of the right buttons to make the gas dispense.

Then they finally did it! They really did it!

They said it wasn't as bad as what they had imagined it would be. :p

God what I would have done to have been there and video recorded it. I'm sure that was comedy gold especially considering how much they were still laughing 20 minutes later.

Who knew that traveling within the United States would be as traumatic as traveling in Europe and dealing with everyday things that people in that strange lands deal with...such as pumping gas.

I guess they can check pumping gas off of their bucket list. :up: