field trip

I took Zorig and Buuvei to The Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington DC in April 2011. I had never been to that one.. and it is a bit of a walk from The Smithsonian metro..with two little kids and not stroller. I told them look for the "men" when we found it they said "I see the MEN!!" when we were leaving there was a part of the monument that had different countries on it that helped out in the Korean Ward.. Zorig said it is REALLY sad for him to think that Mongolia was not involved in the war.. He was like BUT DIDN'T MONGOLIA WANT TO HELP!!!! I said maybe they were not able to at the time.

Zorig on the yellow line going into DC..TAKE ONE..

 Zorig on the yellow line going into DC take TWO..he has a backpack on with our snacks in it. He was very happy to carry that.

Buuvei on the metro

See that building behind us? Zorig and I got in a BIG debate about whether it is called "the big pencil" or "The Washington Monument" he kept saying it was the first and I kept saying " no see this sign?" it says The Washington Monument this way..there is no sign that says "big pencil this way.."he said BUT IT LOOKS LIKE A BIG PENCIL!!!! I said I know that it LOOKS like that but it is called "The Washington Monument! " On the way back to the metro, he said we are almost back we just passed The Washington Monument. I said "what is it called ?" He said The Washington Monument that is what it is called even though it looks like a big pencil.. and all the signs say it is a Washington Monument.

Zorig and Buuvei by the "big pencil" AKA The Washington Monument, Washington DC- April 2011

Korean War Veterans Monument, Washington DC we talked a lot about how these men "all fought in the war for people's freedom"  and how they are all carrying guns( the boys noticed) to protect us and protect themselves..

Buuvei said HE HAS A GUN!!! :)

Zorig said really loud to me "so which one of these men is Joseph Smith?" I said none of them.. he said BUT JOSEPH SMITH DIED!!! HE NEEDS A STATUE..you told me THESE men DIED.. why do they get statues and Joseph Smith doesn't.. I said Joseph Smith DOES have a statue..it is in SLC temple square and their are PROBABLY statues of him other places. He said BUT WHY NOT HERE?? I said Joseph Smith did not die in the Korean war..these are for people that died in the Korean war...when you are with Zorig no pass along card is needed.. he will just let everyone KNOW , YES WE ARE LDS!!!!

BTW My dad was in the Korean War.. I am not sure what he did I think sat at a desk.. that is about all ...

cooking with Keli

I bought these in April and I have only used them once to cut out Z's and B's in Zorig and Buuvei's cheese and I REALLY WANT to use them... I need to decorate cookies soon...PS if you didn't already know.. I got them at the thrift store in Centreville :)

field trip

Spike and I went hiking on the Bull Run Occoquan Trail, this picture looks like it was taken in the fall but it was actually April 2011.
We went hiking with Martin Hyatt who is in the Potomac Ward. It was a nice hike that was very quiet...then again most hikes are quiet when you go in the middle of the day. I think we ran into two other people. We also saw some crew teams out practicing on the water. That was pretty cool. Spike was a good boy and Martin and I had some interesting talks. I had no idea that you could get a doctorate from Stanford in "creativity" which is what Martin has..but I think I have an honorary doctorate in planning things and creativity..that I have just earned from life..I will give it to Martin though he did plan this hike. It is always so nice to get out in the great outdoors.

Austrailia Night

thought a creative, fun thing to do would be to explore different culture through food. I googled "international food"and thought I could do an AUSTRAILIAN DINNER..so I did..

I bought some shrimp, it was not on the barbie..but oh well I tried to have a contest with John Cini that I could eat more shrimp than him.. lets just say I lost..he ate like THIRTY-FIVE PIECES OR SO!!! .. I ate around nineteen..

This is my friend Lizbeth, she is frying a bloomin' onion.

Lizbeth with the completed bloomin'onion..I got these Austrailian signs at the thrift store in Fairfax,VA how cool is that?

HOME MADE BLOOMIN ONION!!! we even made sauce to go with it !

I also made lamingtons which is a traditional Austrailian dessert. It is a sponge cake that is frosted and then has coconut on it. yummy



thanks to everyone that helped make this night happen, The C. family, Rob, Erin, Emily and Elliot
John Cini
and Lizbeth O.
you all rock!
maybe next time I will do Indian food!!!!

field trip

Buuvei at the Lyceum

In March I took Buuvei to The Lyceum "Alexandria's History Museum in old town Alexandria. We went while Zorig was at pre-school so it was just myself and Buuvei. We got there and almost all the parking spaces were taken up by 1. people that volunteered there. 2. construction workers that were working on something across the street. We had to wait five minutes past the time that it opened to be let in but other than those minor things we had a great time.

They had coloring stations set up and Buuvei had a lot of fun just sitting and coloring at each one.

Buuvei was so excited they had GUNS on display there.

I helped Buuvei become a jr. detective. He had a lot of fun doing this.

Here we are right before we left. We had to sit a long time while the lady figured out how to use my camera.

They Lyceum is Alexandria, VA's history museum located in Old Town Alexandria. They had lots of interactive stuff for kids there. Buuvei and I spent one whole morning there in March and he really enjoyed himself.
It was used as a hospital during the civil war ( what building wasn't that still exists??) and they said their is a ghost that lives upstairs and that they hear him banging around sometimes YES!!! this is THE FIRST TIME THAT A PLACE HAS ACTUALLY ADMITTED THAT IT WAS HAUNTED AND EVEN SAID THEY HAD HEARD STUFF!!! They said that President Obama had not been there but John Quincy Adams had given a speech there once, but not when he was president.
I also got there last magnet.  The staff was very helpful and VERY nice! We were the only ones there and they kept coming and telling Buuvei what a good boy he was and how cute he was.. aawww!!!

crafty Keli

In March 2011 I saw this craft idea on someones blog. I wish I remembered who so I could credit them. Here is my interpretation.

First I gathered these things, some eyelet trim, a glue gun, some fake pearls, a necklace, some black felt and some glue sticks.



I got this trim at Jo-Anns in Fairfax, I thought it was really pretty.

I cut the felt in black circles some I traced with a cup some I just cut out free hand..I feel like in the end the ones I did free hand came out cuter.

I twisted the trim around and around to form these flowers

I glued the flowers onto the black felt and glued a pearl in the middle of each one.

I cut the necklace in half and glued each half to a flower, then glued it together no need to even buy a clasp. I made a small one for Emily.

close up of me wearing the necklace.I chose a simple shirt.

My whole outfit that day

Me helping Emily make one


I got lots of compliments on this necklace and had fun making it with Emily.

St.Patricks Day part 2

Ok so I am not Irish ( to my knowledge I am ONLY English and German..and My favorite color is NOT green ..it is pink..but for some reason I like to celebrate St. Patricks Day..( and well all holidays) there is just something about dressing up in all one color and dying all your food and talking about leprechauns that really makes me smile :)

so here are some of the adventures I had this year St. Patricks Day 2011

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D., Elaine (not pictured) and I dressed in green and went to the over 31 St. Patricks Day Dance in Potomac, MD- we rocked the house...and brought some awesome green refreshments that you can read about in another post.

I dressed Zorig and Buuvei all in green for pre-school. they have on green shirts, pants and socks. I asked them to pose for this picture and Zorig said "it was really unfair because he just wanted to play" Buuvei said OK as long as he could have his "spy-man" ( Spiderman) ship in the picture. At school Zorig said that if he caught a leprechaun he would put it in a cage and tell it to do all that it could do and if it did not do all that it could do ..then he would poke it..which is better than the little girl that said that if she caught a leprechaun she would EAT it ..yum...

I dyed the cereal milk green in the morning Zorig LOVED that because some of his cereal became green also. I dyed the water green which they both loved and for lunch pictured above we had green eggs and turkey ( they were out of ham). Both boys loved their lunch.

For dinner that night I went to the Cowles families house in Sterling,VA Erin and I served spinach noodles with your choice of pesto sauce or green Alfredo sauce and broccoli on the side.

We also made Irish Soda bread that we almost forgot to dye green but our guest John Cini reminded us. Thank you John! doesn't it look so good! and it was yummy too!!



For dessert we had vanilla ice cream mixed in the blender with Andes Candies with whip cream on top

Happy St. Patricks Day!!! three months late ~ love, Keli



field trip

radio and tv museum-Bowie,MD

Nipper the Dog and Keli

In March 2011, Carrie and I traveled to Bowie, MD. Which is about forty-five minutes from Alexandria,VA. Our destination: The Radio Television Museum. I do love listening to the radio..and I have to admit there are some shows I don't like to miss..but what I like more than those to things is going to random tourist attractions and visiting different places, trying new restaurants..and of course getting a magnet ( which this place did not have) :(
I met Carrie in Alexandria and we headed up to Bowie. When we got to the museum we were put in a tour with a couple I think they were a couple? who mentioned several times "how old they were" and seemed to remember stuff from when my PARENTS were little but looked to be about my age.. I am still super confused about that..
We started out in the first room where we learned that the earliest form of "radio" was a telegraph and how on the Titanic they sent out SOS... I said oh I thought they said CQD...then the tour guide thought I was super smart...when in reality I just have the movie Titanic memorized...turns out the other lady on the tour loves that movie too..and also has it memorized...
We progressed along with radio history and saw and learned all sorts of interesting radio trivia..like did you know that all the stations out here have names that begin with a W? think about it WIHT (Hot 99.5) WMZQ (98.7 Country).. and then I forget where the dividing line is maybe the Mississipi River all the stations start with K like KKEX (Kix Country) or KVFX (94.5VFX)...I remember there was this one station in Provo,broadcast out of Salt Lake that just PROCLAIMED "Utah's FAVORITE MUSIC IS COUNTRY!!!" which statistically it PROBABLY is... BUT wow what a proclamation..now I could go on a tangent about Utah and radio stations BUT BACK TO THE MUSEUM!!!!!
We also learned that the dog you see me with above is named Nipper. They said they had little Nippers for sale in the "gift shop"I kind of wanted to buy one to put on my bookcase until I realized that they were little antique Nippers that cost like 20$...I really like the fact that people used to gather around their radio to hear programs. It just makes me feel so nostalgic!! We then started learning about TV and saw lots of TVs. We went into a room where there were different things that we could make radio sound effects with, a mom that had joined our tour with two young elementary school kids really enjoyed that part..I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE THE HORSE SOUNDS with the coconuts!!! We liked our tour, our tour guide was nice and knowledgeable. I think that kids would enjoy this place. I also think it would be cool to listen to some old shows on the radio for a party or just with a friend or something. Maybe I will tomorrow with the kids I am watching this week. The "gift shop" was just a few random things that IDK who does or would buy and no magnets. I am so grateful for my friendship with Carrie and her willingness and desire to go places with me. THANK YOU CARRIE!!! here is the website for you to check it out http://radiohistory.org/