field trip

I took Bowman and Tenney to the Reston Animal Park/zoo whatever it is called in August 2010.

Score for me they had never been there either. I think that most of the nannies that have had them have gone towards DC and this is west of DC in Fairfax County.

I spent about 50$ taking them there( of their moms money) I never realized how expensive it is to take kids places...WOW.
we paid for
admission
a bucket of feed
bottles of milk
and we got a stuffed snake

I was going to give the snake to Justin and wrap it around his jeep but the girls fell in love with the snake and named it Scarlett so I let them keep it. It now lives on Tenney's bed with two tigers.Every morning she spends WAY to long winding it up in a circle of posing it INSTEAD of getting ready for school so MAYBE it DOES need to go and live at Justin's for a bit..

I understimated the time that it would take for us to get from my moms house in Chantilly to Reston so we missed the hay ride by about 5 minutes... that sucked but the girls had so much fun feeding the sheep and goats the feed. Some of those animas were AGGRESSIVE like they ripped the feed bucket right out of our hands. we went around and saw all the other animals they had ducks,rabbits,parrots geese, monkeys, horses, a porcupine stuff like that. There is more to see on the hayride but we missed it. Bowman had a lot of fun feeding the pot-bellied pigs with a bottle. I think that was the highight of her trip. Tenney really liked feeding the lambs and kids.

we were the last ones out of there, it took us awhile to pick out the right stuffed snake, it is a brown one named Scarlett.

field trip

I took Bowman and Tenney on a scavenger hunt in Old Town Alexandria in August 2010.

you start at The Christmas shop where you pay 4$ for a map you can either do a scavenger hunt about George Washington or one about John Carlyle, you can also do both for 8$. We did both.

We walked all over Old Town Alexandria in the HOT sun looking for different historic buildings and then reading little signs or facts on them. The girls did very well on it.

We ran into another tourist group four times. There is a TON to see and do in Alexandria, esp. old town... the thing is the girls get new nannys EVERY year... so they have gone to ALMOST if not EVERYTHING...Bowman gets so bored like WE HAVE DONE THAT!!!! WE HAVE BEEN THERE!!! it will be a challenge to me on the days that they are off school to find places they have not been or to make the places they have been different or exciting.

They had not been on the scavenger hunt so that was fun. We also went in a lot of stores also and looked around when we were done.

After the scavenger hunt I brought the girls a prize for completing it and sticking with it. They asked for silly bandz. I thought sure ALL KIDS LOVE THEM... so I bought them each a pack... they have never worn them ever or even used them... and I thought all kids loved silly bandz I guess we learn something new every day.

field trip

Justin and I took his boat to Pohick Bay Regional Park in Lorton,Va August, 2010.

When we got there, I sat up the tent and air mattress and made our campsite look really good. i can tell that we are beginning campers, so I walked around the campsite and looked at other peoples set ups to see what we could do different and better in the future. I have been buying more flashlights, because it is never fun to be in the dark and the next thing I think I want is one of those shelters, that you put over your picnic table with mosquito netting to keep the bugs and animals away from your food.

Justin got there Friday evening and we went out for a little ride in his boat, his boat was not working well but it was still nice to be out on the water on such a beautiful night.

Sat. I got up and found out over the night most of our food had been stolen... I reported it to the campground and they said that it was squirrels or raccoons... I NEED ONE OF THOSE SHELTERS!!!! seriously... I took a walk over to Gunston Hall and had fun looking around in the gift shop. I walked back and Justin was just getting up.

We ate some then took the boat out again. When we are out on the boat it is like we are in a whole other world... like people talk about things I did not even know existed. We learned from one guy that there is a little beach called "pomonkey" and we found out there is a waterfront restaurant where you can drive the boat right up to it and they will send a water taxi out for you. I WANT TO GO THERE!!!! that is now one of my goals, to eat at a place where you BOAT to it..

the boat was not working well, so we did not have a long ride, we went back to our campsite and got ready and drove down to Occoquan,Va and ate at waterfront dining at a place called Madigans.

We went back and relaxed in front of the campfire and had a nice night.

I am hoping that each and every one of our camping experiences gets better and better as we learn more about the outdoors and things like that.

Nebraska day 3

Wow I am just getting around to writing this NOW...



so we woke up in South Bend, IN and I had begged Justin to stay in a hotel that had a continental breakfast, we woke up so late though that we missed all the good stuff, all though we did get to have some cereal :)



We drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove .... all the way from IL to PA was toll roads we probably spent about 50$ in tolls...If we had to get off to go to the bathroom or to go get gas we had to pay a toll to get off and a toll to get back on.. It was crazy. We kept asking how many tolls until we get back to the Washington DC area... and kept getting different answers... I had this horrible thought that what if we just went from some toll road in PA to MD to the Greenway to the Dulles toll road to 495... must have been the fatigue sitting in..



Justin drove a lot and we talked and talked and planned things and stuff like that.

PA was really pretty we both said it would be fun to go back there one day

we stopped in MD and got a sub at a place that said they had the best steak and cheese subs and it was pretty good :)

We got to my moms house unloaded all the stuff, then we drove the car back to the airport, then I dropped off Justin in Alexandria and drove back to my moms..

WE MADE IT!!!! WE DID IT!!! we drove from NEBRASKA TO VA!!! and we got my stuff...

now...I just need to get my stuff from Utah...

Nebraska Day 2

we woke up at The Hartigans house at around 7ish. The Hartigans were nice enough to put out all kinds of food and drinks for us. I am beyond grateful for that.

we drove through Nebraska past the sight of my wreck until we got to St. Paul. we loaded up my stuff and just like that we drove off.

we drove and drove and drove we drove through Iowa...BORING... we drove through Illinois, and we drove into Indiana. We stopped for the night in South Bend,IN I found us a pretty good hotel and that was our day of driving..and driving and driving and driving...

and driving...how lucky I was to have Justin as a travel companion...very lucky indeed..:)

Nebraska day 1

Justin and Keli on one of the planes to Nebraska :)

I worked for most of the day I then left and sat in a ton of traffic to go and pick up Justin, I picked him up and we sat in a ton of traffic to get back to my house.





Brad and Christina gave us a ride to the airport. I felt that we were on the Amazing Race... that is not a good feeling when you are at an airport. We were the last people to get on the plane. It was one of those little planes.





we flew from Dulles to Rochester,NY my firt time to go to NY... and IDK that it really counts BUT I did get a magnet. :)





we flew from Rochester to Chicago we were on the same plane so it was not hard finding our flight in Chicago.





we flew from Chicago to Omaha, we RAN to our plane, I thought for sure we were going to miss it when we got there the plane was running late so we were able to buy dinner.





We arrived in Omaha, got our rental car, Justin was smart and got us an SUV... I thought we could do a full size car... thank goodness for Justin being smart and getting us that car :)

we spent the night in Belleview,NE at my friend Erin Hartigan Cowles parents house. They were wonderful to us when we arrived they had a warm pizza for us, great conversation and comfortable beds to sleep on.

I am so grateful for good friends..and their parents and siblings!

Field Trip

My ward went to Lake Anna in VA at the end of July.

it is about an hour and a half from here. My bishop has a house there and invited all the mid-singles in our ward to come down for the day.

I rode down with three guys, John, Harry and Paul and one girl Courtney.

The bishop has an amazing summer home right on the lake. I spent the whole day out on the Lake. The bishop has a really nice boat and I was able to go out on it twice. I went tubing both times... I was terrified but I held on so tight and did not fall off so I did well :)

The bishops daughter Stacey was nice enough to take me out on the wave runner several times during the day, each time we went on really long rides and explored different parts of the lake that she had found, she showed me the state park, the power plant ( which makes the lake warm) , the gas stations, the islands, and the restaraunts that you can drive up and dock your boat and eat there.

I was able to go out so many times on the boat and the wave runner because so many people there just wanted to sit around on the dock or to play Nerts....they asked me at one point if I wanted to play Nerts I said no I did not drive over an hour to play cards or sit on a deck... I thought well that is kind of rude but I did not...I came to have fun!!! but I guess for them sitting there playing cards is fun...some other people played frisbee, I did not play that either...

at about six pm we left to go back home.

It was a great summer day and I am so glad that I went. ... even though I did not ever get in on a game of Nerts...