Halloween before Rome

I need to post Rome pictures, but they are all on Ray's computer. I do, however, have some halloween pictures. Note to self: do not go on a vacation out of the country and come back the day before Halloween. Not only had we not gotten a pumpkin, I did not have a costume for Ariel. So yesterday we scrounged out the rest of Ariel's cat costume and today, after two grocery stores were completely devoid of pumpkins, we found one at Potomac Vegetable Farms' stand on 7. We also picked up some of the best cider I have ever had. yum! So here are some pictures!!!


OK. These pictures are backwards, oops. I don't feel like changing them. This is their loot. They made buckets for candy with grandma and Aunt Mary while we were in Rome. We hit our entire neighborhood and they filled the buckets to the brim.


Starting out down the street. They ran right up to the doors, even miss shy Ariel. I would stand on the sidewalk, they would knock and yell TRICK OR TREAT! It was very cute.


Getting some candy from our neighbours.


Ariel the kitty cat. We got the cat ears at Michaels and the dress was the last one at Target and was thankfully in her size.


Ariel the kitty, Rachael was Cinderella, and Trevor was a skeleton pirate from Pirates of the Carribean.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Cox Farms Adventure

Ray and Trevor are off to a wedding in FL this weekend, leaving just me and a couple of cutie little girlies. Rachael has this undying bond with her brother and has been missing him terribly. Consequently, I am trying to keep our time busy and fun. Friday after school I took them to Chik Fil A for dinner and they played in the play area for over an hour. Then we spent most of today at Cox Farms in Centerville. Now, Cox Farms is kind of a tradition with us. We have been going every year we have been back. I'm actually not sure how much of the farm is an actual FARM, as we only ever visit the fall festival they have. And what a weird and trippy festival it is! There are TONS of slides, all done in different themes and of varying sizes. Ariel is really too small for the biggest ones, so we stick to the medium sized ones. They are all fast, lined with hay bales and require a trek up a hill to get to them. Some have dinosaur themes with big plaster dinos soaring around it, one is a dragon in a volcano- complete with sound effects. One is a giant and the entrance way is covered with plastic bugs and you hear a giant's voice saying "Fee Fie Fo fum, Cox Farms is a lot of fun!" (We missed the giant slide this year! I am so bummed!) It's all so corny.

They also have the infamous hayride. This is the weirdest hayride you will ever go on. It's complete with an Alien landing, many plaster animals lurking in the woods and corn fields. There is even wooden cut outs of such icons as spongebob, charlie brown and pikachu. It really is weird. Then, the wagon gets stuck in some mud. And we are asked to yell for help. We do... and this farmer comes out wearing this huge fake bobble looking head and pulls us out of the mud. See.. it's weird. I'll probably say that a lot this post. But the best part is the end of the ride. When we go into this huge dark barn. The wagon stops and, suddenly, the lights start flashing ala night club style, this peppy maniacal music starts playing and you look around and the barn is garish, covered in gnomes, trees with eyes, skeletons and other really crazy stuff. Think Jack Black when he is on shrooms in that movie about Tenacious D (what was that movie called?) It's like that. The girls were finally not scared of the barn this year! Go them.

This year they intro'd their cornundrum maze, and we had lots of fun exploring that- full of optical illusions and a vortex that made us dizzy and I had to practically shove the girls through because halfway through they decided they didn't like it and we couldn't turn around. I wish the fall festival wasn't so darn expensive to get in (15/person) because I would go every day! It's gotten more popular every year, though, and now we are lucky if we don't have to wait in line to go down the slides, etc. We used to be able to go on weekdays and it was not packed. Now it's packed whatever day we go- school groups during the week, everyone else on the weekend.

I posted most of these pics to facebook. They are iphone pics because Ray took the pocket cam to FL. I'll throw in a couple kitty pictures, too, because they're cute.


Sitting in front of the 1007lb pumpkin.


Ariel being, I dunno, a grown up? heh.


Rachael being a kernel on a multicoloured ear of corn.


There was, no joke, two guys dressed up as corn playing chess in the maze, behind a fence, no less. What's your job? I dress up as corn and play chess all day in a corn maze.


There was a gorilla carrying around a guy in a cage. He said the gorilla was his friend.


Some of the better done wooden cut outs. Charlie Brown et al. Some of them are really bad, but still recognizable. Some I don't know who they are. There are tons of them everywhere.


At one point we go through this witches hut and there are witches making brew everywhere (fake people, not real people). These are skeleton witches around a misty cauldron. We also go through a grave yard with funny gravestones.


The highlight of the hayride for the kids. They spend all year talking about Cox Farms. We really talk about it at least once a month. And the alien on the hayride always comes up. Ariel saw him and exclaimed excitedly "Look mommy! It's the alien dressed up as a man!"


We all get to pick out little pumpkins at the end of the trip. So the girls picked out their pumpkins and posed next to the kind of creepy sunflower. We had a blast today!


Stripey sleeping because he is darn cute. I usually sit at the top of the stairs while the kids fall asleep (or Ray does). Greystripe curled up on my lap and zonked out. This is what he usually does when I sit down. He's the lap happiest cat I have ever had. I love it.


He and Chaos really do like each other. Chaos wants to play soooo badly with Greystripe, but he's too nervous. Chaos is so huge and everytime they try to play, Stripey gets scared and runs away. They played for a while last night. Chaos even rolled over on his back and Stripey pounced on him, then arched his teeny back and bounded away. It was ridiculously cute.

What a weekend!

We had quite a busy weekend. Saturday morning we had the kids' friends, Webb and Zea, over. This meant that not only did I have a couple kids dropped off at my house, but the neighbourhood kids eventually ended up over here, too. So at one point we had 3-4 boys wrecking havoc and 3 little girls trying to be girlie. Then Rachael came in at one point while I was on the phone and, in all her dramatics, gasps out "MOMMY! There was this huge wasp and he was just hiding in the grass and when I ran by he jumped up and BIT ME!" She wasn't crying, she showed me a spot on her leg where there was just, well, nothing. But she insisted that this humoungous wasp was just laying in wait for some little girl to pass by so he could lunge from his hiding spot and bite her. Needless to say, I sent her back out to play. This is the girl who also got drenched and sopped and cried because she couldn't wear a knitted bag on her head and once cried for an entire walk because I wouldn't let her take her tootbrush. She is prone to, well, being melodramatic. heh.

Saturday evening we went bowling with Ryan and kids and friends. Trevor beat out Ray and I narrowly beat the kids. We are not expert bowlers. The kids were adorable, though. Ever spelled everyone's names on the computer and it was "Trever" "Ariol" and "Rathl". And when it was "Ariol's" turn, everyone would help her drag the little thing you roll the bowling ball on out and then help her carry her ball to it. She would push it and the bowling ball would creep down the lane and hit a few pins and then she would get claps and cheers and big hugs. It was very cute.

But I don't have pictures of any of that stuff. I do have a few pictures of our adventures today. We went biking and geocaching. Geocaching is an obsession of a couple friends of ours, Bill and Christianne. Ray and I like geocaching, too, but don't really do it unless we are with said friends and their really nice GPS (though the new iphone makes a fine GPS as well). So we loaded up the bikes and head out to their house, where we enjoyed a wonderful brunch and a description of sugar shacking and maple syrup and all things wonderful like that. Then Ariel overflowed their toilet. Seriously. It was rather mortifying, requiring lots of towels and bleach and a bright orange plunger to fix. But THEN... we loaded up the bikes and head out to the W&OD trail where we found a total of SIX (!!!) caches! We also got in a nice 8 mile bike ride and a stop for ice cream. The weather was absolutely perfect, not too hot and not too cold. The boys did great on their bikes and I think a wonderful time was had by all. Here's some pictures: ETA- Rachael and her little friend Evelyn are not in any of the pictures. Why? They spent their day being pulled in another Chariot by Bill. As they reclined in luxury, they leafed through this princess book and day dreamed about going to the ball with the prince. They did not get out to geocache (they did however, suffer themselves to join us commonfolk for ice cream). My Rachael has gotten very girlie recently. heehee..


Finding one of the caches up in a tree. Hopefully everyone knows what geocaching is? Basically, people hide these caches (sometimes something as small as a film canister, some as big as a tackle box) and leave coordinates to find them on a website. You load the coordinates into your GPS and then hunt down the caches. Some have little treasures you can take (and leave a replacement of your own), some require multiple steps to complete like a scavenger hunt or puzzle. Some are super hard to find, some are really easy. It's pretty addictive and pretty frustrating when you DON'T find the cache.


One of the caches was a plastic squirrel! It was cute. Ariel helped find it and as beyond thrilled. She wanted to keep the squirrel. I kept thinking of the little animals in the woods. heh. (my mom should get that).


Ariel was beat by the end of the ride. She had it tough, riding in the back of the chariot.


Trevor and Jonathon at the end of 8 miles on bikes. I dunno... Jonathon looks a little beat!

New Kitten!

After our bad luck with our puppy, we were all feeling a little down and out. We visited our local shelter and lo and behold, they had kittens! But not just kittens.. my favourite kind- one little male nondescript tabby cat. We adopted him. I haven't had a kitten since Chaos was a baby.. and that was almost 10 years ago. We named our new little addition Greystripe, after Firestar's best friend and deputy in the Warriors series (yes, I'll admit it, I am devouring this YA series for my own enjoyment because I have a huge love of felines). We kept him in our bedroom for all of two days while the other two cats got used to him. Shadow wasn't thrilled but Chaos, who seems to be top cat in the house, didn't really mind. In fact, he won't admit it, but I have caught him flicking his tail for Greystripe to chase, so I know he likes the little guy. Shadow has come around and will even play a bit with Stripey now and then. The only time they seem to have little tolerance for him is at night after the human kids are in bed. Then Chaos and Shadow want peace and quiet and to lounge in the room with us. Greystripe is always bounding around like a maniac and trying to play with them and they usually hiss at him. I told Ray it's like when the kids stay up too late and he and I just want some peace and quiet! Here's some pictures. He was smaller when we got him.. we've had him for about 3 weeks now and is about 12 weeks old or so. He's a sweetie and sleeps on my head at night and has a love of people food. I have never seen a cat go so crazy as when Ray and I break out the ice cream, hot chocolate or pumpkin cake. He also loves pea soup, milk, rice and chicken. He's spoiled rotten.


Greystripe never stops moving, except when I sit down. Then he climbs in my lap and falls asleep.


He also has many many little kitty toys (all the cats do, but he is the one who plays with them)




Ironically, Greystripe is actually kind of spotted, not striped. He was stripier a month ago. heh


Chaos is the big furry Maine Coon. Shadow is a black cat with the huge owl eyes. The hermit crabs live in the aquarium they are sitting near.

School!!!

Is this my first official post about school? I have been so pleasantly surprised by our experience so far. It has been much different than Trevor's K experience, which just goes to show that much of an experience is based on how we choose perceive and remember the events. The kids had a great first day of school, though Ariel and I were a little sad. In fact, the first week was wonderful for both kids. I dropped them off with no tears and, when I picked them up, the first thing Rachael did was fling her arms around my neck and say "Mommy, I LOVE school! I LOVE my teacher! I want to go back tomorrow!" It was quite cute. She has loved every minute of her experience there, so far. Her teacher and assistant are wonderful- kind, warm, funny. Everything you think a K teacher should be. No wonder Rachael likes her.

Trevor had a great first week, but then realized he would be expected to go for a whole year. Our second week of drop offs was ROUGH, to say the least. Trevor can make himself really anxious about a situation and he has trouble calming down. While he always ended his school day with smiles and enjoyed his actual day at school, transitioning away from me and into the building was another thing entirely. It was almost a repeat of his experience in K. Lots of crying, lots of agonizing over going to school as he was getting dressed in the morning, etc. It helped to speak with the counselor and have her help him transition. It also helped to get his school schedule and let him know what to expect out of his days. He has friends in school and really enjoys his time there, it's just the drop off. This evening, for the first time, he was excited about going to school tomorrow. So that's a definite positive! He also walked into the school without anxiousness all last week, too. So I hope we are over that hurdle.

We had their Back to School Night and got to meet the teachers and Trevor's second grade teacher is wonderful, as well. It sounds like their year will be neat, too. Every Tuesday I get a paperwork packet with the school newsletter and class happenings and worksheets the kids have done. I get one for each child. In the last one Trevor was thrilled to see his much anticipated sign up for Lego Club. So I have signed them up for some extracurriculars. Lego Club only accepts 50 people, so I sure hope he is one of those 50 kids! He has been talking about it since the beginning of last year! I also signed him up for a science class that has hands on experiments and I signed Rachael up for a little acting class where they read a book and act it out. They all look like neat things to be in.

Ariel and I have been getting along. Our days are so quiet. I was going to sign her up for preschool, but our local preschool had a waiting list. She keeps asking when she gets to go to school like her brother and sister. She frequently begins things with "When *I* go to *my* school...." so I am not sure if I am going to expand my search out of our immediate area yet. So far we run errands, or hang out playing games. We go to local parks in our neighbourhood or make little field trips to nature centers, bigger playgrounds, etc. I started scrapbooking again with a friend. So we just started a standing date at her house. She has two kids in school, so Ariel has a place to herself and lots of toys. Last week she chose to stamp out die cuts and glue and color. She will also be coming with me for any volunteering I do at the school. I have made it really clear I am eager to help and think they will be using me. They needed a volunteer for some art program for Trevor's class. I need more details before I commit, though, as it sounded daunting at first. heh.

That's about all that is happening here. Actually, lots more happens, but we either haven't taken pictures or I haven't had a chance to blog it. And all I have are iphone pictures. Here are a couple (though my parents have already seen them!)


Outside the library. They have a huge metal book decorated with hearts. It's cool. We still do a weekly library trip. We all read too much to visit less often.


Ariel enjoying some hot chocolate at the Target Starbucks. This was the first day I dropped the others off at school. We went to Target for "first day treats" Rachael got a little set of horses and some hot chocolate. Her brother got a Bionicle and Rachael got Littlest Pet Shop.


After school. Rachael ADORES her brother. She is his number one fan. The K kids come out first and so Rachael, Ariel and I are always waiting for Trevor to come out. When he does, Rachael LEAPS at him screaming "TREVOR!" and throws her arms around him in his huge hug. Everyone around us always laughs. Trevor always looks a little less than enthused. He usually says "Hey, Rachael. OK. Get off me now. You're hugging me too tight!" as he pushes her off him. Every day. Yes.


Ariel riding the tractor on a trip to Frying Pan Park.


Rachael and Trevor doing an after school project. I found little models for a dollar each at Michaels. You paint them and glue them together. Rachael has a minibird house and Trevor has a fighter plane.

We had to give our puppy back.. :(

We are all so disappointed. Willie was awesome in so many ways, but he had one big problem that we should have noticed, and did, right away. He was just an alpha dog. He was not accepting that the kids were higher in the pecking order than him and, as the days went on, he was demonstrating increasing tendencies to challenge his pack order with the kids. Here's a run down of what made us make the decision to take him back:

Willie snapped at Trevor twice. The first time I noticed he was sleeping in the kitchen by the pantry where his food was kept a lot. I didn't think too much of it, as we have an AC vent near there. I thought he found it cooler there. Then, when I was cooking dinner in the kitchen, the dog was sitting in that spot and Trevor walked into the kitchen to talk to me. As he was talking, he walked over to Willie to pet him. Willie growled and snapped at him. It was completely out of the blue to me. I rolled him and got angry and kicked him out of the kitchen (not kicked literally, people). Then, when I saw him sitting there again later, I realized he was guarding his food in the pantry. He never slept near other AC vents in the house, only this one. Once I realized he was food guarding, I no longer allowed him in that spot, and chased him out of the kitchen whenever he settled there as he also started trying to settle in other spots around the kitchen.

The second time he snapped at Trevor when Trevor, Ray and Willie were out in the backyard while I was in the kitchen. The doorbell rang and Ray went in to answer it because my hands were covered in food. I thought I could watch puppy and child in the backyard through our glass storm door. Willie climbed onto the stairs leading into the house and put his paws on the grill to lick a spatula Ray had been cooking with. I rinsed and dried my hands and turned to take the spatula away from the dog right as Trevor was walking inside, too. On his way in, he had to pass Willie licking the spatula. As he passed him, Willie turned growled and snapped at Trevor. Trevor hadn't even made a move to take the spatula away, he was simply walking by.

He also growled over rawhides, etc. We practiced taking them away. I would have the kids take away his bones and have him sit and wait before giving them back to him. We practiced it quite a bit. He still growled at them whenever I turned my back, even if it was just to walk into the kitchen to get a glass of water. So we put rawhides and bones in his crate where he was allowed to be and the kids wouldn't bother him. He did learn to retreat to his crate, esp in the afternoons and when the kids were getting ready for bed. He did the same with his food, despite me having the kids feed him and taking his food away and giving it back to him. He would still growl when they walked near him while he was eating in the kitchen. Given that he snapped twice at Trevor when Trevor wasn't even taking food, we were both scared he would eventually snap at the kids. Yes, almost every time we fed him, we practiced taking his food and giving it back. We even pet him while he was eating. As long as Ray or I was directly.. and I mean, DIRECTLY over him, he was fine. If we stepped away, even in the same room, he growled at the kids.

We allowed him on the couch at first and he was fine at first. Then I started noticing that whenever the kids would get on the couch and he would jump up, he would get all playful nippy and they would retreat from the couch. I would encourage them to pull him off the couch and not to let him have it. But they didn't want to get nipped, so they reinforced his behaviour. I was afraid it would turn into a dominance issue over the couch, so he was no longer allowed on the couch or any bed. He learned pretty quickly and only jumped up when he was sopping wet. heh.

We should have noticed his dominance at the dog park. Whenever we took him to the dog park, he would find all the smaller dogs and play with them and dominate them. The only time he got the doggie beat down was if there was a bigger dog in the park who wouldn't take his puppy liberties. Then the dog would roll him and when he got back up he would avoid that dog. I don't know if there is anything in that, it's just an observation.

He listened to Ray really well. All Ray had to do was come stand over him and he rolled and acted submissive. I had my work cut out for me. He definitely wasn't aggressive to me, but I had to chase him down and roll him myself if he was stealing toys, or really doing anything.

Things he was awesome at.. he was a quick learner. In the few weeks we had him he learned sit and would heel on a leash, whether prong or flat collar, with minimal correction. We introduced him to farm animals twice at the farm. He learned to sit politely when people were petting him while on leash and he was doing reasonably well passing dogs on the trail and staying walking at heel. He sat politely while I put on his collar and leash. When he wasn't a basket case of energy (ie: after we walked him and let him play) he would settle with a chew toy or sleep and was not a problem at all. He never pooped in the house and only had accidents when I didn't notice his pacing. So he was pretty much house trained. He slept fine in his crate all night, though he barked in it for a few minutes during the day. His puppyness, while exhausting, was doable. In fact, much of it I knew was normal behavior he would outgrow.

I talked to a number of people about his behavior and as we came to the realization that we couldn't even safely leave the room to go to the bathroom or clear a table without the kids or dog being with us, we had to make the decision to return him. I have to reiterate that the kids were not harassing Willie, they loved to pet him and play with him but they weren't invading his space or poking him or treating him roughly. We loved Willie, he was a great dog in so many ways and our last day and this morning has been so quiet. We all loved taking him for his walks and letting him run through the creek by our house. But we knew we made the right decision when we took him back to the rescue and he rolled a dog twice his size. Even the rescue people said he looked like he was a definite dominant male dog and we were making the right decision.

New Puppy!

I am loooong overdue for a post! It has been a busy couple weeks. Last weekend Ray-dad (aka, Ray's father and my father in law) came into town. And we took like no good pictures. I have nothing to post. But we had lots of fun. Saturday we went out to the Montgomery County fair and played games, the girlies rode ponies, they won prizes. We ate too much funnel cake and fried oreos. Fun was had by all. Then Sunday we went geocaching and, though we only found 1 of 3 caches, we all had a blast. Especially Trevor, who thought geocaching was like a treasure hunt! It was wonderful to have grandpa visit us and the kids were really upset when it came time for him to go. Hopefully he'll have business in the area again soon!

Then, this past weekend we added a new addition to our family. We've been thinking about getting a dog for about a month now. The kids are more independent, they've been asking for a dog. Ray and I miss having a dog. So we checked out a few area shelters over the next few days. We had already decided on a puppy. I didn't mind if he was older than 8 weeks, but I wanted him/her to be younger than 6 months. I figured this would lessen any baggage a shelter dog might have (that is another story). But puppies go very quickly at our area shelters. In fact, neither are shelter had puppies. Frederick county did so we drove all the way out there, only to have them both adopted by the time we got there (1.5 hours later. Argh!). So we filled out an application with our local rescue group and, on a whim and with no definite plans to adopt that day, we went to their adoption fair the the Petco. We got there WAAAAY early, they were just arriving to set up. After looking at all the dogs, we really liked this little beagle mix girl who was 5 months old. We went to put an application in on her and when we got into the Petco, there was this pen set up with this ADORABLE hound puppy! He was four months old, big paws, floppy ears. He was sooo cute. We all loved him.

Well, getting a dog from a rescue is like adopting a child or something. We were there from 11ish when they were setting up.. all the way until 4pm that day. At the Petco. In a strip mall. The kids were WONDERFUL. Got a little tired near the end there, but hung out and drew on all the Petco applications (sorry Petco!) and pet all the dogs. We had to go through an interview with a volunteer. Yes, an interview. Then, if we pass that interview, we get a second interview with a board member. It felt like a job interview. heh. We passed both interviews! Then, they did something they apparently never do. They said if they could contact our vet today then we could take him home today, prior to the home visit (yes. Home visit) as a foster to adopt. Since they did reach our vet and I guess that was good. So we loaded up our puppy with lots of puppy things and took him home!!!! Sorry, minimal kid pics!


His name is Willie, not our name, he came with it and it stuck.


On a trip to Lake Fairfax yesterday.


Ray holding him on leash. He's not huge. I think he will be a houndy size when full grown. Not huge, not small. He's big a goofy and always trips over his feet right now.


This is not our dog. This is Brett's English Mastiff puppy who went to the park with us. Yes. Puppy. She makes Willie look like a chihuahua. She will like double her weight. She was terrified of Willie at first. I think Roxy is also adorable.


Am I cute or WHAT?


Willie LOVES the kids. He bounds after them all day, trying to see what they are up to. He also loves Rachael's shoes. And he loves their stuffed toys. And their lego pieces. Oh, and their bed covers. He's a teething beast. But he really adores the kids and they adore him. They have been so wonderful, making sure they get stuff out of his way, not getting mad at him when he grabs their toys. They play in the backyard so Willie can come out and splash in the wading pool with them. I wanted a dog that would kind of be one of the gang and he really is (I sure hope there are no hitches in the foster to adopt thing!)

On a good note. He was obviously crated before we had him. He has been crated both nights now. The first night he gave one houndy cute bay and that was it for the night. Last night he wanted out at midnight and I let him out to pee and put him in his crate. He whined a couple minutes then no more noise for the rest of the night. He has only had two accidents in the house and no poop in the house. He paces when he has to go out and we let him out. If we don't catch him pacing, well, he'll pee in the house. He's only 4 months old. But I was very surprised at how little pee I have been cleaning up (knock on wood). He's really been great so far. Very sweet and good natured. He rides well in the car with us. Our routine has been walking him in the morning then he takes a midmorning nap, then he goes somewhere with us in the afternoon, we're always going to a park or hiking or something. Then in the evening he gets one more walk. He was so pooped today that he almost didn't walk the rest of the way back from his walk. He's currently sleeping on my feet as I type. He's a wonderful little monster puppy!

Pirates and Treasure

It's been a pretty relaxed week. Sorry I have no pictures to post. We have backpacks and school supplies and I registered Trevor and Rachael for school. I am kind of excited! We went to Lake Fairfax last night and cooked out for dinner and et the kids run around everywhere. Then we met Ryan at his campsite and the kids all ran around with eachother. Except Ariel, who for some reason, has decided Ryan is super scary and won't wander away when he is around. But the reason I posted and what I thought was cute was Trevor's obsession with finding treasure.

We were all eating our hot dogs and chips and strawberries at the picnic table when Trevor suddenly stops eating and exclaims "I know! I will need to go to the library tomorrow. Then I will check a book out with treasure maps in it and, well, I'll need a shovel and I will dig up some treasure!"

I pointed out "Well, Trev, don't you think if treasure maps were just at the library, someone would have just checked it out and found all the treasure by now? I think treasure maps are rare and hard to find."

Trevor thought about it for a moment and said "OK. Well, then I will get a book about people who have FOUND treasure and then I will go to where they found their treasure and get their map.... no, wait. They will have already FOUND the treasure. Hmmmm."

So he thought about it like all evening. This was something he was very intensely focused on, this tough issue of finding a treasure map. So I took the girlies over to the stream to catch water skippers and watch a spider weave his web and Trevor finally comes running over...

"Mommy! OK. I've got it. Even if the treasure is in Europe, well, I'm just going there for it."
ME: "Um, ok. Are you going to save your allowance to fly there?"
Trevor: "NO! That's like 10,000 dollars!"
Me: "OK. How about daddy and I find the treasure for you when we got to Europe?"
Trevor: "Oh, it's in a cave with lots of spiders. You won't want to go in there."
Me: "OK. Well, I'll send daddy, then and I'll stand guard outside."
Trevor "OK, that would work. And then daddy could go down into the dark stairs and to a door...." suddenly Trevor just groans and rolls his eyes... "But what happens if the door is LOCKED and there is NO KEY? I hadn't thought of that."
Me (thinking this whole scenario is hypothetical) "Well, we could just learn how to pick locks. Maybe there is some lock picking kit we could buy."
Trevor: "Oh! Good! OK. So then daddy can get in the room with the treasure map." (Yes, map. No treasure is here! This is just the map!)
Trevor: "I wonder if there will be a knife or sword in the room."
Me: "Oh, it should be a sword! Maybe a ninja sword, like some big samurai sword. That would be so cool."
Trevor, exasperated: "Noooo, mom. This is a PIRATE. There are no samurai swords. This is dead pirate bones holding out a map."
Me, finally laughing because I realize he is deadly serious about all this, "Ohhhh, uh huh."
Trevor, getting irked, "Don't laugh at me, mommy! I will find a treasure map!"

It was just really funny. Trevor is just darn sure that he will not only find a treasure map, he seems to know just HOW he will come across it.

Hiking to Bear's Den

Yesterday we took a couple hours to hike up to Bear's Den, off the Appalachian trail. This was the first time doing an actual hike with the kids, although, if you notice Trevor's Crocs (Crocs have to be the world's most hideously UGLY shoe) and Ariel's sandals, we didn't realize how much of a hike it would be. It was a ton of fun, though! And the kids did awesome- lots of uphill clambering over rocks.


We put the timer on for this picture. I think Ray got shy and hid behind Trevor. heh. We're in the parking lot before heading up.


TONS of blackberries along the parking lot. We picked lots.


A beetle we saw. We kept having to tell Rachael NOT to pick up the bugs. She picked up some sort of cricket/grasshopper bug at one point and it bit/stung her. She exclaimed "It BIT me!" and not 5 minutes later tried to pick up another one she saw. Yes, this is the child who, at 18 months was so scared of bugs we spent the summer inside because everytime we went outside she FREAKED at the gnats and flies and ants.


Butterfly that landed on my shoe at one point.


The moss was absolutely thrilling.


Finally at the top. Ray is helping Rachael leap across the rock. I am taking the picture and trying not to be a nervous wreck. The drop off the rocks is almost 90 degrees and straight down the mountain (trees might have stopped them about 30 feet down).


Daddy, Trevor and Rachael. Ariel is back with me having a fit because SHE wants the opportunity to scare me over on the rock with daddy.


Ray helping Miss Ariel, who always gets her way, across. It kind of looks like he is flinging her to her death. I am probably holding my breath as I take this picture.


A rare moment of not being silly. Trevor meditating upon the wonderful view.


Rachael climbing a tree.


Kids on the rocks.... no salt.


Trevor walking through a set of rocks. There were daddy long legs EVERYWHERE. Trevor was a little nervous one would crawl on him. I was glad I wore tennis shoes and when I wasn't freaking out the kids would fall down the mountain, I was keeping an eye out for montserous daddy long legs. OMG, I am just a wreck. But, thankfully, as my anxiety can't actually keep up for that long, by the time we got up to Bear's Den, I was much calmer. On the way down, I could actually walk without being twitchy! Go me. Maybe that's how to overcome arachniphobia.

All in all, it was a great hike. We're definitely going to look for more hikes like this one. The kids got tired about halfway down. Ariel needed to be carried and Rachael just cried and walked. But otherwise everyone had a blast!

It was one of the not-too-hot summer days, with cloudy skies and a little drizzle. So we decided to go for a walk. The trails around our house are wonderful. So here's just a bit of a photo/video dump.


Trevor letting Rachael know she just walked through a cobweb.


Ariel showing off something or other she found. And looking like she has been cursed with cuteness. heh


Ariel found a piece of chalk on the trail and drew things everywhere with it.


Mushroom, Mushroom! But no snakes...


Scary poison ivy!!! It is everywhere on the trails. They chop it all down in the spring, but it's back by summer.


I am pretty sure this is Virginia Creeper. We are not nervous of this.


I am pretty sure that THIS is poison Ivy. The kids, for all their tromping through the woods, have never gotten poison ivy. Spider phobic me does not tramp through the woods, so I ahve never gotten is, either.


This was when Rachael's mood started deteriorating. She was mad we wouldn't take the short cut through the woods back to the house. Then she didn't want to carry her bag anymore and so tried to wear it on her head. But it wouldn't stay on her head while she walked. Rachael's life is full of tragedy.


Trevor gathered up all these sticks to make a house with and then was having trouble carrying them all home. He found a piece of rope laying around the trail and we tied up his sticks in a bundle. He was quite satisfied.


We were apparently not giving Rachael enough sympathy so she tried to take a shortcut home that was not close to us. But then she realized she would be walking through someone's yard and she couldn't get back up the hill. Her sis helped her up.


They were checking out a hole they saw a mouse run into. But now I think Ariel is checking out the taste of her yummy blue (hm) leaf and Rachael is checking to see if any snacks are left in her nose.


Ariel just being cute. We tend to call all sticks with legs on one side "stickbugs". We didn't find any actual, real stickbugs. That would be soo cool, though!


"I am sopped!" If Rachael is not drenched, she is getting sopped. It was spitting out- not raining, really. We didn't get rained on in the woods, but did a bit outside the woods. This was when we were about to head in.