Virginia Living Museum

On our last full day in VA, our friends took us to The Virginia Living Museum. James still talks about it, and any time we go somewhere, "Are we going to the museum?" It was pretty memorable, with it's animatronic dinosaurs.  They had one without it's dino-skin (just the robot frame) where the kids could use the control panel to make it roar and move. I think James could have stayed there all day.

After our photo op with the triceratops, Nick got a teensy bit impaled (...but recovered quickly.)

Coze wanted to be impaled, but it ended up being more of a pony-ride-ish situation.

The girls and their new friend:

Rrawr!...I mean: Cheese!

Jon, being eated alive.

 There were actual live animals as well: horseshoe crab... 

...multi-headed turtles...

(Annika giving Nick friendly punch.)

Girlie turtle.

...and we saw beavers, eagles, foxes, etc. But alas, my camera was out of batteries, and my ipod zoom was just not up to the task.

I love this picture of Jess and her daughter. It reminds me of one of the best parts of parenthood, us watching them discover the world. Fresh wonder. 

tchotchkes

I found a new place for some of my stuff:

...my favorite plates (from my Mom) and my faux cuckoo, whose little lederhosen boy has mysteriously vanished (from my sister)...

...cute french plates (thrift store) and my matryoshka measuring cups (Target)...

...a plate my Mom sent home with Sofia...which I hope was for me...because I claimed it...

...all on the pretty dish shelf I had to track down at Ikea. I saw it in their catalogue, but couldn't find it anywhere in the store. (And that's a lot of looking, since there are a lot of "wheres" is could be in that mammoth store!) Apparently it is not a "self-serve" item? Some nice young man tracked it down for me.

(Beth, if you look really closely, you can see the tea towel I stole from you hanging from one of the hooks! :)

Ahhh, the kitchen is starting to come together.

...and more beachy goodness...

...from Virginia!

Emu

See, Paige. Creepy.

Two Less

James got a gap while we were in VA. His two front teeth fell out!

Here he is, making an "old man face".

...or maybe it's a pirate face...or he could just be saying "fromage".

Bluebird Gap Farm

Man, ever feel like you aren't finishing something really easy...like writing in your blog? That's me lately. Maybe it's because I'm trying to get kids ready (and me ready) for school? No, I think it's because I can spend an hour looking at dresses online. (Oh, Modcloth, what have you done to me!?)

Anyhooo....another cool place we visited with our friends...

Bluebird Gap Farm is an "animal rescue center", which in retrospect, I should have played up with the Go Diego Go! fan in our family.

We fed lots of animals. 

It's pretty thrilling for kids (...and maybe adults too...I admit it).

Johnathan was constantly getting his head cut off in my pictures. Oops.

I'm just not used to having anyone that tall around.

Cozy was just fascinated my the donkey.

I got a little closer and could hear her saying, "Here, donkey donkey donkey, here donkey..."

It didn't work. Probably for the best, if there's any truth to the sign on the fence.

Still, the cow seemed nice enough, and his fence had the same sign on it.

...but I think I'd be a little scared of his licks! Check out that tongue, going under the fence for some grass! Eeeew!

Jess helping James feed some goaties.

James joining the goaties.

Lady Christina. :)

Annika-goat and Cozy-goat. 

Nick, I think this alpaca stole your haircut. ;)

And, in a lovely park-ish farm, or course I found some things I wanted to bring home with me:

Think my front yard could look like this?

....the cutest bantam ever!

...and turtle doves...

...but I don't want to take care of them. I just want them to fly around wild in my backyard with the mourning doves. Think that's legal?

Yorktown

We took a vacation while Tony was "on vacation" (learning about tropical medicine in Peru).  His was probably more adventurous, but ours was o-so-relaxing and fun. The four littlest hooligans and me drove down to Newport News to visit my friend Jess and her lovely kids. They spoiled us. Fed us. Entertained us.  

Our first outing was to the Yorktown beach...

...where digging was the order of the day!

They were digging so intently that no one wanted to look at the camera.

...and a little swimming....

...and we managed to evade the pirates.