Why I Love My Husband

See postings below.

Yes, I suppose it could be construed from my original post that Peter was an "uber-grump." Not so. He was, in fact, thrilled to be on the journey. He just loves driving for 14 straight hours. And the exercise we all got from walking (especially that walk WAY out of the way uphill to the Foggy Bottom subway station with 45 pounds of Molly on your shoulders, remember that, dear?) was just perfect in his opinion. I failed to mention how much he liked Mt. Vernon. Sorry, honey.

:)

P.S. Molly and Rebecca also both liked the name "Foggy Bottom" for a subway stop. They laughed about that one for some time. They ARE Peter's children after all!

Peter's Retort to Courtney's DC Trip Posting

"Peter's favorite part was Monticello and getting home."

So much can be conveyed in one sentence.

One would think, reading my sweet bride's blog, that I was the uber-grump on this trip whose only interest was in seeing Monticello and getting home. This is so very untrue and-- yes, I'll say it-- unfair. I was given several opportunities to not go on this trip. In fact, just days before we were to leave, Courtney and I had the Rand-McNally out looking at the difference in distance from Memphis to DC and from Memphis to Orlando. For the record, they are approximately the same.

And still I chose to drive to DC with my three precious girls and darling wife. It was not for any self-serving reasons, either-- I get to go to DC numerous times throughout the year and in all seasons. I was doing this for my sweet angel babies-- so that they would develop early in life an appreciation for their country's history. Just seeing the faintest glimmer, that spark of interest, that first bud on the flower that will one day be a shared obsessive-compulsive interest in all things American-- that is why I took them to Washington.

True, I am more than a little taken by Monticello. I find the combination of the paradoxical man (freedom coupled with slavery) with the perfectly symmetrical house an interesting disparity. And it only took us a couple of hours to go through the whole thing, so I don't want to hear any more about how out of the way it was or how the tickets were over priced.

So, to correct Courtney's assessment of my feelings on the trip let me also also add that I really liked Mt. Vernon, too.

Thank you.

Three Little Girls Go To Washington

Our Spring Break adventure was just that! I'm not sure what possessed me to load the family up in the minivan and drive many, many, many hours to a place that's really made for older kids and families. But we headed out to Washington DC on March 15, armed with portable DVD player, iPod, trivia cards, toys and stuffed animals, pillows and snacks. We loved seeing the Blue Ridge Mountains and watching the sun set, so driving was, well, long, but not so awful.

WHY WE REALLY SHOULD WATCH MORE NASCAR
I did not make hotel reservations for the first night, because I wasn't sure how far we'd get. The plan was to stop around Bristol, TN, which is right on the border with Virginia and would get us closer to Monticello (in Charlottesville, VA), where we planned to stop the next afternoon. Little did we know, there was a big Nascar race in Bristol that very weekend. Apparently the track there seats around 100,000 people. And east TN is prime Nascar country. So every hotel within a 3-hour radius of Bristol, from Motel 6 to the Hyatt, was booked solid. Some big volleyball tournament was also taking up our rooms. So we just kept driving. The kids were angelic and perfect all day. No, really, they were. By the time we started searching for a Room at the Inn (and were quite willing to accept a space by the manger at this point), they were sleeping soundly. So when we finally rolled into some town about an hour from Charlottesville and checked into a hotel with an indoor pool (which is an amenity we'd promised the girls) at about 1 am, we carried dead-weight girl bodies in without a hitch. We awoke the next morning, took a very brisk dip in a not-so-heated indoor pool, and had a leisurely drive into town for our tour of Monticello.

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT JEFFERSON ANYWAY?
Peter loves Monticello. "It's my favorite building in the whole country." And what's not to love? Symmetry, classicism, clean lines and dumb waiters. We gathered reading material and attempted to educate the kids beforehand about how great Thomas Jefferson was and you know, about the slavery and all that, too. The gardens were a hit. I taught the girls how to rub leaves between their fingers and then sniff those fingers to identify which herbs were growing. Rebecca loved the rosemary and got really into the sniffing, rubbing grass in between her fingers and leaves from trees: "I think maybe this one is actually rosemary, too, Mommy." Molly liked his game room, with the chess board. The tour guide complimented them on their good behavior during the tour and complimented us on "bringing them when they're so young." The whining that ensued as we waited for a bus back down the mountain made me question that decision.


AMERICA'S ATTIC
I once interned at the Smithsonian, so it holds a place near and dear to my heart. Much to my dismay, however, "my museum" (the American History museum) was closed and had been since 9/06 for renovations! Still, we visited the Air and Space Museum, which had a small exhibit hall with special stuff from the history museum, including the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz and Abraham Lincoln's hat. We kept emphasizing to Molly and Rebecca that these were the REAL items, the ones Dorothy wore, etc. As we left Air and Space to find some lunch, the lines were long. Our best bet seemed to be the McDonald's cart by the museum. Rebecca said quite seriously and not at all mocking us: "Is it the REAL McDonald's, Daddy?" Touche!
We went to the Natural History museum as well, with all the stuffed animals and the Hope Diamond. The live butterfly exhibit was sold-out.



A THREE-HOUR TOUR
So not really three hours, but we did cram things in. Some DC-area stuff that is quite time-consuming really is over the kids' heads, so we were spared long train rides out to Arlington Cemetary or tours of Ford's Theater. We basically saw two museums, a sad little national aquarium (I mean, a few tropical fish and a turtle? come on!), and hit the National Mall for some serious walking, to drink in all the monuments at sunset. We drove out to Mount Vernon also, which was well worth the day we spent there. I do not remember Mount Vernon from childhood--perhaps I hadn't been there?--but I was impressed.
This is the new World War II Memorial with Lincoln Memorial in the background. It's impossible to capture the whole thing in one picture (and rest assured, I took MANY more pictures, because it was powerful).

The girls were playing in the trees, waiting for our Mt. Vernon tour.

Rebecca loved the subway--she liked to guess what was overhead.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART?
Rebecca: "smelling the rosemary, riding the underground subway train and the fish" (at the aquarium I mentioned above--the crappy one)
Molly: "seeing the White House because that's where they make "Cory in the House" TV show, the game room with cards and chess at Monticello, and eating Who-Cakes at IHOP"
Amelia: getting carried around in the Baby Bjorn and, of course, the important history so beautifully displayed in our nation's capital
Mommy: the World War II Memorial and getting to see Jessica and Rich and their 3-week-old daughter Sydney on the way back home
Daddy: Monticello and getting back home

I would like to point out that Molly's and Rebecca's favorites could have been reasonably accomplished in similar fashion, by staying right here, especially IHOP and smelling rosemary (we have a huge rosemary bush right in our yard). But now we have a scrapbook to make. And isn't that what Spring Break is all about?

Lots more photos on our Website (see first link on the blog).

We Love the Smiths!

We inaugurated March with a road trip to Jackson, Mississippi, where Peter spent his best college years, where we lived when we were first married, and most importantly, where Paige and Jason and Kas Smith live. Peter and Jason were roommates at Mississippi College. Paige and Jason were dating at the time, so they were all buddies. When I moved to Jackson after I graduated from college, they welcomed me into the circle! We used to alternate hosting dinner on the weekends at our respective apartments, playing board games, listening to U2 and eating fettucine alfredo. Now that we're back in the South, we will be able to hang out more often. Last weekend was a gorgeous one--we had a picnic, played on the playground, went to the new science museum and flew a kite on the M.C. campus.





Pay attention to the lovely weather and lack of coat-wearing. My next entry will not be so warm, because as I write this one, we've got about 3 inches of snow. For Memphians, that's A LOT of snow, crippling really--and cause for a panicked run to the grocery store for bread and milk, in case we can't get out for days. :)

Fun Times in February

The months after Christmas seem so ho-hum. All the excitement of that season has passed. The weather is always dreary and cold. The end of February, things start picking up (Rebecca's birthday!), but we try to find ways to keep the adventures comin', no matter how small. Here are a few:

Amelia likes to sit up in her Bebe Pod chair and play with the attached toy. Soon we'll start trying a few "solid" foods, so we'll switch out the toy thing for the placemat. For now, playtime!


Rebecca's friend Kelsye had a birthday party at Maple Grove Farm. The barn had a rock wall inside. Some kids loved it, others shied away. To my surprise, Rebecca put on that harness and scaled that wall like she'd done it a million times. As each person reached the top, s/he would ring the bell. Not many of the kids made it that far, especially not the 3-year-olds. But Rebecca had a HUGE grin on her face as she rang the bell!


Since the kids & Peter had the day off for Presidents' Day and I was post-call, we decided to get out of the house together. We headed to the Pink Palace Museum. I remember it well from childhood, and many of the main features haven't changed. But it was neat to see it through the girls' eyes. The moving triceratops is still there, but he's retired and can no longer move (arthritis?). The planetarium is scheduled to re-open soon--I used to go see the laser light shows there on weekend nights (gotta love some Pink Floyd music with lasers!). There's an IMax theater now. But the flap-your-arms-like-a-bird-in-flight exhibit remains (see photo); the huge miniature circus is there; the Memphis history section (Holiday Inn sign, replica of first Piggly Wiggly grocery store, Civil War and yellow fever stuff) is intact; and the gift shop still has cool rocks and fossils. We decided to become museum members, so we can get in first to new exhibits, go anytime without paying again, and really, because you're just not a cool family 'til you're a Pink Palace family.


Just before Leap Day, little cousin Annsley turned ONE! Here she is in her custom-made cupcake bib, ready to get messy. Happy Birthday, Annie!

Rebecca Turns 4!

Rebecca turned 4 on Feb 24 and celebrated in style! Round 1 included a party with her friends from preschool with a Dr. Seuss theme. Rebecca LOVES Seussical the Musical and all the books, especially Horton the Elephant. So we invited the whole class to our house. The Cat in the Hat stopped by for dancing and a pinata, as well as pictures with each party guest. I drew posters of the Lorax, Horton and a Sneetch, which hung from our balcony. (I have to say, I was pretty proud of my free-hand work. In no way am I artistic; I just seem to have some weird spatial ability I had not yet discovered.) I made a Hat cake (which actually looks better in this picture than it did in real life--I was NOT proud of the cake, but it tasted good nonetheless). And each guest received a Dr. Seuss book as a party favor. Rebecca had a blast with all her friends (17 kids in all, plus ours! yikes!) and has told me multiple times that she is no longer a baby now that she's 4.

Round 2 was for our extended families--aunts, uncles, cousins (grandparents came to both). Some of my cousins have younger kids, too, so Maggie was there (she's 6), as well as Charlie (who is nearly 2) and Drew (who just turned 1). That party was mostly adults, so the kids disappeared in the playroom while the grown-ups indulged my game fetish, unscrambling words describing Rebecca's interests (Benjamin won) and making words out of the letters of Rebecca's name (Papa won). Then the second cake was served, this time pink, of course, with a butterfly on it. Again, looked bad, tasted good. Rebecca, who is not at all shy in small groups but is quite shy with lots of people around, was a little overwhelmed with all the attention. But she is still talking about both parties 2 weeks later, so I guess the memories are good ones!

These pictures are a small sampling. The better shots were taken by my dad, of course, but they're not downloaded yet, so you're stuck with mine.