Williamsburg to Richmond

Our health insurance ran out today, so Carrie bit the bullet and agreed to go to a doctor. She's had a sore throat and lost her voice all week. The nearest Urgent Care was in Williamsburg. Carrie made the appointment Saturday night, but when the alarm went off Sunday morning she was groggy and didn't seem safe to drive.

Naturally, Shane and I escorted her. We made the 8 AM appointment and dropped her off. Shane and I picked up bagels while we waited for Carrie to get done. Then we all had breakfast while we waited for the pharmacy to open (The doctor thought it was viral, but gave us a prescription "just in case" in morphed into something more). 

We had planned to go to the church in Providence Forge we've made our "New Kent Church," but we were now leagues away. Ironically, we stopped at a church between services that was a Pokemon gym.

Shane noticed it at breakfast and it was on the way to the pharmacy.

We took Carrie home to rest, but then Shane and I hit the road again! This time we drove west to Richmond!

Kim and Ryan had just gotten back from a vacation. They'd celebrated their anniversary on the west coast. We had lunch at Wendy's and Ryan showed Shane his Pokemon Go collection and taught him how to play the Harry Potter follow-up.

We went to Wal-Mart on the way home (That's a lot of W's.....West....Wendy's...Wal-Mart...). Ryan and Shane led the charge, while Kim and I talked and spotted some oddities.

I started to send pictures back to Carrie.

A certain movie always comes to mind...

We discovered a robot while picking around.

The name triggered an Ouran reference I knew Carrie would enjoy.

It seemed to be built for scanning the shelves.

Shane followed it around for an aisle or two before we made him move along.

When we got back to Ryan and Kim's house, Ryan was eager to mow. Shane was eager to help....drive.

But before that there was a moment. Ryan was outside. Kim and I were talking and Shane ran into the bathroom. There was a thud, but I didn't think much of it.

Shane ran out of the bathroom and said, "DAD! I had a pee accident! I was peeing and I slipped and fell and couldn't stop!"

I couldn't keep a straight face. I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard. The image of Shane slipping on his back and peeing straight up into the air! You can't make this stuff up.

I know it embarrassed him, but once I was done laughing we took off his shirt, put it on the front porch to dry, and got some paper towels to clean up. I'm sure Shane learned a lesson! He shrugged it off and he'll laugh about this at some point (I'm still laughing as I write this!).

I got to pitch in for a moment before Ryan and Shane started to mow. Ryan's got a bad back, so I climbed into the crawlspace to turn on the water for the sprinkler system.

Which Shane ran straight into after I told him not to. Thankfully, it's hot enough to quickly dry off t-shirts and little boys.

Shane took a break from running around to show Ryan and Kim's neighbor the wart on his foot.

Ryan and Shane had fun mowing. That tone may change when it's Shane's job to mow our farm, but it's a delight right now!

Kim had work Monday and they still needed to unpack, so Shane and I left around dinner time.

Today was a perfect example of how I don't feel like there needs to be a special activity to visit people. It's fun just to be around and live life with them. We ate, talked, shopped for groceries, and did yardwork....and it was fun! 

Summer NOVA Run

A two-hour road trip turned into over three hours thanks to I-95 traffic. There's a reason I normally avoid I-95 despite Google Maps swearing "it will be a minute or two faster this time."

It was hot. We weren't moving, so the AC cut out. Shane and I ended up driving shirtless and stopping at a Panera Bread for a bathroom break and re-hydrate. Thankfully, we had a new Hank the Cowdog from the New Kent Library to help pass the time.

We would have left earlier in the day, but no kids were around. Megan's family was in Richmond to visit Erika and let Big B bike in a race. Matt was in Fredericksburg officiating for a wedding. Travis's family was celebrating his parent's 50th wedding anniversary. Bill, Jill, and Ben were in town, but I didn't hear back from Bill until later on.

Shane and I arrived on the scene a few minutes before Ben woke up from his afternoon nap. Ben chose Bill over Diane, but when Jill came around the corner Ben only had eyes for her! Even after Bill gave him his hat! We didn't have long to catch up, because the everyone was going out to dinner at Dogfish Head (I texted Dan in NE to let him know. Dogfish is his favorite!).

Shane and I hadn't seen everyone since Christmas. I felt out of touch, so it was good to catch up some. Bill was walking rough from a surgery he had, Ben has grown....stuff happens. It's hard to keep up when everyone's distant.

Shane played outside while we waited for John. He was off work and en route while Shane tried to throw Oreo's leash like a grappling hook into the tree. It was all fun so long as it didn't get stuck or hit a window (Shane was aware and that 'danger' surely made it more fun!).

We went to CFA for dinner, because kids. Shane's phenomenal about making acquaintance level friends. The next trick will be helping him make lifelong friends like John.

I sent this status update to Carrie. "Shane just tried to eat a flower at chic fil a to see if it was real after making friends with someone named Calvin while he was singing in the bathroom"

"So he's enjoying NOVA"

True story.

Calvin even turned out to be from Charlottesville. He recognized Shane's SOCA shirt. I doubled over laughing. CFA plays instrumentals of Christian contemporary songs that Shane knows from the radio. That's where the singing came in.

John and I parked and talked for a couple of hours while Shane climbed, yelled, and played his heart out.

Shane had predicted a storm when he saw some dark clouds near Richmond, so he was thrilled when it did rain. In the car, I had said, "Clouds here don't mean a storm up north where we're going!"

Which is true, but they also didn't mean there couldn't be a storm in NOVA. Shane was happy to be right and happy that I was wrong, I bet!

We went to DQ for dessert afterward. There was a dojang from the same franchise as Shane's next door (happy coincidence).

It was freezing inside and hot outside. John wanted to stand outside, but Boss baby was on the TV inside.

There was no sound, but Shane was mesmerized. We made faces at him through the window and everything. No reaction!

Shane and I had to say goodbye after ice cream around 8:30 PM. Carrie wouldn't sleep with us on the road and I didn't want her up too late. It took us two hours to get back this time! Shane saw one firework light off and called out. We scanned the skies the rest of the way home, but unfortunately didn't find any more.

This should be the NOVA trip for the summer. I wanted to see Matt G, Gen, Chris, Jama, etc, but there's a lot going on. I'm glad we got a chance to see who we did at least!

The Beach Revisited

I cut this out from the end of my last beach post. I had tacked it on the end like an addendum/epilogue, but the post was huge! I cut it out to make the post less overwhelming. I feel like I could have written a small novel from all the material. 

From Nana's Phone:

Nana posted some photos on Facebook I've taken the liberty of reposting here. She had some of Shane from when they went on walks....

...Pokemon walks! How he took a screenshot has eluded her!

Shane dropped her phone at one point after she told him to be careful. He added a small crack to the display.

Thank God, Nana goes to church and learns about forgiveness! She took some pew pictures on Sunday.

And Nana knows a thing or two about trust, as well. She gave the phone to someone to take a group shot for her (I'm trying to remember if it was the pastor).

She caught Aiden learning how to trust his dad's direction to join a party under the table. 

It's a cute picture, but it'll be more important if the lesson sticks!

Nana wasn't too busy chasing goats and playing with birds to take some pictures at the petting zoo.

She even got in some of her own pictures!

She was good about getting some Matt, Renee, and Aiden shots. They'd stray from the group.

Nana had some other good group shots.

My focus tends to be on Shane, but she's focused on the whole tree!

Unsurprising, since she birthed us.

I posed for a few of her pictures out of gratitude.

Nana prefers 'posed smiles' over 'authentic.'

So we have to play nice.

For the first picture or two.

And it's not only me!

We all nearly died laughing after Patrick made a face for the last picture. Nana had just scolded me and it wouldn't have been any funnier if we'd scripted it. The sense of humor must run in the family....from Pop's side!

The Purge

It started Wednesday. Carrie decided to do a deep cleaning and purge.

She purged all the outdated magazines and travel brochures she could find and had Shane and I load them in the Bucket 1 for a recycling center run.

There were only so many obvious things she could purge before she needed to talk to Grandma and Grandpa, though. Carrie wanted the cleaner and leaner house to be a surprise, homecoming gift, so she had to draw the line before she really wanted to. 

There are plenty of daily chores. Shane got to learn how to scoop a new type of litter.

And he practiced some stretching and acrobatics to access it!

Carrie designed a box to hold Boo's litter and prevent it scattering all over the floor whenever she covered her business. So far, it's working well!

The cats haven't helped. Boo throws up daily.

Every now and then I find a crusty spot that happened in the night or went unnoticed in the day. 

Carrie's done some vacuuming and cobweb clearing, but there's still work to be done. I find it hard to get in a dishes and laundry routine here since it's temporary, but I need to work on that.