On to NOVA!

Shane and I drove to NOVA today! We finished Redwall and The Terrible Two Go Wild on the drive up and stopped at Wegmans for lunch at noon.

It was a late start for a road trip day. Part of it was I had to take care of Loki and the horses. Part of it was Jama wasn't due to get back from a doctor's appointment until noon. My sisters and I all planned to meet up at Jama's to check on her and let the kids run around.

The twins and Jama ended up running late. Shane and I ended up hunting down peppermint oil for Carrie, so we stayed busy until we met just before 1 PM  (Carrie was dealing with mice! They'd been nesting in Shane's room. She called pest control and spent the afternoon cleaning up!).

We timed it so well that we all pulled up around the same time!

Stu's crew had been up in Maryland visiting his branch of their family. The stop in NOVA was a way to break up the journey.

B is still a NOVA native. His grandma is in town and was probably thrilled we didn't descend on Megan's house!

He was a little shorter and walked a little funnier than I remembered...

Ed's daughter pulled up with Jama and Ed as we were gathering in the parking lot. Cole was feeling motion sick from the drive, so Shane and I stayed with him while everyone else went in.

Cole felt better when it was clear there was fun afoot (I don't think it was from Shane "talking him through it!" Ha!). 

The Woodlands had the train out when we made it inside.

Anything that says, "Don't touch" is a lot of temptation for little hands! The kids all looked like a pack of ducks following Kathleen wherever she went.

We set up shop in a side room and rooted for Jama to pee. Relief was victory and victory was relief!

Kathleen went upstairs with Jama to fix Alexa 'ignoring her' while Megan, Stu, and I stayed with the merry horde. The kids separate into packs for younger and older.

Pichu's special attacks knocked over chairs and produced a cacophony of sound effects.

Evelyn was a lot more eloquent! I hadn't seen her since Patrick's wedding, so the speech progress was a lot more noticeable.

I could hear and understand her over all the racket the boys were making!

Sammy wandered over and joined the boy's club.

Sometimes. He always bounced back to check on Megan. He's a mommy's boy!

Jama was happy that Kathleen figured out what was up with Alexa. Somehow, Alexa had been set to "Do not listen."

I didn't want to be useless, so I followed the older boys to the game room as they ran off. "Do you remember?" Shane asked. "This is the room we played Mario Kart in on Nana's switch!"

The game room had been upgraded since we last visited. The boys liked the shuffleboard table (No injuries until B got a smashed thumb much later).

There was a ping pong table and a pool table, too. I tried to hop in and get the boys to play table tennis, but gave up and did my best to allow them to play without damaging anything.

Megan and I took the boys up to look for ice cream in Jama's room afterward.

She carried Sammy. The boys ran up and down the halls, but we wouldn't let them in Jama's room to keep the footfalls from bothering her downstairs neighbor.

We brought some of the spoils down to the girls.

Megan headed out first. Kathleen and her crew went next. Shane and Cole tried to sneak off to watch commercials, but they weren't hard to find.

We said our goodbye's to Jama, so that she could nap and then headed off to our next stop: The library. 

Shane ate a blue candy cane on the drive over and his mouth showed it!

John was working the evening shift, but it wouldn't have been a NOVA visit without checking in on him. The 3D printer was going when we arrived.

John had some examples of articulated pieces out that could move. I found it fascinating. If Shane shows an interest in tech I'll probably end up buying our own 3D printer one day.

John was working, so we couldn't monopolize his time. A tech person had come to fix a computer and then a patron reported it wasn't working minutes after he left. John deduced the tech never installed the drivers for the touchscreen, but without an admin password there wasn't much he could do about it.

He came over to talk when he was off desk duty and trying to remove the Eiffel Tower from the printer pad.

We headed back into the staff area to check on John's desk improvements and his spray project.

John had sprayed some models before work and was letting them dry out back.

Shane's interest lasted until he realized he could use the delivery dock to hop on top the wall!

Shane was shocked when jumped off the wall itself to hop on top. He dropped down and tried it himself without success.

We went back inside where Shane noticed John's desk neighbor, Carly, had a 3D printed dragon and Vaporeon. John and I did our best to reassemble her desk before heading out front to say our farewells.

The Jeffer's was our final stop for the night. It took nearly an hour to go from Jama's, to the library, and then backtrack to the house (There was a wreck on 66 East, so I stuck to the lights on Hwy 50).

Bill, Jill, and Ben were in town for the holiday. Diane invited us in and let Shane serve himself dinner alongside them!

Ben and Shane hit it off. Literally. They were drumming and making noise together merrily.

Which worked out great for the adults. I got to talk and Shane got to play and not get in trouble (He did get a little crazy with the remote for the tree lights, but that's no big deal!). Shane and I got included in a group photo before Bill and Jill had to pack up for their ride home to New Jersey.

Shane and I left just before they did. It takes us a little longer to make the drive now that we're in Scottsville. We grabbed Arby's for dinner (Shane's choice) and got gas from Costco as we passed through Cville. We made it home just before 9 PM.

The horses all came running as we pulled up. I saw that the hay wasn't out and realized Carrie must have fallen asleep early! We came into the house quietly and found her crashed on the couch. She woke up long enough to help put Shane to bed while I ran out to do horse chores. I came back in to a quiet house.

Everyone needed to get their sleep, because we had some more fun planned for the morrow. I would have loved to have spent more time in NOVA and planned to go back up soon. Renee's due date had come and gone and I hoped that we could drive up to welcome to the new cousin to the world before break was over (Plus I wanted to see Cammy, Goetz, and John rescued Shane's Pichu that he left in the library!).

Cat Delivery

Nova dropped by Friday. She brought Lester.

The plan is Lester will be our new barn cat. We've already got mice and he's a proven hunter who likes being outside. Nova moved from our place to an apartment where it hasn't been well suited to Lester's preferred lifestyle.

The plan is to leave him in the tack room for a couple of days with food, water, litter, and comfort. That way he'll know where his home base is before he's allowed out in the wild.

Nova has tried to re-home Lester before. Lester objected and traveled miles and miles to get back to where he'd started (He even survived a fox on the way). We hope that he'll stick around the barn, but there's not much you can do. He knows where the food is and has free reign to either decide to claim the barn as his own, or wander off.

UPDATE: Lester went on walkabout and hasn't come back yet. It's been almost a week, so Carrie let Nova know. We're hoping he's just on a long wander charting out his new territory, but there's no way to know. He'll show back up or he won't.

Epic Day Trip

Shane and I had a full Saturday scheduled. Then he went and did something unexpected: He volunteered to play Goalie.

Jonas is our Keeper, but he was out of town. Shane's never played Goalie before. He likes to play defense and feels competent about it, but he's been so opposed to playing offense I didn't expect him to leave his niche.

He left the position, but stayed defensive, I guess. I was really proud of him for stepping up. I was also a bit worried, because goalies have a lot of pressure put on them. Shane has not always reacted well to the pressure or jeering or criticism.

I thought he did fantastic for a first time out. He's not a natural keeper. He flinches when the ball comes at him and doesn't always pay attention from long distance. He tried to use mainly his feet and seemed nervous about picking up the ball. He got excited whenever he got to do a goal kick, but hasn't really learned how to boot it. He'd pause and dance around making a show of faking this way and that. I think he really loved having all eyes on the field on him!

He may have been stalling some towards the end of the game, too. The other team was really, really good. There were three kids I was really impressed with. A taller boy named Gibson, a fast, ball-handler named Pablo, and the opposing goalie was a little guy who made some great stops.

They beat us 6-1.

Shane was a little deflated, but I let him know I was so proud of him. Especially because it was purely his idea. He paid attention for most of the game, made a few saves, and never threw a pity party when something went wrong. We talked about how much pressure there is on goalies and how they have to keep playing no matter what happens. I asked Shane if he'd developed some new respect for what Jonas does, and he said "Yes!"

We listened to Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire on the ride up to NoVA. It's due back, so we really need to finish it before an angry librarian I'm not friends with comes after me.

Shane and I caught the tail end of John's "May the 4th be with you" Star Wars program! John showed Shane how to make a lightsaber.

I made one to fence around with Shane for a bit before I suggested he make another one for B.

John took us back to his desk where one of the new part time workers, Carly, is in the middle of a practical joke war with him. It thrilled me to see it.

John gave Shane a 3D printed Bulbasaur pot to hold a baby basil plant. He knows my kid!

We helped John set up for the afternoon movie (Solo if you're curious) before we moved on to let him finish his work day.

Shane didn't squawk much about missing the movie. He was eager to get to our next stop.

B was in the bathroom, but that didn't stop Shane from charging in and over the couch.

Sammy wasn't as happy to see us.

It may have started with Megan "abandoning" him to be with B for a moment. It kicked into high gear when I walked over. He started wailing at the top of his lungs and managed to kick into an extra gear when I picked him up! I thought I'd calm him down by taking him to where he could see Megan better, but he's in the middle of a stranger-danger phase!

Megan and B weren't too far away. The crying stopped once Megan arrived and the lightsaber battle began once Shane and B were both armed!

It ended with Shane saying, "Snuggle!" and attacking Megan while B smacked him.

Next thing you know it, B was shouting, "Snuggle!"

Shane helped himself to the Switch while Megan and I talked. Big B talked for a little bit before he went on an errand to the bike shop. He returned later during the 'construction phase.'

I kicked Shane off the electronics when the neighbor boys showed up. Megan has a dream set-up: Two little boys next door with fun parents and a fenced in back yard. The boys were all running around, climbing, and throwing rocks in no-time flat.

When the boys went back inside, Megan enlisted me for one of her schemes.

Megan wanted to have a zipline in her backyard. She had looked up kits online. When she saw there were $200, she decided to go the DIY route and ordered parts piecemeal for much less.

Kits come with instructions, though.

Big B wasn't sure that he wanted a zipline in the back yard, so he wasn't helping. He wasn't actively hindering the process either, so Megan outsourced the labor.

AKA: Me.

"Aren't you an engineer?" I asked.

"Not a mechanical one!" Megan laughed.

I was game. Ziplines are awesome and I like fixing problems. I read the site she'd bookmarked and started putting things together. We ran into some snags (Megan had ordered four clamps instead of six and one of the nuts fell off a clamp!), but I was mostly done before the kids discovered what I was up to.

Their help wasn't very helpful, but we finished!

I wasn't sure how secure everything was, so I left it lame enough to be 99.9% safe and Big B approved.

Megan hadn't bought materials for a brake, so I kept it very low to the ground, a little loose, and mostly level.

The only things accidents caused were laughs.

The little kids loved it. Megan instituted a turn order when there were problems sharing.

Shane rode the initial hype wave and then decided it was too tame for him. He went to climb a tree instead.

The zip line would have stayed slightly lame but mostly safe if Megan hadn't taught the kids teamwork!

She showed them how to pull someone up to the end secured higher up and then turn them lose.

They picked up on the concept quickly.

The glider Megan ordered move super smoothly.

I sat in a chair as a 'tree-guard."

I'm so happy that Megan brought me in on the project. It made for a special memory for the kids and myself.

I left a yoga ball to keep an eye on things when I abandoned my post.

I learned a lot in the process. I texted Carrie to let her know I'd be willing to install a zipline from our house to the barn for quick access. She wasn't a fan of the idea even when I offered to have it dump the rider into the hay. She didn't think any better of reversing the direction so that we could zipline from the barn to the front door, either.

Megan and B had a babysitter coming over at 5 PM (after their original sitter cancelled and left Megan scrambling while I was there!). We said, "Hi" to the sitter and left while Big B and Megan were showing her the ropes (Shane would have preferred to stay!).

We drove down to Huntsman Square to wait for John to be available again. After all, we'd driven up to help celebrate his birthday!

By a stroke of fortune, it was also Free Comic Book Day. We saw a cosplayer walk out dressed as Spiderman, so Shane and I went in to check things out while John showered and changed post-work.

There was a comic book/retro-toy shop I'd never been to. Shane got to play Duck Hunt.

Shane and I took a break to get dinner from Subway and then went back when John joined us.

"You're the most flamboyant Duck Hunt player I know," John told Shane.

"What's flamboyant?" Shane asked as he danced and twirled around.

"You see what you're doing?" John asked. "That's flamboyant."

"Just watch out for the cord!" I chipped in.

John and I looked at all the retro toys. He'd had some when he was in Japan as a kid that I'd never seen. I knew most of the toys and had played with many of them. Either my friends had hat them, or we owned them but in various states of disrepair picked up from Nana's garage sale hunts (Go, Nana!).

I wasn't too keen on Shane trying to read all of the comic material, so I bought a couple card packs to say, "Thanks for entertaining us for free for so long."

Then we went to get ice cream. "It's John's birthday, so how come you're the one getting treated to all this?" I asked Shane!

We let Shane open up his and my cards and then John started to show him miniatures on his phone.

It was half past eight, but that felt really late after a full day. I caught John yawning and I'm tempted to caption this picture.

Shane and I said our goodbyes and then hopped on the road home. Shane fell asleep somewhere in Madison when we were going through a storm. The road conditions made it take longer to get home, but Carrie was waiting up for us and Shane was in bed by 10:45 PM.

These are the kind of days I live for. Lots of adventure, family, friends, and fun.