NOVA Trip

Shane and I made our third trip up to NOVA this school year! Our last was over winter break and the time before that was Jama's 90th birthday. 

The goal was to meet Matt and Renee's new baby, Graham Owen, and have some fun!

Our first stop at John's creature workshop. We drove to meet him at his place, collect some models, and head to Matt's together.

If Shane ever shows an interest in models, I know who to talk to! Shane liked browsing around.

John's made a lot more progress with painting. Normally, he comes up with intricate conversions and backstories, but moves on before a paintbrush applies details.

I think these look really good. He applied a pattern to the pauldrons to make them appear more like marble.

On a more personal note, John showed Shane Captain Roy G Biv of the Rainbow Raiders! He wasn't done yet, but the evolution from the original drawing is fun!

John really needs to move closer to Charlottesville, so we can geek out with Shane more. Maybe he could move within horseback riding distance...

John was taking a bit to pack up, so Shane and I left ahead of him to go to Matt and Renee's. We weren't the only set of relatives to show up.

Megan and her boys were already on the scene! She'd gone to Einstein Bros and brought bagels for everyone to have for lunch (because she's awesome).

Aiden was happy to have all the company. He was funny, too.

Aiden and Sam tended to stay around all the toys and adults. Shane and B, however, started running laps around the house after each other. Matt had some fun by jumping out and roaring whenever B and Shane weren't expecting it.

Aiden's face would light up and he'd hop off the couch and start running to wherever the roar came from. He knew what was up!

Renee brought down Graham when he was done feeding for all the kids to meet. They all took a glance and then ran off again making mischief while the adults showed more interest!

John arrived about that time!

Renee offered to let people hold Graham and then Matt got to work swaddling him to prep for nap time.

Wrestling and pandemonium resumed after Graham was taken upstairs. Bagels were consumed and we all left when it was time for Aiden to take his nap, too.

Our next stop was at Jama's where the boys continued to snack.

This begs to be captioned:

Jama has lots of snacks and treats.

And even presents! Jama had a grab bag of sorts to spoil any great-grandkids who stopped by.

Gift giving is clearly a primary love language for her.

She armed the older boys with suction cup dart guns right as Nana called Megan. 

I don't know how it started, but B really wanted Jama to give him some hand lotion.

He put it on his hands the first time. The second time, Jama convinced him to apply it on his belly button!

Nana got to be in on the fun!

I got a text from John that he was on the scene. Agents S and B accompanied me to the rendezvous.

The suspect was in the bathroom and had no idea an ambush awaited him.

After "surprising" John, we went down the hall to where we usually play. The boys discovered their darts could stick to cabinets.....when I stuck one out of reach.

Don't worry. It fell right off when they banged the door shut a few times.

John had brought his Gaslands models, so that we could test out the rules.

B picked out his favorite. John replied it was a "Boss vehicle."

Not that either boy stuck around to learn any rules. They were racing around, gunning for each other!

Jama, Megan, and Sam came down to join us.

Sam didn't run around with the older boys. He opted for hide and seek.

Surprise!

He was so joyful (and Megan cheered so loud) the older boys all wanted to play, too!

I took my eyes off Shane for a moment and he was on top of the fridge trying to crawl into a cabinet.

"There's no way this is going to end well," I thought. I didn't know if A) he wouldn't fit, B) he'd get stuck, or C) he'd break something.

And yet, I didn't stop him. It was like watching a car wreck in the making. Shane was already so far into the process I decided to take out my camera and see what happened.

Amazingly, it worked.

Shane didn't stay up there for long, though. It was cramped!

John let the boys hop on his Switch to calm things down after the game. Jama had already gone back upstairs by that point, I think.

Megan offered to take all of the boys to a Ninja Warrior class she'd won an auction for at Springfield Mall. Normally, that would have been an instant "YES," but it would've meant another hour in the car for Shane. It's nearly a 2.5 hour drive one way from our new house to NOVA and we'd already spent near an hour driving to Matt's and then Jama's. The boys vegged out a little instead.

I made Shane put the Switch on pause to say goodbye when it was time for Megan's crew to move on. He got to hop back on for a little bit after they went on their way.

It let John and I finish our game. It took a while, but we figured out how to play Gaslands. John took out one of his cars and mine with a suicidal charge after he rebounded off a shipping container, but I managed to have one car left limping around his smoking wrecks.

 
John's models and terrain looked fantastic. We didn't have a playmat, but if John enjoyed the game enough I'm sure it's already on order. John's a bigger fan of the theme than me, but the mechanics were interesting.

We all hit up Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Shane went crazy in the kid's area while John and I talked.

I asked Shane to describe John in three words when we left. Shane replied "Cool, awesome, and tall!" I hope it was the pick me up John needed!

I asked Shane to describe me in three words, too, but I can't recall what he said for the life of me (I am writing this 15 days later!).

Shane and I hopped in the car a little after 6 PM to head home. We finished Spy Kids on the way (a fun book, by the way!). We made it home in time to rest for a little bit with Mommy before bed.

Having horses makes it a little harder to do an overnight trip, but I hope to spend some more time in NOVA this spring. I gotta get through wrestling season first.

More Beachness

I started this post with a plan, but now I'm winging it. There are pictures. Here are comments.

The kids all loved the pool. It's the perfect size and depth for this age range.

Shane's the only one who can stay in the sun without sunscreen.

The rest of the family prefers the shade.

The kids would stay in the pool longer if the adults let them.

The kids loved splashing around. Shane probably loved it the most. He discovered that his cousins don't like to get splashed on their heads and he could drop underwater to avoid their counterattacks.

And even if they did get him, he didn't mind. He was already wet and cackling.

Some logistics were required whenever we left the house. We had four cars in the driveway nearly at all times. I parked mine on the street and got a note from a neighbor saying, "Not near my house please."

The kids liked to travel together.

There were car seats for further trips and a trunk for beach shuttle runs.

The water has been cold all week, so there's been a lot of sand play.

It was the coldest day one, though. I don't like to go in the water, but the initial chill passes after hopping in (Of course, it comes back after stepping out).

The waves have been active all week. B got swept off his feet once and "didn't like it." 

Shane's been loving it. Megan bought a couple of boogie boards from Wal-Mart for the kids.

Tenley is far and away the bravest of Ka's bunch. She'll charge in.

We left the beach early one night when we kept seeing lightning on the horizon. It wasn't near us, but clouds and thunder were all around and it's better to be safe than sorry (and it was cold).

There have been storms off and on. They have clipped us rather than hit dead on, but I'll write more about that later.

First, the obligatory showering off the sand picture. Here, Cole stuck his feet under wall and Shane tried to drag him in.

The boys have been the three amigos when not at the beach. Shane is 8.5. Cole turned 7 in May and B is turning 5 in three weeks or so.

They've done a great job of playing together. There are definitely moments where they don't get along, but I feel like they are less than previous years. B would refuse to play when he felt like things were not fair and/or enlist a grown-up. Cole said things "aren't fair," or "are mean" whenever he didn't get what he wanted. 

Shane would tell them them both "it's not a big deal," make a frustrated growl, or bounce on oblivious.....and half the time he kept going whoever stepped out hopped back in.

Sharing was a must. Even when it was a single phone for Pokemon Go!

The kids did just about everything together. Meals were normally at the picnic table. Stu was probably out there the most with them.

B had quiet rest time midday when everyone naps. Megan usually had him join her as she *tried* to get Sammy to nap (Sammy's not been a good sleeper. Teething was suspected). Shane and Cole spend entire nap times on electronics to keep quiet.

Kathleen and Stu are good at coming up with activities. I caught a game of Pokemon Headbands on camera (Ka was surprised she knew some answers!).

The girls have been Ka's little ducklings. They follow her everywhere except during nap time. Then they follow Stu ("It's my favorite time. I'm popular!" Stu said).

Ironically, that's Megan with Sammy in this picture. Ka was right around the corner. 

Unlike the girls, Sammy was mostly happy to be passed around. He still would cry if he saw Megan leaving an area, but "stranger danger" has passed.

The big kid trip this week was the petting zoo. 

Last year, it was the aquarium. Nana and Pop wanted to get the trip in before Patrick and Shelby arrived later in the day.

Nana and Pop were generous enough to spring for everybody. They even bought cups of food for the kids to feed animals with.

First stop, the goats.

It was a feeding frenzy.

The goats were excited. The kids were excited. Everyone was excited.

I wasn't the only one taking pictures, by the way. Ka encouraged me to get WhatsApp to trade photos with her. There will be a lot of her pictures mixed in and I have a hard time remembering which are which.

Easy rule of thumb: If I'm in the picture it probably wasn't from my camera. Nana took a few with my phone in the bird area, but that's about it I think!

All of the kids ran around the goat pen and I had to help stop some goats from escaping the 'air lock.' 

I caught Shane trying to feed the goats his shirt. One of them took a nibble earlier on and Shane wanted to see if he could recreate the magic.

Shane and Cole found a cat out back. Shane was too hyper, but Cole managed to get some petting in.

The tortoise sharing the pen didn't stick around for long. It retreated into the "No kids allowed" shed shortly after I yelled at Shane to not try and ride it.

The boys went through a chicken coop next, but I didn't get any good pictures. Honestly, the chickens looked a bit pecked over and worse for wear.

We found Matt, Renee, and Aiden in aviary. The door was locked somehow, so I don't know how they got in. They unlocked it for us and we brought new life to a quiet corner of the zoo.

Only a few of the birds were out. Most of them had sequestered themselves away in a safe zone. An employee came to work in their area and they flew out towards the end, but we didn't have much to work with in the beginning.

It was a little discouraging in the beginning. We'd bought some popsicle sticks with bird feed on them, but there were only a few birds and none were showing any interest. The sticks weren't good for much else (I checked).

Nana had the first success with coaxing a bird to eat something 

The few birds in the corner started to warm-up after a little bit.

Nana was proud.

Maybe it was creativity? Maybe competitiveness? I decided to up the ante.

I put a bird on my head.

Then I helped Shane put one on his head.

It started a revolution.

Nana hopped on the bandwagon, too!

Pretty soon, we were all expert bird feeders.

More of the family joined and other people began to filter in, as well.

Nana offered to help anyone and everyone!

Cole got frustrated, because he wanted to move on. Like Matt, Renee, and Aiden. They'd been the first on the scene and the first off! ("You don't know me! I do my own thing!" -Matt....from many years ago).

We had a family snack time and photo shoot after the birds. Try not to think about how dirty everyone's hands were (it builds immunity). 

I got caught trying to photobomb. I don't know if I was running into or jumping out of this picture to be honest! It looks like running in, but I could have sworn I was trying to leave at the time it was in the photoroll....

There was a playground nearby. Ka took a picture of the kids climbing around and playing with Litten (more on Litten later).

"Play at your own risk" was right. It wasn't a physical injury I was worried about...

All of the boys are Poke-crazy. There was a second Pokemon toy, but three boys. You do the math. That meant some trouble!

Megan gave B her phone for Pokemon Go to keep him happy near the end. Cole got Ka's phone, and then Shane got Nana's phone!

I got a picture of Stu on his phone while we were sitting watching him. I had to be on my phone to take the picture and it got me thinking about how all five of us were sitting with devices....

Times have changed. That was right at the end when we were all waiting to go out into the parking lot. Nana and Pop had already left. Everyone was happy, so we squatted for a little bit before going home.

Patrick and Shelby arrived that evening. It was a pizza night, because how else can you feed 20 people for just under $90?

Jama, Ed, and Dot split the check (so you know Ed probably paid for Jama's portion! Ha!). Welcome to the fun house, Patrick and Shelby!

Back to the storms. They made for some interesting skylines and one of the best Evelyn pics of the week (Courtesy: Ka).

I tried to get some lightning picks by videotaping the sky. Then I pulled screenshots.

Kathleen got the best shots.

I got a few, but the brightness flared and make some of the bolts fuzzy. I love watching a good storm from afar.

The kids stood on the porch with us and watched. It was a good moment away from electronics.

On a random note: Litten became a thing. 

I didn't know where to drop this in to the timeline. Shane wanted to take her everywhere and all the other kids decided they wanted to play with her, too. She was in the petting zoo pictures earlier, and here she is at the beach with Sammy (the older boys had stashed her there more than Sammy was attached).

There were some hard feelings here and there. Shane couldn't understand why the boys got mad when he always ended up with Litten.

Litten ended up with a 'special spot' in my room to sleep in.

Litten even supervised showering.

There were some adult only activities. Matt worked on learning how to play bridge the night after I got whooped on.

When Calls the Heart was the movie series of choice for the older crowd. I ended up watching bits and pieces of it whenever I walked through the room and ADHD'd into it.

Notice Pop on the floor behind the couch? This is where I shift over to him playing with the kiddos.

Nana and Pop babysit Aiden for a couple of weeks each May when Matt and Renee go to camp for their job.

They've babysat all of the grandkids at some point, so all of the kids know who they are and love to be around them.

That doesn't mean they're on to all of Pop's tricks, though.

Pop was laughing in this picture because he got Cole. I can't remember if it was a word joke or if it was the time he distracted Cole up high and then poked him in the side while he was looking up.

You can see where I learned many of my tricks........Good times!