DC Trip

A big part of me wanting to move out here was to be near fun, big cities. Not to live in them but close enough to drive to them and spend a day there.  Mark being the great husband he is jumped on board when I mentioned wanting to see the lights at the Washington DC Temple and some sights in DC for Christmas a month or so ago. We looked up hotels to see if we could find a deal and were satisfied with one just an exit away from the temple. I mentioned this to my friend Tara who also loves to plan outings for her family and they decided to go with us. We had a nice yet rainy trip.

Jared, Lydia and I picked Mark up from school Friday afternoon and we were on the road by 4:20 which is pretty good since school is over at 4:00.  We drove to Manassas and stopped at Cafe Rio for dinner.  Then we headed over to the temple to see the beautiful lights.  It is no Temple Square but just as pretty and magical.  Jared and Lydia loved seeing the lights and the temple all lit up.  We walked around the visitors center and briefly met up with Tara and her family.  They set up a large nativity and have beautiful music playing. It was so nice.

We made it to our hotel around 8:50 and turned out the lights at 9:15.  I had a terrible nights sleep. The hotel was fine I just could not fall asleep and then when I did I kept waking up every hour and a half or so. It was no fun.  Around 5:50 I moved to look at the clock and Miss Lydia looks right at me and says "What you doin' Mama?" She was awake and ready for the day.  Crazy girl. She is such an early riser!!  The plan was for Mark and I to go to the temple while Tara and Tom watched Jared and Lydia at the hotel with their kids then we would switch.  We dripped off Jared and Lydia around 7:00 and got to the temple by 7:20 we then found out they did not start ordinances besides sessions until 8:30!! This was quite frustrating as I had called the temple earlier int eh week to ask if there were set times these things began and they said NO, anytime was fine.  So Mark and I hung out together in the lobby and heard some good stories from the guy at the desk.  We did go in and enjoy being in the temple but didn't get to serve anybody.  That was a bummer! It was still nice to be in the Temple.  We headed back to the hotel to pack up our car and watch Tara and Tom's kids while they went and actually did something at the temple. They got back around 10:00 and we headed into DC.

We had debated whether we should drive into the city or take the Metro and decided we would just drive in an find parking.  Mark was more inclined towards the Metro but driving ended up working really well it being a Saturday helped a lot. We divided our day into two basic sections. First we would check out the Capitol, Union Station, and the Botanical Gardens since they are pretty close to each other then we would find a new place to park, eat lunch and check out the White House/Ellipse (Christmas tree area) and maybe go through a museum.  We were only had to drive around a little while till we found some on street parking.  We raided our coin container and cleaned it out.  Jared and Lydia loved feeding the meter coins (It may have been one of their favorite things) and we only had to pay like 4 dollars for 2 hours of parking so we were good with that.

We were lucky in the morning that it was only lightly sprinkling every now and then. We were not so fortunate in the afternoon when we walked around in a lot of rain. We were also lucky that it wasn't very cold. It was right near 50 degrees which is not bad at all. Union Station had beautiful wreaths and a fun train display. It is a really big pretty building but the ceiling was having some restoration work done on it.  All the building are so pretty near the National Mall.  I was excited to see them decorated for Christmas. After Union Station we walked over to The Capitol and checked out the Capitol Tree which is much nicer (in my opinion and all the people who wrote reviews online about it and the National Tree) than the National Tree.  It is always fun to be at the Capitol and look towards the Washington Monument. It was also sort of fun to describe what the Capitol even was to Jared and Lydia.

 THE Capitol Tree

 The Botanical Gardens were next.  The gardens are right across the street from the Capitol and have a cool display of the most famous buildings in DC made out of all natural plant products.  There is this man who uses bark and leaves and acorn shells and all sorts of things like that and makes replicas of these buildings. They were super impressive.  The gardens also had a fun train display (trains are kind of a big thing in DC apparently?)

 Lydia checking out the train. It is fun how it goes above your  head. 

 There were a couple of ships from different time periods done. Jared loved them as he preferred to think of them as Pirate ships.

The buildings were so detailed! 

We got back to the car and changed Jared and Lydia's socks and shoes. It had started raining while we were in the Gardens and they did their best to find every puddle! I was glad we had spare sets.  We looked up a place to eat and went to find parking.  We were lucky that it was a Saturday so we could park in a garage for the whole day for 15$.  We ate at 5 Guys then walked over to the White House which was not far at all. I had read online that the National Tree was not that impressive so I was not expecting much. (I am glad I did so I wasn't super disappointed) The tree is perfectly nice but the tree at the Canadian building (maybe their Embassy, probably) is so much nicer which is slightly embarrassing as this is our country's capitol but go Canada!!  The National Tree really only looks good at night.  A large tree is brought in and then they construct this cone like net around it.  It looks fun lit up but doesn't do much for you in the daylight. We did get to see it lit up as we drove out of DC that night and it was really pretty.  We walked around the tree in the rain (So glad I and an umbrella) and then headed over to to American History Museum.  I love how all the museums are free! It's so cool.  They were hosting a history of Chocolate display which was fun to check out.  We saw some of the more famous displays: the HUGE American flag, fancy 5 foot Doll House and the Ruby Red Slippers from the Wizard of Oz.  Our kids haven't seen that movie yet but now they can say they have seen them when they do see it. It was nice to be in a warm dry place. Both Jared and Lydia were super tired by then but they made it.  It was not pretty at times but overall they were such troopers.  It was a fun trip.  A wet one but fun. 

You can just see the White House on the left. I would have loved to tour the White House this time with it all decorated for Christmas but you have to get "invited" (request permission) from your state senator at least 21 days out and I didn't think of it till we were 18 days out! So close! One day we will tour the White House.

I think we will make seeing the temple lights a yearly tradition and maybe just go in to DC every few years specifically at Christmas time. Since we have been here we typically just go to the temple then go home but it may be worth it every now and then to head into the city and check out a museum or the zoo in nicer weather.  It is so close! 

Visting Santa and Mrs. Claus!

Monday night we headed over to the Doubletree Hotel in town to meet Santa Claus and Mrs Claus.  They had a gingerbread village, a choir performing, an awesome dessert and hot chocolate bar (free even!) and free pictures with Santa.  It was so fun.  It was such a nice community event.  Santa, Mrs. Claus and an Elf wandered around talking to people before it was time for pictures and gave out chocolate marshmallows to everyone so Jared and Lydia were totally sold on him. They were total all stars when it was their turn to sit on Santa's lap.  In fact we had a harder time getting Jared to  leave Santa.  He had so much to tell him!  They were so excited. Lydia was plenty excited to meet him but she may have been more excited about the Hot Chocolate Mark promised her if she was brave when she met Santa.  The Gingerbread Village was beautiful and really well done.  They even made a gingerbread replica of the Rotunda at UVA. It's a shame it is being renovated for the next 18 months or so.  I can't wait to see it without the scaffolding and fences around it.  It looked very nice made out of Gingerbread. We met up with my friend Laura and her kids and had visiting with them.  It was such a fun night!  Hooray for The Double Tree Hotel! I hope they do it again each year because we will totally go.

The Nutcracker and a working girl

You can almost see Jared here. 

Jared's preschool invited the Charlottesville Ballet to perform The Nutcracker Suite and we happily attended.  The performance was actually on a day Jared did not have preschool but they sent home a flier inviting all kids enrolled in Tuesday and Thursday classes to attend with the other kids. I was so happy they did, it was really fun to take Jared and Lydia. 

The dancers performed quite a few dances. It was about 40 minutes so perfect for little kids. Jared's favorite performance was anything The Nutcracker performed and Lydia loved the "Chinese Dance." The Sugar Plum fairy was my favorite.  I don't know that either Jared or Lydia were inspired to take dance lessons but they had fun watching them. Neither of them has really ever expressed interest in taking dance lessons but they may just not know that it is a thing people do.

There were 2 other girls from his class that showed up and one of them was Mallory, Jared's favorite friend so he was super happy to see her on a not preschool day. I love that the Ballet came and performed.  They do quite a few community performances like this.  Tomorrow they are going to the library.  We went to the library today for their "Snow" theme story time. It was really fun with lots of great activities.  They read books and sang songs and had crafts to make.  We made an edible snowflake and threw snowballs.  They also brought out the large parachute and put lots of cotton balls in it for snow.  One of the librarians had made a sled out of a cardboard box and took kids on a sleigh ride.  It was fun.  Libraries are so great and Charlottesville is so fun!

I also started my new childcare job this week. I updated my profile on Care.com about 2 months ago and got "hired" just before Thanksgiving.  I am watching an almost 4 yr old girl (She turns 4 on Christmas Eve) named Samantha (Sam).  She attends preschool T,W,TH at the Waldorf School (which just happens to be around the corner from our house barely a 2 minute drive so great!) and is home on Mondays and Fridays.  So we go to her house Monday and Friday from about 8:30 until 4:15 when her brother gets home from school and then I pick her up from her preschool the other days and watch her from 2:45 until 5:00 - 5:30.  I was hoping for just 2 or 3 days a week not 5 but this seemed like the best fit for our situation.  I still have all of T,W TH mornings to do what I want and Lydia can take her nap. It doesn't conflict with Jared's preschool at all, it just fit well. I didn't really want a baby (cute as they are) because I still want to be able to go out and do things with Jared and Lydia.  Jared and Lydia had a lot of fun at her house Monday (it was weird to take them somewhere since Tanner always came to our house in Colorado) and she seemed to have a great time here yesterday. Her family seems very nice. I don't know that we are very similar but they are easy to get along with. I think it will work out really well.  It is nice to have another place to play especially now with the colder weather. There will be not so fun days but we are off to a great start and we are so relieved to have the extra money so we will not have to use our saving at least we have a better chance of not having to use any of our savings. Reading this makes me realize that I was pretty particular about what I wanted and am so grateful they picked me. I know that prayers are answered. I feel that prayers about finances have been my biggest concern since Mark and I have been married and we have ALWAYS had them answered. We have always been taken care of. It is such a blessing. We will ALWAYS pay our tithing!

Grand Illumination and teaching giving

Charlottesville had their Grand Illumination on the downtown mall the day after Thanksgiving. I had planned on going but wasn't quite sure when the tree would be lit up.  It started at 4:30 and was supposed to last until 7:30.  I figured they would light the tree around 7:30 so we were just hanging out at home. At 5:50 I got online and saw a notice saying the tree would be lit at 6:25 so I made Mark get off the phone with his Mom so we could rush down there in time.  It was nice (We made it downtown by like 6:10 which was pretty good) but I think "Grand" was a bit of a stretch. There were various performers on stage singing throughout the 3 hours then they did a countdown and lit up the tree/decorations.  It was fun to go out but I am glad we didn't get there at 4:30 and wait around till they lit the tree. Santa Claus did ride in on a fire truck which made Jared and Lydia really excited.

Jared and Lydia really love Santa Claus.  It's funny/odd to me because he has never been a focus of our Christmas traditions.  We never talk about how they need to be good or else he won't come and they know their presents come from Mark and I or other people they know. I mean we already have presents under the tree and Santa clearly has not come yet. We have never told them he is not real and don't plan on it unless they ask, we just don't make a big deal about him. Last year was the first year we even bothered to have Jared meet Santa and sit on his lap (which he loved).  When they do ask about him I focus on how important it is to give gifts and help others and how nice a thing that is to do. It will be fun/interesting to see how long this goes on.  I love how excited they get when they see him and Mrs. Claus too. Jared always asks about her.

So to help Jared and Lydia have a chance to give I found three community events to be part of (so far).  Our ward signed up to feed a group of homeless women right before Thanksgiving so I signed up to bring muffins.  Our family went to the "shelter" (community church) to drop them off and see if we could visit for awhile. We waited around but the bus (I think it was from a church) was running late and there was a huge (probably overwhelming) turnout from our ward so we left before the women arrived. The group is sponsored by a couple of different churches in the area and sort of rotates locations every 2 weeks.  While we were waiting Jared had lots of questions about the beds set up in the church for them and why they didn't have food/a home. I am glad we could explain things to him and help him see how blessed we are.  We have our own homes, and beds, and favorite things and always have food to eat.

Our local library sponsored a book tree.  It was just like the angel trees my family supported growing up only you picked out a book for a little kid.  We selected our tag and then picked out a book to drop off.  It was fun to listen to Jared and Lydia talk about what type of books a little 4 year old boy would like and then choose one.

Charlottesville hosts a toy lift every Christmas.  You buy a toy and then take it to the drop off on a set day. (December 05th this year) We went to the store together and picked out a game to take. I wasn't exactly sure how it worked since I hadn't done it before so I parked the car and started to walk over when I then realized it is treated like a drive thru.  You pull up to the marked off area (it was in the Mall parking lot) and as you drive through volunteers cheer for you and thank you and wish you a Merry Christmas. They put lots of Christmas decorations up and make it so fun.  I rolled down our windows and enjoyed the little drive. You feel so special. Jared and Lydia loved it and I got so choked up because they made me feel so good.  We got to the end of the drive thru and who was out waiting for us but Santa!  Jared got to hand Santa the game and they each got to talk to him for a minute. It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to make it a yearly tradition and even be volunteer in future years. I asked Jared and Lydia how they were feeling and Jared said he felt so good and happy, so warm inside.  Lydia said it made her happy.  I loved it all.

You can just see the entrance (and volunteers) to the drive thru between Lydia and Jared. 

It was great to be able to help in these small ways and have these conversations with them.  To teach them about giving and how it makes them feel and remind them of how much we have been given. We have been given so much and we need to give back not just at Christmas but anytime we can. There is a lot of sadness in the world and it's hard to hear about and see how it does not appear to be improving or lessening. I often feel discouraged and try not to pay too much attention to what is happening but I need to and I need to teach my children to be aware (at appropriate times/ages) of what is going on, what they have been given and that they can help.

Fire Truck, cupcakes and a big slide

Jared got invited to birthday party and was really excited to go.  It was for his friend Levi from preschool.  He is one of the kids that Jared likes to play with the most so I figured we should really try to go.  A lot of their family lives in Orange, VA which is like 45 minutes away from Charlottesville so we headed out one Saturday morning. As we got in the car Jared said to me: "Its a good thing Levi's party is in Orange so you can find new place to drive to since you don't know VA very well."  I guess that was one way to look at driving that far for a party. Jared had a good time, the highlight being the fire truck that was driven over for the kids to play on.  We didn't do birthday parties a lot in Colorado so it is sort of a new experience for him.

Lydia also filled up her charm jar for good deeds/ good listening. It took her a bit longer than Jared who chose to go out for ice cream when he filled his. She is having a super hard time listening these days (or is just being almost 3) and I am having a super hard time being patient... it's feels like this has been going on a long time. I feel like I give directions or ask her to do something and she looks at me then goes right back to what she was doing or just runs away from wherever I directed her to go/do and I am nor asking unreasonable things I promise) so we went out for cupcakes.  It was delicious and fun and I was happy she did it. I hope this charm jar helps her. She is cute little stinker.  Lately she and Jared (mostly Jared) have taken to using that term for each other.  Mark and I both use it, Mark a little bit more.  So now when Lydia is doing anything naughty Jared always says "you're being a stinker again..." Lydia always says "I not a stinker!"

We also went to play at a fun different park on one of the last nice park days awhile back.  This park is near the swimming pool we went to this summer and I always meant to bring Jared and Lydia to it but never got around to it till a few weeks ago.  There was this huge slide that Jared loved and Lydia attempted to love.  Typically Jared is the more cautious one out of the two of them but he climbed right up the ladder and went down. Lydia tried, got too scared but eventually was helped down with my friend Laura's little boy Joseph who is really so sweet bout helping other kids. We will have to check out more parks when it gets warm again and less rainy.