monday - dave at conference, denise with kiddos

Monday Dave went to his conference. His talk was about 3pm in the afternoon. The kids and I stayed at home Monday am and did some laundry. Then we went back up to Annapolis to hang out with grandma. She had some fun activities for the kids - spider cookies, mummy hot dogs. Calvin did more Kumilomb and we went to the craft store to get more materials for his Kumilomb. dave met us after his conference and we had pizza for dinner at grandmas house. We drove home late again but Calvin was so busy crafting he didn't fall asleep.

Dave and I had driven separately since we had two cars up in Annapolis. Dave took the kids home and I got to enjoy so peace and quiet with just JoAnne in my car.

Dave came home to the wrong house. He picked up Lex who was sound asleep and unloaded the other kids. He started walking in the house, opened the storm door and hear a huge dog barking!! He ran back to the car and told the kids to run back to the car too!! They were just a couple of doors down from Scott's house and made it safely home. I told dave we should go back to that house and tell them that their guard dog works!!! We have tested our dog and know that our guard dog does not work (as a guard dog). hmmm, I wonder how tressel is doing without us.

*at the end of the week the kids said that they thought their favorite part of the trip was hanging out at grandmas house.

a quick FHE at grandma and grandpa's house. grandpa read a scripture with two very silly girls behind him as Calvin worked on his craft.
calvin busy at the Kumilomb
trooper baby
ALexey LOVED the cats! This particular cat happened to love Lex back, which is quite unusual for any animal to love the torture that lex inflicts.
The cat also loved Calvin. He was working on his Kumilomb and the cat came and cuddled on his chest. It was very sweet.


tired baby but super cute hat!

day 3 -naval academy -sunday

Sunday we went up to Annapolis. Dave's parents live there so we were excited to spend time with them and see some of the Annapolis sights. We missed a turn on the way and ended up at a great WWII memorial overlooking the naval academy. The kids ran around a bit and used this great chance to stretch their legs by dancing and singing.

beautiful view of the naval academy.




clare dancing "on stage"




The kids loved spending time with Grandma's cats and hanging out with Grandma at her house.




I have two bad pictures here but I wanted to remember how fun it was to have JoAnne on this trip. She was so sweet. Every time somebody would talk to her she would light up with smiles. It was fun to bring her to meet Grandma. She was a great traveler. JoAnne definitely gets prize for best traveler in the family!



After meeting Dan and Linda at their apartment we caravan-ed over to the Naval Academy. We now have too many people in our family to fit us and other people into our rental van. Downtown anapolis is a cut little town on the water and the Naval Academy is right downtown. We entered the Naval Academy and paid for a tour of the academy. I really enjoyed the tour and the kids did pretty well until the end when Calvin was ALL done. I loved the academy and if I were younger (WHEN DID I GET OLD?) I would be tempted to go there! Well, maybe not, but it is an inspiring place. Most universities are to me! There are approximately 20 boys for every one girl. That would make for a fun college experience, eh?!

cute Grandma and the girls at the back entrance to the USNA

The campus was so great. I loved all the big trees.

It might seem like there are more pictures of Clare than the other kids...the reason why is that she is always willing to stop and have her picture taken where Calvin, Dave, and Lex aren't as easy to get sometimes!
Below is the building where all of the students live. Bancroft hall

dave's dad! There is a row of beautiful homes where some of the important faculty live.
Inside a big hall used for many events including basketball, dances, ice skating, etc. It is often changing.


Outside the hall.
Calvin didn't want his picture taken so I snuck one of him anyway!


calvin enjoying a quiet moment


Interesting things I learned: to graduate the kids have to do a swimming test fully clothed.

After the naval academy, dave had to hurry out on the trian to go to a football game. The kids and I hung out with grandma and grandpa for a bit and then left late enough that the kids would fall asleep on the way home. Calvin and lex and Jo were all asleep upon arrival in Vienna (about 70-80 minute drive).

Grandma gave Calvin a Kumilomb and he has been making little key chains ever since.

day 2 - rain

When I checked the weather wednesday as I was packing the forecast looked great. Weather in the 70's.

However, the forecast changed to rain and weather in the 60's.

First thing in the morning 7:45am (which was sort of like middle of the night for us) Dave left with Calvin to go to the Navy game. They were gone all day. Navy was behind and made a comeback to tie it up and the game went into overtime. They couldn't pull off the win though!

Calvin slept through most of the game.


the 4200 naval academy students marched in formation on the field before taking their seats in the stands.


They had seats on the lawn which ended up being very close to the field.




When the game went into overtime the had a perfect view of the end zone which was fun.

I was home with no car since dave took it to the game. Scott made banana muffins. I borrowed scott's car to go grocery shopping. We watched conference, and I cooked a couple of dinners since I had time to do so. The girls played with Lance. Lance is much nicer to the girls when Calvin is gone because there are no boy - girl teams. It is fun to see how well Clare and Lance get along. They are exactly the same age and quite cute little people.

Dave and Grandpa Dan Calvin got home around 6pm. Lance and Calvin had BIG HUGS for each other. They are "best buds" which is great! Linda also came over and we had a change to visit for a bit. The kids were crazy and tired so we parted ways to try to get an earlier bedtime.

Lex got to bed around 8pm and Calvin and Clare followed at 9:30ish. It's 10 now and I'm off to bed.

day 1 - travel day - longest day ever!

quick synopsis:

6:15 leave home

8am plane takes off SAN-NEWARK. Flying time 5:20 minutes
layover in Newark for 1 hour, eat at McDonalds

5:20 board plane for a 37 minute flight from Newark to Baltimore. 5:45 announcement that plane is delayed for a tire change. 6:20 announcement that plane is #13 for take off...waiting on the runway for another 30 minutes. 7pm finally take off. 7:45pm land in Baltimore and get off plane. 8pm can't find Calvin's shoes...find them in a backpack. take bus to car rental terminal, rent car and hit the road.

10:30 stop for dinner.

12 midnight, arrive at Scott's house.

1am asleep!!!!


some details:

We left home at 6ish for our 8am flight. I had booked 5 seats and indicated that I'd carry on the infant. 3 seats on one row and 2 seats on another row. I learned a little trick in my flying past and that is when flying with an infant and one other child, book the aisle and window instead of the middle seat. That way if there is an empty seat on the airplane you can ask the person who has the middle seat to move to another middle seat. If you try asking someone with a window or aisle to move to a middle then your chances of getting a row to yourself are diminished significantly. So, anyway, there were about 5 extra seats on the plane and I was able to ask the person who booked on our row to move to another row which meant I could bring my baby carseat onto the airplane. This was great!! JoAnne slept in her car seat for the first 3 hours of the flight. She was definitely the easiest traveler but that is no surprise.



Calvin had a meltdown on the airplane but eventually fell asleep.

It was fun flying into Newark because as you approach the airport you fly parallel with Manhatten and get a great view of the New York City skyline! So amazing. We could also see the statue of liberty.

As we descended we saw a lot of freight containers of all colors. Clare asked "hey, why are there so many legos down there?" They did look like legos! It was pretty cute!

We rented a van. Loading up to come home I had a renewed love for my suburban. It has so much more cargo space. However, the kids were SO EXCITED to see a dvd player in the car.

I am sorry to admit that I turn into a complete BaSKeT cASe when I get ready for a big trip. This bled over a bit into our first day of traveling. Also, dave and I differ somewhat in our idea of how to plan a trip. I think we should have an itinerary with all the details laid out. Dave thinks we should just see what happens... this causes a bit of issue as we arrive and I have made plans without consulting him or if I had made plans but consulted him while he was not listening and thought he was listening.

I packed myself and 4 kids in 2 suitcases. Dave packed himself in 2 suitcases. (KARI, he had to have en extra bag for his shoes...!!!)

why we are in Washington DC

Many months ago, Dave submitted an abstract and oral presentation to the annual Neurosurgery meetings in DC knowing that it would be a fun place to visit. As he started to plan for the trip he thought he wanted to take Calvin with him to see the DC sights. One day he asked me, "do you think it would be okay for me to leave Calvin in the hotel room while I go to my conference?" ....... so, here we are....the entire family in DC!!! No way was I going to send the boys on their own.

so, forgive me for turning this into a traveloge but I want to remember this trip. There is a pretty good chance we won't take a family vacation again for a very long time!