End of an Era

My little brother Ricky with my four littles.  The last time I saw Ricky was in the Fall of 2014, so it's been a year and a half. He just moved from Idaho to Carbondale, IL to start PA school. He flew out here on Saturday just for one day.  But lucky for him, Saturday is "Triple Pop" (Pop = dad, Pop= popcorn, Pop= soda pop) night, so he joined us for our Triple Pop movie night watching Pan.

The baby of my immediate family with my baby.

Tramp Time!

So, why did Ricky fly all the way out here from IL for just one day?  Well, because I decided I was finally ready to part with my other baby and hand it on to him.

I call this car my baby because it is.  I bought this car brand spanking new in 2002 when I was living in Las Vegas. This car experienced my last part of Vegas with me.  This car moved me to Huntington Beach, CA and experienced my 2 1/2 yrs of living in So. Cal with me. This car moved me all the way from California to Maryland after I met Dave. This car has been with me for my marriage and all four of my kids. She has been with me for 14 years and nearly 200,000 miles. I love this car. 

You've been good to me.  Now be good to my baby brother and his family.

Blue Angels

I'm sure every city has it's perks and Annapolis is no exception. But the biggest perk of all perhaps is that, due to it being the home of the United States Naval Academy, each year during the week of graduation, the Blue Angels put on quite a show!

The only down side is that you have to get there really early in order to find parking and a good viewing spot. This year, we decided to try a new place and it was great because it was right by the water.   Instead of the kids whining about how hot they were and how long they were waiting until the planes started flying, they just jumped in the shallow water fully clothed and entertained themselves quite nicely for the hour or so before it started.

And then, all of a sudden..... there they are!

I mean, really.... how cool is that??!!

Lee Greenwood's Song comes to mind....

I'm Proud to be an American

Those Angels plum tuckered this one out!

What a great day!!  Until next year, Angels.....

Fireballs

Lacey just finished her FOURTH season of lacrosse.

Their team was the Fireballs.

And they were the cutest little Fireballs you ever did see - all 12 of them!

It's been a bit of a tough season because so many games were canceled, rescheduled or played in the pouring rain. As you can see, it has rained for 15 of the last 21 days. And May 1-14, we only had one day that wasn't raining. Bummer of a Spring!

But, I took the opportunity to take some pics on one of the few sunny days we had this lacrosse season!

Today was her last game. It was also pouring rain (big surprise!), so no pictures to the finale of her season. But she declared last week as her best game of the season, when she was goalie against a pretty tough team who shot 5 goals while she was goalie and she was able to successfully block 4 of the 5 goals. And then, when on offense, got a goal herself!

And while I love all of these fiery fireballs, I must admit, I have an affinity for this one in particular ;)

#700: Spring Strings

Monday night was the end of year Spring Strings concert.

The "two Laceys."  There is one other Lacey in the entire school.  And she just happens to be in Lacey's class and share a violin stand with her in Orchestra. How cute is that?

Since I grew up playing violin, I am just loving this!

Note: I just realized that this is my 700th post.  Fitting that it is a post about my Lacey since she is the reason why we started this blog 9 years ago. It is my gift to my children, to have their precious lives documented. 

Camping, Crabs and Carting

I feel fairly confident in saying that Tanner had one of the best weekends of his life. For starters, he and his dad went on a cub scout camping trip with all of his best buds.

Their hike ended here, at a park made out of tires. Is that every 7 year old's dream or what?

My boys

And within a few hours of him getting home, we were headed over to Uncle Jack and Cousin Becky's house to celebrate their birthdays. And they had crabs!  Neither Dave or I care much for crabs, certainly not enough for either of us to go out and buy them. But Tanner LOVES eating crabs! LOVES IT!!  So, on the rare occasion he finds himself somewhere where he can do so, he is in 7th heaven!

All the adults were cracking up because all the kids were running around playing and Tanner was sitting here at the crab table with about 3-4 adults on Uncle Jack's side of the family just hanging out and talking to them, making conversation and fitting right in. Well, except for the random Tae Kwon do outfit.

And top it off, he got to do a few laps on the go cart track with Cousin J. The stars aligned for a downright perfect weekend for this boy!

Birthday Boy

Several months ago, I got my wheels turning about planning something fun for Dave's birthday. This is what I came up with.....

1) Take the day off work and find an all day sitter for the kids (no easy task: Found one from 10-3:30 and another from 3:30-11:30 and figured out rides home from school, to/from baseball and to a birthday party!)

2) Pick up some friends and head to lunch in Virginia.

Why Virginia? Because we were en route to Luray Caverns.

I love surprises - being surprised and surprising others. So, the only thing about this day that Dave knew was that he had to take the day off work because we were going on an all-day date. The places and people were all surprises.

I mean, really..... how cool is that?!!

And that!

In the room with the Great Stalacpipe Organ, a totally natural organ where stalactites of various shapes and sizes are tapped to make different notes. Standing here, they play a song using only mallets on stalactites. Very cool.

Hanging out with our dear friends Lisa, Mark and Dan.

From there, we drove into the town of Little Washington and stopped at a nearby Bed and Breakfast where some more friends were staying and we all changed for the more formal "Part 2" of the surprise....

Having dinner at the Inn at Little Washington!

Once Dave found this out, he decided it was more for me than for him, since he knows this has been on my bucket list for a few years now. After all, it is in my "1000 Places to See Before You Die" book. But I assured him, that I planned this for him!

They sat us in three tables of four right next to each other in the Terrace.

Our good friend Dan putting his arm "around" his wife that at the last minute couldn't come because of a work commitment - major bummer! But so glad Dan was able to still come!  We sat across from Dan, so this is the gorgeous view of the courtyard we enjoyed throughout dinner.

Just pretend Dave's eyes are open for this picture ;)

Why is this place considered one of the 1000 Places to See Before You die? Well, for starters, it was built in 1749 at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, so you can't beat the view.

And secondly, you are served food like this... (The Tin of Sin)

And this....

And this....

And this...

And this....

And this, all created by world-famous Chef Patrick O'Connell, who founded the Inn over 30 years ago. We all enjoyed seeing pictures of the Chef with Julia Child, several of the Supreme Court Justices, the King and Queen of England, the King and Queen of Spain and others, all of whom have come here to dine and enjoy Patrick O'Connell's creations.

I'm not sure if it was because we were a large group, because I made reservations so far in advance, or because we were celebrating special occasions (it also happened to be my friend Lisa's birthday) or a combination of those things, but they offered to give us a tour of the kitchen afterward. Yes, Please!

And the birthday boy and girl got to meet Patrick O'Connell, who has been referred to as "The Pope of American Cuisine." The International Herald Tribune lists this as one of the Top 10 Restaurants in the world!

Me and my running buddy.... we have a lot of running to do to work off that meal!

Happy 38th Birthday to my main squeeze!  I'm not sure what we'll do for your 39th, but I'm pretty sure we'll still be paying this off, so chances are, it'll be more along the lines of Applebees ;)