Auntie Vivi Camp and School Camp!

The girls first two weeks in DC saw two different (but equally fun) "camps".  The first week they played with Patrick on Monday (including their second trip to the Zoo) and then Tuesday through Friday, while Patrick was back in Tucson and I was in my first week of work, they went to Auntie Vivi camp! 

As I understand it Auntie Vivi camp involved many playgrounds on any given day, hours upon hours at the community pool, excellent cuisine, and even a trip to see Secret Life of Pets on Friday. The cousins have been having a blast hanging out together, with so I am told, minimal conflict even.  Miles in particular has taken a liking to Evie and calls her Eeee, very cute.

Then last week the girls went to Kids After Hours (also known as KAH, because really people everything here must have an acronym) while Patrick settled into his working from home routine. KAH camp was a huge hit, second best of the summer by Evie's estimate and either first or second of the summer (depending on what day you asked her) by Izzy's.  The best part about the camp (for us parents at least) was that it was at their school for next year and thus a quick drive or scooter away. I think the best part for the girls was the large water slides a la Izzy's b-day party everyday, except for Wednesday when they took a field trip to a local water park.  They spend so much time in the water each kid gets a KAH rash guard and towel (with a space for their name... brilliant) on the first day they go to camp. It is good though that they are spending so much time wet because it has been ridiculously hot and humid (so they'd probably be feeling like they were wet regardless... I certainly was every morning/afternoon walking to and from work!)

Now it is just one more week of the most epic summer these kids will ever have and then it is off to school!  I've already taken them shopping for clothes and school supplies at Target...where we all ooohed and ahhhed at the two story target complete with a special escalator just for your cart... who knew?! Ahh the large and small adventures of living in such a populous place!

Pictures from Izzy's B-day Party

The birthday girl in the morning before her party getting ready to open some presents

Evie and her friends!

Daddy on the slide!

Izzy in her "birthday (swim) suit"

Izzy and her friends

Blowing out the candles!

The Big Move - Part 2

Once I made it to DC the "only" thing left to do was unpack the Subaru, meet the movers the next day, unpack the house, buy (and assemble) a bed for Izzy and a new entertainment center, and prepare for my first week of work.  No big deal... totally feasible in one week.

On Saturday the movers arrived as scheduled. I still have no idea how the semi made it down my street and to its place in front of our house. (He did mention, however, that he struggled to avoid the "Beamers, Mini's and MiniVans" and asked me to re-park the Subaru in a very particular spot so he could extricate himself at the end of the day.) Hour after hour furniture and boxes streamed into the house. From 8:30 am to 3:00 pm to be exact. Fortunately by the time the rainstorm hit at 1 pm all that was left on the semi was the piano. The storm cleared by 2:30 and the piano even made it in (and up the stairs) unscathed. I spent most of my day following them around making sure each box was deposited in the right room. Nicole and Vivian (and Miles) were on hand to help in the afternoon, which was nice.

Once the movers were finished and the dust settled it was time to start (manically) unpacking the house because, among other things, I really wanted it to be at least semi hospitable by the time Patrick and the girls showed up on Monday. So I spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday (except for a very (not) relaxing trip to IKEA with Vivian to get curtains and a entertainment center). By Monday afternoon when I went to pick up the rest of the fam from the airport I'd say the house was about 70% unpacked....

I was so great to see everyone at the airport! We then went back to the house (taking over an hour because of rush hour and my missing a turn for Rock Creek Parkway and having to instead drive on surface streets through DC and Maryland at rush hour...) At Evie's urging Patrick and I somehow mustered the wherewithal to build the castle bed that night.  The next day we trekked out to IKEA to get Izzy's new bed, which was, in contrast to the Sunday before, actually very pleasant and relaxing. The only hiccup was that the bed did not fit in the Subaru so we ended up having to have it shipped to the house... costing almost as much as the bed itself (sigh).  It's all good though because once set up it has turned out to be a fabulous bed for Izzy... and I even found some old gold curtains in our basement that were exactly what she wanted for the bottom part of the loft (and here I thought I'd have trouble finding gold curtains like she had asked....)

On Wednesday we continued unpacking and putting the house together, aided greatly by a trip to the pool for the girls with Aunite Vivi while Patrick and I put our nose to the unpacking grindstone. On Thursday, to give Patrick some uninterrupted work time and to celebrate having the house 95% put together, I took the girls down to the National Mall to the American History museum. We just scratched the surface of it, but saw the first lady's dresses, the original elmo and an interesting exhibit on transportation. The whole time Izzy scooted along on her birthday scooter that my Mom bought her, which turns out to be a great way for littler legs to make their way around DC! After a bit we made our way over to Mimi's house for a short visit and then back to home. It turned out to be a lot of walking, we are all going to have to get used to it!

Chasing elephant prints at the zoo.

On Friday we finished putting together the house and then spent the evening at the local pool. Complete with a visit from the local ice cream truck. Saturday we got out of the house in the afternoon (which turned out to be sweltering) and took the girls down to the National Zoo.  We saw the cuter than cute baby pandas, rejoiced at the rain, spent quality time looking at elephants, and enjoyed a local beer (well Patrick and I enjoyed the beer, not the rest of the fam). Saturday night we walked over to Vivian and Sean's house and hung out with them. Patrick got in some quality time with Vi's new 12 string guitar...

The heat (and issues with our internet/cable) kept us close to home on Sunday and then Monday morning it was off to my first day of work! Whew what a week.

The Big Move! - Part 1

No blog posts for July?! Well I guess I am not entirely surprised given that we had quite the busy July between Izzy's fabulous 5th birthday and preparing for our big move to Washington, DC. I'll pull together Izzy's 5-year interview today and post it, but first a little update from my trip across the country and the family's first week in our new house.

In order to get all of our living and combustible things that couldn't easily go on a plane (two dogs, one hamster, a 1/2 dozen house plants, batteries, matches, C02 cartridges.... ) we needed to have at least one of us drive the car from Tucson to DC. Originally we though we'd all go together, but then the reality of the pain and suffering associated with multiple 10 hour days stuffed into a car together made us reconsider. So a different plan was hatched. I would drive to DC, accompanied about 1/2 the way by a friend who wanted a ride to Kansas City, and Patrick and the girls would fly out and meet up with me a week later. All told it went pretty darn according to plan.  I even beat the semi truck full of our stuff here by about 12 hours.

In Hatch

Meow Wolf....

Meow Wolf....

Along the way, and especially while I still had a traveling companion, some fun was had. The first day we left Tucson at 6 am with the first stop goal of Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. We had prearranged a kennel for the dogs (who also said they would keep the hamster at the front desk for us) so we could go inside and explore. My cousin also drove up from Albuquerque to meet us and see Meow Wolf (yes it is just that cool) All told we made it to Santa Fe by about 3 in the afternoon (after a stop in Hatch for a chili ristra for my new kitchen) and then after getting a growler of beer from a nearby belgian style brewery hit the road for another 3 hours. The last three hours proved just a bit too much, made worse by a wicked thunderstorm, but we still made it (by 9 pm) to our first stop: the historic Eklund Hotel on main street Clayton, NM.   We went 716 miles that first day, and everyone was quite tired at the end of it:

The next day we set our sights on KC, out across a bit of Oklahoma and through the entirety of Kansas, but made a few random stops for the yellow brick road and "Dorthy's House" and for the most random set of metal sculptures in the middle of nowhere you could imagine  (it was pretty awesome).

It was acres and acres of metal sculptures, some of which were pretty darn offensive...

After a mere 540 miles of driving we made it to Kansas City by about 6 pm and to my friend's family's house, where we were greeted by a fabulous chaos of children, siblings, and guinea pigs. The next morning I went out to breakfast with my friend's family and then hit the most important strange sight in KC, the larger than life birdies and the glass maze:

It was then on the road solo (well I was now the only human in the car) with a goal of Terre Haute, Indiana and 410 miles. (I was trying to keep it to no more than 6 hours of solo driving each day I was on my own). I mostly just pushed through stopping only for the restroom.  But after we made it through Missouri and reached the Mississippi River the girls and I took a break near the river for a bit:

Just in time for the free dinner I made it to the fabulous Drury Inn in Terre Haute. Aside from the pasta with chicken, I am afraid the highlight of the evening was a walk around the block with the dogs... This was my first night solo, so I had to figure out how to get all of the valuables out of the car (including a massive at least 60 lb Tupperware strapped to a platform on the back of the car). I quickly discovered that my best option was to abscond with a valet trolley for the night and slide the Tupperware onto the trolley and then load up everything else (banjo, bag of clothes, cuckoo clock -the essentials) and then leave it all piled on the trolley for the next morning...

The next day we traveled a mere 385 miles to Tridelphia West Virginia. The highlight was a dog friendly lunch stop in Cleveland, Ohio. The rest of the day was less than pleasant, however, due to the hours and hours of traveling in the rain :P

By Friday I was so exhausted I was glad to only have a 4 hour drive to make it to Kensington! But made it I did... by noon... and was greeted by my sister-in-law and wrestling nephews in our big (and vacant) basement!