Spring in Virginia

For our family outing this month we chose Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. The boys don't remember it (we went before moving to China in 2002) and they've done a lot that Mark and I didn't remember too! Here is the link to the official site. It's a very nice place to visit, and has a bit of a different feel to it as it's not a federal site, it's privately owned and maintained.

http://www.mountvernon.org/

Now, visiting sites with children is always an experience. Visiting with a child that is NOT on his ADHD meds and has Friend and Meyers blood - that's a whole 'nother story. So - on to the story!

Why does Mark look like a pirate you ask? :) Well, Benjamin was already showing his boyness after having only been on the grounds for about 10 minutes. He had "clopped" in the style of empty coconuts and Monty Python to this point. Mark was just preparing himself for a very entertaining day!

Benjamin found a hairpin shaped nail at the admission lines and promptly put it into an empty water bottle and used it for sights for his 'gun' water bottle. Complete with sound effects.

The property (only 500 acres now compared to it's glory days of 8,000 acres) has a working farm on it. Here Jordan, Mark and Ben are petting the lambs. Jordan exclaimed, "Now I know why people like cashmere so much!" Ben clapped Mark on the back and said, "That's the black sheep" to his dad, knowingly. :)

As we walked from the sheep to the stables Ben would occasionally 'baaaaa' to the roaming lambs.

 At the stables I heard some banging and thumping. Ben was graciously killing flies with the empty water bottle. Soon we found a trash can for the bottle.

Jordan couldn't handle the lambs just roaming about so he and Ben hearded these lambs back to the corral with the others.

Later, as Ben was calling to them Jordan chastised Ben, "Ben! Don't encourage a jail break!"

You know, this orchard plan looks very well organized. I bet if Washington would have had access to excel he would have used it. George and I, we would have been friends. :)



After the house, the lambs, the stables and the orchards we visited the original tomb for the Washington family. As we walked away from that somber place tucked in the woods, Ben began to dance. No, I have no idea why. That's just Ben, a happy kid.

Mt. Vernon is right on the Potomac River so we strolled right down the hill and visited the water. There was a bird with very good real estate at the boat house.


Of course Ben had to kick dirt into the water. Mark counseled him, "You're making the river brown when you kick dirt in it. Stop!" I laughed. Ben must have been kicking for a few years!

So I never liked gardening as a kid. Hated it actually. But now that I'm old :) I like growing vegetables! I thought this was kinda cool how ol George's people still used sticks to help their beans climb. Me, I use an old dog kennel's fence.



There was an herb patch right next to this garden. I was pretty pleased that my boys could recognize 2 different types of mint, rosemary, tobacco (not from their home experience) and thyme.

 Lest you think Benjamin provides all the mirth in our family let me share with you a joke Jordan entreated us with at this juncture in our tour. . .

"What did the bull say to his son as he sent him off to college?"

"Bison" ;D

Finally at the car after a few hours of touring Benjamin concluded our visit with "This is my souvenier guys, sweat."

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog:

Food!

Here is my cinnamon chunk break.

Yep, those are chunks of cinnamon in my bread. Delish!

I volunteered to help in the kitchen for our church Women's Conference. How many heads of lettuce do you need to feed 300 women salad? NOT 75. :) 

 For dessert we had mini-banana puddings. Lots of them.

 It's funny to me when the kids and dogs act similarily. :)

 Last, the other thing we must always talk about in our blog, Frosty.

Frosty was yelping and we thought he might have a splinter or something, but we couldn't figure out what. It got to the point that he wouldn't sit down because of fear of the pain. So we took him to the vet who in turn gave us some pain pills for him. She said it might make him a little loopy. It did, in that he wouldn't leave my side! I sent this picture to Casey and Marcus along with a few others showing his velcro day to me. They were titled, "This is your dog" (show normal picture - see above). "This is your dog on drugs" (show picture below). We love our Frosty and are so glad he's feeling better!