McSquizzy sees DC....

A little post graduation hop at our favorite duck spot, before we take McSquizzy out for her first tour of DC!!
Whadaya know, it started raining.

So we took in the sights from the car. Here is one of the Smithsonian Museums of Art...
and then it stopped raining! So we got out for the Washington Monument.

Go McSquizzy Go!!

And then, typical of all our wierd weather patterns this year, it started hailing.

We had a moment to enjoy the aftermath

(getting Daddy)

And then it poured, poured, poured, with a wonderful lightning show while we drove south through Virginia. We were actually going to tent camp tonight, but the rangers at Chesapeake had a better idea... they let us hang out in the lounge!!

(Don't tell but man were we thankful!!)

(We love Thousand Trails.)

Good night friends! Next stop, the Outer Banks!!

Graduation, at last!!

This "summers only" progam really turned out to be four years of a life changing experience... and even though there is still one more summer, we took this day to celebrate!!
The kids deserve the party as much as momma, they have been so awesome and supportive!!

"We each got awards from mommy. Mine the very supportive award. That's me getting awarded!!" -Josiah

"Mommy got an award too. It's the MARRIED GRADUATE STUDENT award!!"

Really an award for the whole family!!

With our classmates Wendy (Salem) and Jim (Boston)... Wendy got the department "Fran White award." Both have been an integral part of our family over the summers, and it was awesome to share this experience!!!

Amen.

next step...

We've had a whirlwind of excitement wrapping up our internship here at KSD.... between finishing up soccer (Greg and the kids ran an intermural soccer league after school, what a blast...), saying goodbye (much harder than Cheryl expected....), and a funky internet connection (the system crashed at the school and we lost our wireless...), well lets just say its been difficult to blog. Now we find ourselves packing up Winnie (wait! how did we get so many books?!) and also packing up Toby (who has a new rear end after his time in Kentucky, looking much younger...) for a little celebration trip to DC. Hopefully we'll be able to keep you up on the excitement, which is likely to include:

-Checking out Charleston, West Virginia (see that little hole on the map to the right? Its been bugging us this whole trip. We are gonna fill it.)

-Taking McSquizzy to the Nation's Capital (that Kangaroo needs some excitement before school is out!)

-Celebrating Mommy's graduation (even though she's not quite done, it calls for a partay... check out the hooding live Thursday May 13 at 4pm EST [that's 1:pm for you west coasters] at http://atweb.gallaudet.edu/videoevent/2010/hooding/source.asp )

-Outer Banks, take two... (those of you who remember our first attempt might be especially interested in the second attempt, for our appendix-less girl's birthday!)

All in all we are feeling so fortunate for our time here in Kentucky... but also quite excited for the "next step." We are going back into "mobile" mode and will let you know the fun along the way!! Meanwhile, we're packing up!! HUGS!!!

Training for the Derby...

This is the "Long Run" horse farm where Shayna does her riding lessons every week..

And look who landed this Spring!

(pictured here, 4 days old)

And then there's Shayna...
working hard, ready to take Puffkins to the Derby...

Where they will meet in the winners circle and put a ring of flowers around her head!!

(They do really still wear hats like this at the Derby. See "Dreamer" if you want to get ready!! Coming soon.)

Natural Bridge, KY

For Spring Break, we spent some time EXTREMELY HAPPY back in Winnie, checking out the scenery in Kentucky. Our first stop after Indiana was out to see "Natural Bridge"....

We were surprised to find out that there are hundreds of natural bridges like this in the area.... (people in Virginia think that big tourist stop is the only one....!) This one is accessible by hiking, so we took a couple trips up to the top and actually walked across it.

JJ took McSquizzy up for a special trip of her own!!!

(She is so brave!!)

We had a great tme camping, meeting other travelling kindred spirits and goofing off in the river.

We also got to hike around some of the caves.... another amazing geological feature in this part of the country. The caves are so cool..... you can just stand there and catch a refreshing breeze no matter how hot it is outside.

The limestone rocks make for amazing creations!

Everybody with us now, on three say "ahhhhhhh......"

(one, two, three....)

We love to be outdoors!!

We are back hanging in the Fred now, with several promising trips planned while we finish out the year. Thanks for checking in and all your support.... the NCE is done, and three more weeks til Cheryl flips the tassel!!!

Happy Easter!

For Easter this year we got to join KSD with their egg hunt, which was a cooperative relay effort. As the intern I had the great idea that they should take turns and race out to get the eggs, like me and my brothers used to when we got old enough to need some competetive excitement. As the intern I didn't know that we had enough eggs for each student to get 25 EACH... which meant when the relay was finally over, each team had raced out on that lawn 125 times!! We modified the marathon toward the end, but it was good fun and everyone wondered "why is it so much easier to get exercise when you are chasing after candy?"

Then later we rejoined Winnie (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, welcome home.....) and got back into life on the road, even for a week. Amen for rebirth indeed... we are all so happy in Winnie, its kinda wierd. It's been almost a year! So we made it up to Indiana, stayed at a TT camp, met up with the bunny, did a little local church, soaked up Indy, and then made it out to the fresh air--- our next blog. Hey Ron, remember when you dressed up as the bunny for Jo's birthday party in Lynnwood? It's all we could think about when we saw this dude...
Thinking of you!! Love ya!

The Hoosier State

Indianapolis

Well, we are close enough to Indiana that we decided to start off our Spring Break catching some "final four" excitement. When else will we be able to do this??!!

The stadium was open to watch practices the day before the final four games- JJ and Greg went in and watched Duke, and then the all star game, which was "Recess Vs. Hershey Chocolate." We thought that was funny, because we've been to Hershey and we know they make Recess. How silly. But we liked the freebies.

The boys also got in on a little NCAA coached "clinic" action.... the score of the weekend, for sure, as it was free and now we've "been there, done that, got the t-shirt!"

We thought Kentucky was into basketball, Indiana is nuts about it. The camp we stayed at had someone on the court ALL THE TIME (All ages). And of course there was quite a bit of Butler excitement around here, it was easy to get caught up in it!!

But basically we just love basketball, and had a great time in "Bracket Town." Even Shayna got into it and had a good time.

So here we are, the latest family shot.... Shayna is not standing on her toes, however I do believe JJ is on his knees.

HUGS!!

PS, While we were here we tried to find out what a "Hoosier" is. Impossible task. Even the locals don't know, their favorite is that "everyone round here once came up from Kentucky, and it means "Whoosier daddy?" (sad!)