Natural Bridge

Papa John's Pizza delivered right to the RV and a movie - nothing could be finer!

Behold....Foamhenge. Eric's secret joy.

Funnel cake fries. YUM!


Marshmallows! Such great fun!

Ice cream. Trevor had approximately 15 different kinds of candy on his.

Izzy and Trevor at the top of the steps - they were so proud!

Outside the caverns - Trevor and Heather were kind enough to tell the twins this was not worth their time of a visit.

OK this was the cutest photo op I was ever able to stage.

The majestic Natural Bridge.

Ice cream social!

These two reminded me of Trevor and Heather.

Heather and Trevor got to witness the giraffes jungle loving.

Heather: Mom, what is that coming out?

Me: Sigh...that's the giraffe's wee wee (as a mother looked disapprovingly at me with her two older kids).

Heather: Oooh...why does he keep chasing the other giraffe with his wee wee and jumping on her back.

Me: they are trying to make babies (another glare from the mother).

Heather: Ohhh...they are MATING. Cool. When will the baby come out.

Trevor: Cool...

Me: how about we give them some privacy kids?! Where's the lorakeets?!

I saw nothing wrong with them petting a giant snake (a burmese python) who happened to be slithering for his daily walk through the grass. Anna was a bit nervous.

This was my favorite safari park pic, the zebras with the llamas in the background.

Labor Day = visit to Natural Bridge...our new tradition. This was our second year doing this. We had the Ismail family join us this year in their swank RV. We packed the van to the gills and headed on over to the KOA campgrounds. We arrived at our cabin to find out we got one of the only ones without cable (we could survive, no biggie....still breathing just fine at this news) and GASP....NO AIR CONDITIONING. Are they kidding?! We decided we could make it through. We unpacked the van and sweat and sweat and sweat. It was about 90 degrees plus high humidity. I offered to ask if we could move but Eric said we could manage. After about 2 hours of managing I realized we were gonna leave the next day - screw the entire weekend. I decided to go to the office and ask to be put on the wait list for an upgrade. Then the kids and I hit the arcade. Trevor won a few toys in the crane drop. Heather played air hockey and enjoyed that immensely. Then we decided to hit the pitstop before trudging back to the cabin (the cabins have no bathrooms, just electricity). As we pass by the office, we find Eric who is asking us what the heck we did....he had been summoned to report to the office immediately. Once we assured him we did no damage, I realized "OOOH I put us on a wait list!!!" We went eagerly to the front desk - to find YES a new cabin is available. A two room cabin. Which meant the kiddos had their own room with double bunkbeds. With cable. With A/C. Closer to the bathroom. In a location that was not as mosquito riden as where we were...for....$40-50 more for the entire weekend. We snatched it. We were told we couldn't move till the next day but we were OK with that! We slept in the heat with the windows open. I cuddled with a water bottle from the cooler. Eric thought this was pretty funny - KD did not. I started getting chills later that evening as I slept and needed a blanket. I decided it was from heat stroke. The next morning we peeled out of Cabin 18 - leaving our new neighbors in the dust who couldn't understand why we were moving (the next day we found them at a different cabin - they decided we were right). We moved into the new place and dubbed it Shangrila. We were closer to the Ismails as well so there was an additional bonus! After getting settled in, we hit the Safari Park. The kids had great fun. I almost got eaten by a camel. Eric thought this was pretty funny. The van got covered in animal pellets. Trevor's not a great thrower unless he's throwing it directly on Eric. Heather dumped a whole bucket in the back (which reminds me to pull the vacuum out). The Ismails opted to go without feed and follow behind us and observe the Nothdurfts in all their chaotic glory. We fed the lorikeets and giraffes as well. I think we hit the park 5-6 times this weekend (our Reston Zoo passes get us in for free). Sunday was a visit to the Natural Bridge. It was really pretty and the kids also enjoyed the butterfly garden. The wax museum creeped them out. The toy museum was just to taunt them. The big hit of natural bridge, however, is a special item on their menu - FUNNEL CAKE FRIES. For those that have not had this, I highly recommend you get in your car and speed to Natural Bridge promptly. Throughout all of the touring, we swam in the pool at the campgrounds, hit the arcade, played ping pong, played on the playground, went on a flashlight candy hunt, went on a glowy wagon ride, had pizza delivered to the Ismails RV and watched a movie, made marshmellows on the fire (Ismails grandma's first one EVER! Two thumbs up for marshmellows), made pizza pockets on the fire. We really had a good time - so good that we already booked Shangrila for next year. I think the Ismails are gonna join us again next year - our goal is to try and stay up past 9:30 p.m. We shall see!!

Hurricane Irene - Chaos Style.

On Thursday I started to hear more and more about the impending hurricane. I realized some of our friends lived by waters and made the offer to be their emergency shelter. After I picked Eric off the floor when he got the news we got the house ready for the possibility of company. Friday afternoon we got the call. They were on their way. The kids were excited. Slumber party! We had a delicious dinner of most of their supplies out of their freezer and settled in the the first night - cocktails were a flowing. Kids were upstairs, Danielle and Brian got the playroom. Saturday was without a hitch. We took Logan with us to a birthday party in Ashburn which was at a moonbounce park so they got Chaos to themselves and were able to monitor their local media as much as they could for updates on Kent Island - which isn't much. Media apparently doesn't understand that they exist. After we got back the kiddos had dinner, played video games, watched TV and all was well. The winds started to pick up. We locked down the upstairs and huddled downstairs. Kiddos and I and our dog in one room. Danielle, Brian, Logan & Arden in the playroom - tight quarters for all but the important thing was safety! It got louder and louder and I got to admit - I don't think any of the adults slept very well that night. Around 2:30 a.m. the power went out. Eric kindly informed me that our heads were right by a window and that we could be killed any moment from flying debris. He turned and slept the other way on the room. I was already giving half of my space to the petrified dog so I decided to just risk it. Sunday morning, still no power but all were safe, no damage to house, a few branches down but no big deal! We got power back around 10:45 a.m. The kids were overjoyed and the TV got turned on immediately. The adults were overjoyed because the kids could quit asking to do every single thing that demanded power. The Hollands got the great news that power was restored to their place and it was safe - the winds had shifted from the storm to north so there was no storm surge and it kept the water from swamping their island. Victory to all! I'm glad they came to stay with us. I'm sure they don't believe me, but it was a great diversion from the impanding storm, the kids were entertained and we truly enjoyed their company!

Earthquake?! Nah....its an avalanche

So I got home from having quite the day with the city in shutdown and panic to find two VERY excited children to greet me.

Kids: Mom! Did you feel the avalanche?! It was AWESOME!
Me: it was an earthquake. Yes I felt it. Were you scared?
Kids: Nope - the car gave us a ride and it was fun! Then we went to the Giant. There was wine all over the floor. Nana would NOT be happy.
Then they laughed and laughed.

Visited the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo in Thurmont, MD.

They loved the camel ride!

They got to feed this camel popcorn on the safari ride.

Another one of the koi ponds.

This zoo was a wonderful surprise. It was clean, the animals looked well-cared for and it really was just an hour away. There were three koi ponds (pluses for Trevor), minature ponies on the safari ride (pluses for Heather), camel rides, a hurricane simulator, a couple of playgrounds and lots of animals. Plus the added bonus is the random buildings scattered throughout the property containing small reptiles which also had air conditioning so we were able to cool off when the humidity got to be too much. The kids got to witness them moving some alligators as well as an added bonus. I took a couple of videos - the first one is of the big koi pond. I love listening to the kids shreiks of joy and Trevor's comment at the end is just too funny!

The next video is of Heather in the hurricane simulator. She just loved it and kept asking to go back in but I told her one time was plenty.

Lake Anna Family Reunion Weekend.

Kids and I hit Lake Anna yet again to meet up with the family and Alesky's from New York. I had already promised the kids we'd go horseback riding. Mike, Stephanie and her boyfriend Tom decided to join us. It was great fun! I was shocked that Trevor got his own horse. The horse took him on their own ride a few times but the instructor was able to retrieve him before they got too far. I kept telling Trevor to pull back on the reins. He did a great job stopping the horse! Heather berated Stephanie and her "slow" horse the entire time before finally deciding to pass her. She then proceeded to continually turn around and heckle Stephanie. I guess she has some of her mother's competitiveness in her. She also managed to pass Trevor's horse and was going to do yet another pass before the instructor told her to knock it off. After the ride, we went back to Tom's. The kids swam, caught minnows, caught fish (big and little ones), caught toads, and Trevor finally caught his much-prized five-lined skink that he was on a mission to catch! We had great fun. Below is some short video of the ride.