Bounce

Nate loves all things bounce house. We recently trekked into Fredericksburg for a morning at Kids N Motion. He was in heaven. The best thing is that it exhausted him and he was nice and subdued at lunch. If I could buy a bounce house and permanently keep it set up I would!

Westmoreland Berry Farm

One of our favorite places to go from April to November is the Westmoreland Berry Farm. You can pick your own fruit at various times in the season, but we go for the ice cream and playtime. Rolling hills look out over the fruit fields and lead down to the Rappahannock river. The farm makes sundaes with the fruit they grow that are amazing. There are goats to feed and a playground to climb around on. It's just the perfect place to take a little one.

Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene decided to bless us with lots of wind and rain and no structural damage. We lost power for 3 days, but are a lot luckier than some people. Down the street a neighbor's house was crushed by a tree. It was a trying few days, but we all worked together and made it through. Fingers crossed we won't have any more hurricanes this year.

Nate's favorite part of the hurricane was getting to take a bath outside.

The Earthquake

Recently Amy and I were disussing how living in Va is nice because you don't really have to worry about bad weather and natural disasters. I may have jinxed us. Within one week we had an earthquake and a hurricane.

I rarely get to take naps with Nate anymore, but on the day of the earthquake we happen to be asleep. I woke up and thought he was awake and jumping on the bed. Till I realized that my whole room was shaking. He woke up and looked at me and said, "mommy why is the house jumping". Luckily we were spared any damage, but it was a scary 30 seconds especially because we woke up to it. Nate calls it the big "earth shake". I'm pretty sure he got that term from Land Before Time.

I do think the news over did it. I understand broadcasting immediately following to clarify for people that it was not a terrorist attack and to report that there wasn't any major damage. However, I don't think they needed to be on air for hours reporting the same thing over and over.

Irene will have her own post!

Sweet Summer

Labor Day is slowly creeping up on us and to me that has always signaled the end of summer. This is the first year that I am not working nor going to school and it feels like I should be doing something. Instead I get to drag out my summer. Yes I will eventually have to find a job, but for now I'm enjoying every minute with my child. We've done a lot this summer. It's been busy and stressful at times. My first day of summer started with a move. We celebrated the Fourth of July with friends. We made a trip to NH at the beginning of July and a trip to Christiansburg in the middle of July. Nate and I both turned a year older this summer making us 25 and 3. In August we've spent a lot of time exploring Colonial Beach and spending time just getting our litte lives in order. We've spent a lot of time at the river, in the library for story time, at McDonald's in the play area (and accessing the internet). We've been to see Cars 2, Winnie the Pooh, and The Little Mermaid in theatres. I've cooked new recipes, scrapbooked so much that I've almost finished Nate's baby book. I've made new friends and tried to make it to all of the small town mom'n'pop places. We've battled a super high fever and days of "I'm bored". Who taught my child that word? We are happy at Colonial Beach and I'm excited to see what the fall brings, but for now I'm going to stretch out summer for as long as I can. Here are a few summer moments that make me smile

Family Day

We lasted 3 days at Colonial Beach before deciding it just wasn't for us and coming back to Springfield. J/K. We drove back to Springfield for a family day at my dad's work. Something we hadn't been to because we were too old for it. Now we have Nate and it was perfect for him. Bounce houses are the big thing now. Nate loves them and that's all he talks about. I'm glad he got to spend some time on one. He also got an airbrushed tattoo, did sand art, rode a train, saw some bugs, played games, saw a firetruck, and took a nap on Mommy and Mema at Popper's work. It was a great day. Guess who picked out his tattoo?

Moving On

I have moved one time in my life, when I was 9, and it was across the neighborhood. Now I'm almost 25 and the time has come to start over in a new town. I'm a little bit scared, and immensely sad to be leaving this house behind, but I'm also really excited about the possibilities ahead of us. 12 hours from now I'll be on the road to CB and funny enough 72 hours after that I'll be back up here for an overnight stay. I think this summer is going to be a long drag out of getting each house ready. It's not easy to move 6 people who pretty much each have their own little household.

I'm leaving a job behind, friends behind, extended family behind, a church behind, and familiarity behind. Luckily we have our own little village within our home. The greatest thing is that this summer I'm going to be a stay at home mom to this little guy:

Eventually I'm going to have to find another full time job. But I'm not thinking about that just quite yet. I'm going to try and get a few naps in first with my boy. I'm also worried for Nate. He is leaving behind 3 years of life too. He doesn't understand why we are moving and he won't understand for a long time. I've already put in efforts to meet people and I think it will pay off. For now we just have to take it one day at a time. Almost 3 years ago I brought my little guy home to a house full of people and love. Now those people and love are just moving to a new town.