Eben's DC Trip!

And now it is my turn to type. And my means Eben, who is me. So I had a really fun time in DC, although I think I liked New York better, but we don't have too many pictures of New York unfortunately. That trip is definitely a trip that I'll remember.

The scariest part of the whole thing was probably when Dada took me to the airport to fly down to CA. After that, I spent a few days down there with Nonnie and Poppie and Mimi. Nonnie and another tour guide named Jeff flew to DC a day early because that had to get their tour stuff ready. Then, the next day Jeff's daughter Jordy and I flew over.

The next day, first thing in the morning we went to have breakfast at Mt. Vernon. Then we went around, and looked at everything, including George Washington's grave.

The space and flight museum is apparently the most visited Smithsonian of all, and it was really fun. After that museum, everyone went to the huge McDonalds in the museum for lunch, but Nonnie, Jeff, Annette (another tour guide), Jeff, Jordy and I went across the street to the art museum, where we got lost trying to find the cafeteria. We finally did find it and ate lunch there.

 We went to the Ford Theater, where Lincoln was shot, and a guy gave a speech about it. Then we went across the street to the boarding house where he died, and walked through it. There was a giant tower of books all about him just outside the gift shop.

At the end of that day, we went to see Iwo Jima, and it was pretty cool. It was designed so that as you drove around it, it looked like the statues were raising up the flag.

The next day we went to Arlington National Cemetery, which was one of my favorite parts. There, we saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. We also saw the eternal flame at Kennedy's memorial.

 Then we went to the capital, which is why we all dressed up nice. It was pretty cool we had to wear headphones that let us here the guides voice more loudly. We also saw the supreme court.

 This picture is from the natural history museum. We took it for Opal.

This is me in front of the Washington Column at the WW2 memorial. I also saw the Lincoln memorial, Korean war memorial and the Jefferson memorial.

  The national spy museum was probably the coolest museum I've been through. I was the fastest at defusing bombs, and one of the only people able to hang on to a oily, moving bar for 60 seconds. The other two people were Annette, and the principal of the school that we went with.

We visited the FDR memorial where there were lots of coolio fountains and statues. I liked the fountains better, but I only got pictures with the statues.

The Air Force memorial was super cool. The Martin Luther King Jr. memorial was good too, but not as great as the Air Force one. I'll let you figure out which is which.

The pentagon was also pretty cool. The guides there walk the entire tour backwards, without ever looking behind them, and the tour is one and a half miles long! Also, before you actually started the tour, you had to completely shut off your phones, otherwise they would confiscate it.

On the way up to New York, we stopped in Gettysburg PA, to see the battlefield of Gettysburg, and an awesome circlerama painting thing. And also the best fudge ever.

I got to go see Wicked that night, which was obviously my favorite part of the trip. We also had dinner at a place called John's Pizza, which was rated best pizza in New York. That little tennis ball guy is named the Ginga Ninja. While we walked through New York, I was with Nonnie in the front holding him up so no one got lost. (He's on an extendable selfie stick)

For breakfast the next day, we went on a boat, and then danced on the boat, and saw the statue of liberty from the boat! It was a cool boat.

Us on the subway in NY. We went on it twice, and it be goin' fast.

St. Paul's Chapel was great because I got to see someone playing the theremin, which is an awesome instrument that you should totally google right now.

The stock market was crowded. But there were some cool street performers.

 And that's my trip to DC. Below is our group photo in Times Square, my favorite location on the trip. I'm so happy to have a Nonnie that let's me do these kind of things. Back to you Mama!

While Eben and Nonnie were in DC, Dodie and Cheese had their baby!

Sweet baby Styrkur. Mama was blessed to be able to attend the whole birth of her first little nephew!

Easter 2.0

A week later... we pretended it was Easter! Like nothing had gone wrong. We wore our Easter best. We said, "He is Risen" to everyone. We took our traditional Holt Chapel stairs picture (for the last time! It will be torn down next year for the remodel.).

 We even had the scavenger hunt to find the giant Easter basket which was hidden in the hot tub in our room. (Yes, that's a hot tub. In our room. There was no water in it at this time, so it was a perfect hiding place.). This year we actually gave the kids three Easter baskets, one large boys' one, one large girls' one, one candy (with a surprise) basket, paddle boards, and a drum, xylophone and flute. It was a big Easter 2.0 present year.

 They opened the boy and girl baskets and Dada brought around the paddle boards from the garage and they opened the musical instruments.

Then we told them to look in the candy basket and at the bottom was a little onesie with a number nine that matched their Easter clothes.

Eben knew what it was right away because he's the one who found it, but the rest couldn't really see it, so I held it up and they were all super excited and clapped and cheered and hugged. I think they all actually knew deep down that we were pregnant. Jasper was the first one to kiss my belly, months ago. Weeks before Opal started talking to the "babies" because she and Kivi had been praying that we would have twin girls. (We know there is only one baby!) Even Tuff would come up lift up my shirt and kiss "the bobby".

So instead of a basket picture this year (my first time ever missing that detail!) We have a new baby announcement Easter picture! We are due in November. Oh Valentine's, you get us every time!! This will be our third November baby. Unless I get Cholestastis again! Then we will have 2 October babies.

The best was Face Timing my parents and wishing them a happy Easter and then they asked to see Buggy's belly and first Dodie stood up and held up the "9" onesie then Buggy stood up and held up the "10" onesie and then I stood up and held up the "11" onesie and we hear Pops slowly count, "Nine, Ten, Eleven." and then his eyes get wide and Mamacita screams "What, what? Are you serious? Are you serious?" I wish we had thought to get it all on video. We all started laughing so hard. We took a picture of all their 11 grandbabies and babies to come, in order.

April 2017 - The Easter of Sick

April 1 & 2 - Peter works on getting the mud room pretty for me to be our makeshift kitchen while we undergo a major kitchen remodel.

April 12-15th  - Kivi and Mama sew Easter dresses. Kivi works on sewing her first dress.

April 13 - Easter egg day! And we celebrate Passover with a simple, modified celebration. We shaped tortillas into matzah and dyed lemonade purple for the wine. But Dada walked us through the whole Haggadah. 

April 14 - Tuff helps with dress sewing. 

We make our Holy Week crafts and display them on Mama's old windows.

April 15 - We're all ready for Easter! Our house is clean, our Holy Week Art is beautiful, everyone is coming to celebrate, our dresses are sewn, the clothes are all laid out!

April 16 , 3am - Kids start throwing up!! Dada and I have a long night. 6am - we tell everyone we have to cancel Easter. 8am - Kivi realizes we're not going to church and that no one will see her dress. Crying. One by one they all go down, Pella, Berg, Opal, Tuff, Eben, Jasper. Only Kivi, Coal, Dada and Mama haven't thrown up. But Kivi and Dada sleep all day. And Mama thinks that Dada is just trying to get out of vomit clean-up. (Some of our children have NO idea how to puke in a container, even when it's right in front of them!) We tell the kids we'll have Easter the next day. But the next day Coal and Mama sleep all day and can't get out of bed even if they wanted to. And Mama feels bad that she thought poorly of her sick hubby, who couldn't help the day before because he was actually sick, not hiding.

More Marchiness

March 12 - Eben and Kivi get to go skiing with Nonnie, Poppie and Dada.

March 16 - Dada has his much needed knee surgery.

March 18 - We go to Seattle to see The Taming of the Shrew, because the kids read that this year. 

March 24 - Ipanema for all you can eat meat and Ninja Escape Room with friends! We won the room, but the meat beat me.

March 27 - Family bowling at Uncle Buck's Fishbowl. Just the kids bowled. Tuff had to put his fingers in the holes just right each time and pumped his fist in the air to celebrate whenever he let go of the ball.

Milk Babies - Since Coal gets a bottle, Tuff has decided he wants back in on that action and asks for milk when Coal get a bottle. Sometimes we let him have some.

Coal's Mining Party!

The kids had the awesome idea of having a Coal Mining Party for Coal's first birthday. We had so many "Coal" themed treats: coal truffles, rice crispy coal, coal and canary cupcakes and a coal cake.

Dada and Uncle Cheese made the mine (which was the crawl space under our house). I saved all the black paper from the Mops Auction and they taped it all around 1/2 the mud room.

Group shot outside the coal mine.

The Coal Miners

We hid dark jewels all over the crawl space and the kids went down in groups with headlights and pails to collect the coal. Every three pieces earned you a piece of candy.

Coal's Birthday Kiss

We served pulled pork, homemade baked beans and "Coal"slaw for dinner. Grandma made some cornbread muffins, too.

Some other games we played were find the canaries around the house, which Karl won, rock climbing and a game where you grab as many canaries off of other people before they take yours which Mr. VanderPol won.

Coal's First Cake - He was a little scared of the candle and singing.

But he LOVED the cake. We've never had a kid get soooo excited to dive right in and devour the thing. He was a mess!

 So he got a birthday bath. After presents he and his girl friends got all cozy in their jammies! It was a fun party celebrating our little mira - coal.

Coal - We love you so much! You are the happiest, most contented baby. You love to be with people, but you don't have to be held all the time. You sleep in the boy's room in the closet crib and love your rainbow blanket which you confiscated from Kivi (It was actually one of her 11th birthday presents.). You laugh, smile, make clicking sounds and make lots of baby sounds, but don't talk yet. You can say Mama and Dada but I don't know if you actually know what they mean. You love your buddy, Opal. You sit with your legs straight out and off the ground; no one else can do it. You just started to scoot around by sitting and then bending one leg, then the other. We are so glad you are in our family and we get to love you and watch you grow! God is good! Happy First Birthday, Coal!