Where the heck have I been?!? VA-CAY-SHUN! WHOOOO! Loved it.
Busy busy vacation this time around. Got to see a lot of people and a lot of things. And I have a BAZILLION photos. My camera is still acting up and as I was downloading tonight I was cursing myself for not getting it in before vacation. So I’m just going to pop in pictures that I didn’t have to do anything to other than downsize so that they would fit in my silly blog. I’m hoping my hugely talented cousin-in-law is going to hook me up with a better website and blog. He’s a busy man though — we’ll have to see if he has time….
Here starts vacation in Virginia!
My cousin Sam juggling for Oliver. He’s going to throw a ball so Oliver can juggle too…BONK!…or not. I love the contrast in height — Sam’s 6′5″
My Auntie Carol doing a nice little sashay across the bridge for me. Pretty park in the middle of a great city. We got to ride a trolley, feed some fish, ride a little train, and run over bridges — SAH-WEET!
Aunt Carol, Oliver, and I went cherry and peach picking one day. I like this picture of my Aunt and Oliver. Can you see the little wheels turning in his head? He’s about to stick that leaf up my Aunt’s nose….uh. (Technically I THINK it was supposed to be a mustache.)
My Uncle Al took out a kite for Oliver one day — Oliver was very excited!
Downtown Staunton had all these great buildings to take pictures in front of. Remember that bit about needing to get my camera fixed… PHOOEY.
This building was really great. LOVED IT! Cruddy photos. Am hoping that a little help from our good friend Photoshop and some cropping might make the rest of these photos bearable. Below is my cousin Anna and my aforementioned cousin-in-law.
At a train station. We did not ride the train.
Oliver was just smitten with my cousins. I was hoping Craig could talk him into the mohawk I have been trying to get him to have for years. Mimi (my mum) will be pleased that Oliver is not interested no matter who would like the mohawk. This place rocked. Banana Splits. Yummiest ice cream ever.
Our short while in Virginia with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins came to a close QUICKLY. We were on to Maryland for Andrew’s induction into the Naval Academy. Exciting and heartbreaking day all in one. It’s NOT like sending your child off to college.
Our hotel was close enough that we could walk over in the morning.
I love this photo…
We went inside the gates with Andy and dropped him at the front of a building where a LARGE officer shouts “LAST HUGS” where you get to go and throw yourself on your child, and then the parents are pried from the children who get swooped away to have their head shaved (yes, Andy actually had too much hair…), get uniforms, learn how to march, salute, say “SIR, YES SIR!” in unison, etc. You can sit at various places during their acquiring of uniforms, etc, but the parents’ association told us NOT to look for our child. Good call — I really didn’t want to see Andy getting screamed it. The whole process was pretty humorous when it wasn’t your own child. The upperclassmen in charge of training were yelling at the Plebes. My favorite was, “Awwww, mommy, daddy, THIS is not like the movie!” so I’m dying to see Annapolis now. Anyway, there’s only so much watching a five year old can take. We missed out on the tour and a speech that both Peter and I would have liked to have seen, but did get to run around the GORGEOUS campus (“The Yard”.) 
The town was pretty fantastic too — we played in an alley when we went back to town for lunch.
In the afternoon/evening there was a swearing in ceremony. We had to get there super early to secure seats. I owe Oliver BIG TIME! He was so good. After all the Plebes filed in, but before they swore them in, we got a fly-by. SUPER EXCITING! (Oliver liked that part!)
A mass of Plebes in their dixie cups (hats) getting sworn in. Andy might be in this picture somewhere….let’s play “Where’s Waldo” shall we?
At the end they took off their hats and I just thought the scene of all the shaved heads was funny. Cool fact, 25% of this class is girls (they would be the ones that actually have hair!) 
After the swearing in, we were allowed to see Andrew for another … half an hour (felt like two seconds) … before he went off to join his company. He has the SLIGHTEST correction to his eyes with glasses. To be quite honest, I’ve never seen him wear them. He mostly wears them for school I think. Maybe driving? Anyway, he was fortunate enough to be fitted for some BCG’s (that would be birth control glasses.) Hooray for him! I hope they don’t make him wear them all summer. He’ll die of heat stroke with those big things taking up 2/3 of his face. and I know he doesn’t need them. Just one more way to torture him. sigh.
YEAH! A family photo. All five of us! Including that elusive oldest child!
After saying goodbye to Andy, and all the Aunts and cousins, Oliver, Peter, and I headed to Washington D.C. to look around the city and be present for fireworks on the 4th. Uh, if that city isn’t ever busy around the fourth holiday…and I’m not a city girl AT ALL. YIKES! It would have been too much for me, but the joy of the visit was catching up with Sweet Cameron and her husband Jason. 
I met Cameron in the last hour of Inspired. You know when you meet someone and you just instantly become friends? It was so good to get to spend the day with the two of them. We went to about half of the parade, then decided we needed to leave as we were all a little puddle on the concrete. In the half of the parade we saw, there were some pretty great things to see. These bikes were pretty cool.
These guys were CRAZY! I don’t know how they didn’t die of heat stroke. They were all dressed up in thick polyester outfits and they danced all around to make jingling sounds with the bells on their legs. The guys in the pink and black also had to blow whistles. I’ve described it awfully, but it was really cool for us (and really hot for them.) Big ol’ WOOT! to them for entertaining us so! 
I also enjoyed a lot of the marching bands, which, probably, were equally as hot. I saw one girl walking by with her tuba that was bigger than she was. UGH.
It was so crowded we were not wanting to do much. You couldn’t move in any of the museums. And they had check points you needed to go through to get to the mall. It was pretty quick if you didn’t have a bag, but if you did….This was us trying to find a faster checkpoint. We thought we could go through the Art Museum and go out the backside. Jason was racing Oliver up the stairs. I love blurry photos lately… Normally this race probably wouldn’t have happened, but we could have been the BIGGEST herd of elephants and no one would have heard us over the crowd. I’m actually sort of amazed there’s no one else in this picture?!?!
This idea for a fast check-point didn’t work out, so the boys went to the air and space museum while Cameron and I stood in line for our bags. Jason made some comment about Oliver running from one thing to the next and seeing the entire museum in 30 minutes. “Now THAT’S the way to see a museum.” We decided we’d had enough of crowds so went to find a patch of grass under a tree. Cameron raced Oliver from tree to tree (gosh darn I wish those two lived closer! And I wish I had their energy!)
Look at this! This is the kid that hides up my bum when he has to meet someone new. And cries if they try to talk to him before he’s ready. He even squirreled out of my grasp one time to hold CAMERON’S hand crossing the road. I was shocked. And I would have been a little hurt if she wasn’t so darn cool.
We actually decided to leave for dinner and then stand back in the checkpoint line — only we never did go back in. We found a great spot outside the fenced in area. Worked out really well. Cameron and Oliver resumed their tree racing game. This is probably my favorite photo from the trip — Oliver is the Tasmanian Devil. I KNEW IT! Cracks me up.
It rained.
And we saw some great fireworks (I couldn’t decide between these two photos)
I like the plain white fireworks. I like the ones that sparkle and fizzle best. Oliver is spoiled for life on fireworks. We saw some when he wasn’t even two yet. And some at a ball game last year. Then these. The DC fireworks main bit is a thousand times better than any grand finale I have ever seen. We were wondering what was going to be left for the grand finale when they started out. This was the first time I’d seen fireworks where the oohs and aaahhhss were not fake or forced. HOLY COW! so good.
Then we had to say goodbye.
Such a short day. Such a short vacation. We are home (barely) and I need to do a million things. Hopefully I’ll be back on later in the week to post more photos and stories. Sweet dreams!
