Richmond Road Trip

This picture has nothing to do with the trip per se (although we were getting ready to leave) but I had to showcase it because c'mon, how cute is this little boy??

He took his hand off to start waving.

This blog comes to you tonight from our hotel outside of Richmond, Virginia.  Ron, Elaine, the kids and I arrived here late Thursday night/early Friday morning for the wedding of Ron's son, Adam.  Considering the price of airline tickets, we decided that it was a much better deal to drive.  And frankly, considering that our usual trip up the eastern seaboard is a 24-hour trip to Boston, a 13-hour trip to Richmond seemed like a piece of cake.

We had intended to leave late morning but Ron and Elaine are getting a new kitchen and the contractor didn't finish until midday so we ended up leaving at 1:00.  We put the girls car seats together in the back row of Ron and Elaine's minivan and they were pleased as punch over this arrangement (in our car, only Calleigh is in the back because I don't want to deal with trying to do Aubree's car seat buckles back there).  It also worked out well for Brady since I was then sitting next to him in the second row.  The drive went very well, in my humble opinion, with our only major stop being Cracker Barrel for supper at around 7:00.  Brady went to sleep shortly after we resumed our trip, Aubree a little later, and then Calleigh, our night owl, finally succumbed about 10:15.  I drove the last few hours and we arrived at our hotel at 1:45 am.  That's unfortunately when the trouble started.  The kids all woke up when we arrived and while Calleigh went right back to sleep on her cot, Aubree and Brady refused to do so and were, in fact, awake until after 4:00 am.  I tried putting him in the pack and play but he would just cry.  Since we were in a hotel, I thought the best remedy for the situation was to remove him from the pack and play as it was the middle of the night.  Once he got in bed with me, he thought it was a great opportunity to crawl all over me and make little talking sounds as if it was mid-afternoon or something. Yowzers! And then, of course, as we that have kids know quite well, even if kids go to bed late or wake up in the middle of the night, this does not mean they will sleep in a bunch of extra hours in the morning to make up for it.  So naturally, Brady was awake and rearing to go 7:15.  Doggone it.  That was a short night.  

Cracker Barrel 

Friday we didn't have too much going on so we swam in the hotel indoor pool (a chilly 80 degrees) and got settled in.  Later we went to the rehearsal dinner at a restaurant named Juleps in Richmond where I had one of the top five best meals of my life.  I wished I had saved the menu so I could give the full description but it was lentils with a bunch of freshly grilled veggies including brussel sprouts.  Allen, you seriously need to make this for me!  The evening moved at a little bit of a slow pace for three small children so by the time we got our main course, we had already been there for two hours.  I literally inhaled my meal in four minutes because Brady was acting up big time (too tired).  Fortunately, I had also ordered the entree for Calleigh (who loves lentils) but she didn't eat it so I brought it home and am about to eat it now.  Yum!  Actually, the funniest part of the evening was when Calleigh commented on the slowness of the evening, "Why are these people so lazy?  Why don't they just bring us our food??"  Apparently in her mind, the wait staff were all just sitting in the back with their feet up.  Later that evening, Ron and Elaine picked Duncan up at the airport who flew in so he wouldn't miss any work.

Okay, so I'm thinking lentils don't photograph that well but this was my plate with a two day old serving and it was just as good as the first time.  I'll be dreaming about it for years to come.  Unfortunately it's not a regular menu item so I can't just go to their website and find it.

Chilling in our hotel room.  We had a lovely 2-bedroom suite.

Heading off to the rehearsal dinner which Chuck and Angie said served as a method of birth control.  But seriously, they are really great with the kids.

Yesterday we spent time with Angie (whom Aubree called "Tangie" most of the time), Duncan's sister, and her husband Chuck.  We all hung out for awhile at a nice park/playground nearby until it started sprinkling.  The wedding was at 5:30 in a church in Petersburg used during the Civil War.  It was very old (obviously) but very beautiful.  The girls behaved well during the ceremony but Brady kept making his happy sounds which became just a little distracting and he had to be escorted out by Duncan.  The reception was at another charming, old building in Richmond.  Brady had a nap between the two venues so he was thankfully in a better mood than the previous night and we stayed at until about 9:30.  Now, being the fairly conservative SDA that I am, I'm not a dancer.  But that being said, this was a non-SDA wedding and thus, there was dance floor at the reception.  A few people danced a little and then the floor cleared.  Well, "Dancing Queen" started playing the girls took it upon themselves to get things started back up and without any prompting they went to the middle of the floor and started ballroom dancing.  Calleigh was twirling Aubree, they did interlocking fingers, etc, etc.  They were just having the time of their lives and I think so were many of the people watching them.  They were pretty cute if I do say so with their matching dresses and utter joy on their faces.  We finally had to drag them away with the promise of eating some items out of their goodie bags of candy (apparently this is now the "rage" at wedding receptions these days).  Things weren't so rosy when we got home because Brady fell asleep the last few minutes of the way home and then refused to go back to sleep once he was in his pack and play.  That was like a 1.5 hour ordeal but Duncan finally did some sort of "baby whisperer" shenanigans and got him to sleep.

Recharging for the reception.

 

Waiting to be seated at the reception.

The lovely bride and groom, Meagen and Adam. 

This morning Duncan left early to fly home.  All the direct flights back to Orlando leave in the morning so we were sad to see him go.  We had the whole day free so we all headed to the Richmond Children's Museum. It's nowhere near the size of the one in Boston but I thought it was quite good nevertheless (and probably half the price at $8).  Ron, Elaine, Angie, Chuck, and Jack (Ron's sister Trish's husband) went with us but then eventually branched off to the Science Museum next door.  So the kids and I hung out at our museum all afternoon until closing at 5:00.  Brady clearly missed his afternoon nap but took a short one in his stroller, at long last.  The girls had a really good time which always makes me very happy!  One amusing thing from Calleigh was when they were playing in this ambulance with a 7-year old girl.  Calleigh reported to me that the girl told her to go and get the doctor's kit from this boy nearby to which Calleigh said she wouldn't do it because it wouldn't be nice to take it from him.  Calleigh retold this tale to me several times.  Finally, as we pulled back into the hotel from supper she says to me, quite incredulously, "I just can't believe that an older kid wouldn't know that it's not nice to take something from someone but us 4-year olds do."  Oh Calleigh, you are just getting too wise but yet....not.

Calleigh shows off her mad hula hooping skills.

Carousel ride with Uncle Chuck

A break for lunch at the Science Museum Cafe.

Hanging out in the back of the ambulance

The girls really wanted to do the news but this kid kept hogging it.  Look at Aubree.

It was finally their chance but Aubs couldn't quite pull it together.  

And still trying...

We are here until tomorrow afternoon when we board the Amtrak AutoTrain for home (actually, to a little town called Sanford that you might have heard of recently).  It's a 17.5 hour ride and we'll arrive at 9:30 am.  Elaine thought it would be a neat experience for the girls and will save us from having to drive.  Hopefully Brady will cooperate!

I'm sure other stuff happened last week but my recollection of it all is rather foggy at this point.  I know we went to twins second birthday party last Sunday which was held at the clubhouse in Allen and Tangie's neighborhood.  Afterwards we did a little house hunting in said neighborhood.  This is going to be a very tough decision, to say the least.  Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry joined us for that and then came to our place afterwards to watch Game 6 of the Bruins/Capitals game.  That did end well in a real OT nail bitter but of course, it all ended poorly a few days later when the Bruins lost game 7.  Oh well.  I can't really complain since they just won the cup last year.

Birthday party.  Duncan is supposed to be giving me the pictures of Maddy and Kohlden.  

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa's neighbor kids.  Natalie is seven and could give Calleigh a run for the money in the talking department.  The little brother, Kevin, is three so it's the same age difference as Calleigh and Brady.  At one point, Kevin interrupted something Natalie was saying and she told "Now Kevin, that is just rude."  I can so see Calleigh doing that.

Jennifer had us over to paint cookies which the girls enjoyed eating.  They also painted some ceramic figurines.  Just before we were to head home, Aubree pulls hers out of a napkin and says "Now can I eat it?" and starts to take a bite.  Oh, Aubs!  Devastating.  

Duncan was actually gone from Monday morning to late Wednesday evening out to Cupertino, CA where he went, drum roll please, to Apple headquarters.  It was a business trip for the hospital but his arm didn't exactly have to be twisted to get him out there.  All went well.

That's about it on the recap on our activities.  On the Brady front, he's now waving although I think he's probably been doing that for awhile and I haven't mentioned it.

A couple of more quotes before I close:

• Our hotel provides a free breakfast and we were enjoying it the first morning when we noticed about a dozen men and a woman garbed in military attire (Navy?).  This obviously grabbed the girls' attention so I explained that these were the people who protected our country.  Calleigh quite seriously looked at me and said "Well, I think it would probably take more than this."  
• We were at the same place this morning and the lady who is in charge of the breakfast is this really sweet middle aged Asian lady who, granted, does speak with a rather heavy accent.  She came over to our table and asked Brady's name and started talking to him.  After a minute or two (during which time I did have a bit of a challenge understanding what she was saying to him), Calleigh very clearly says "Oh, I hate it when people don't speak English."  My face, I'm sure, turned all shades of red but it appeared the lady was too busy talking to Brady to notice.  Kids!
• This isn't really a funny statement per se from Aubree but I wanted to write it down.  Duncan started calling her his "Fitbit" named after our little pedometer gizmo.  Every time he calls her that, she emphatically states, with a little smile on her face, "I'm not a Fitbit, I'm a person."  With her little girl voice, it's so cute.  Even though she puts up a little stink about it, I know she secretly likes it.  We were waiting outside our house one day as Duncan pulled in from work and I could hear Aubree muttering to herself, "He's probably going to call me Fitbit."  

Have a great week!