Young at Heart

I heard the other day that the average human moves 11 times in their life. Well, Ady is 3 and she has moved 10 times. And we are probly moving again soon, so I hope she is well above average on this one, and will move a couple more times, cause while I love having the kids, someday she will need to move out on her own. Anyway, with moving so much(and knowing that we will be moving), we really haven't accumulated many things. We yard sell things because it is cheaper to buy them at the new place, rather than packing and transporting them. I hope we are getting closer to finally settling down, and being able to accumulate some things--like a kitchen table, instead of the flimsy card table we are currently using. Yah, that would be nice. But no matter. It just helps us remember that the most important things in life are not things, right?

So, what we do have is what we need and what was packed up in boxes in my parents barn during our time on the islands of Key West and Hawaii. Since we have moved so many times, Adam sometimes wonders why I keep some of the things I do, and I, likewise, wonder why in the world he keeps what he does. Well the other day I was going thru one of my boxes and found this cute Korean Han-bok that I got while I was there serving a mission(and have only kept it 7 years-but well worth it in my opinion.)

Ady fell in love at first sight. She was so excited to wear it to church. She had so many people tell her how pretty her dress was. What was funny though, was that on the walk from sacrament meeting to her primary class, she walked down the hall saying "Ola, Como Esta?" to everyone. She got some pretty funny looks...A girl wearing Asian attire, speaking Spanish. Thank you, Dora the Explorer. I tried to teach her how to say "Hello" in Korean, but "Anyanghashimnikka" is pretty hard to learn, and she couldn't quite get it.

Anyway...I have another funny story from church. We attend the ward where I grew up and Adam told me this after we finished our block meeting when the men and women split to have class. All the adult men were in a combined class and the teacher was asking who was the youngest there. He looked around the room, and saw a guy who was several years younger than Adam or me, and pointed and said he was pretty young, but then he looked around to see if anyone else was younger. Then the following conversation pursues:

Teacher: "Oh, I know who is the youngest, it must be this guy on the back row." He looks at Adam.

Adam(who has Brock sitting on his lap): "Me?"

Teacher: "Yeah, how old are you?"

Adam: "Uhh...29"

Teacher: "Oh(pause), Sorry, I thought you were younger"

Adam(under his breath): I guess its not the worst thing in the world to look younger than I am."

Then the 50ish-year old guy sitting next to Adam says, " I wish I looked that much younger than I am."

This is even funnier since recently it has become very apparent that Adam's hair is thinning and he is convinced that he is going bald. Adam claims he will soon be a fat, old, bald man. So proof that I am right and Adam doesn't have to worry yet about looking 40.

I guess when you have a husband who looks like he is still 18 when he is gonna be hitting the big 3-0 on his next B-day, its not really a bad thing. I guess he'll just have to keep carrying his ID around, especially if he wants to ever drive a rental or BYUH car(but thats another story.)

Well, no matter what one looks like, I think its more important if you still feel "young." And as long as Adam doesn't hurt himself at the local high school's wrestling practice, where he helps out, he is still young enough to play with the kids. Here is Ady making her Dad give her a horse ride--her and her elephant, and her dog, and her doll, and her stuffed horse.

Ady Style

Ady still isn't over Christmas. I am pretty much okay with it, since I like Christmas enough to celebrate it all year if my husband would let me. This morning again, she asked me if Santa came last night. A couple of days ago I came downstairs and Ady informed me that she made a Christmas tree. Here it is.

A stuffed animal & toy collage on top of some blankets on top of a pilates ball on top of a bean bag. I love it that she doesn't need much to do what she wants. (and its probly good for her cuz it fits our current vagabond lifestyle) Its like the saying "The richest man is he who needs the least."

Here is a picture of Brock, too. I can't believe how big he is getting. Ady and Brock love to play with each other.

And now that Christmas is over, I had some time to do a project for us. I embroidered our names on our Stockings!(finally)

I love being able to use my mom's stuff. My Mom and Dad actually took off this week for a business/pleasure trip, so I get to take care of my mom's store, and now that I know how to embroider, I've even been able to do some jobs that came in. Its just been a little inconvienient that Adam is gone the same week for business also, but all in all, we are doing good. Especially since Grandma VT came and helped for a couple days last week. I've always been amazed at how single mothers do it, but once again I am reminded how much being a mother takes if you don't have help! But I've also been reminded how much I love my kids...and my husband.

Growing up fast

We have been wanting to get a family picture taken, but as of yet haven't done so. Kasey even got us an appointment at a studio, but then I had to leave for a business trip the week that we had the appointment. But before leaving, I decided to take pictures of the kids to show how big they are getting, and how great they look. We asked them to stand by a wall that is blank and hold hands. So this is what we got at first.
Ady wanted to "help" Brock. We kept trying to get her to just let him be. But no, she wanted to hold both his hands and help him stand.

After some love unfeigned and gentle persuasion(commonly called threatening, bribery and pleading) we got her to let go of one of his hands. Of course Ady decides not to smile.

So then we get Ady happy again and she starts grinning and I take the picture and not only does Ady open her mouth, but then Brock decides to not smile. Come on kids, all I want is one nice smiling picture.
So in the end this is what we ended up with. Aren't they good looking kids!? And here is one of Brock by himself. When we got done he just kept standing there smiling so I took an extra one of him without Ady helping/harassing him.

The Last Couple Weeks

Lately is seems that our life has been filled with shoveling snow, making t-shirts, and cleaning up after two very messy kids. A couple of days ago I told Ady that she had to clean her room. She wanted to watch the Tinkerbell movie, so I told her she could watch when her room was clean. She got this funny look where her eyes get real big, opens her mouth and looks at me like I just asked her to turn into a baboon. "The whole room!?" "Do I have to clean it all by myself?" I told her that she made the mess and that I am tired of picking up her toys and clothes so yes she had to do it all by herself. We went up to her room and I got the box for her legos, the hamper box thing, and the toy box. I got a chair, put the boxes by me, and told her to put the correct items in their boxes. I've never seen anything so ridiculous. Ady would grab one lego and walk it over to the box. Then she would grab one sock, or one toy and put the item in its box. Sometimes she would grab two legos, but then she had to stick them together walk the 5 steps across the room, take them back apart and put them in the box one at a time. Took one hour and 7 minutes to do a job that should have taken less than 10 minutes.

I am tired of winter. I hate shoveling snow and miss winters in Hawaii and Florida. I for one can't wait for winter to be over.

Kasey loves working over at her mom's store. She has been learning how to use the embroidery machines and working with vinyl. I'm starting to worry that she is going to want to buy an embroidery or vinyl machine of her own soon.

Brock is all over the place. He has figured out how to climb up stairs and loves to climb up the stairs and then whine till we go up, get him, and bring him back down so that he can do it all over again. Brock can stand on his own now for a couple of seconds and we are worried that he will be walking soon.

Ady loves being in the sunbeam class for primary at church. Every night we try to sing a song with her before she goes to bed. We usually let her pick the song to sing. But lately she only asks for two songs, the Sunbeam song and Rudolph. I've tried explaining to her that it isn't Christmas time, but she doesn't care.
We have managed to find time to just relax and play around. Recently we got a couple of new Wii games. I bought Kasey the Super Mario Bros All-Star game for Christmas. And I had a Cabelas coupon and after combining it with a gift card from Melanie and Ryan, was able to buy the Cabelas Dangerous Hunts 2011 for 11 dollars. Kasey has decided that it is a pretty sweet game and we go on hunting safaris together. As you can see, Brock likes to hang out and watch with us. Tomorrow I am leaving for Cincinnati where I will be attending the 2011 outdoor expo and boat show. Then the following week I will be in Chicago for a business meeting and the outdoor expo there. I'm pretty excited for the shows and having several days to check out all the new gear and boats that will be on display!

Christmas Activities

I had the best Christmas that I can remember in a long time. Ady woke up and the first thing she said was, "did Santa come?" Grandma and Grandpa Van Tassell came to visit late Christmas Eve and Ady got to open her presents with both Grandparents watching. For several weeks now Ady had been asking for a red present from Santa Claus. Well, the jolly old man came through for her, both Ady and Brock got a red present from Santa.
No, those are not all Brock's and Ady's presents. We all went over to Grandpa and Grandma Haddock's to open presents. Grandma and Grandpa Van Tassell happened to wrap Ady's presents in red and Ady thought that she had died and gone to heaven. She got 3 red presents! here she is in this photo holding a couple of them. She didn't want to put down her presents.
The look on Ady's face when she opened her present from Santa was spectacular. She yelled out, "Look, a lego train and it has Toy Story too!"Brock was mostly just interested in climbing on the packages. Ady then handed out presents to both Grandparents, her mom and me, and to Blake and Leslie. And of course, Ady wanted to help, (ie. do it all herself), everyone unwrap their presents.
This is what Kasey and I made for our parents. Kasey thinks that people have a hard time remembering everyone's birthdays. If you didn't know Kasey thinks that birthdays are a personal holiday and is second only to Christmas. Kasey found a picture of a birthday calendar online and thought we could "easily" make one. Ended up being not nearly as easy as she predicted.
We have had quite a bit of snow this past week. And everytime we get new snow Ady wants to build a snowman. Sometimes she wants to build other things too. Like a dragon or turtle. The other day she wanted to build a sea horse in the snow. I told her to go and ask Blake to help her. So she did.
We went up to Bear Lake the day after Christmas with Kasey's parents and visited Kasey's grandpa. We also took Ady sledding. She had soooo much fun.
Ady rode down the hill the first few times with either Kasey or me. But then she wanted to do it all by herself. She would laugh and giggle the whole way down the hill. We were laughing pretty hard just watching her.
Today I decided to give Brock a hair cut. He had 3 inch hair in some places and not much in others. It was a pain to get him to hold still. He loves chewing on "his" toothbrush, but even that wouldn't keep him still. Kasey ended up restraining him while I buzzed his head.

Christmas fun

We have this village Christmas set that Kasey and I bought in an after Christmas sale our first Christmas. It has been in a box and hasn't been seen since then. So this year we decided to get it out. The kids love it. Ady likes to re-arrange, on a nearly hourly basis, the villagers and trees. And Brock loves to shred the fuzzy stuff that is supposed to be snow. If you look closely you will see that there are tress in the middle of the road, a cow out by the road and shredded fuzzy stuff all over the floor.

Santa

Last weekend the town had a Christmas celebration and we took the kids to see Santa. Ady was so excited, she kept telling us that she loves Santa. Kasey invited her mom to come along and we thought that we'd be able to snap a picture of the kids with Jolly Old Saint Nick. As you can see, Brock did not want to be jolly for the picture. Brock is at that stage where he only wants mom or dad. Usually only mom. Even the candy cane couldn't get a smile out of him.
Even though Brock didn't enjoy his meeting with Santa, Ady loved it. Before we went we rehearsed with Ady a conversation with Santa. We practiced asking her if she had been good, and what she wanted for Christmas. Well sure enough, Santa asked her the questions and do you know what her response was? She told Santa she wanted a red present. She has since seen Santa two other times since then, and everytime she tells Santa she wants a red present. We told her that we were pretty sure that Santa would get her a red present. The trouble is that the very next day she wanted to know why Santa hadn't brought the red present yet. Seems Ady has some time frame issues.
Ady never seems to stop talking these days. And she has serious issues with volume control. Last Sunday during church she just kept asking questions and talking. When the sacrament was being blessed and passed amongst the congregation I tried really hard to get her to be quiet, or at least quieter. So I sat her on my knee and got out a few pictures of Jesus. As soon as I opened them, she excitedly(in other words very loudly) said "look dad, its Jesus." I reminded her to be quiet and to try to whisper to me. It worked for a brief moment. But then she started asking me if I loved Jesus. I assured her that I do. Then she asked me if mommy loves Jesus, I told her she does. Then she asked me if I wanted to know who she loves. I said "yes, who do you love?" In a very confident and loud voice said, "I love Santa!" I told her that we were looking at pictures of Jesus, not Santa and asked if she loves Jesus. She said yes. And we looked at another picture. Then she asked me why I love Jesus. I told her a brief and short 3 year old type of answer. Then she asked me if I wanted to know why she loves Jesus. I said "yes, please tell me." Ady said, "because Jesus is going to bring me lots of red presents and come down the chimney, and mommy says I have to give him cookies." The lady in front of us couldn't help herself, she started laughing.

Sometimes Ady is very sociably awkward. Bold, usually not shy, but very awkward. She thinks that every kid who is about the same height at her is her friend. Basically that is her only requirement for her to be a friend. So often in the grocery store she will see some kid who we don't know and say "look dad, its my friend." We have become accustomed to this and just nod. The best part is hearing the other parent ask their kid if they know us or Ady. Last night we went to the Christmas party at our church and Ady saw another girl who was about her height. Immediately she pointed and told us that the girl was her friend. I asked her if she knew the girl's name and she said she did not. We told her that maybe she should go over and talk to the girl. So Ady got up and walked over about three tables, stood right next to the girl's chair, leaned over till her face was maybe 3, probably 2 inches away from the other girl's face. And there she stood, watching the girl chew her food. Didn't say anything, didn't move, just stood there waiting for the girl to notice her. Of course the girl noticed, she leaned away a bit, and gave Ady one of those weird looks that could be interpreted a dozen ways, none of them being particularly friendly and tried to ignore Ady. After about a minute Ady left the girl and came back to our table. Kasey and I had found Ady's antics to be far more interesting than the talent show we were supposed to be paying attention to. I asked Ady if she had made a friend, and she said that she had, but she didn't know her name. Finding the program to be vastly less interesting than Ady, I decided to see if we could extend this side show. So I rehearsed how to ask the girl her name and how to introduce oneself. Ady went back over, stood right next to the girl, leaned in close and didn't say anything. The girl's mother had seen the proceedings and told Ady that the other girl's name was Rachel. Without being asked Ady finally got bold enough to say something. Very loudly. And in a guttural, throaty yell said "ADYSON". Of course everyone one around us heard and now we weren't the only ones being entertained. The girl's mother correctly interpreted Ady's outburst to be her name and said something to the effect of, "nice to meet you Adyson". I assumed that Ady would go back to being shy. I was wrong. Ady turned to the mother and in a very loud voice, clear not guttural this time, said "I was baptized". Now, I didn't even know that Ady knew the word baptism. I had seen the picture that Ady had colored and brought home from her nursery primary class last week. It was a picture of a baptism. But I didn't know that she knew the word. Then the girl's mother said, "oh, you've been baptized have you?". Ady said, "yes, in the water". Then Ady turned around and walked back to our table.

Kasey nearly breaks my knee

Kasey has been wanting Ady to join a dance or tumbling class since she was a week old. I kept on insisting that we wait till Ady wanted to join the class. Well Kasey convinced Ady that she wanted to learn to dance and tumble so last week she started her class. The class is about an hour long, half dance and half tumbling. Ady loves it. And so does Kasey. Of course Ady saw the other girls wearing tutus and leotards and thought that she wanted one too. So Kasey bought a leotard and Melanie made Ady a tutu. Ady still has trouble pronouncing certain letters, and she often gets her L's and R's mixed up. So today Ady was wanting to wear her "reotard". This of course caught us a bit off guard and we asked her to repeat herself. This time she was very clear. She wanted to wear her retard. Kasey spent several minutes trying to help Ady say leotard, and sometimes Ady says it correctly, the rest of the time, she wears a retard.

Ady loves the tutu that Melanie made her and wanted to do the dance that she learned while wearing the leotard and tutu. So Melanie got out her camera to record it for all of us. What she didn't expect to catch on video was Kasey's wicked Wii golf swing.

Snowman

We got about a foot of snow in the last 24 hours. As soon as it started snowing Ady wanted to build a snowman. She has never built a snowman before, actually she hasn't been around snow much at all. But her favorite song is a nursery song about a snowman. So I told her that if she waited for today that I would help her build a snowman after church. Of course, I was somewhat expecting and maybe even hoping that the snow wouldn't stay. But it did. And so out we went.
Ady also helped me shovel the walks and driveways. Her way of shoveling is a bit different. She lays her shovel down and using her hands she scoops snow into the shovel. Then she drags the shovel over to the side and calls me over to help her dump it out. I thought we were done being outside in the snow, but Ady found out that her cousins were out next door building more snowmen. So we had to go join them. Ady helped build 2 more snowmen, one snow turtle and enjoyed a snowball fight. She was soaking wet and smiling when we finished. She informed me that tomorrow we have to do it again, but this time, she wants to build a snow dragon not a snowman.

Brock is really getting better at crawling. He still scoots mostly but knows how to get up on his knees and crawl. He has also started to pull himself up and stand. He loves being played with and will laugh and smile if you play with or tickle him. Ady likes to play ring-around-the-rosies and patty-cake with him.

This summer Ady started saying her whole name. We found her to be pretty funny when she would introduce herself as Adyson Van Tassell. She would even shake hands with us and introduce herself. So then my reply would be that I am Dad Van Tassell. She refuses to accept this. She says that Kasey and I are not Van Tassells. I have tried explaining that we have the same last name as her, but to no avail. Well we found this town in Wyoming.
Maybe someday Ady will realize that her and Brock aren't the only Van Tassells out there. Ady said something kind of funny the other day. She had just gone to the bathroom and I asked her if she went potty. Her response was that she had not gone potty, she had gone pee. Well, Kasey has gotten after me several times about watching what I say and do around Ady because she will copy or repeat us. We thought that "potty" is a better term for a 3 year old to use than pee. So I asked her if she had gone poop or potty? She told me that she had gone pee. Obviously I'm not careful enough at times. Trying to figure out how to better explain why we wanted her to say potty not pee I crossed over to the toilet to flush the handle. Looking in I saw that she had indeed pooped. So I turned to her and said, look you went poop and potty too. She looked right at me and said, "no dad, I went poop, pee and potty three".

Signs

I found some "odd" signs recently. I wasn't able to get pictures of all of them, like the billboard in Chicago about Carlos Boozer. But I did take pictures of two of them, and I thought I should share them. Here is the first one.
This is a sign at Ford's Theater, the place where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The sign says that firearms are prohibited. Now, I know that signs like this are in other places also, but I found it somewhat ironic that it was here. Maybe they should have had the sign up some 140 years ago?
I have never seen a parking sign like this. Not a drop off area, it is a "Kiss & Ride".

Why we don't climb on stuff

Ady climbs on everything. Sometimes I swear we spend all day telling her to get off this or that. It doesn't matter; the fence at the zoo, the kitchen table, the back of the couch, me, every rock that is bigger than her, and anything else that seems inviting at the time.

Maybe this time it was partially our fault, obviously Brock was put on the cannonball. We were at Fort McHenry near Baltimore a few weeks ago and as soon as Ady saw Brock on the cannon ball she wanted to climb on the cannon. The funny thing is that I was able to catch what happened next.
She was putting her foot on the cannon and it slipped off and down she falls. Next frame...

The funniest thing about this isn't that she fell. It is that Kasey never moves and is smiling the whole time.

Halloween & Whatnot

For Halloween this year Brock was a bumble bee and Ady was a horse thingy. We went with Nat and Thayne to their ward party and to the mall to go trick-or-treating. Ady was all over the trick-or-treating thing. Ady borrowed a costume from Natalie. Her costume included a hat, but she didn't like wearing it. Basically her costume was a horse with a pair of stuffed human legs on its back so if she stood right it looked like she was riding a horse. At the mall there was a news crew and the camera man must've thought Ady was cute, because he came over and put her on TV. Of course Ady didn't want to say anything except "Giddy-up". We stayed in Buffalo for about a week. And yes, we did go out for Buffalo Wings while we were there. Then we got back on the road and went to Kirtland Ohio.
Previously Kasey and I have been to Nauvoo Illinios, the Palmyra New York area and the Independence Missouri area to see LDS church history sites. But in order to make it to see Wicked in Chicago we drove right past Kirtland in 2007. But not this time. We went and toured a couple of buildings like the Newel K. Whitney store and home. But the neatest thing we saw was by far the Kirtland temple. The tour was exceptional, and the guide was very knowledgeable. Just in case you were wondering, Ady refused to be in this picture.
Before we made it to Buffalo, we visited Will and Emily in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They took us to Hershey and we went to Chocolate World! As you can see in the picture, Audrey and Ady are very excited and are avid chocolate fans.
The day before we went to Gettysburg. The visitor center is extremely informative and interesting at Gettysburg. I think that we all learned so much while we were there. Although Ady was far from quiet while we walked around the cemetery, we gained even more respect for those who made so great a sacrifice for us. Here we are standing in front of the memorial which is placed where they believed President Lincoln stood when he gave the now famous Gettysburg Address. The night before we went to Gettysburg we stayed with my Uncle Dick and Aunt Kathryn.
The day before we went to Gettysburg we visited Philadelphia. It wasn't exactly on our way, but how could one be so close and not go? Liberty Hall was under construction, but was still awesome to visit. The tour was amazing and although usually I make Kasey stand in the photo, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to have my picture taken in the very room where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were signed. What an amazing place to visit! We also at Philly Cheese Steaks, visited Christ's Church, toured the US mint, saw the Liberty Bell, and Walked around Ben Franklin's post office/home/and publishing building.
We were driving somewhere, I honestly don't remember where, and I looked out my window and saw these trees with their leaves and thought it looked pretty cool. Of course, when I pulled over and got out to take a picture Kasey thought I was nuts. Our trip is now over, we are back in Minnesota and tomorrow will be hooking up our trailer for the long drive back to Utah. Should be back in Utah this weekend.

Ady On The Roadtrip

This past year we have had many changes, or at least moments that changed our lives. Business dealings, car wrecks, heart conditions, move(s), graduation, family death(s) and so forth. Occasionally we get asked how we deal with things. Most of the time people just think that we are nuts, and those that don't, probably should. With our decision to hit the road for a while, and to travel the countryside while we wait for some business dealings to be worked out, we have been asked several times how our kids handle everything. Well, being as the question(s) has the term "everything" I'm supposing that different people may have different things that they worry about. But many probably worry about the lack of stability, the regular all day driving, lack of finances and a few other things. So I thought I would answer a few questions if I can. First of all the driving. This should help give you an idea of how Ady deals with it.

We have done a ton of driving. And to be totally honest, sometimes we can get pretty tired of each other. But most of the time, Ady and Brock have been great. They are great troopers and we are all learning how to deal with each other. But my favorite parts of the drives are when they are both asleep. (Kasey's favorite part is when mommy is asleep).
Sometimes we get up really early, like we did this day when we drove to Philadelphia. And then the kids are fortunate and usually end up taking a nap. And we have decided that Brock is easier to carry when they both fall asleep. If you look at Ady's hands, you will see our tickets for the tour of Independence Hall. Everywhere we go, Ady always asks if she can carry the tickets. Problem is that she will occasionally destroy them, and the methods of destruction vary greatly, sometimes lose them or otherwise rend the tickets unusable. So I almost always tell her no. And this makes her very sad. But, as you can see in this photo, occasionally, when I can be absolutely sure that they will be able to be used for their intended purpose, I do allow her to carry the tickets.

Finances-sometimes people worry about us financially, heck we worry about our finances, or lack of. But don't worry too much, no one is going to starve or be forced to run around naked. (It is getting too cold for Brock to just wear a diaper anymore, so he too will be clothed). Ady has learned that she is not made of money. We took a tour of the U.S. Treasury Department Bureau of Printing and Engraving. That is where they print dollar bills. And Ady learned that if she was made up of 100 dollar bills she would be worth 978,000 dollars. Ady is beginning to understand money. If she sees a penny, she will stop and pick it up. Then she brings it to me and asks me to hold it for her. Until recently this hasn't been a problem. But now, she sometimes asks for it back. When we stayed with Melanie and Ryan, Melanie would spoil Ady. She bought things and even took Ady on a carousel ride. Ady now asks for all sorts of things. My response is usually that I don't have any money. So then she will turn and ask for the penny that she found earlier. Usually I just ignore her, but sometimes I try and explain that it takes lots and lots of pennies to buy something or a whole dollar. I hadn't thought much about where this may lead, but today on the way back from church we stopped at a red light. There was a man who was walking up to the windows of all the cars at the red light and asking for a dollar. Being the tightwad that I am, I didn't even roll down my window when he approached our car. However he wasn't detoured and this was the conversation that followed.
Man(yelling at the window):Do you have a dollar?
Me(shaking my head):No.
Man(still yelling):will you give me a dollar?
Me(not looking at him):I shook my head no again.
At this point the man walked to the next car. I assumed the conversation was over. I was wrong.
Ady(in a very excited voice):Dad, I want a dollar, will you give me a dollar?

Stability/structure. We have been told that we aren't highly structured parents. We don't have scheduled nap time, bed time and sometimes scheduled meal time for our kids. We usually say something about our schedule and how we are trying to do the best we can in our situation. Sometimes this response meets some form of approval. As for the stability, well we are trying, and maybe someday we will leave our life of being vagabonds. Kasey and I sometimes wonder how much our moving around affects Ady's concept of home. About a week ago Ady and Aunt Melanie had a conversation that went something like this.
(Ady had been talking about staying at Melanie's house).
Melanie:So Ady, can I come to your house and stay with you sometime?
Ady:No, I don't have a house.
Melanie(laughing a little bit):Oh, well can I come to where you live and visit your home someday?
Ady:I don't know where I live, I don't think I have a home.
I like to think that Ady is learning a valuable lesson that Home is a concept or idea that one works on achieving where ever our family is, not necessarily a location. She does pretty well traveling around with us on our adventures. And as you can see in the picture of her and me in the jail at Fort McHenry, she would probably be happy where ever, as long as she has her family.

Petting Sheep on Vacation

When we go to a Zoo Ady just wants to stay in the petting zoo. I guess it really shouldn't surprise us that at Mount Vernon she "had" to visit the sheep pen 3 times. This time, Brock also wanted to pet the sheep. Like his sister, he has no fear.

Mount Vernon was pretty neat. I wish that they would let you onto the 3rd floor and didn't hurry you through the house so quickly. I enjoyed learning about Washington as a farmer. I hadn't realized how much Washington had contributed to the world outside of politics and war heroics. I was thinking about men like Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson. Not only were they great men in history for their political achievements, but they were also inventors, and some of them were literary geniuses.
We went to the Udvar Air and Space Museum by Dulles Airport. It was neat to see planes and craft such as the Enterprise, Enola Gay, and many others. But this one was Ady's favorite. It was the "sharptooth plane".
We went to the Library of Congress, and it was amazing. Immediately after taking this picture I looked to my left and saw a sign that said "no photography". Oops. Seriously, I didn't know till after taking the picture. In my opinion this building is a top 5 for the D.C. area.

Of course we took a trip to the D.C. temple.
We also took time to go to a masonic temple. This is the George Washington National Masonic Memorial. Very interesting building and lots of neat information of Washington and his masonic history. In my opinion too much of the tour was based on "contrary to Dan Brown's novel" or "unlike what was shown in National Treasure", but still a good tour.
I don't think the tour guide meant to create interest in Dan Brown's books or in the National Treasure movies, but after learning about the Knight's Templar we did go and watch the first National Treasure movie that night.
This is the main great hall and has a big statue of Washington in his masonic robes. The neatest thing about this building was the architecture. The front of the building is built in Greek style, the 9 story central tower is Egyptian style and this hall is Roman.

More vacation

Last night we drove out to Manassas/Bull Run National Battle Site Park. I really liked it. And then afterward we went and visited our good friends from Key West, the Johns. At first Ady and Betty didn't get along, mostly because Ady wasn't being very friendly, but when we left Ady was crying and pouting in the car because she didn't want to leave her new friend. And she didn't like leaving their cat either. However, the cat was probably very glad that Ady left. We didn't intend to be at their place so long, but we spent 5 hours just sitting around talking with them. Good friends are invaluable.

We enjoyed walking around the battlefield and looking at the cannons, old farm houses, and whatnot. But what Ady really liked was the caterpillar that I found for her. "Ooooh, look dad, so soft and nice". She carried the poor critter for about a half mile before I made her put it down. She liked feeling it crawl around, but definitely didn't like it when it pooped on her hand. I finally was able to convince her that the caterpillar had a family and needed to go home. She cried and cried telling me that she wanted to take it home for a pet. She said the caterpillar said that it wanted to be in our family. After the traumatic seperation, Ady pointed out every squirrel, and one praying mantis, and asked me if they also had a family. Yup, they do. Do they have a mommy and daddy like me? Yup. Is this there home? Yup. Are they in the same family as my pet caterpillar? Sure.

This is the stone bridge that was rebuilt shortly after it was destroyed in the battle. This would be where the Union army went across in the retreat. It was this bridge that the fleeing army encountered a turned over carriage from one of the spectators who had come out to view the battle.
Here's Brock enjoying being out in the nice sunshine.
Of course we walked over to where Brigadier General Thomas Jackson made his now famous stand and became immortalized as Stonewall Jackson. I tried to explain to Ady the significance of this part of the battle and a little about Stonewall. Ady stood there looking at me the whole time and when I finished just said, "Ooooh".
Here is Kasey, Ady and Brock standing by the statue of Stonewall Jackson.
We also spend another day wandering around the National Mall. I really liked seeing the Supreme Court building. So far we have been enjoying our little vacation and have really enjoyed seeing some family and friends. Ady and Brock have been good sports about all the running around and long car rides. Ady has provided a bit of amusement with bathrooms. A couple days ago Ady stood with me, in front of the men's restroom screaming that she was not going in to the potty unless the picture on the door had a dress. I almost let her just wet her pants in the hall. Fortunately she is small enough that she can be picked up and plunked down on the potty. However, she learns very quickly. Yesterday, when we were in the visitors center at Manassas Ady announced to everyone in the vicinity that she needed to go potty. The park ranger pointed to the sign and I reached for her hand. Ady said "no, I go by myself." And off she ran. I was able to convince her to go in the one without the dress picture, but she promptly ran into the stall and locked me out. So custodian was cleaning the mirror and seemed to be enjoying listening to Ady tell me that she didn't want me there and she had locked me out. He even liked it better when she said "dad I done pooping, please help me wipe". Of course I stood outside the stall and with a smile said, "no, you locked me out."