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."

Road Trip Trouble and an Anniversary

So after spending so much time the night before we left packing, we still got a little bit of a late start for our road trip to Virginia. But we left, eventually, about an hour late. We gave our selves some cushion and weren't too worried about being late to Brock's big cardiology appointment in Duluth. On the way, we called the hospital to ask for specific directions. And we were given bad directions. So we got lost in Duluth, and ended up being about 30 minutes late. I should have realized that maybe this was an omen of things to come. The Clinic was super nice about us being late, and the check-up went really well. Brock's heart is doing better, and they are hoping that as he grows his heart will continue to get better. He is supposed to have another big check-up in 6 months. This is great news, much better than the every month or so that we have been doing. After the appointment with the cardiologist I was ready to get on the road.

But Kasey remembered that her ring had a bent prong and that I had bought the ring in Duluth. So she wanted me to take it in to get fixed. So we drove back across town and got the ring fixed. Then Kasey wanted to buy some fruit and healthy snacks for the road trip. After we finally got on the road, we were 3-4 hours behind my previously assumed schedule.

We told Ady that we were going to visit Aunt Melanie. Back in July, Melanie had invited Ady to come visit her in Virginia and Ady was really excited to go see her. She asked about every 17 minutes if we were at Melanie's house yet. Every time we stopped to get gas, she asked if we were at Melanie's house. When we stopped to change a diaper, she asked if this was Melanie's house. Every once in a while, probably about every 32 minutes, she would ask if we were still on our way to Melanie's house. After driving for several hours we finally got across Wisconsin and everyone but me was asleep. I was getting very tired and saw a sign for a 30 dollar a night motel. So I decided to pull over and we got a room. Ady looked at the motel with a somewhat worried look and asked if we were still planning on going to Melanie's house.

The next morning we got stuck in traffic for a while in Chicago and it was late afternoon by the time we made it to Indianapolis. Things were going along okay, we were behind schedule, but still okay. And then Ady said, "I need go potty". I looked up and there was an exit with a service station. I was just getting ready to take off the cruise control, when all of the sudden, we had a problem. My dash lit up with warning lights, and my power was reduced. So I kinda coasted down the off-ramp and Kasey took Ady to the potty while I looked at the vehicle. The ABS light, the service engine light, the 4 wheel high, and the maintenance needed lights on. I'm definitely not much of a car mechanic. But I am a guy, so I know the usual drill of at least pretending like things are under control and I know what I am doing. I popped the hood, checked the bearings for heat, felt along the axel joints, sniffed around for burnt smells, checked the oil and even checked the tire pressure. Just like I expected all those things were fine and of course I still didn't have a clue what might be wrong. So I got out the trusted owners manual and looked up what each of the lights mean.

I couldn't remember which lights had come on so I started the car back up. It fired up just fine, and what do you know, no lights were on and the vehicle sounded fine. I decided that maybe we had just hit a bump and had some electrical fluke thing happened. We put the kids back in the car and away we went. A couple hours later, just after 6 pm when everything is closed. It happened again. This time, the lights stayed on and we the car was most definitely not running correctly. The owners manual was very clear on what the one light meant. It meant that the vehicle had gone into "limp home mode". Sure enough the vehicle wouldn't go very fast, had almost no acceleration and we were "limping" along. We were in the Columbus Ohio area and had to get another motel while we waited for a car mechanic shop to open in the morning.

Kasey handles these sort of things fairly well. Me, not so well. Actually, not well at all. My guess was that we had some computer or electrical problem and I was sure that it would be a couple thousand dollars. A couple thousand dollars that we don't have. And then I have to pay 50 bucks for a motel room that we hadn't budgeted for. So instead of getting to Virginia late that night we found ourselves entertaining Ady by playing with the Thomas the Train set at a nearby ToysRus store. When we left the lady at the door said the oddest thing. Fully expecting her to say something like- good night, see you next time, thanks for coming- the "be safe" was somewhat weird. Made me wonder if we were safe.

We had to call 3 Ford dealers before we found one that could look at our Explorer that morning. When we got there, we waited about 2 hours for them to tell us what was wrong. By this time, Ady had either eaten or crumbled and spread all over the couch thing, all the free cookies that they had for customers and I had worn a path on the floor in the waiting area. They told us that we had one of two things wrong, either it was a "simple" and "cheap" 300 dollar rear wheel sensor, or our throttle body needed to be replaced. My eyes were already bugged out with the cheap 300 dollars and then the lady made my stomach hit the floor. They don't have any throttle body parts, and they can't find any anywhere in the U.S. I asked what does that mean, and was informed that if that was the case, they would make us an offer for our vehicle for parts and we could use that towards a purchase of a new vehicle, or we could leave it there for a couple months if need be. My already dismal outlook got decidedly uglier. I told the lady that that wasn't really a good option for us.

She tried to make some small talk and asked what I do for a living. I really wasn't in the mood, and didn't want to get into a complicated long discussion about entrepreneurs and setbacks. So I just said that I'm looking for work. I know that she was just trying to be nice, and that it wasn't her fault that we were in this situation, but the look on her face almost made me feel better. After 7 hours, several tries at various things, a new set of rear wheel sensors, 5 test drives and if we crawled underneath we'd probably see a bunch of duct tape, we were told that they thought we'd make it to Virginia. Just the thing you wait to hear, "you'll probably make it, but if not, we've written down some other things that might be the problem, you this to the next guy". Knowing that the previous quote was 300 dollars, and that other stuff had been done since, I greatly feared finding out what our bill was. I went to ask the lady and she looked around, saw that no one else was around, leaned down and in a near whisper told me that she had given us her employee discount. We still had to pay 250 bucks, but I think that was about half what we should have. Duct tape is expensive you know. We thanked the lady, paid the bill and very nervous and apprehensively got back on the road. We did make it to Virginia a little after midnight. But I haven't dared to move the vehicle from where I parked it. Maybe it was just the rear wheel sensor, who knows, the Ford place doesn't.

After some recovery sleep, we spent the next day with Aunt Melanie walking around the National Mall. I've always wanted to go to D.C. Always wanted to see my Nation's capital. I was very excited to see this place that millions of visitors see every year and is somewhat of the symbol for our great country. So when I came out of the metro station and saw this, it made me a little dissapointed. Dirt walkways, patchy grass-actually very little grass, mostly weeds and a reflection pool that was so dirty, filled with algae moss and bugs I was seriously dissapointed. But then we started exploring and things somewhat improved. We went to the National Natural History Museum and I decided two things: first, Ady goes through a museum very fast, and second, that isn't always a bad thing. There were tons of stuff to look at, but so many people and with so much to see, we needed to move to see it all. So Ady led us on a tour.
This was Ady's favorite, the room with the "three-horn" the "long neck" and the "sharp tooth". Ady would walk up to one of the displays, put her hand on her hip and say "everybody, let me show you this-this is a monster". And then she would say, "let me show you something else" walk to the next display and say "let me show this bad guy-this is a sharp tooth". All through the museum we looked at 3 things. Sharp tooths, monsters and bad guys. Made us laugh pretty good. If it didn't have big teeth, sharp claws or look altogether scary, Ady would walk right by it. She liked the kids discovery area. She especially liked looking through the microscopes at the butterflies.
We walked around a looked at the Washington Monument.
Kasey really liked the Washington Monument. I really liked the Lincoln Memorial.
In addition to wanting to blog about our trip thus far. I also wanted to write a little about what day today is. Today is Kasey and my 6th anniversary. While going through this week and having several hours in the car to drive and think. I was thinking about all the different choices I've had, and all the different ways my life could have gone. I was particularly thinking about all of our ups and downs and how well Kasey handles it all. Kasey has always been very supportive of my dreams and ambitions and I don't know anyone else who would put up with all of this. Most of the time she even seems to enjoy our little adventures and goes along happily. These last few months especially have been volatile and difficult at times. Yet Kasey keeps on going and still supports me in chasing a dream. I don't know of anyone else that would go through this much with me and still be willing to keep smiling. We laugh sometimes because we don't have much in way of possessions. We have moved so much that we never accumulate much of anything. But we have had some great adventures together. And loved having the adventures together. So on this day that we remember our past 6 years, I am looking forward to the future years. Don't know what exactly might be in store, but know that we will have great adventures and be together for them.

Homeless--Again

Tomorrow we leave Minnesota. Not the position we hoped we'd be in right now when we came here 4 months ago. I asked Kasey what she thought about the lack of stability in our lives right now, and her reply was that she is "kinda used to it after the last 6 years." Ouch. Being as we don't know where we are heading next, aren't sure when something is going to happen, or even if something is going to happen makes it too expensive to just continue waiting around. We started packing up and Ady asked why I was packing her toys. I told her that we were moving and would be taking them on a trip. She said, "Oh, we take the toys in the trailer to another place again?" Obviously my family has moved too much. So the question then is where do we go? Well we don't know. We are waiting on another possible deal, but have no idea the if/when thing. Kasey has been wanting to go East and visit her sister Melanie. So I called Melanie and asked if it would be okay if we visited her. She said that would be fine, and wanted to know when and for how long. I asked if it was okay if we came right away, and stayed for "a bit." So that is our new plan, we are going to visit Melanie and Ryan in Virginia. Were not exactly sure how long we will be there. Now I know that some of you may be wondering how that helps us figure out a new game plan or how that prepares us for the next challenge. Well to be honest, it may not. But we decided to go this route for now. We are heading East tomorrow at daybreak. Here are some pics of our last couple weeks in Minnesota.
Ady and Brock sitting on a log with leaves of various colors in the background. And yes, that is Ady's hood. She likes wearing her coats backwards.
This was the view from our living room window two nights ago. Definitely going to miss those views.
And of course, the thing I will miss the most.