Last night, Jack shared a hilarious essay. I read it and laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe. Then I found a video of the author, Ian Frazier, reading it out loud, and I laughed until my belly ached. Tears. Tears of mirth. Ahh, good stuff.
So to all you mothers, parents, or people who have been near children, enjoy. And happy mother’s day!
Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles; Lamentations of the Father by Ian Fraizer (written version here)
PS. My favorite parts were “Laws pertaining to dessert” and “On screaming”
On Easter-eve, Bryan headed out to acquire some munchies for the Easter baskets. I’d some some shopping (for bunny ears, etc. last month one night when I had a shopping urge, and good thing too as I was so sick on Saturday).
Here’s Andrew-the-rabbit.
We kept it pretty simple, with a few jelly beans, some M&Ms, and some (yum) Cadburry mini-eggs (I ate most of the kids mini-eggs when they weren’t looking. Mom prerogative.).
Over the years (all the way back to college), my aunt Kate has sent lots of Easter critters. We’ve got singing ducks and big bunnies and more ducks and more bunnies. Sylvie and Andrew had fun playing with them all this Easter. And I turned my winter tree into a spring tree. I spray painted it white and hung felt eggs from its branches. Cute:)
While it was pretty chilly, we had fun running around in the yard looking for Easter eggs. Andrew was so thoughtful about making sure that Sylvie got the same number that he had. What a sweet brother!
Sylvie samples the contents of the eggs.
Two bunnies go a-hiking.
The cuteness is unbearable. And can I just say how much I l.o.v.e. my camera?!
Sylvie seeking out more eggs. One is still missing. Maybe the bunnies found it:)
Andrew and Sylvia on Easter morn. Those little people make my heart sing.
Run kids, run!
Spring is coming after all! The daffodils are blooming:)
Time to head inside to warm up. These guys did a great job hunting for eggs. What a fun thing to do together:)
We returned home from Dallas-and-other-adventures on Thursday night – late. Sylvia’s pink roller bag was mangled in the valet check, but other than that, we were all safe and sound and happy to be back together again. Here’s a photo of Bryan reading to the kids. Note that Sylvie is wearing a swimming suit over her footie pajamas. Always adding a little flair, that girl:)
So nice to wake up and snuggle in Daddy’s arms.
On Friday afternoon, I started coming down with what turned out to be strep throat. I was woozie and exhausted and achy. Bryan took off Friday afternoon to spend some time with us, and I ended up napping. Then on Saturday morning, I went to Urgent Care for a throat culture and started on antibiotics. While I lay on the couch for 14 hours, Bryan played with the kids. He took them to Kids in the Rotunda to see David Landau; afterwards they went to Indian Buffet. After coming home, they started dying Easter eggs. I staggered forth from my couch-home to photograph the proceedings before re-collapsing in a horizontal position.
I love the colors and the delight of dying eggs. We got a glitter kit this year, so now many of our hard boiled eggs have a fine, sparkly coating. I’m sure it’s edible…
Here’s Sylvie looking a bit too long for her toddler bed. She loses her blankets almost every night, so I switched her to twin-sized sheets and blankets so they tuck in more fully at the bottom. Seems to help with the middle of the night, “MOOOOMMMM, DAAAADD! BLANKETS!! BLANKETS!!!” issue.
We’ve come to the last post in this somewhat epic spring vacation blog posting extravaganza. While I’ll be publishing them one-a-day over the next weeks, I’ve written all 12 in one day. A day that involved me sitting on the sofa for about 12 hours. I’m nursing my sore throat and my woozy head. Step, strep, be gone!
But you’re reading this sometime in May, and hopefully we are all healthy again.
This was my second visit to the Dallas World Aquarium. My first was with Bryan back in December 2009 (post and photos here). On Thursday morning, we packed up our things at Kirk and Sue’s house and took our rental car (a very snazzy red Chevy Cruze) to the train station where we caught the DART downtown. The kids really enjoyed being on the train. What an adventure! When we got to the aquarium, Sylvia wanted to see the sloth and Andrew wanted to see the toucans.
Here’s the sleepy sloth.
And here they got to feed the toucans blueberries!
Unfortunately, the stopping of the blueberry feeding resulted in a 20 minute tantrum from my dear daughter.
Eventually, I walked away and photographed this giant otter.
Andrew helped her recover (holding her face in his hands and trying to make her laugh). And off we headed to check out more wildlife. Here, the kids are checking out some big lizards.
This aquarium is incredible. It’s as much a zoo as an aquarium, and I love how their exhibits have you wander through ecosystems. Makes it feel like you’re in the jungle as the birds fly over head.
My favorite creature of the trip was this octopus, who was swimming/crawling across the tank. Seeing all those suckers work in harmony was really quite stunning!
Due to more tantruming, we made a quick exit from the aquarium and caught the train back up to Plano. From there, we drove up to Frisco, where we got to see Melanie’s Curves in its new location.
Andrew was having a blast using the stretching apparatus as a jungle gym.
Here’s Mel at her Curves!
The kids wanted to have lunch at Indian Buffet, so Melanie directed us to one nearby. After stuffing ourselves (is it possible to not stuff one’s self at an Indian Buffet?), we headed over to a great playground before we needed to zip back to the airport to return the rental car and catch our 5:30pm flight.
The kids got some good pre-traveling running around time.
More importantly, we all got a little more play-with-Melanie time!
The kids sure did like this tire swing!
The rental car got returned without a hitch, but our flights were delayed. It looked somewhat unlikely that we’d make our connection in Chicago, but we did! The flight out of Chicago was actually delayed for an hour or so, but the kids did wonderfully. They played London Bridges and Ring Around the Rosie and a little small-space tag. Andrew read to Sylvia, we dolled out the candy from Kirk and Sue, and everyone stayed happy.
And when we got home, Bryan and Terry met us at the airport! It felt so nice to be home again:) Sylvia’s bag had a rather fatal mishap in the valet check, but nothing besides the bag itself was damaged.
What a lot of great visiting! The kitties are happy to have me home again. And I’m so glad to have all these photos and memories of my trip. Thanks to Granny and Grandad for taking the kids for the week so I could play! Glad to be back home with my husband and kiddos again:)
On Thursday morning, we visited the Dallas aquarium. Andrew really wanted to take pictures, so (while keeping the strap around my neck, and after setting the exposure for him), I let him take the following pictures.
Here’s a very active anaconda.
Andrew decided to take pictures of Sylvia yelling. She’s in the midst of a long, mid-level tantrum. Fortunately, the aquarium was so loud, few people noticed.
Oh, so sad! Good focusing, Andrew!
Here’s Andrew’s picture of the manatees.
And here’s his picture of a giant crab. This thing was about the size of Sylvia!
One last one…I didn’t get to adjust the exposure on this one for him. The incredible Mundo Maya shark and ray tunnel.
Pretty cool that my boy is interested in taking photos! Maybe I’ll set him up with my point and shoot and we can go on photo safaris together soon:)
The plan was to pick up the kids at the airport on Wednesday and then to fly back to Madison. That was the plan. Didn’t quite work out that way, though.
On Wednesday, I flew in to Dallas from DC, and LuAnn drove the kids up to Dallas from College Station. It was so fun to greet them at our gate! Being apart from them for a week got me to a place where I really kinda missed them. It’s nice to be apart sometimes so you appreciate when you’re together:)
Here were a few photos I took before we got on the plane to fly to Madison.
Siblings mugging for the camera. Sylvia loves looking at this sequence.
Our flight was delayed almost an hour (pilot was missing), so we headed over to the kids area to play.
Andrew’s walking the plank.
After we got on the plane, we waited another 45 minutes, and then they pulled us off and canceled the flight because a co-pilot couldn’t be found.
I scrambled a little, got vouchers for meals and hotel, checked in with Melanie (who lives north of Dallas) and my uncle and aunt (who also live north of Dallas). We got a rental car, and drove up to Plano where we enjoyed supper and some evening dress-up time at Kirk and Sue’s house. Kirk hadn’t seen Andrew since he was a baby, and Sue had never met either of them. The kids were mighty smitten with Kirk and Sue’s generosity. They loved playing King and Queen (or Princess) after dressing up in Aunt Sue’s costume jewelry and scarves.
Sue put together some treat bags for the kids to take home, and we dolled out the candy over the course of our long flight home the next day. Andrew noted several times after our visit how much he enjoyed talking with Kirk and Sue. Thanks, guys, for putting us up for the night on such short notice. It was a lot of fun to spend the evening together.
A friend of mine from high school 4H Drama Company works for President Obama. I haven’t seen Missy (now more dignified known as Melissa) since we were about 16. So that’s like 17 years. Thanks to Facebook, we reconnected last year. She had lunch with Joe when he first came to DC, and on Tuesday night, Joe invited her over for supper. She in turn, invited us on a tour of the West Wing of the White House. Holy cow, YES! So after a great evening spent reconnecting, we drove downtown, went through multiple layers of security, and got to peer around the halls where our country is run.
Here’s a little background on the West Wing (source site):
President Theodore Roosevelt had a “temporary” office building constructed in 1902 to separate his office from the living quarters, where his wife and six children lived. Until then, what is now the Treaty Room on the second floor of the White House was at various times the Cabinet Room or the President’s Office.
Following a Christmas Eve fire in 1929, renovations and restoration displaced Herbert Hoover for several months while new and improved facilities were built. In 1934 the Oval Office was moved to its current location on the southeast corner, over-looking the Rose Garden. In the 1940’s, the building became known as the “West Wing.”
We entered the West Wing on the ground floor through the foyer on the west.
No photography was allowed in the West Wing, so in order to give you a visual tour, I’m using photos found elsewhere (click on the images to see their home). In most cases, things the rooms look just like we saw them…with the major exception that there were not heads of state working while we were touring!
After going through a final level of security, we got to walk through the lobby (shown here with Pres. Obama, who was not in fact in the building when we were visiting).
We took a peek into the Navy Mess, saw the door to the Situation Room, and headed past the photo offices to the stairwell to the second floor.
From the White House Mueum website
While we saw the door to the Situation Room, the tour didn’t extend there. However, I found a nice video tour if you’re interested!
The walls are bedecked with photos of the president by the amazing photojournalist Pete Souza. You can see many of these images on the White House Flickr stream. What I wouldn’t give to work with and learn from Mr. Souza! I’m amazed at the crispness with which he can capture emotion and connections on the fly. Speaking of which, I also admire photographer Callie Shell, who photographed Obama in the days leading up to the 2008 election.
Here’s a picture showing the stairway with similar photos from Pres. Bush’s term.
On the second floor (click for a larger version), we came up the stairs just to the west of the Cabinet Room.
From there, we walked down the short hallway and looked into the Cabinet Room.
Here’s a video about the Cabinet room. It was so cool to stand in that hall and know that people with such huge decision making powers have stood and sat right there.
A few steps more, and we were gazing into the real Oval Office. It was lit by cove lighting rimming the ceiling, and the effect was one of amazing brightness…almost like it was daylight. This room, full of such history, really took my breath away.
The Resolute Desk
“Every president since Hayes, except Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford has used the desk. It was a present from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the timbers of the Resolute – a British Navy sailing ship.”
“In August 2010, the Oval Office was refurbished for President Obama with striped wallpaper, new sofas, and a mica-clad coffee table. An oval rug features the presidential seal and historical quotes of meaning to President Obama around the border.”
Norman Rockwell’s painting Statue of Liberty and Frederic Remington’s sculpture Bronco Buster which sit to the right of the president’s desk. The table behind the President’s desk is filled with family photos.
The ceiling is itself a lovely work of art, and features elements of the Seal of the President.
To the left, you can see the Childe Hassam painting Avenue in the Rain (1917) is part of the White House’s own collection, donated during the Kennedy administration.
We were peeking in the room through the door shown on the left. The door on the right leads to the President’s secretary and then back to the Cabinet Room. Above the fire place hangs a portrait of George Washington. On the tables on the back left and right are busts of Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln.
Instead of a vase of flowers, Pres. Obama has decided to keep a bowl of apples.
Here’s a little online tour I found of the Oval Office.
Directly across the hallway from the Oval Office is the Roosevelt Room. Since the Cabinet Room is only used for meeting of the Cabinet, the Roosevelt Room is used for most other larger meetings. We stood where this photo was taken. The flags represent (from left to right) the USA, the Office of the President, and then the different branches of the military in order of when they were created. The banners on each flag indicate how many theaters of war each military branch has been in.
And another view. The door to the right leads to the corridor looking at the Oval Office.
Down the hall to the lobby is a large, three-part Norman Rockwell painting called So You Want to See the President from 1943. So detailed and fascinating!
Then we got to look around the main lobby. Neat to think of all the people who have passed through that way. One thing that made my heart my heart go pitter pat was learning that George Clooney has sat in this lobby. Be still my shaky knees!
Here we’re exiting out the main lobby doors. This is probably where most high-clearance personnel enter the West Wing.
Just outside the foyer shown above, we posed for some photos (since we were now in a photography-approved zone). Here’s me and Joe.
And here’s my friend and our guide, Melissa!
After touring the West Wing, Missy took us to see her office in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
It was about 10pm by this time…
Here’s the sign on her door.
And here’s the girl herself, hard at work. She runs the White House Intern program, and it sounds like it’s a great job that requires some kinda crazy hours:)
Missy, thank you for this incredible experience. More than that the tour, though, I’m just glad to have had the opportunity to spend a little time together again. Birthday Buddy, you’re one fun and cool person. Cheers to you!
I was so glad to get the opportunity to spend an evening with Heather and Michael and Evelyn! The timing of my trip happened to coincide with a conference Heather was attending, and it seemed at first that we were only going to get to wave at each other for a moment during my time in DC. However, her Monday evening freed up, and after meeting up with her at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, we drove back to her home in Takoma Park. From there, we took her pooch, Pippin, for a walk by Sligo Creek.
I, of course, brought my camera. And I captured some fun images of her in this blooming, anticipating time. She’s got two babies in that belly – a boy and a girl. They’re growing healthy and big. She’s 32 weeks now, so she’s got 6 more weeks to go!
View from above…
Pippin was enjoying playing fetch with his stick.
Such an intent, energetic dog:)
Heather amidst the pink dogwood blossoms.
Evie’s birthday was coming up (it’s April 23rd), and here she’s dialing her placemat to tell her how many days are left until her special day.
Heather and Michael are part of a dinner co-op with several other families. On Mondays, they deliver dinner to the other families, and other nights of the week, dinner is delivered to them. It’s been going strong for a couple years now! Tonight was their night to cook, and they made up a delicious verde chicken dish. When we were done eating, we slipped into the back yard to get some family photos before the sun set.
Love this one of my friends!
Here’s what Evie did when I asked her to go give her mom a hug and then to turn around to look at me. Silly chicken!
Joe was throwing the frisbee for Pippin, which kept him happy as a clam. He’s sure to miss these guys when they move to Indiana this summer!
Evie – still Two but almost Three – running in her yard.
Silly dog looking for his sick.
Evie’s view from the slide.
She’s just about the most angelic little girl I’ve ever seen. Her eyes are so wide and knowing, it’s amazing.
Those babies are moving in there!
It’s so wonderful to see dear friends living their dreams. They’ve experienced such sadness with the loss of their son Allan. And that doesn’t really go away. With a beautiful daughter, new jobs and a greatly expanding family, Heather and Michael are zooming toward a bright, rich unknown.
While I was in Washington DC, I once again visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Heather’s post-doctoral work has been with the Smithsonian Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, and she’s had offices at both the Natural History Museum and at the National Zoo.
There was a long, long line to get into the zoo.
It was fun to photograph some of the exhibits, knowing that Andrew and Sylvia would enjoy seeing them when I got home.
The oceans exhibit is simply stunning.
I really enjoyed a new exhibit where people have crocheted a coral reef. Fascinating conflagration of fiber arts, mathematics, and marine biology (to name a few).
One of the women who spearheads this hyperbolic coral reef project gave a TED talk. So very interesting!
This totem really caught my eye…
Since Andrew and Sylvie weren’t with me, I got to visit the gem and mineral exhibits this time.
I was surprised to see a large concretion on display.
In Wisconsin, on Highway 14, just outside of Arena, I once visited a bizarre concretion museum (see article here). The rocks were no where near the size of this beauty, but it was an interesting thing to discover it here!
One of the exhibits I enjoyed most was a Nature’s Best Photography Awards. The following images were displayed in huge wall prints. It was humbling and inspiring and invigorating to see some of the amazing scenes nature photographers have captured. And I so enjoyed the fact that I was by myself, so I could wander the exhibit at my leisure.
I met up with Heather at the end of her work day. She’s due with twins – a boy and a girl in about six weeks. Amazing! So fun to see her:)
She and Michael have had a rather extraordinary last few months. In addition to the twins pregnancy and life with their now-three-year-old, Evie, they both secured tenure-track professorships at a liberal arts college in Indiana.
So starting in August, Professors Heather and Michael will be heading to Richmond, Indiana (that’s on the south east border of Indiana, about 7 1/2 hours from Madison). Heather will be the school’s natural history museum director where she’ll be:
managing the museum’s collections,
raising funds for continuous museum improvements,
maintaining an active research career involving undergraduates,
supervising student workers at the museum,
teaching one course per year, and
providing educational experiences for students both on campus and in the Richmond community.
(that’s according to the job description I found online)
Michael will be working as a half-time professor in the Physics Department. He’ll be teaching one class this fall and one in the spring, and his job should grow and perhaps expand in future years. Evie may be attending the on-campus preschool, and their dog Pippin should get to go into work with them!
So many congrats to the Drs. Lerner for this major accomplishment. Looking forward to visiting you guys in Indiana!
I arrived in DC late on Sunday night. Joe met me at the airport, and we took the Metro back to his apartment. He’s living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, within walking distance to the Capitol. In the map below, Joe’s home is the red marker, and the capitol building is surrounded by green on the left (click for a larger version).
So neat to get to see Joe’s home. His first post-college digs.
Joe is a research associate with a non-profit called Taxpayers for Common Sense. His organization is a non-partisan budget watchdog group, and Joe’s been focusing on energy and natural resources policy. Here’s an example of a write-up he’s done🙂
Joe lives with two roommates from Bowdoin. One is working for a public polling firm and the other for the Justice Department. Thanks for making me feel welcome, guys!
On Monday, Joe headed in to work, and I wandered around his beautiful neighborhood, photographing the flowers and the houses.
I already posted many of the photos from my walk-about on Earth Day. You can see them here.
Here’s Joe’s apartment building.
Their place is on the second floor. They have a two-story high ceiling in the living room, two bedrooms upstairs, and one bedroom downstairs. Joe and his roommates are about the cleanest 20-somethings I’ve ever met!
Looking down the street. The flowers and beautiful trees help, but I kept thinking about what an amazingly beautiful place they live. There were kids playing in yards and people out gardening as I walked around. I didn’t know that areas so close to the Capitol and Mall could be so very residential!
I joined Joe for a yummy lunch of empanadas and tamales along with a great drink called Horchata.
Here I’m in the Eastern Market metro stop – being a tourist, taking pictures.
Here comes a train!
I emerged from the Metro at the Smithsonian stop. First, I headed down to the Holocaust Museum. Unfortunately, the permanent exhibition was sold out for the day. I was, however, quite moved by two of the special exhibits – one on the power of Nazi propaganda and one called Remember the Children.
From the Holocaust Museum, I walked across the Mall over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Pregnant-with-twins-Heather was at a conference, and I was planning to meet her at the end of her work day. That, however, is a topic for another blog post or two.
How luxuriant to wonder around a beautiful town and photograph or do whatever strikes my fancy!
Since it was spring break (the week before Easter too), the Mall was teaming with school groups. It was actually quite remarkable to me how many people were pouring in and out of the museums.
I enjoyed the Wilard tea blend along with the following. Is there no better idea than afternoon tea? What a divine way to spend some of the afternoon. Especially when it’s with good friends:)
Here’s Grace and me before parting ways. We’re going to see her in July when she and Tim and John come out to visit. Already, I can’t wait!
One thing I missed doing was trying a Nutella latte. Ahh, well, maybe next time. The coffee shop, Pound, serves a specially concocted Nutella latte with Kickapoo Coffee (from Viroqua, WI)! They are just a few doors down from Joe’s office at Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Here’s me and Joe the morning of my departure. First a couple out takes and then the nice picture.
Thanks Joe, Joe’s roommates, and Grace for such a nice time!
