B'more Zoo

Our favorite zoo is the National Zoo in DC, and it's free. But we enjoyed seeing the Baltimore Zoo, the kids are a good age for animal watching and they had some fun exhibits that kept the kids engaged and interested.

This has become our favorite family picture ever. Was it worth the money? The ride was two seconds long, and they charged us $5.00 for this Polaroid picture, but yes, I think the memory is worth it.

In the picture below, Elijah insisted on trying to "catch" Elise. The picture caught the two of them in what looks like a loving embrace. However, it was more like Elise sliding into "Home" and Elijah flying across the ground like he was in a martial arts movie.

We got to see polar bears, penguins, a fox, a cheetah, large birds (ostriches) and a rhinoceros. This zoo has some fun exhibits just for kids, like a stranded tour van to watch the polar bears from, Lily pads for jumping on when it gets hot in the summer, turtle shells to climb into and spin, a human sized birds' nest and a clear, underwater tunnel to watch the otters swim. The collage is a synopsis of our day at the zoo.

Goddard Space Center

Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center is only about 30 minutes from DC and is free to enter. We love educational, inexpensive outings!

As you can see, the kids loved dressing up as astronauts and playing in the space shuttle. As they were so cute, Aaron and I now dream that our kids will one day aspire to become astronauts. : )

The center is not very big, but there is plenty of information to occupy your imagination and interest. They had one of those fun plasma globes that looks like tentacles of electricity are following the warmth of your hand. Aaron and I put together a puzzle of the Solar System.

They also have a cool theater. The screen is in the very center of the room in the shape of a suspended globe and the movie revolves around it! Very unique and fun.

A model of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Humble Pie & Pink Eye

So, I am not at church with my good-looking crew due to a good dose of humble pie served to me in the form of bodily afflictions: I have pink eye, and flu-like body aches/fatigue. Isn't it true that good health is never appreciated until it is lost? I feel like a use-less lump. However, Aaron is taking such good care of me and was so sweet to take the kids to church with him today. (Sacrament is a challenge with two of us present.) Doesn't Elijah look just like a mini-version of Aaron today?

I am grateful for my little family, for Aaron for doing all the cooking and chores this weekend. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has protected my kids from getting pink so far and who blesses my family with general good health. I think of those in chronic physical pain and wonder how they are able to endure it.

I'm grateful for the three hours of peace I've had to get some blogging done. : )

Here are some more pictures of Aaron and the kids today:

The Graduate

(May 15th, 2009) George Washington University Campus

It feels more official now that we've witnessed Aaron walk for graduation this past Friday evening. We are so proud of his hard work... it has not been an easy road. He studied hard and persevered until he achieved his degree, all the while striving to provide for our family of four by first working at the Senate and then at his current job at a consulting firm. We are so grateful for his ambitious goals and emphasis on continual learning and education.

I can't stress enough how wonderful it is to have Aley and his family here, to feel of their aloha and love and to know that they are vying for our family's success, as we are theirs. Aley made it known which graduate was ours (grateful I didn't have to make all the noise!) and took great pictures for our memory books.GW is a really impressive campus and it was fun to see all the graduates and their families. We got to see Sarah and Taylor just for a minute, so no pictures unfortunately! Aaron and his classmate, Jason - love the shakas!

Aley also was really nice about helping me with the kids. At one point Elijah knocked our camera off my lap and all the batteries went sprawling everywhere! Aley hunted down each one (there were 4) out from under legs and all. So nice!


Elijah was less than thrilled that he couldn't joined his daddy down on the floor. And in this picture he is not to thrilled about being woken up from his late afternoon car nap. The picture below is before the nap.
Our pretty girl, Elise excited to see her daddy graduate.

Luray Caverns

Luray Caverns is a couple hours drive from here so we made the trek out on Saturday to see them. I succumbed an advertisement on the radio but it was completely worth it! The entrance fee is $21 per adult but children under 6 are free, so it came out to about $10 a person.

The drive was tolerable for the kids - Elijah kept pretending to be angry at us and then changing his frowny face to a smile.

They had a fun audio tour just for the kids and Elise kept parroting the facts for me. I learned so much from listening to her and she so looked forward to the audio cards. "Mom - they said it reach up to the ceiling- 20 feet!" She got a little frightened when they started talking about ghosts but I explained to her that it just looks like Pluto's ghost and that there weren't really ghosts down there. How does she even understand what that is?

This was my favorite part - I believe it was called Mirror lake. At first glance it appears to just be a deep cave with symmetrical pillars. It was really beautiful.

Aaron was sneezing quite a bit when we got down there but it soon cleared up. The air down there is cool and clean. The bedrock cleanses the air so it is about 97% bacteria free.

This rock formation looks uncannily like sunny-side up eggs!
The wishing well gave off an unearthly blue-ish green glow and we learned that it was a chemical reaction of the pennies, rock and water. They fish out all the money once a year and donate the proceeds to various charities and have raised over $600,000.

Me and my girl Elise.
It was about a 1.25 mile walk that was really informative and interesting that our whole family enjoyed. I am always amazed by nature and it's intricate designs - to me it testifies of divine creative design!

3,500 stairs up the Great Wall of China

A marathon is hard enough without adding 3,500 stairs to it! But my sister, Connie is going to be running the Great Wall of China Marathon in a couple of days on May 16th, 2009 which includes crazy stairs in the last four miles (the hardest leg of the race!). She's amazing and she's looking fit & fast (pic below). When she's done all four of us sisters will have completed a marathon each. I think after this we should train and complete a half triathlon together, maybe in Hawaii...
She is running and raising money to support a cause called "Half the Sky." Here's an excerpt from an article she wrote and posted on her blog explaining why they chose this particular charity. (There's also a link on the sidebar.)

"After hours of researching various local charities centered on what we were working on in our lives – helping children and becoming strong, independent women – we chose the Half the Sky Foundation.

According to their website, 95 percent of all healthy children in China’s institutionalized child welfare system are girls, due to the government policy of only one child per family and the traditional preference for boys. The foundation takes its name from an old Chinese saying, “women hold up half the sky.”

The children in these programs are orphans, some with disabilities, others healthy, but most will never be adopted. The focus for this foundation is not the newest facilities or the most high-tech toys; but the loving, family-like environment that so many institutionalized children miss out on. They have programs dedicated to infant nurturing to preparation for higher education.

It was so easy for me to forget how easy I have it in life, striving for self-actualization when all these children want is their basic needs met, and something as simple as a loving embrace.
So why a marathon? A few hours of discomfort on my part won’t change anything, won’t give me any idea of what some of these children have to go through on a daily basis. But maybe it’s a start.

And so I run. Even during the rainy season when my motivation is at its lowest, I pick up my running shoes and head for the door, reminding myself why it’s no longer an option not to. I have to run.

For more information, please visit our website at runningthegreatwall.com. "

Gambatte (Good luck) Connie! We are rooting and praying for your safety and success!

For our Mothers...

We are so grateful for you and love you so much!

(I erased the personal messages to our moms and sisters in this card, so now it's more like a slideshow.)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Buried in the Sand...

we found Mark's legs! Good thing too, as he probably needed those to get home... Actually, this was the before picture.

The kids had so much fun covering Mark up, seriously an hour of fun. Christopher attempted to plant things in the place where Mark's feet used to be...

Christopher found a "plant" to take home and pot. He has a really good mom. I said, "Um, I think that may be a weed..." And she said, "Technically, a weed is a unwanted plant, so if you want it, it's not really a weed." I learned something, well I learn lots of things from Gina. : )Christopher looks so cute with dirt on his nose.
Anna banana actually dislikes bananas, so I better not call her that anymore! She is really cute.

We're so glad the weather is been so delightful and grateful for friends that come over and play!

South beach dieting...

Thanks to the example our good friends, Sarah and Taylor, Aaron and I are giving this method of losing weight a try! We've just completed our first two weeks and have lost 6-8 pounds each. For me that means 11 more to go! I am so glad Aaron decided to do this with me... support is everything in a goal like this. Well, for me anyway.

The first 2 weeks are hard because you can't have any sugar/starches, so that includes all fruit and some vegetables. But there are a lot of tasty recipes. And I am slowly adding fruit back in this week, making sure to check occasionally to see if I'm still losing weight. I did cheat on Mother's Day, but that's another post entirely. Anyway, here are some pictures of what we are eating and what I sent Aaron to work with the first week. (I got lazy the second week. : )

Salad, low-fat cheese sticks, peanuts, tomatos. celery, turkey roll-ups w/ cilatro mayo, lettuce, bell pepper and green onion. Oh, and sugar-free gum. We also found peanuts, Crystal light and Fudgsicles to be huge favorites during the first two weeks.

We ate a lot of eggs, scrambled with bell peppers and onions. Also, egg beaters or boiled eggs.

This is one of my favs: Savory chicke saute with mashed cauliflower. The chicken is sauted with onion, rosemary, and garlic then you pour chicken broth into the pan and scrap up the browned bits. It's so quick and easy!

We were also allowed black beans (I obviously took to much!), but it was yummy with garlic and cumin! And we ate a lot of fish: this is salmon with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper with asparagus and green beans on the side. My friend, Rachel makes an awesome tilapia dish that we've had several times too, but no picture.

Wish us luck! I am determined to lose this annoying weight gained mostly during my 2 pregnancies. It's been too long - 5 years since I got married and started having kids.

If you give Elise a cookie...

She's going to want a glass of milk to go with it. She loves the book and always asks for a glass of milk now, "like the mouse."

Other random pics:

Who dunnit?Our walls get decorated quite often. I am always washing them off. One of our culprits has been autographing her work, so it's not hard to figure out.

For laughs.

This little guy is always finding ways to make me smile.

Shopping at our friends'

Our friends have given us so much I feel like we've been shopping. I write this as a big thank you to our friends, the Harrisons, Browns, Fergusons, Caudles, Woodburys and Holbrooks.

This post goes way back to when the Harrisons and Browns left the east to go back to Hawaii and Utah. I always meant to blog a thank you & tribute, but never got around to it... This picture is from last June when we were the beneficiaries of their generosity when both families left us heaps of boxes of food. We were sad to see them leave yet grateful for their thoughtfulness. Kaelene is quiet dignity, kind, such a good mom, and was a great running partner. Rachelle, I swear reads a book a day (thanks to Goodreads I can see her progress), which I admire, and is such a great example of cherishing her kids' and being so present with them.




We didn't have a chance to know the Fergusons very long, but they were great. They were such a fun couple to be around, very charismatic. They left us a bunch of food too, plus a table and a pretty bathroom cabinet.
Our friends the Caudles, were our faithful temple and date night swap couple. They just moved to Vicksburg, MI and Adam just passed the bar! Yay! We had a great arrangement and we miss them. It was nice to know we could always return the favor if we stayed out late or whatever. I admire Trina's endless list of self improvement goals and her desire to be an active participant in politics and the society in which we live. She is straightfoward in expressing her views, yet I find her pretty tolerant of other points of view.


So this is what we inherited from the Caudles: a TON of classic videos. Anyone who knows us knows we love movies! This collage isn't half the bunch, actually. Thanks, Caudles!


Our other friends, the Woodbury's, just finished law/MBA school and left to go back to Utah. They have been such wonderful friends and were actually the first people to welcome us into the Chevy Chase ward. Sarah is such a generous, thoughtful person and has been an instrument in answering my prayers more than once. I think I wrote about the time I was pregnant, waiting to catch the bus in the RAIN to go to a doctor's appointment, with Elise/stroller/bag in tow. I felt pretty discouraged, but Sarah showed up and gave me a ride to a covered bus stop AND she insisted on watching Elise during my appointments after that too.

Cute buddies, Ethan and Elise.

Each year, when they left to go to Utah, they would stock up our (and other friends') fridge/freezer with all their perishables. This time was no different, and they left us yummy salmon, lean pork chops, frozen chicken breasts. Thanks, Woodburys! We miss you already.
Lastly, Michelle is always giving me such beautiful things, nice clothes, dishes, bags and place mats. I almost feel guilty taking it. The cups and pitcher match the bowls Aaron got me for Mother's Day perfectly and the place mat matches my plates from my mom! Michelle has such great taste, I'll take the things she doesn't want anymore any day! (only a little bit joking.) Love ya, Michelle!