End of March

Middle of March

Here are just a few random pictures and videos from mid March.

Jackson showing off his snaggle teeth while saying "cheeeeeeese".

My little pitcher!

Our good friend Bob came over for another visit to see Lilly. 

Jackson loves "Sesame Street"!

I wasn't exagerrating - he does just about everything in that hat.

My little tree hugger!

Jackson loves to dance, and he loves to watch people dance.

George Washington Birthplace National Monument

While visiting my grandparents in eastern Virginia, we took 1 day to visit George Washington Birthplace National Monument, only about an hour & 1/2 away. 

I have driven past this park so many times before, as it is between one set of granparent's and another in Washington D.C.  I remember stopping here with dad, Josh, and maybe JD a long time ago, and on our last trip to VA Sarah, Jackson and I stopped, but in each of those cases it was only a short picnic stop. So, we definitely wanted to come back, visit the whole place, and check it off our list. 

This is a beautiful, small park in the rural, "Northern Neck" region of coastal Virginia.  I've written before about how much I love this area - it's not only beautiful and maintaining its rural character, but it is just about the "oldest" portion of our country, and is just oozing with history.  Within a 30 mile radius of this park, you also have the birthplaces of George Washington's mother, James Madison, Robert E. Lee, and so many others.  So manyof the Founding Fathers and signers of the Declaration of Independance lived in this area. 

We first went into the museum/interpretive center, where they have some very nice displays and exhibits.  As you might expect, they had lots of artifacts collected on sight.  They also had a video which was good, but Jackson was getting rammy so I didn't get to see the whole thing.

From the museum, you take a short, but pretty walk allong a path to see the actual buildings.  They have guided walks through each of the buildings every hour.  This was very interesting. 

The white house on the left is a reproduced kitchen, and the house in the backround is a reproduciton period house.  There's a long story about this, but essentially multiple groups for decades went back and forth over where exactly the house stood, and just after they finally settled on the location you see there, and actually completed construction, archaeologists found the original foundation, outlined in white stone in the foreground.

When you visit, you can certainly see why they chose this spot - its situated on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River on 1 side, and a creek (what many folks might call a slew) on the other.  You can just imagine how productive those waters used to be. 

My dream kitchen.

I just loved this beautiful tree.

Much of the park is a period working farm.  They had chickens, free ranging sheep, pigs, horses, etc.

We're not farmers yet, so Jackson got scared when these chickens suddenly flew.

There was lots of sheep poop around, so Jackson quickly learned the word "poopoo" and how to identify it.  He then proceeded to stop, point, and yell "poopoo!" at every pile until we acknowledged, "yes, Jackson, poopoo" on our long walk back to the museum.

We had a great time here.  It's a beautiful park and well worh the effort to get here.

Visiting Grandparents

As always, we had a wonderful time visiting Grandma Genevieve and Grandpa Rolf in Virginia in early March.  I love it down there so much, and it sounds like they're doing great.  I was so happy that they got to meet Lilly, and to see Jackson again.  Last time they saw him he was just around Lilly's age during this trip. 

We arrived late in the afternoon on the 1st day - just in time for appetizers.

Multitasking.

The 2nd day we drove to George Washington's Birthplace National Monument, but that will be it's own post after this one. It was a beautiful day for a drive. 

Jackson and I are going to be farmers when we grow up.  He loves riding lawn mowers. 

We also took a walk on the beach with Jackson and Lilly.

Jackson would throw rocks in the water all day if we'd let him.  It's funny - he does not like his hands to be dirty or be covered up in long sleeves. 

Jackson is really a very sweet boy.

Great Grandmother - that's hard to believe!

As always, we had to say goodbye way too early.  It was a wonderful trip, but too short.  We missed having Lincoln with us too (he loves it here because he can run around free, chase rabbits and dear) but the car was too crowded as it was.

Saying goodbye.

On the way home we wanted to visit another park - Robert E. Lee's birthplace, again, right on the way home.  But, we got a bit of a late start and the tour would have taken too long, so we found a place to eat lunch instead and just headed home.  I was a little disappointed because this too is a beautiful park.  It's actually not a National Park or Monument but it should be.  It's actually bigger and perhaps more interesting than George Washington's birthplace, though the latter is great on its own.

We busted Jackson taking out all of the wipes.  Actually, we didn't catch him until he had almost emptied an entire package.  Sneaky little devil. 

Rolf and Genevieve gave us this little plastic table and chair set for Jackson.  He loves it and draws on it all the time.  They said they got it for my aunt Nicole when she was that age - do you remember it, Nicole?