back from d.c.........and what a trip it was

i never knew how much fun being a chaperone could be....

and

i never knew how little sleep i would get in an 84 hour period....(my best estimate is about 18 hours) and still be able to function!!

the trip to our nation's capital was fantastic...

11 hours on a motorcoach one way with 50 boys?  i'll reserve judgement on that one. looks nice, right?  big and roomy, right?

 wrong!

it is first and foremost a bus.  a tight and cramped bus.

but i survived the ride as did everyone else.  with very little sleep.

i'm estimating that i got an hour and a half of sleep that first 36 hours...

we left friday night at about 8:30 and drove through the night and pulled into gettysburg, pennsylvania at 7:20 the next morning...we stopped 3 times at rest stops, the third time for the bus to refuel at 5:00 am.  apparently there is some weird law that no one can be on the bus while it is refueling so all 300 kids and chaperones piled into a rest area and had to wait about 45 minutes for the buses to finish.  

wow!

that was hard!!!  up to that point, i had a total of 0 hours of sleep due to the fact that 50 boys and their cell phones couldn't quite grasp the concept of "quiet time".  until their teacher threatened at 3:00 am that she was going to call their parents right then and explain to them why she needed to...

it got pretty quiet after that. but the bus was cramped and it was hard sleep.  i think i finally fell asleep after we made our last rest area stop at 5:00 am.  morning came pretty quickly after that.  

our first stop was breakfast at the dobbin house

the oldest building in gettysburg.

we then travelled to the site of the civil war battlefield. it was very cool and our tour guide totally played to the boy factor of our group by explaining the war in a very blood and guts way and comparing the war strategies to sports...the boys were fascinated and he was able to keep their attention for every aspect of the tour.  i am not the history buff my husband is but it kept me riveted as well and i learned things i never knew (or remembered from school).

who fights a war in an open field???.....no wonder they lost 58,000 men in 3 days!!!

men...i swear if women ruled the country, and if we had to go to war, 

we would pick a place where you could hide behind something....

totally open field...tsk!

we headed into dc after half a day in gettysburg and headed to the 

american history museum on the mall.  

it was great but the boys in my group really wanted to go to the air and space museum...they didn't get their wish but we had fun anyway....

at least i got to see julia child's kitchen. 

and dumbo

and the ruby slippers...

for dinner the first night, we went to a mall near the pentagon where everyone was given a voucher for the food court. 

it was a beautiful 3 story mall.

we had lots of choices for food and the kids had a chance to wander the mall for about 2 hours before going to the pentagon 9/11 memorial.  

although these pictures aren't the greatest, the memorial was really beautiful.  and sobering. 

the kids were very respectful and quiet while wandering around the grounds

 the sculptures were really pretty, illuminated benches with little pools under each of them. 

i realized while walking through there that these kids would not have remembered 9/11, they were just three years old at the time...

by the time we were done with this tour, we finally walked back to our bus to head to our hotel room (which we had not checked into yet) at about 10:00 pm.  

however,

our bus wouldn't start and we had to divide our 50 kids into each of the other five buses so we could get to the hotel 40 minutes away.  that was a fun ride.....

i think i finally got to sleep at about 12:30 am. 

and had to be on the bus the next morning (or should i say "that" morning)

at 7:00 am. 

 watch for part ll of our adventure tomorrow....i have lots more stories and lots more pictures to share!

christmas vacation......

there has been a lot of this going on this week...

austen is so excited about all of the video games he got for christmas this year.  and he loves his gaming chair....

having him home from school for the week gives him the opportunity to play with the dog

which he does when i force him off of the video game and out of his gamer chair.

which lasts for about 5 minutes.....

this one loves his new bone from santa, but he really hates to have his picture taken....

and runs as fast as he can when he sees me stick the camera in his face....

anyway...

like i was saying....i get the opportunity to hang out with my boy...

so i forced him to pose for some pictures in front of the christmas tree before i take it down if a few days....

i like what i got.

my handsome austen, I love you so!!!!

so, we went to "ow ardens".....

as one of the day trips we did while i'm on my vacation.  

well, that's were we went when don uses the camera...
here is where we really went.....

yes, that is the shot he took after i looked at the pictures on the camera and had to recompose the shot for him.

he did, however, manage to get a couple nice ones of me.  i never have pictures of myself because i'm always behind the camera.  he just does not want to learn how to use it. i think all of the bells and whistles scare him.
 but i forced him to.  because he is never going to remember what i look like if i croak...

so, i set everything up and all he has to do is push the button.
remember me looking exactly like this, honey, but 20 years younger.  when i wasn't a grandma.

we had never been there before even though it is only about an hour from our house.
it was really beautiful.

huge trees, and i mean huge.

of course, scarlett found a frog.  i had to keep her from putting it into her pocket.
because she loves frogs.

there was a gorgeous rose garden.  i think this was don's favorite part of the venue.  he loves roses

there were hundreds of different ones and we saw some really beautiful varieties.

 i think the kids loved them too.  the colors were stunning and they all smelled so good.

 every color you can imagine.

 i think the bees were in heaven too. their legs were full of pollen.

i think these were my favorites.  i'm a sucker for pink shrub roses.

 the exposure sucked on this one but i loved the shot so i went with it....

the best part was the picnic lunch we brought.  we had chicken salad sandwiches, cheese, bing cherries potato chips and raspberry lemonade.  it was a great summer picnic.  a picnic was on my list of things to do while on my vacation.

 we set out a blanket in a shady quiet spot and ate a leisurely lunch.

 then we laid back for a while and looked for animal shapes in the clouds

and i think we got a little too comfortable with our full bellies....

it was hard to get up and get going again.
but we were excited to see the rest of the gardens....

austen and scarlett were so cute together...

when he didn't have her in a chokehold

or giving her a noogie....

they were bringing tears to my eyes with sweet images like this....austen and scarlett are more like brother and sister than uncle and niece.  they are just 6 years apart so they have practically grown up together.  i think it has kept don and i very young to have a child and a grandchild so close in age.

there were streams to cross

but i thought it would be loads more fun to land in the mud when i jumped the stream.  that was fun!!!!  walking around with a wet muddy foot is always a blast.

and just for the record, i was farther upstream and had a much wider span to jump over than the kids did...

we all loved the children's garden....

 if you look closely, this is a rainbow garden...red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. (click to make it bigger)
very clever.

those are actually real grapes on this arbor/tunnel.

 i loved the farmer made of straw who was tending the corn.

and the scarecrows made by children

 helen kell....i mean, austen loved the water pump

there were all kinds of different vegetables and fruits planted within the garden designs.  there was corn, beans, radishes, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes among others.

we spoke with one of the employees who said that when all of the vegetables ripen in august, the kids can just pick and eat what they want.  she told us the only thing ripe when we were there were radishes.  austen picked one and tried it.  not a good thing.....

 lots of insect life too.  have you ever seen a red dragonfly??

me either...until then!!!

i don't think i've ever seen a green elephant either.  until then!!!

why do kids wait until 5 minutes before we are going to leave to run through the sprinklers?
because that is what you do in the summertime.  and then you ask for the picnic blanket in the car because you are freezing cold in the air-conditioning......

it's a definite do-again activity.