A really long travelogue...

I have been busy. So busy in fact, that I haven't even had time to sit down and write anything. We have moved from one thing to another and today I stopped long enough to clean my house and check my e mail. I even had a friend call me to make sure I hadn't officially moved out of the country or checked myself into any kind of psyche ward. I can assure you that I haven't, yet.
Also, our internet has been shady at best for the last three weeks so I tried to avoid it altogether because the frustration of finding or holding a signal has just been too much. However, last night Clark was able to find just the right position for the receiver that it is working a little better...he just has to stand on his head with three fingers in his left nostril while a daughter perches on his right knee holding a wad of tin foil in the shape of a goose.First of all, the girls are all taking swim lessons. Haley and Abby have soared to level three already and they are all doing amazing. AND they have to wear swim caps. I love it, really and truly.
Clark came home from a little underway a couple of weeks ago...we kissed quickly and waved as I passed him the girls and headed to the airport where I went to Washington, D.C. for approximately 36 hours and then came home. My little brother Spencer was graduating from Georgetown with his masters and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to support him and tell him that he is awesome and smart (and that his wife is wonderful for helping get him through!) And we got to eat at my new favorite place, Chop't where salads fall from the heavens...besides all the cool people I got to hang out with, that lunch was worth the trip...also my family may or may not have an obsession with taking pictures of food.PS Georgetown is pretty much just awesome and beautiful and even though we sat through a commencement speech that was way too long and had nothing to do with commencing anything, the weather was perfect and the company a joy.My parents were there and I brought Hazel with me. We ate delicious food and spent quality time together for all 36 of those hours.
Sho took us to a scrumptious restaurant for authentic Japanese cuisine. It was yum. I think the waitresses were on to me because she asked in a concerned voice half way through the meal if I wanted a fork. Here is my chopstick tutorial.

Example #1: The Awkward Pinching Method

Example #2: The Stabbing Method

Example #3: I Am A Foreigner And I've Given Up Method

Example #4: Do-You-See-The-White-Knuckles-And-Me-Holding-On-To-My-Food-For-Dear-Life Method

I told you we liked to take pictures of food.

Then I hurried back home to see my family and clean the house before my parents rode the train up to CT for a few days to play.
We ate at Yankee Magazine's pick for "Best Breakfast in Connecticut" in Mystic (delicious, we have already been back a second time!) and ventured up to see an Animal Topiary Garden and mansion near Newport, RI
(we gave the topiary garden only 1 and a half stars but the rest of the property was beautiful...and honestly the girls only need grass and a couple of tree swings to keep them really happy for a long time...and the weather was perfect!) We made sure to take them to our favorite walking place and our favorite ice cream place. Then my Dad spent the rest of his time here building us a vegetable garden. He did all the work but Mo and I rather enjoyed hauling the dirt in the truck and sticking the plants in the ground.Clark and I had it all planned out, all we lacked was the time so he stepped in and did it all in two days! We love it and will think of my parents and their hard work every time I look at it. I loved having them here, it just feels so natural and comfy to be with my Mom and Dad. They are easy company.

The day that my parents left Clark and I piled the girls into the car and took off for a short family getaway (to try and "replace" our lost family vacation to Disney.) (Mia is under her blanket watching a movie on the portable DVD player since the car's DVD player decided to fall out of the ceiling last week.)
I tried not to compare our trip to what we had missed and we ended up having a fabulous time at the Wolf Lodge in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. It was just far enough to feel like we were getting away but close enough that we all still liked each other by the end of the drive. It is an enormous indoor water park. Clark and I even had fun (especially if I could go the entire day without thinking about all those people in bathing suits, wet moist pool decks and warts.) It was beautiful and the girls had a blast. Abby's exclamation of "oooh my" when we walked in made it all worth it.


You can even reserve a room that has the kids' bed/bunk beds in their own "cabin" or "tent" with their very own TV. They loved that.
They also have an interactive Magiquest scavenger hunt game around the resort that the girls loved. They each had their own magic wand and had to go around searching for and collecting clues. It was cool.(Yes, they are in their pajamas..don't worry, they fit in just fine with all of the other kids that had spent so much of the day at the pool, the only time to fit in the Magiquest was after baths and pj's.)
On our drive home we swung by the Crayola Factory in Easton (we gave it two stars only because it wasn't exactly what we were expecting) and then through my old town in New Jersey where my family lived for like 15 seconds when I was 10. Can we say "lots of dead, decaying deer everywhere on the roads?"
We kept our long weekend short at the resort so that we could get home and spend a day working on the house and yard...it still needs grass but until the owner's are willing to cough up the $10,000 that it would cost, we'll just mow the weeds and extend the front bed out as far as we can. It looks great and we believe a family that works together, stays together. Also, a family that smells like mulch has to stick together because no one else will.Thanks for playing, now go take a nap.