Cox Farm Fall 2010

We visited Cox Farm Fall Festival! Allison had a ball running around, climbing, sliding, and wearing her parent's out!

Here she is climbing down part of the HUGE straw maze! She loved to climb underneath the maze and scare me. Several times I stood back   to let her go with all the kids and parent's running in and out of the maze. I wanted to see if she would come looking for Mommy & Daddy, but she didn't! We finally had to drag her out of the maze in order to see all the other fun things on the farm. 

They had a great hayride through the corn fields and all around the farm. We saw aliens, cowgirls, "wild" animals, trolls, and went through a super fun musical barn at the end.  Even Jim admitted it was fun and well done!

The farm had about ten huge slides and many other smaller ones. She talked Daddy into going on the castle slide with her.

The dinosaur slide was really fast. She rode it several times. 

Finally, even Allison was tired from all the activities of the day. So, we picked out pumpkins, got some kettle corn to go, and headed back to the city. What a wonderful day our little family had together! 

Blizzard of 2010, Washington DC-Sunday

Sunday morning! Time to start really digging out. DC is a fun city even in 2 feet of snow! Most people here are very "go with the flow". You might have heard that about 11,000 people walked to the Verizon Center in the middle of town yesterday. Georgetown had a basketball game to play. So, the students marched over and lots of other people just wanted to get out of the house. We weren't bored enough to walk to the metro and join in on the craziness. But it says a lot about this town!  

Here's what we were up to....

Since it snows every weekend here ;)   Allison looks out the window and checks for snow. Then demands to go out in the snow promptly at 6:30 am.  We usually get her out around 9ish. 

Allison in front of our yard. Jim had to throw all the snow from the front walk and sidewalk into our yard. There just wasn't anywhere else to put it all!! After he finished digging one of our cars out. The snow in the yard is about 6 feet high! No early blooms in our yard this year!

 

Allison heads around the corner of our house to Pickford street.  Were Mommy's jeep is completely snowed in.

Allison crossing the street. She is in the cross walk, not that you can see it!

Allison walking down 8th street. We gave up on most of the sidewalks. Not everyone takes as much pride in shoveling the side walk, as Jim! We hope citizens enjoy the luxurious 10 feet of completely shoveled sidewalk in front of the Tuite house.  Mean while, we took to the streets and some tiny shovel paths Allison couldn't resist checking out. 

We aren't supposed to have any more snow until Tuesday evening.  Should be interesting....

Blizzard of 2010, Washington DC-Saturday

As I'm sure you all  know. It started snowing Friday morning, and kept snowing until Saturday evening in DC.  Here are some pictures of what we woke up to find on Saturday morning. At this point is was snowing but hadn't started to really blow around.  The winds never got that bad in our area. So, the snow and ice covered power lines stayed up and working!! 

Jim making his way out the door!

Allison with her "snow shovel".

Mommy thought this was funny. Allison didn't find it so funny.  The snow is so thick and heavy. She didn't sink very far. 

Practicing the art of snowball making! She mostly just grabbed snow and put it on our pants. She was pretty proud of her efforts. Then I showed her how to pelt Daddy while he shoveled.  Sadly, I can't take pictures and bomb Jim at the same. 

More to follow.....

Welcome to our Yurt!

We went "camping" in Virginia last week. We had a great time in our Yurt!!

This the "grilling deck".

Here is the "reading deck". Which didn't get to enjoy with Allison running around, and testing the all safety aspects of the deck! 

Let's head inside! Here is Allison testing out the couch.

Our kitchen!! I explained to Allison that all 'tents' should be equipped with matching stainless steel appliances.  

The "out house". Another of my favorite features, showers with hot water!

Jim and I practiced "roughing it" by not turning on the the flat screen in the evenings. It was strictly back to nature for us!

Allison's room- the fake tree really brought the outdoors in for her!

That was our yurt for the week. When weren't enjoying hanging out on the deck. We were walking all around the "camp ground".

Allison and Daddy on the one of the play grounds. This was Allison's favorite slide at the resort. She asked for the "side" every morning.

Allison sized rocking chairs were a big hit.

Headed to the lake to "honk-honk" at the geese. It was really windy, as you can see. I pushed my glassed up on my head. So, Allison had to do the same. 

Allison's first pony ride!! Mommy was very excited! Allison was an old pro! She didn't mind the helmet, and wasn't afraid of the horse!

I hope this is only the first of many horse adventures we'll have together! 

They had so many animals around the barn-chickens, roosters, ducks, peacocks, goats, cats, and several breeds of horses! We started each morning with a walk to the barn. I really miss being around animals (and grass)! This was such a great experience for our city girl. 

Lastly, the awesome pool deck! I thought it looked much better in person. For some reason the pictures don't do it justice!! They had 3 pools, and 2 huge spa tubs. Plus, a great splash fountain for the little kids! We never made it to the pool, maybe next time! 

So, that was our week of "camping" in VA! 

Cousins.....

Allison was able to spend time with all of her cousins this summer. This post is LONG over due. But I figure better late than never. Also, I'd like to share some photos before the Holidays are here!!

Aunt Leah brought Camille and Eddison to visit us all the way from Florida! Uncle Joe was deployed to Iraq for seven months. Leah was brave enough to load the minivan and kids onto the autotrain to travel to the North East for a world wind visit with friends, family and all the grandparents!!

Allison got to meet Cousin Eddie for the first time! He is a Very happy little guy. I think the only time he was upset was when Allison or big sister Camille bumped into him. He was really fun to have around!
Allison and Camille played with the bubble machine in the front yard. They had fun until a cloud of mosquitoes almost carried them away (the kids, not the bubbles).
The girls heading to Lincoln Park for some fun in the sun! They had a great time climbing, rocking, sliding and jumping around!

Connor hits a homer!! We spent time with cousin Connor on the 4th of July. He impressed us with his baseball hitting skills!

Here he is taking a rest brake to pose for some pictures...
Then back to baseball. Watch out-looks Allison is next to bat!

It was so great to spend time with everyone this summer!! Hopefully, we will all be together again soon.

Allison and the "at"

Allison LOVES animals!! She loves big animals and small animals alike. We visited my friend Lori in PA. She has a very pretty cat named Shookey. But Allison just calls him "at". In fact she yelled "at" every time he walked in the room!She liked to get very close to his face and say: "at, at, at, yeah at, at, see a at, see a at........" He was a good sport about all the stalking and tail grabbing that he endured during our visit. Allison took to grabbing his tail and holding on with a death grip!! Like it was a rodeo event, and she had to hold on for 8 seconds or get disqualified. So, that meant I was the acting rodeo clown in the house. Each time Allison grabbed his tail. I had to run over. Try to remove her hand from his tail and sacrifice my hand/arm for the cat to attack as he tried to break free!!
Shookey taught Allison to feed him his food one piece at a time. He is a very smart cat!

Harnessing the power of iPhone!

Okay, I finally took some time to figure out how to get pictures off the phone and on to the lap top!! So, I'll get back to blogging now! My old phone couldn't take pictures. I love being able to snap shots of Allison while we're running around town. These pics are of Allison at our park-aka backyard.

Here is the climbing wall. It'll be a while before Allison can tackle it solo but she's working on it!!
Making beautiful music or at least really loud sounds. Which always sounds good to Allison's ears.
Climbing the stairs without Mommy's help. It's been hard for me to stay off the equipment and let Allison learn how to maneuver around without holding my hand. She's doing pretty well and it's fun to watch her problem solve.
This was on the way to the park. She had to walk and take her bucket with her favorite ball in it!
I have several other outings to post! I'll add them soon!!