4th of July Parade at Scottsville -
Scottsville is a little tiny town on the James River that is about 20 miles south of our house. Every year I hear about the 4th of July parade down there, but really haven't seen any need to check it out. Well, this year since Karl was gone, Kason and I decided to join our friends Kate and Molly at the parade. We were so glad that we went and have decided that we just might have to go every year. It was the LONGEST parade I have ever been to. It lasted an hour and 15 minutes!! Granted, every fire truck, beauty queen, and tractor in the 5 surrounding counties was in the parade. The kids loved it. I have never seen so much candy throwing in my life. Kate and I reverted back to our childhood and chased candy like we were 7 years old. Actually, we did just take the rejects from the kids around us. (What has this world come to when kids PICK out the candy they like at a parade??? I thought the goal was to get the most you could!) Molly and Kason did love watching the parade. The noisy firetrucks didn't phase them. Kason was very patriotic as he waved his American flag.
Grocery Shopping...
After the parade, we took our bi-weekly trip to Waynesboro to buy groceries. For those of you that don't know, I hate shopping for groceries in Charlottesville. It is crowded, the traffic is crazy, and it is very expensive. Ok, ok, and going to Waynesboro grocery shopping is my secret excuse to stop at the Sonic (before and after Walmart). Kason loves this trip, too. He talks to everyone in Walmart and has a major meltdown as he watches me put things he likes in the cart. He eventually gets over it UNTIL we check out. At this point we have a huge fight as he turns around in the cart and tries to pull the plastic shopping bags through the holes in the cart into his seat. I tell him no and this eventually ends with his hand stuck between the wires of the cart. (I am considering going green and getting reusable bags...not to conserve but to eliminate this argument.) Anyway, this trip ended a little differently than our previous trips. He got his fat little legs stuck in the back of the seat and his fat little arm stuck in the front of the seat. This picture was taken after I noticed his leg, but before he got his arm stuck. I seriously thought we were going to have to call the fire department, but after getting finding the vegetable oil in the groceries, I was able to get it out....just kidding. I did eventually get it out...
Saturday night treat...If I haven't mentioned it before, my very good childhood friend Jill Courson moved to Harrisonburg (about an hour away) a year ago. I am so blessed to have such a dear friend so close - of course, she is too:) We really have a lot of fun. She comes over to visit us a lot. I have come to learn that there is nothing like a piece of home. (Poor Karl gets really sick of our Magnolia talk and dancing tales.) ANYWAY, Jill's parents came to visit her last week. I think I was just as excited as she was. I love to have company - especially the hometown folk!! It was so great to catch up with them. Jill's mom, Diana, is the early childhood guru and had lots of great info for me about raising my fat little munchkin. I worked for Jill's dad, J, when I was in college, so we had lots of reminiscing to do. I had this brilliant idea to cook some chicken and veggies on the grill, but I didn't plan for the monsoon that came through that night! It poured the entire time. It was a mess and I brought puddles back in the house with me after each trip outside. Luckily, the food was good. Kason had tons of fun and showed out, as usual. I was lucky enough to have my guests stay overnight and we were sad to see them go the next morning. Kason even fussed when they went out the door. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. I will have to do better next time.
The next round of house guests...
For weeks we have been awaiting the arrival of Aunt Lisa (and Uncle Cliff and Emily and Rachel.) So maybe it appears that I don't love the rest of the family, but that isn't the case. Most of you know that I am very close to my Aunt Lisa and have really been looking forward to seeing her AND HER FAMILY:) (It's ok, girls. Your picture made the blog and your Mom's didn't.) It was GREAT having them here. Karl has been away recruiting for a while now and having free nannies around was fabulous. It was so cool to watch Kason warm up to them throughout the week and come to realize that they "belonged" here. He eventually quit fussing for me everytime I walked by and was just as happy with one of them as he was with me.
We had a big week. They arrived on Sunday night. I put Uncle Cliff to work grilling burgers. Of course it didn't rain on Sunday night (until after dinner). On Monday, they went to Monticello and Ash Lawn and I gave them a tour of the University grounds after work. On Tuesday, we went to Washington, DC and were "typical tourists" (right, Emily and Rachel??)
We began our adventure at Arlington National Cemetary. This was my first time there and it was extremely impressive. We got to see JFK's grave and many others. We visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and saw the changing of the guard. It was an experience everyone should have. It is very solemn and they request silence. I figured we were close to getting thrown out after SOMEONE rolled a water bottle down the steps TWICE and sang E-I-E-I (more on this later)very loudly for the entire last 5 minutes.
From there we went downtown and had some lunch - I will spare you the details - and then made our trek to all of the monuments. We started at the Washington Monument and proceeded to the World War II memorials, the Vietnam Vets Wall, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and everything between. We drank a lot of water and still almost all passed out. It was very hot, but the shady parts of the walk were nice. We got back to the car around 5:00. I think that we all enjoyed sitting in the grass for the diaper change more than we should have. We really didn't think we would be able to get up! We were tired.
Next, we set out for the new Nationals Park. What a neat place! The field is beautiful. The Nats played the Arizona Diamondbacks. This was particularly special because one of Karl's former players, Mark Reynolds, is the 3rd baseman for the Diamondbacks. Its always great to get to see these guys play in the big league. As I have mentioned before, Ryan Zimmerman, another of Karl's former players is a 3rd baseman for the Nationals. Unfortunately, he is on the DL and we didn't get to see him this time. Kason did his usual ballgame routine. He was very excited to be there and cheered hard through the first couple of innings then he sacked out in Uncle Cliff's lap. That was after he spit sweet potatoes all over me and Emily and the lady in front of us. She didn't notice, and we didn't tell her that she had orange splatter all over the back of her shirt:)
We didn't get home until 12:30 a.m., so none of us moved very fast on Wednesday morning. Kason didn't wake up until 9:30! Thursday they went to Montpelier and took a drive on Skyline Drive. We all met at the Downtown Mall for dinner.
The girls and I stayed up late talking when we got back. It was so nice to get to spend that time with them. I am so proud of all they have become. They aren't little girls any more! They are so mature and smart. It just blows my mind that Emily is in college and Rachel will graduate in just two years. All of the grandKIDS will be grandADULTS - and I do mean GRAND.
Anyway, they pulled out of here around 7:30 this morning. We were sad to see them go. I am sure they are looking forward to the rest of their trip and getting home (and being able to sleep past 6:3o a.m. without getting woken up by E-I-E-I). And the story on that is that Kason sings Old McDonald all the time - nonstop, but he doesn't say the O. The Smith family worked very hard to get him to add the O and were unsuccessful. I have promised them that I will call as soon as he decides to tag it on! Today they will stop to see our Aunt Eloise (Grandpa's sister) just outside of Nashville. They are hoping that Jeremy will make it down there to meet them. They are looking forward to meeting Lindsey. (Smith's, if you would like to tell anyone about your vacation, just direct them to the blog since I have given such an inclusive description:))
Here are a few more happenings of the week. I forgot to mention
that we grilled out and went swimming at Caitlin and Amelia's on Saturday. Kason thought Amelia's float was pretty cool. He is also facinated with drinking out of cup. Luckily, this one had a hole in the bottom so he didn't get to drink anything!
A couple of weeks ago we went to Richmond to get our car from the airport (long story). We decided to make a day of it and go to Maymont and to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Maymont is a really great park that is on this estate in the middle of Richmond. They have a beautiful mansion, lots of gardens, a visitor center with an aquarium, and lots of animals. We didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked because it was very hot, which made someone (really all three of us) very cranky. Kason did like the aquarium a lot. We aren't really sure if he liked the fish and turtles 
or if he was just laughing at his reflection in the glass. He petted the goats and had a nice chat with the bull. If you want to see what Maymont is all about, visit http://www.maymont.org/
that they would like to donate the kids old playset to him. Thier youngest is 3 now and now they are all too big for it. It was so nice of Mr. Jeff, Luke, and Owen to bring it over. I was afraid that Owen might have a hard time parting with it, but the playset was completely forgotten after he got to "hold that baby." "That baby" didn't know what to think of him! As you can see, Owen isn't very big (which means tiny considering Kason looks this big next to him). We laughed so hard because Kason was taking a nap when they got there. I thought I heard him stirring and went in his room to check on him. I found Owen (he had snuck up the front stairs) sitting in his floor playing with the toys and Kason just sitting in his bed thrilled to have woken up to his very own playmate in his bedroom! 
that they would like to donate the kids old playset to him. Thier youngest is 3 now and now they are all too big for it. It was so nice of Mr. Jeff, Luke, and Owen to bring it over. I was afraid that Owen might have a hard time parting with it, but the playset was completely forgotten after he got to "hold that baby." "That baby" didn't know what to think of him! As you can see, Owen isn't very big (which means tiny considering Kason looks this big next to him). We laughed so hard because Kason was taking a nap when they got there. I thought I heard him stirring and went in his room to check on him. I found Owen (he had snuck up the front stairs) sitting in his floor playing with the toys and Kason just sitting in his bed thrilled to have woken up to his very own playmate in his bedroom! 
We went out yesterday and let him check out the new toy. We were surprised that he was able to enjoy it as much as he did. He loves it. Now he sits at the back door and bangs on the door while he looks out at it.
