Safari Park

We've lived in Blacksburg for 7 years and there's quite a bit that we've never done since we've lived here. Snow skiing is 1 hour away in West Virginia and we've never been. Some of the best white water rafting in the country is an hour and half away on the Gauley river and we've never been. The new river is 15 minutes away and we've never been kayaking or canoeing on it (we have tubed on it...only twice or maybe only once). This weekend was our last weekend in Blacksburg that my whole family is here. So I wanted to do something we'd never done. But skiing, kayaking, canoeing, and white water rafting are all not very toddler-friendly (thus the reason we've not done any of them since we've lived here). So we headed out to Safari Park, which is a little over an hour from our house in Natural Bridge, VA.

Safari Park is a drive-thru zoo. You pay an entry fee and buy some buckets of feed, then you drive through the zoo (very very slowly) and you can feed the animals. We came prepared. It's best to go in a minvan (because then you're allowed to have your sliding doors open) and an already dirty car (because your car will be FILLED with animal feed). Ethan sat in the front seat with his window open so he could see and pet the animals but didn't have to feed them, Brynn was strapped into her car seat with her door open so she had a very close view, I sat in the back seat so I could lure the animals practically into our car to eat from the bucket of feed, Blythe roamed all through the car, feeding and petting the animals, and sticking her head out of the sun roof, and Braden drove and fed animals so Brynn could see them up close.

The llamas are fun, but a little obnoxious.

The ostriches, emus, and rheas are funny and the way they eat is funny. There were also some super-cute baby ostriches.

The camels are not allowed to come right up to your car (they are behind a loose fence), but you can drive as close to them as you want. They are sneaky and like to steal whole buckets of feed.

There were also lots of deer, reindeer, and other animals I don't know the names. There were zebras, buffalo, and yaks. The yak peed while standing next to our car. Peed a lot. Apparently it made an impression as last night Ethan made a gun out of legos and pretended to squirt us all with yak pee. Nice.

This guy was waiting for us to drive up and fortunately did not try to get in our car. The kids had fun touching his antlers, which were actually very soft.

We started out with 4 buckets of feed and ended up with only 1 empty bucket. Our other 3 were stolen by sneaky animals.

After driving through, we parked and walked through the petting zoo area with giraffes, flamingos, kangaroos, and lots of other things.

It was REALLY hot and humid and no breeze though, so in hindsight, it would have been better to just buy some more feed and then drive through again (in our air conditioned car).

But anyway, we wrapped it up with a picnic lunch and then headed back to Blacksburg. It was a fun time and I'm glad we went because I don't think there is anything like that in North Carolina (even though there's LOTS of other things North Carolina has to offer that we are looking forward to).

We're in so much trouble

Blythe has had a great time in summer camp this summer at the day care. But at the same time, she has grown up SO much spending the summer with the older kids. She was so sheltered in that pre-k room filled with 4 and 5 year olds. We were only in the car a few minutes each day to and from day care, so she almost never listened to the radio. Now, when we get in the car and a song comes up it's, 'Mom, turn it up...this is my favorite song!" and then she proceeds to sing all of the words. Which I find myself cringing sometimes as she sings some words. I know she has no idea what some of them mean...but I do.

She says things now like, "Ethan, you're annoying me".

She's learned how to roller skate, how to make real sand castles, how to do a scavenger hunt, how to milk a cow, how a water wheel works. She's gone hiking, bowling, swimming. She's gone to zoos, Chuck e Cheese, the police department.

But lastly, she has a boyfriend. 5 year olds are not supposed to like boys. Don't they have cooties when they are 5? The boy's name is Cooper. Blythe talks about Cooper ALL the time. She says Cooper is not her boyfriend, "he just likes me". Last week Cooper was on vacation and every single day she would tell me, "Cooper isn't going to be at school today". Then "Cooper rides in the red van. I ride in the red van too. Cooper has a brother. Cooper goes to Kipps Elementary". Tuesday they could bring a movie to school (so everyone could vote on which movie to watch). Blythe said, "I'm don't want to bring a movie. I want to watch Cooper's movie". Yesterday they went on a hike on their field trip and Blythe and Cooper held hands during the hike. She blushes if you ask her if Cooper is her boyfriend.

Cooper is also 8. We are is SO.MUCH.TROUBLE!!!

14 months

When Ethan was 14 months old, I blogged a picture of him and compared it to Blythe at 14 months. They looked nearly identical. Here they are again:

And here is Brynn at 14 months

Pretty darn close to the other 2, huh? But in going through every drawer, cabinet, closet we have trying to get rid of stuff we don't need before we move, I came across this picture of Braden:

Other than the fact that he has WAY more hair at that age than any of our kids, I think Brynn looks the most like Braden.

Summer League Championships

Yesterday we had our summer league championships...marking the END of the summer league season. I was so excited for Blythe and I to do summer league swimming this year so it would be a fun activity she and I could do together. But through the process of Braden first interviewing at NC State, then getting the job, unfortunately he was only here for 1 of the 5 regular meets this season. My mom was here for 2 of them, so between those 3, I was able to swim at 3 of them. The 4th one it was just me and the 3 kids. We showed up and there was a thunder/lightning delay, so we just left. Brynn wouldn't have made it very long, so why bother. On the 5th one, it was me and the 3 kids again. We made it through the meet, but just Blythe swam. We didn't make it to a whole lot of practices, but did make an effort to go at least once, sometimes twice, a week.

Fortunately the championships were on a Saturday, so Braden was here and could entertain Brynn and Ethan in the stands while Blythe and I swam. Blythe had to swim 3 events: 50 free, 25 back, and 25 free. She had never swum the 50 free before and it was first. Tired her out for the whole meet probably. She did well though and swam it in 1:33. Backstroke was...crap, I don't remember. I do know she didn't turn over, so she did not get DQ'ed. 25 free was 43 seconds.

I managed to make it through 4 events (50 fly, 50 breast, free relay, and 100 IM). Setting meet records (for 30-39 year old division) in the 50 breast and 100 IM. Yes, apparently a 37.0 in the breast is a meet record. 1:08 in the 100 IM. 29.5 in the fly (which was not a meet record). And holy moly was I sore and exhausted after that! I felt like I got hit by a truck. But then to make matters worse, I must have gotten food poisoning from a McDouble I got on the way home from the meet. So late afternoon/evening was no fun for me (or for Braden for that matter since he then took all 3 kids grocery shopping with him).

But summer league is over. I am very proud of Blythe for trying so hard and doing so well. I'm not sure that she loved it, but she never complained and I think she had a pretty good time. Next year we'll be in Raleigh for summer league and I'm pretty sure 6 & unders don't have to swim a 50 free there. Maybe someone will even teach her how to swim breaststroke between now and then!

The rollercoaster continues

Okay, so even though life is super busy, I can't go through the month of July with only 1 blog post. That would be ridiculous. Plus I left you all hanging on that last post wondering if we got the house we wanted.

The answer is yes, we did get the house we wanted. We countered offers back and forth a bit, but finally settled and have signed the contract. So if all goes according to plan, we will close on our house in Blacksburg on the morning of August 26 and close on the house in Raleigh on the afternoon of August 26. Since I don't have complete faith that the wired money from the sale of our Blacksburg house will get there in time, we have the movers scheduled to deliver our stuff on Monday, August 29. So that will allow us the weekend to get in there and put up blinds, hang curtain rods, etc.

So the last week has been filled with super-fun activities! Like mortgage applications, scheduling inspections, calling insurance. I'm having SO much fun! Okay, too much sarcasm. I am ready though to finally get settled. I'm thinking the next month might go by a little slow.

Also squeezed in there was another trip to Raleigh. Probably my last until we move there. The mission: find a daycare. Actually there were two missions: find a daycare and celebrate my brother's 30th birthday. Mission 2 was accomplished. Mission 1 was a failed mission. Instead we ruled 2 out and found 1 that might work, but we weren't thrilled about it. So last week while Braden was in town, he went to see 3 more and found one he really liked. So that's the one we are going with. The daycare hunt is so discouraging because it is SO much more expensive than here in Blacksburg. And not only that, but the state-mandated ratios (teacher to children) is definitely worse in North Carolina than in Virginia. So you really aren't getting anything more for your money. But it is what it is.

Celebrating Doug's birthday was lots of fun. We surprised him at Angus Barn (delicious restaurant). Not just us, but my parents and sister and several of Doug's friends. Lynette had arranged a babysitter for the kiddos so I got some adult time...ahh! We spent the next morning at the pool before taking Blythe and Ethan with us to go back to the new house so we could arrange furniture (theoretic furniture), drive by Blythe's new elementary school, go see the outdoor pool we will join, and drive by the 3 daycares that Braden was going to look at on Monday.

Anyway, drove back Sunday and another week of work and here we are at the weekend, this time in Blacksburg. Tomorrow is the summer league swimming championship meet and then summer league swimming is over (thank goodness!).

And in other news, we did get the sad news yesterday that my grandmother (my Nana) passed away. She had been sick for a while and none of us even thought she would make it to my cousin's wedding in May. But she did and my whole family got to see her and spend some time with her. She was such a strong lady. She was so sick, but she hid it so well. You would have never guessed it at that wedding. She knew she didn't have much longer, so we (she and I) actually said our goodbyes at the end of the wedding. It was very sad at the time, but I'm glad we did. She died happy at the age of 92.

Life is Busy...But SO Good!

So sorry, blog readers, that I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. My life is just boring and I have nothing to blog about.

Okay, so normally, yes, we live pretty boring lives. But the last 2 weeks have been anything but. Let me just recap it for you real quick.

Tuesday, June 28 - Braden got a call from NC State as we were walking into daycare to pick up the kiddos. It was from his (now new boss) offering him the job of Head Swimming and Diving Coach at NC State (where Braden and I both swam and graduated from). We actually were picking up our 3 kids and Ashley and Luke, so then it became a flurry of trying to call everyone we knew. It was insane!

Wednesday, June 29 - My first call on Tuesday night was to my mom to ask her to come up the next morning and help us stage our house to put on the market. My second call was to our realtor telling her to be here Thursday morning to take pics. Third call was to my boss asking for Wednesday off. So Wednesday was a FULL day of staging, filling nail holes/painting, packing a few things up, and cleaning. Whew! This was also Braden's official first day on the job.

Thursday, June 30 - Met with realtor, signed all paperwork. Tried to get a little work squeezed in. Braden left to go down to NC State so he could get a phone so he could call recruits on July 1 (first official day he can call them and very important to call them and line up trips for the Fall). Note - he has no other staff at this point other than a diving coach.

Friday, July 1 - Mom left. We had 2 showings (same people both times). Getting excited about selling early!! Freaking out though...guess we need to contact a realtor in Raleigh??? Contacted a realtor friend and made list of 8 houses to see the next day.

Saturday, July 2 - drove to Durham (to my brother's). Dropped off kids to be watched by my parents and brother and sister-in-law. Braden and I met up with realtor to see the 8 houses. Saw 2 we really liked. Had further questions on one of them, so arranged to see again next day.

Sunday, July 3 - took whole crew (kids, parents, brother, sister, sister-in-law) to see house we really liked. New construction, so no options for contingent offers or lease to purchase. Hoping our house sells quickly!

Monday, July 4 - head back home to Blacksburg. Braden comes back too.

Tuesday, July 5 - Braden spends the day finalizing everything at Virginia Tech and cleaning out office. We get an offer on the house! A really crappy offer :( We reject it completely and never hear from them again.

Wednesday, July 6 - Braden heads back to Raleigh to start putting together a staff and getting all the other beginning-of-the-job stuff done. No showings on the house.

Thursday, July 7 - 2 showings on the house. Yay! Follow up questions from one of them (good sign!). I have to get 3 moving quotes. First one comes. As does realization that earliest move dates available are mid-August. Blythe starts kindergarten 8/24. Must make a decision soon. Most likely will need to find a rental house.

Friday, July 8 - Braden comes home. But first I have him go check out a rental house and another house on the market (so we can make a better informed decision). I let our realtor know we want to make a contingent offer on our second choice house. We decide to put it together on Sunday. Also 2 more mover quotes today.

Saturday, July 9 - I email the guy for the rental house and tell him we are interested. Don't want to lose that house, so hoping the whole lease signing process can be dragged out several days. In the afternoon, get an offer on our house! A real offer (one we can work with). We counter-offer. And celebrate that maybe we can get the house we want!! Downer is that closing date buyer wants is August 26 (after Blythe would start kindergarten). Beggars can't be choosers though...we'll take it!

Sunday, July 10 - Buyer counter-offers again. We accept! Need to start thinking about that offer for the house we want in Raleigh.

Monday, July 11 - Sign contract on our house in the morning (woohoo!). Make offer on house in Raleigh. Talk to mortgage company to get pre-approval letter. Inspector comes in the afternoon. Make attempt to send him good vibes. Apparently he's a tough inspector.

And that, blog readers, leads me to today. Still waiting to hear on our offer on the house in Raleigh. Just got the inspector report and it isn't too bad. They also set up a radon test, which he'll verify tomorrow. Braden is back in Raleigh again, and Juni (our dog) had surgery today to get her teeth cleaned and a few molars pulled.

So uh, yes, our lives have been insanely busy! I also have 4 projects going live this week (normally I have 2 per month). We still have summer league swim team going on. I'm researching day cares in Raleigh and trying to manage being a mom and housekeeper. And eating. And sleeping. And showering. And a very feeble attempt at exercising.

But we are living the dream! And life is good!