Thursday, August 27, 2015

Turtle

We have a smaller house and dislike clutter. When you put these two things together, almost nothing gets lost in our house and rarely do we find unknown items behind the couch, under a bed, etc. However, today was different...very different.

Walking toward the kitchen I bumped into a small table. An odd-shaped object behind the table caught my eye. I knew immediately what it was, but could not believe it. I got down on the floor to look more closely and sure enough, it was a tiny turtle - yes, a turtle. It also appeared to be a tiny dead turtle.

We live in a very metropolitan area. Turtles are not common. If there is a turtle sighting in a local pond, everyone shouts and points, "A turtle! A turtle!" like it's a rare, nearly extinct creature. A turtle inside of a home is totally unheard of. So why was there a turtle in my house and how did it get there? I was baffled.

I was also totally freaked out and refused to touch it. I did take a picture of it and sent it to Dave with only the subject line, "call me." The phone rang immediately, "That's a turtle! What's it doing in our house?" We hypothesized for a bit about how he got there and then determined that Dave would remove the dead turtle when he got home from work and I would simply walk around it for the rest of the day. (Feel free to make fun of me, but I was not going to touch the dead turtle.)

All day I tried to figure out how he got there. I ruled out his speed and skill immediately. Dave thought he may have jumped into our luggage - yes, jumped - in Thailand and made the 25 hour trek back THREE months ago. But the thought of this made me ill, had we really had a turtle in our house for three months and not known it - gross. I chatted with a friend for nearly an hour at the pool about the stupid turtle, I became totally obsessed. How does a turtle get into a house without someone noticing?!!

We came home from the pool and I gaged at the new smell as I opened the front door. The dead turtle was rotting and now stinking up our house. My next text to Dave said, "I think he's starting to smell. Save me." I opened the windows for fresh air and got back down on the floor again to examine the turtle one more time. Yep, he was dead and we definitely had a turtle in our house.

Finally, Dave got home and the turtle removal was soon underway. He grabbed a napkin and picked him up. I stopped him just before he tossed him in the outside trash can. "I want to see him. No I don't. Okay, yes, I kind of do. Can you open the napkin?" Dave had put the napkin over his shell to pick him up, so as he unwrapped the napkin the turtle was upside down. We looked down together at the lifeless turtle and saw, "Tortoise. Made in China." imprinted on the bottom of the shell. IT WAS A TOY!!!!!!! Never a dull moment at the Piantanida house.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

July Re-cap

We often travel in July, rarely have we been in town for the entire month. But this year it worked out that we were here from the 1st to the 31st and we took advantage of every second. The first week of the month was filled with a visit from my cousin Nikki and her fiancĂ© Cody and out annual 4th of July festivities. The festivities, however, had a
twist this time because of torrential rain at the same time as the parade. But as they say, the show must go on, and our little neighborhood parade did. We were part of the neighborhood Snow Shoveling Brigade. The boys had a wagon full of ice and would throw it out as the Brigade of adults would shovel it up in "formation." Our goofy routine impressed the parade judges and earned our group a first place medal. To be honest, the competition was pretty limited this year because of the rain storm. But first is still first and we were excited. Fortunately, the rain stopped just as the parade ended and we were able to enjoy the neighborhood BBQ in drier weather.

Each day we went on an adventure or, if it rained, created something new at home. Some of the adventures included berry picking, the Theatre in the Woods at Wolf Trap, robot making, mini golf, the zoo, pretzel making, the Smithsonian Discovery Theatre, splash parks, the trampoline jump house, the Building Museum, the City of Alexandria's birthday party, parks, a taping of a Sirus XM radio show for kids, and Cabin John's train.
 

 

This one deserves a highlight. The National Building Museum hosted an exhibit called The Beach. (Definitely check out the photos on this link, http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/the-beach.html). It is an indoor exhibit that they have made to look and feel like the beach expect instead of water, there are millions - literally - of the clear plastic balls to dive in. It's pretty over-the-top. It was around 40" high in the deep end - Gates would jump in and completely disappear. I watched dozens of adults get stuck and need help getting out (very funny). Here are close-ups of us buried in the wave of balls...
And here is an aerial shot of the "water" at the beach... 
In addition to our morning adventures, almost every afternoon in July you could find us at the pool. Bodie has become a regular fish, swimming the full length of the pool unassisted, diving off the diving board, whipping off the slide and grinning the entire time.
Gates has upgraded to water wings and tries to follow Bodie everywhere in the pool - as long as mom or dad is closely nearby. Both boys are ridiculously tan with sun bleached blond hair and as a neighbor recently said, "They look like a walking Coppertone commercial!" We love the pool and feel so lucky to get to spend so much time enjoying the water. Oh, and I was just wondering, does anyone look cool in goggles?!?!!