Flying Sharks and Other Stuff

Spring has definitely arrived in DC and we are taking full advantage. We've already logged 60 miles on the bikes as a family and we try to spend as much time outside as is possible. This weekend we road down (okay, so I hitched a ride in the bike trailer) to the National Kite Festival at the Washington Monument. We had a 7' shark kite. He looked pretty tough until the 80' American flag kite showed up; oh well.





There wasn't much wind when we first got there so my dad spent a lot of time running and jumping while tossing the kite in the air - don't tell him but my mom and I laughed a lot. Thanks to his persistence the shark soared into the air and then the wind picked up, so it was a successful kite-flying day. I took the kite reins a few times but when the wind started to blow and the kite flew up high I decided it was best to throw the kite handle in the air and run the opposite direction. This caused my dad to resume his running and jumping behavior, but this time it was to try and catch the kite string as the kite flew away...classic.

When I am indoors, I've become a bit obsessed with my Matchbox cars. I insist on lining all of them up in the exact middle of our floor. This means every single person must walk around or step over them to get by - I have made a perfect obstacle. My parents don't find these skills as clever as I do.





Flowers are popping. Hope everyone is enjoying the start of spring!

Spring has Sprung!

Visits to the zoo, cherry blossoms, bike rides, the park - Spring is awesome!

I've had two visits to the zoo in the past two weeks - one with the Hickmans and Strattons and one with my buddy Christine. Christine is the best. She chased me around, made sure I didn't get eaten by lions or sneak under the fence with the llamas, and played all day.

We also took our annual bike ride to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. We take the scenic route and it's about a 20 mile ride round trip (my dad calls that "junk mileage," my mom calls it a workout). The ride was fun, and the blossoms looked like popcorn had exploded on all of the trees.

On the way back, about 5 miles from home, my dad got a little wobbly and quickly got to the side of the trail...his bike pedal had fallen off! Yes, the WHOLE left peddle. The bolt dropped out - somewhere - and now he had no way to connect it to his bike. Think quick dad, what should we do?

"I'm pretty sure I can still ride home like this" he confidently said. My mom smiled and said, "Sure, you want to pull Bodie in a bike trailer up hill for five miles while using only one pedal. Okay, give it a try Superman." (Who's Superman by the way?) Splat. It did not go well. One rotation and my dad conceded. So he hopped on my mom's bike and took off - zoom! While he was headed home to get the Jeep, my mom and I played at Gravely Point and watched the airplanes land until he came back to pick us - and the one pedal bike - up!

What's Crafty, Wet, and Green...ME!

My cousin Francesca slept over last weekend and we did lots of fun stuff - made pizza for dinner, bunny-shaped rice krispie treats for her basketball team, and cooked homemade play dough. Lots of mess and lots of fun. Lucky me for having such a great cousin.

As the weather continued to play tricks on us - 35 degrees one day, 70 degrees the next - we caught a sunny day and headed two blocks down the street from our house to the creek on Four Mile Run. It's moving pretty fast these days but there are still enough shallow spots that I can stand in the water without floating away. I could throw rocks for hours. This one made a huge splash.

We kicked off the St. Patrick's Day month with the annual Brien Bash in Old Town Alexandria. Our friends the Briens host a party every year at a fun Irish pub on the same day as the Old Town St. Patrick's Day parade. So we got to hang out with fun people AND watch a cool parade.

Snow Way!

Yep, it's true, I snow skied. I just piled on ten pounds of clothes, strapped on a helmet wider than my shoulders, secured goggles over my eyes, put on giant hard plastic boots, and clicked into skis that were a few inches longer than the bindings and off I went. Sounds pretty simple, huh!?!?!?

It really was a blast and I yelled, "faster, faster" the whole way down. I got in 6-8 runs a day and never complained once. I did, however, fall asleep WHILE SKIING on one of the runs. My dad skied up with me in between his legs and my mom said, "Is he okay, he looks kind of limp?" My dad's reply, "He sure is heavy this run, I'm doing all of the work." My mom, "Um, maybe it's because he's completely asleep." Oops, guess I was tired. So they took me in for a break and I napped in the lodge with my Grandma.

That's me on the lift with my Grandpa (can you see my tiny skis in between his knees?)

My Grandma and Grandpa tried to teach me good form - I just wanted to go fast.

Here's me and my cousins right before Mallory and I raced down the hill (she won).

We also had an awesome snowball fight and made snow angels. Mine kind of looked like a snow blob, oh well, it was fun.

Nothing Normal

The other day a woman asked to see a picture of my son. I proudly pulled out my phone, clicked on the pictures in my phone, then began to laugh. I didn't have a single "normal" photo of Bodie in my phone, not one. So I showed the nice stranger these pictures...I wonder what she thought of me? Oh well, who needs normal anyway.