The Sun is here!

It was almost 80 degrees the other day, sun shining, birds singing, cherry buds ready to bloom… its springtime in Maryland! Paul didn’t hesitate to break out the garden hose and fill up the… uh… swimming pool?

Oh yeah!! Fill it up! It's the redneck kiddie pool! Get one for each of your kids!

It's not easy being this cool. So don't even try it.

The water won't be that cold... will it?

Nah! On a day like today, it's just about perfect. We may need a bigger bucket though, maybe like a 50 gallon drum!

Spring Training...

It appears that winter is finally gone, and summer will be coming before long. It’s been nice to get home some nights and have the sun still shining. Last week we stepped out in the front yard to get Paul started on his Spring Training: swinging the bat at me, throwing the ball at me, and running around in circles.

He was actually able to make contact with the ball sometimes. I'm sure that's already good enough to play for the Indians. And look how tall this kid is getting!

Already thinks he's big enough to beat up his dad. When he's not swinging something at me, he's got his fists up saying, "Wanna punch? Wanna punch, dad??" And then he tries to "bring the giant down!"

And then there's pregnant mom. She didn't quite have as much energy as Paul to run the bases.

But she can still sit on the sidelines and be his number one fan. So you gotta love the arrival of Spring! 75 and sunny is a whole lot better than shoveling snow!

Is it Spring yet?

No not quite yet, but the sun was shining today. While I went to work on a Sunday, Becky and Paul ran around in the yard, now mostly free of snow. It was good to get outside in the sunshine for a while, the first time in a while. And what’s more spring-like than blowing bubbles in the yard? I can’t think of anything.


Well I remember back in my day if you wanted bubbles you had to blow through one of those sticky plastic circle things. Kids these days. Now you just push a button and the thing blows the bubbles for you. After that, Paul was able to use it to update the status on his Facebook page.

The boy is growing up. I guess it had to happen sooner or later. It seems like just the other day he was a crying newborn. What would it be like to have one of those again? Ha! Oh wait...

This bubble is just about ready to pop. The same could be said for something else around here. Just five weeks until the estimated arrival of Paul's little brother. Wish us all luck!!

Down by the Bay

On Thursday we took a drive over to the Chesapeake Bay. It was kind of like going to the beach, only not quite as warm. The wind was a bit brisk, but Paul didn’t mind. He spent the time running around a playground pirate ship with a little girl who was hanging out around there. The girl’s babysitter was a skilled shark tooth finder, because in just a few minutes she found half a dozen in the sand for Paul. I looked all over the place and only found one little pathetic tooth. So apparently there are a few sharks in the bay, but they didn’t appear to be large man-eating sharks like the ones on TV that Paul loves to cheer on. Either way, the temperature of the water probably would have been worse than the sharks.

Taking a walk on the Boardwalk. A sign told me that the Chesapeake Bay produces more crabs than any other body of water in the world. That's a lot of crabs. We didn't see any.

Ahoy! Let's check the traps! It's crab legs for dinner tonight!

We're not getting in the cage. The cage isn't going in the water. Sharks in the water. Little sharks. But still... sharks.

Adam is a little disappointed that his big brother was born near a much warmer beach.

Just running around in the sand. One of his favorite things. We'll have to take him back in a few weeks if Spring ever shows up.

Why won't it stop?!?

The average annual snowfall in DC is something like 15 inches. Last weekend, some parts of the area got 38 inches in a 24 hour period. Down in southern Maryland here, we must have gotten at least two feet. So we spent the whole weekend trapped in the driveway and trying to dig out. When we got out on Sunday afternoon after it stopped, the roads and parking lots were chaos. I've seen several cars flipped on their sides and others buried head first in the snow off the road. One building in Waldorf apparently caught fire during the storm and burned to the ground. Trees were knocked over, power lines were down, and some people went without heat or power for 30 hours. They’ve been calling it the snowpocalypse. The nice thing was that I didn’t have to go to work on Saturday. I did, however, have to work a seventeen hour day yesterday to make up for the missed work. But then last night, round two began. And now it won’t stop snowing again. Possibly another twenty inches. Oh well. At least Paul enjoyed the snow!

Aaaah!! The snow is eating me alive!

This will have to be our new home. We're just going to have to dig in and wait until someone comes to save us, or until Summer gets here.

At least we can eat some snowflakes if we run out of food.

And this is the fun that I got to have. Nothing better than continuous shoveling. And now we'll have to do it all again. The only problem is trying to find a place to put it all. Oh, the joys of winter.

Protecting the Capital

Yes, another fort. In the 1860’s the U.S. government thought it was probably a good idea to defend the capital city against any rebel attacks from across the river, so they threw together a bunch of makeshift forts to protect DC. Something like thirty of these earthwork fortifications were dug up, but I don’t think they saw much action. All that’s left of this one, Fort Foote, is pretty much just trenches with a few remnants of the stone walls. There were a couple of giant cannons still in place, one which had been there since 1864. I can understand why they never moved them, because they weighed something like forty thousand pounds. The sign said they could fire a 450 pound ball three miles! Which means it could probably fire a 38 pound boy something like 2,200 miles. That would be a much easier way for him to visit his grandparents back home, compared to airline prices. But basically, this place was just a park to bring your dog, or your kid. We, of course, brought the latter.

We fought our own battle here with ice and snow. He's not the best snowball thrower, but he takes a hit pretty good.

Nothing is more fun than standing on a log. I guess.

Overlooking the Potomac... looking for rebels to fire the cannons at!

It wasn’t much to see, but it was a good day to walk in the park, before the big snow storm rolled onto the coast.

The Awakening

I was searching the internet the other day for free things to do in DC, since we’ve seen a lot of the stuff downtown already, and I came across a picture of this statue. I thought it was pretty funny, so I thought we’d better go check it out. It actually used to be set up in DC on this peninsula called Haines Point, but apparently they sold it, and it now sits in the National Harbor along the banks of the Potomac in Maryland. The National Harbor was actually the first place we visited when we moved here, but not by choice. We got lost trying to get around the beltway and took the wrong exit. It’s basically a new development for rich tourists. Seriously, all we wanted to do was walk around and check out the stores and see the statue, but the parking meters gave you five minutes per quarter!! What?? And the meters took credit cards!! I quickly discovered that we didn’t have enough money to shop in this place. But there was a Peeps store that was pretty cool (yes, Peeps, the inedible yellow marshmallow chickens you get at Easter). Otherwise, we only could find three quarters and a couple of dimes, so we ended up with 21 minutes to check the place out (I wasn’t about to use my debit card at a parking meter… it was the principal of the matter). So we checked out the Peeps, bought some Mike and Ikes, and took a few pictures of The Awakening.

Not sure what this is all about... but I thought it was cool.

Give us a hand, giant metal dude in the sand!

Uh, you might want to watch out, Mom. I hope that guy remembered his deodorant.

Not sure where you buy shoes for feet like this.

Feeding the giant his morning snack. Look at the sheer terror on Paul's face. What a good father I am.

Down by the dirty water.

Just one of the many times we'll be taking him to off the wall places. He's used to it by now.

So if you're ever in town and want to see a big metal guy lying in the sand, I guess this is the place to go. Now I'm back to the internet to find other random things to take pictures of...