NC Zoo

Chad had the day off from work on Friday so we decided to head to the zoo.

Washington, D.C.

Chad had to go to Pennslyvania for work so we went with him. We've been talking about taking the kids to Washington, D.C. for a while thinking they were probably old enough to get something out of it. We decided that on the way back down from PA was a good opportunity to try out a short trip.

On our first day, we walked a lot looking at all the monuments.













The next day, we visited some of the Smithsonian Museums.

Air and Space Museum




Museum of Natural History


Museum of American History


We'll definitely go back for another visit when we have more time. We'd like to go to the zoo and spend more time in the museums since everyone was pretty tired from the previous day's walking by the time we got to them.

Strawberry Picking

Here's my sweet girl trying one of the strawberries. She never liked them when she tried the ones from the store. Finally, we got her to try a fresh one that she picked last year and she loved it.


I have no idea why she makes these crazy faces.


The girls fills their buckets before Colin is even half way finished. He has to carefully inspect each one before picking it.


Finally a full bucket.


I think these 3 buckets were gone in 2 days.

Trip to Kentucky

We spent a few days in KY visiting family.

This coal house is actually in WV, but it's close enough that you can probably see into KY standing there.


My sister-in-law has goats, which the kids love to see.







We also went to the Breaks Interstate Park on the KY/VA border.






They have displays about coal mining in the visitor's center. We had to discuss those and refresh our memories from studying coal mining when we did the book, The Rag Coat, earlier in the year.



While at the Breaks, we did some geocaching. It was our first time and the kids had a lot of fun hunting the treasure. Here is Molly finding the last one.

The babies flew

The kids think one of the four birds flew away yesterday. We were gone most of the day.

This morning around 8 a.m., they all came running into our room to tell us 2 more flew out of the nest. I’m so glad they got to see them because they have been watching a lot the last few days because we knew it had to happen soon since the birds were almost too big for the nest now.

They didn’t even want to eat breakfast because they couldn’t leave in case the last bird decided to fly away.

Here is the last one in the nest.


A little over an hour after the other 2 left, the last one finally decided to give it a try. He seemed to have more trouble than the others. He flew out of the nest and landed on some rock on the other side of the porch. Then he landed on the porch.


He got into some trouble and needed a little help. Since Chad had him, the girls just had to pet him. After that, he seemed to be getting the flying thing down a little better.

Baby Birds

The kids have spent much of their time this week watching the baby birds on our porch.


The mom and dad birds stay in this tree in front of the porch a lot of the time.


Here they are at the nest though.


Babies being fed.


Some big black birds have been hanging around trying to get to the babies. The kids decided it was their job to protect the babies. They wouldn’t leave the porch for a long time. Once I made them come in, they sat at the window watching in case they needed to run out and chase the birds away.

The babies have grown so much over the last week. I’m sure the time is coming when they’ll fly away. The kids are excited about that and sad at the same time.

Bird Nest

When we came to pick up the keys to our new house last week, we noticed a bird nest on the front porch. We didn't hear or see anything so we weren't sure if it was being used. Yesterday, when we got back here to move in, we could hear the baby birds.

Isle of Palms Beach

A day at the beach is so much nicer for me when they have these tide pools. The kids spend all their time playing there. The water is shallow enough that I don't have to be right with them.

Last week, they spent the whole time pestering me to take them to the water. This time I actually got to sit and read some.

A bad thing about it is that they dig in the mud and get filthy.

Then they have to go into the ocean to rinse off before they can change into dry clothes.

Colin didn't like that part because he said the water was freezing.

Another trip to the aquarium

 

 I had been wanting to take the kids to the aquarium on a day when they bring out a penguin. 

Colin wanted to see the new albino alligator.