just because...a list of "happys"

ok, so I've got about 6 other fully blogworthy posts to get to. April was jam-packed with goodness! In the meantime, I will simply post a list of things that are making me happy lately to tide you all over. I know, I know the suspense will be killing you.

-happy to be home with my husband

-happy that I and the boys are happy to be back with DADDY. Maybe now I will get some sleep without two kids wanting to sleep ON me. No idea what got into them. Either way, I'm glad they are in their own beds again!

-had a fabulous trip, and got to see tons of family

-spent much missed time with lots of friends, both me and they boys. They love all their buddies!

-ate some YUMMY food lately! (although tonight at dinner, at a restaurant which shall remain nameless...because I do really like them usually...there was a bug. Yes, a bug in my soup. eww. yuck. gross. We got free desserts though?! silver lining I guess)

-got GORGEOUS "I missed you" flowers from my hubby. I missed him too!

-is still loving our new car. I was happy that the "new car smell" was still there when he picked me up from the airport!

-watched the movie How to Train Your Dragon, loved it, and am now excited that there is another great "little boy" movie out there.

-got our housing profile and am super excited to finally get a mental picture of everything! Going to go shopping for new towels tomorrow:)

-loved having "girl's nights" last week

-stocked up on some great cute fabric while out west!

-tulips. they just always make me happy. and they are everywhere right now. love it love it.

-chuck. my favorite tv show. 3 seasons in, and finally the payoff. been fans since day one, and just love it all. Jeffster especially. I wonder if they have their songs on Itunes?

-happy that I now know I can fly with two kids by myself! (shortish flights anyway:)

-Found a blu-ray copy of Rick Steve's in Istanbul. yay!

-the strawberry frozen custard at the place off Arlington Blvd.

-happy to have Porter's school application officially done, and he is accepted!

ok, I think that is a long enough list for now....I could go on, but most of you would probably stop reading:)

Colorado

For those of you who may not know, the boys and I have been on a bit of a vacation lately! (Still here in fact for another 48 hours and missing daddy terribly:) We've been out west having one last hurrah with our family and friends in Colorado and Utah; among other things i.e. a trip to the dentist and the eye doctor. In the meantime I realized that I did not bring our laptop-the one with all of the pictures from our VERY busy last month. There are multiple blogworthy events that will surely be written about as soon as my pictures and I are reunited! I decided to blog what I had though, so as not to be too terribly behind when I get home. We spent a good portion of the beginning of our trip at my parent's house in Colorado! We went ATVing (which the boys LOVED), to a petting zoo, swimming, bowling (including my grandpa and two grandmothers which was awesome) and ate tons of yummy food. I unfortunately didn't get to see everyone I had hoped too while there:( Still know that I love you guys though and we'll be back soon enough! We were just too jampacked with family fun!

Me and my little brother Grant

Uncle Grant and Roni

Aunt Katie and Porter

Dr. Dolittle here-talking to the animals

The almost whole family-minus Noah, Ryan and Uncle Grant(taking the picture)
and plus one grandpa, 2 grandmas and an aunt

We had such a fun time at home, it was a great last Colorado memory before we head to Turkey! Now the fun we had in Utah will be a whole other post.. so stay tuned!

Easter Cuties

I am falling behind again in my blogging, but this time it is just because we have had a VERY busy week with many blogworthy events and hardly any time to blog them! I just had to get these Easter pics up first though because they were just too cute!! I will post the rest of the Easter festivities here soon. With all of the gorgeous blossoms here in the D.C. area I snatched up the opportunity to have the boy's Easter outfits match the scenery! We got some darling shots with the beautiful blooms in the background. Love it. Love my boys.

My baby. Ronan is just delicious in this picture! Don't you just want to eat him up?!

Yes, I'm Porter. And I am soooo handsome. I'm being a good sport for my mom. Do I get some candy after this?

In Denial

So I (we) are in denial. I have been putting off writing this, because doing so means that they are actually gone! I have been EXTREMELY blessed throughout my life with some wonderful friends, all of which I adore and can't imagine my life without. Our recent move here to Washington D.C. has been no exception. One somewhat unanticipated benefit of joining the Foreign Service was the number of completely awesome people that we have gotten to know. Truly, there have been many. Noah's A-100 class has been full of some super great Mom's that I've gotten to know, as well as some awesome people from our church!

We've had such a wonderful time getting to know all of them, but these guys: Ryan, Kesli, and Ryli are our icing on the cake! Within only a few hours of moving in to our new apartment we happened upon these FABULOUS FOLKS. Heaven sent them straight to our doorstep. Literally! Bright and early Saturday morning, after getting in Friday evening we ran into these guys in the hall. Then....as if we were being pulled together by the universe we ran into each other only minutes later at Costco! Our boys are the same age and they were THRILLED to have buddies. Now, the kiddos were not the only ones who lucked out with this fantastic trio. Turns out Noah and Ryan as well as Kesli and I are matches made in Heaven. Having them right down the hall has been one of the funnest experiences ever!

Kesli and I - my newest "bestie" at Frying Pan Farm Park

Now here is the kicker...not only have we been beyond lucky to have them just a few doors down while here in D.C.; but beyond all odds we get to be almost neighbors again at our first posts!! Their's being in Moldova (between Romania and Ukraine) it is only about 650 miles away! When you have a whole world to possibly separate you, this is definitely closer to a good set of friends than I ever thought possible! How fun is it that we will now get to travel the world together?! There will be multiple trips made between us, I assure you:)

Above is just a small sampling of the many fun things we did with our pals! It was so fun to have some friends ready to try and do anything and everything together, even at the spur of the moment! They were also AMAZING tour guides, being that they have lived here before. I guess I will have to find my own way around now:)

They packed up and shipped out to start their journey to Moldova last weekend. sniff sniff. We have been so blessed to have them in our lives for even just a few months! We kept ourselves nice and busy with a trip to PA and friends from South Carolina in town over the last week, but now it is settling in. It is weird to see someone else coming out of their door. It makes it easier knowing that we will get to see them soon, and we can't wait! We love you guys! Thanks for everything.

Picnic under the Cherry Blossoms

In an attempt to meet up with my friend Katie at the National Cherry Blossom Festival today, the boys and I hopped on the Metro and headed into downtown D.C. We packed a tasty lunch, brought our blanket, walking shoes and camera to soak in all of the famous Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin that we have heard so much about. They did not dissapoint! Sheer Heaven, gorgeous blossoms as far as the eye could see!

This should be a fabulous picture. Ronan should be able to do something at this stage in life rather than stare directly back at me whenever I turn a camera on him. Porter should be able to smile normally as well without doing strange things with his hands. However, "should be" and reality are two different things. Thus, this is the best picture I was able to procure of the Jefferson Memorial, blossoms, Tidal Basin, and boys. My boys are such stinkers sometimes, but I love it.

After wading our way through a sea of people, police cars and road blocks ( being as we watched the motorcade for either our President or the French President-depending on who you asked-go by) we gave up on trying to find Katie. The fact that I need to reprogram about 50 phone numbers back into my phone at the moment, so I didn't have hers when I needed it is a whole different story. Sorry Katie!! But I digress, so yes... the best part of being a "kind-of-tourist", as I've decided to call it is that we can go and enjoy whatever we want for whenever we want and not feel too much pressure. I really have been trying to focus on the moments, and enjoy what we can, while we can.

So Porter helped me pick a "just perfect" spot to throw out our little blanket and set up our picnic on our own. Both of my boys are in love with the idea of a "picnic". They think it is fabulous to eat outside. We sat and ate, laughed as Porter told me jokes, and enjoyed the amazing scenery. PB&J never tasted so good!

We walked around a bit more, thought about the idea of waiting in the two extremely long lines to get through security for the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum; and eventually settled on getting some popcorn from a street vendor (also something Porter has been dying to do). We relaxed on a bench and enjoyed our snack while Ronan slept peacefully in the stroller!

It really was fabulous to really do nothing big at all. Just enjoy my boys, enjoy the SPRING, and enjoy the current blessing we have to be living in the D.C. area. It is days like this that really make you fall in love with this city. Another great day for the history books.

Gravelly Point

We hit Gravely Point again for a quick trip this last weekend for a nice little afternoon. The airplanes were "landing the right way" this time, so it was really amazing. They land against the wind, so sometimes you can catch them coming right over your head. The boys LOVED every second of it!

It is also a fabulous place to relax, and enjoy each other's company

I'm still working on getting a really great shot with the boy(s) and the planes. One day before we leave, it will be my goal.

Lots of grass to run, run, and run some more!

And we loved just lying flat on our back to watch the airplanes fly over our heads!

We were dumb and didn't bring the camera again today, so we stole all these shots from our friend Kesli's camera! She got some awesome shots for sure. Even the smoke from the tires hitting the runway.

A fabulous new favorite pastime to be sure.

Jellyfish, Sharks, and Sea Turtles Oh My!

In our crazy life, I have been getting totally behind! So I am making a mad push today to get caught up. We headed out to the Baltimore National Aquarium the weekend before last. Our cute friends Tara and little Hazel were also able to join us. Fun stuff. It was the weekend with the CRAZY amounts of rain, and apparently we weren't the only ones who had the idea:) It was pretty packed, but we all had a wonderful time just the same! It was HUGE! We were there for hours and we didn't even attempt to see another whole building ( Australia type stuff I think). It is in an awesome location though, right on the waterfront in Baltimore; so we were also able to see the USS Tursk (submarine) and the USS Chesapeake that were both anchored there. Maybe on another day when it isn't raining cats and dogs we will explore the waterfront more.

They had some amazing exhibits though, that we all loved. They had tons of different kinds of Jellyfish, which if I'm being honest, really gross me out... but they were still incredible to see. The kids were all fascinated by them.

Porter and his leatherback sea turtle. They are his FAVORITE kind of turtle-a love he developed from Diego.

And yes, they have indoor dolphin shows at this aquarium! A baby dolphin had just been born when we went, so they weren't doing actual shows that day. Instead they just let everyone watch their training sessions...and told us all to keep it quiet, no applause so mommy and baby could bond in a calm environment. It was still pretty great though!! Just enough for our kiddos. Word to the wise though...you have to check your stroller at the door. Definitely a time I agree with the little leash backpacks!

We all had a great time; saw sharks, all sorts of rays, dolphins, jellyfish, turtles, and every other type of sea life imaginable. Oh yes, and a baby seahorse!! It was SOOO teeny, it was amazing. If they had not pointed it out I would have never known it was there! We finished off the day at Hard Rock Cafe Baltimore, which was also right on the water-and sat in the section with all the Beatles' Stuff. It was a fun day. Tip: excellent Mac and Cheese for the kids:)

They also take a fun picture of your family when you enter, which can be seen online here, but I did not feel the need to pay a bajillion dollars for this photo of us. sorry folks:) This will have to do.

Fascination at it's best! And, cute Hazel:)