Saturday, August 16, 2008

Not the Beach Exactly

We just spent the past few days at my parents house because on Thursday my mom and I were going to the beach with Caitlin and Anastasia. WELL that didn't quite happen. About 45 minutes down I-95 Caitlin got sick in the backseat of the car. I pulled off on the side of the Interstate... and we briefly cleaned up. Poor Caitlin. We went back to the 'Rents house and dropped Caitlin off, started laundry, and cleaned the car. The day was not over, and even though my mom was incredibly dissapointed about not going to the ocean, I came up with the idea to go to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond. I had remembered recently reading about their children's garden and thought it would be a nice thing to do. My mom had a family pass so we all ended up getting in for free! Anastasia had a blast playing in the sprinklers they had, smelling flowers and walking the beautiful gardens. They even had a giant sand box area so it was like the beach... except not really. I think I enjoyed it more than I would have enjoyed the beach. I love the ocean, but our last trip turned me off a bit with the jellies and the helicopters. And chasing a 1 1/2 year old around a vast expanse of sand that only ends at a vast expanse of sea is not quite as relaxing as a walk through a kid-friendly paradise. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day after the rough start. And on the way home we stopped at a Daily Grind and all the medium sized frozen coffee beverages were only $2 for "Cappy Hour"!!! I was thrilled! What a great day it turned out to be! (Pictures coming soon!)

Friday Nick's work had a "monsoon" for 3 of the pregnant employees. It was really nice with delicious food and cake! He works with very cool, very pro-life people so that is alway fun! :) I also enjoyed a quick walk around downtown Fredericksburg with Tara. Her hubby watched the baby so Tara and I stole a quick jaunt and ice cream with Anastasia. There is a store called the Jabberwocky which is an awesome children's bookstore with loads of unique open-ended toys. I bought Anastasia a neat farm playset made from similar materials as classic colorforms which kept her busy for an hour in the car. I also found out that Tomie dePola is coming there in November to introduce his new Strega-Nona pop-up book!!!! I used to love (and still do) Tomie dePola as a kid and was thinking how cool it would be to meet this timeless children's author/illustrator. We will see how things play out with the new little one and all. Then, the craziest thing was when I stopped at my 'rents house, my mom had picked up a really nice Mother Goose book illustrated by Tomie dePola of all people and he had autographed it! Isn't that so bizarre? I was just thrilled!

My computer is very slow now, so I will try and upload some pictures later today.
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