Vacationish

I use the term vacation loosely here. It was a vacation in the time of Coronavirus. And by vacation I mostly mean Matt didn't have to work and we went places together on not a weekend day. So anyway, vacation week was last week. We made the best of it and it was actually a pretty good time. 

Monday: we went fishing in our creek. That was about the extent of it cause we had a few other things we had to do this day. 

Tuesday: Backstory- Matt has always wanted to go to Luray Caverns. I have never wanted to go to Luray Caverns. I am terrified of Luray Caverns. I always told him that would be a great trip for him to go on with Quinn and have some bonding time. Well here we were 137 into a pandemic and the thought of going to Luray Caverns was less terrifying than one more day stuck around my house. Lucky us that we were about the 3rd people to check into good old Luray that morning and pretty much had the dark, wet, underground cave to ourselves. Clearly, I survived and it wasn't that bad. We had to wear masks the whole time and my glasses were either fogged or I just quit wearing them, so maybe it helped I couldn't really see. 

After Luray Caverns we took a little drive over the Shenandoah National Park. We did the Stony Man Trail, which ended up being perfect. It was about 3 miles roundtrip. There was minimal complaining and Quinn was super proud of herself once we got to the summit and hung out at viewpoint enjoying the mountain views. 

Wednesday: Quinn wanted us to take her to DC so we could all touch the Washington Monument. We went in the middle of the day. It was crazy how empty it was. If you have ever been to DC in the summer, you know how many tourists there usually are, but it was almost like we had the place to ourselves. We visited the MLK memorial, WW2, Washington Monument, Lincoln memorial, and the Korean War memorial. We decided to quit while we were ahead and head back home because DC is also unbearably hot in the summer. 

Thursday: We planned to go to Pittsburgh for the weekend, but stopped off at Shenandoah again. We had planned to just do the first trail in the park, but when we got out of the car there was someone reporting a bear a few minutes down the trail to a park ranger. We decided to drive a little further in and ended up at the Land's Run trail. It ended at a nice little waterfall that made the steep downhill and uphill worth it. 

Pittsburgh: We were able to see lots of my family, enjoy cooler temperatures, celebrate Matt's birthday and my Grandma's birthday. It was a nice relaxing visit minus a 6:30 wake up call from Quinn which including a concert on the piano.

It was a great week and it was really nice to finally visit with family since we haven't seen anyone for the duration of pandemic. We are look forward to making Shenandoah a more regular visit since it's not that far. This is my last week of summer before my official contract starts. I'm hoping to squeeze in a little bit more excitement!

It's Been Awhile

Hey Coronavirus subscribers. As I mentioned in the title - it's been awhile. This past week we have been busy being tourists close to home, but more on that later. I wanted to just drop off some pictures from a few weeks ago, just to document life. It's still been deadly hot. I'm definitely ready for some cooler temps here soon. I mean I'd take anything less than feels like 103. 

I mentioned in my last post mid-July that my school district has decided to go back virtually for at least the first quarter. Quinn's school decided shortly after to completely shut down for the entire school year. While we had been leaning toward not sending her anyway, this was still a very sad email to receive. I have mentioned many times on this blog how much I love her school and the staff. I was making it through Spring thinking that she wasn't done there, but now she is. The next time she goes to school it will be real public school Kindergarten. So crazy. I'm referring to this as Quinn's gap year. Matt should be working from home for at least a few more months, and my schedule is still pretty up in the air. We decided to hire someone to come mid morning to early afternoon to entertain Quinn so that we can both focus on work for those hours, and then we will adjust our own schedules as necessary to cover the rest. 

The highlights of the week before last include the first harvest of peppers from our potted garden, a week full of VBS activities, making our own chocolate ice cream, and we did get to go to Quinn's school to pick up all her projects from her teachers. Other that that we were still moving rocks around the neighborhood, trudging ourselves through miserable heat to get out of the house, and visiting our flamingo friends. In my next catch up post you can look forward to a change of scenery. 

Rocks, Fireworks, Swimming

Another week of life's strangest summer gone by...this one marked by the huge highlight of swimming in a real pool. We also continued the adventures of painting and hiding rocks. This time we took our adventures across town to try to find some new rocks and to hide some of our own in a new location. You can see one in the cannon above.

Quinn found this robin's egg on a walk back from the rock trading post located in our neighborhood. 

Let's title these two pictures, 'very expensive dress up clothes.' Quinn's dance recital was the last weekend in May, and while the studio keeps saying it will happen, I'm not so sure at this point. In any case, we had already paid for her costumes, and we went to pick them up this week. I made her put them on and take pictures when we got home. She loves to dress up, so she was very excited and did not want to take them off. 

Quinn saw this Starbucks cup months ago and has wanted one ever since. It has confetti dots in it that change color when there is a cold beverage in it. I haven't seen one in stores, and also I wasn't buying a 4 year old a Starbucks cup. I told her she could cash in the rewards points she earns for doing chores/schoolwork, or she could pay me back and I would order her one on Etsy. She chose the cash option from her piggy bank.

It has been feels like temps of around 100 degrees for what feels like weeks at this point. We were very lucky to have a pool to ourselves for 4th of July weekend. We traded feeding my friend's cat for the use of her pool while she and her family were away. Great deal. Quinn even learned to swim a little bit by herself by the end of the weekend.

Milkshakes and pool on the 4th of July

Like most places, the local fireworks we typically go to were cancelled. We got a few sparklers to do and weren't upset about the whole thing. After we finished up at the pool for the day, we drove back home and there were fireworks in any direction we looked. It was the craziest thing. I guess people took matters into their own hands. When we pulled into our neighborhood so many people were outside either setting off fireworks, or watching. It was such a strange experience, but also pretty fun. 

We're Still Here

I haven't posted in awhile. Mainly we are doing the same old stuff around here. I have hit a bit of a wall, honestly. We have entered what I like to refer to as the Virginia summer. It is hot. I was very content walking around my neighborhood multiple times a day exploring trails, looking for rocks, checking in on flamingos, but now it feels like we walking around in Satan's oven. The pool also officially closed for the entire season. I'm glad I bought that insurance policy of a pool back in my pandemic panic days. I also invested in water shoes for Quinn earlier this week so she can splash around in the creek. She's super happy about this. She also caught a turtle and was so thrilled for herself. I'm seeking any ideas of things to do with a 4.5 year old to change things up around here - seriously give me something friends! In other news - I cut the grass for the first time in my life today!

Flamingos at the Drive-In 

Flamingo in rain gear

Quinn loves to visit our neighbors and talk their ears off everyday.

Part of our daily walk now includes finding empty playgrounds (we live in walking distance of many playgrounds) and just play a few minutes on each one until people come. I'm glad my child still has gross motor skills after having to put practicing those on hold for 4 months.

COVID Summer

It's been an exciting week around here. I'm officially done with school which is a moderate relief, but I have quite a list of to do's to prep for next year. I decided that I'm taking a few days off from thinking about that.

Quinn has recently started placing phone calls mostly to me or my mom. She taught herself this and sometimes I don't even know it's happening until I hear her talking to people. 

Monday I got a very fun end of the year surprise when my friends and coworkers stormed my street with a car parade. I was so happy to see everyone and wish we could have hung out. I am going to miss my people so much. We also had a fire Monday night...both Monday and Tuesday were perfect weather here in the mid 70s and cool in the evenings. So much better than hot and humid Virginia summer.

Tuesday we were up and at the newly reopened playground before 9:00 to try to get there and have some time before anyone else came. It was short lived, but still fun. While organizing our bathroom vanity that afternoon I busted out the hot rollers and put them in Quinn's hair. She thought it was so fun. We then drove a bus route, in her newly styled hair, delivering signs to the front yards of my 5th grade students.

Today was a weird rainy day (in the 60s) but we still got a walk in, did some math, played in the garage, played Uno and Sorry!, and found the missing remote so that we could turn on Disney+ this evening to watch the Bears version of the nature movies. These movies really show you how brutal nature is man.