Colonial Williamsburg

Our last day spent in Williamsburg was spent in Colonial Williamsburg. With the exception of the rain, and the fact that our kids were exhausted - and therefore cranky, it was a pretty pleasant experience. All the stuff they sell there is made by the employees. Cute little old ladies like this... There are like four panels of this sword by sword criss cross pattern. These were all swords and rifles and such in the Governor's Mansion. From the time of Lord Dunmore. All of these weapons were at one time used in the revolutionary war. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the whole room at once. It was very very impressive.

These were all taken in the hospital cemetary. The Governor's Mansion was a hospital during the Civil War. As you can see from above, they didn't dig the Confederate soldiers so much... I know its all a little morbid, but I loved the major headstone for the "Coke" family! The big and little headstone was a mom and her baby, which almost made me cry. So so sad. Some pretty little flowers that reminded me of raspberries. The obligatory stockade photos. Braxton didn't hold still long enough for me to get a good one of him in there... bummer, right? Our ever-fearless leader consulting the map. At least the paper kind can't say "off route, re-calculating route". Braxton and his favorite gift-shop-find. A "historically accurate" tin-whistle. Oh the beautiful music that now fills my house...Call me crazy, but I would totally love to live in Williamsburg. In this house. It was so cute, the neighborhood is so nice... haha. No seriously. Given the chance I would snatch this baby up and move in. The landlord has got to be better than the one I'm currently leased to...

Now how 'bout them apples?

A Whole Quarter of a Decade!

Alright, blog stalkers - I know I haven't been online in a few days, and I'm sorry. However, If I were always online I wouldn't have anything to blog about. Mark's mom, dad, brother and sister have been in town since Tuesday of last week, celebrating the return of our own personal war hero, Eric. Go Uncle Sneaky! Anyway, the last couple of days we went down to Williamsburg, and did the water park, Busch Gardens, and Colonial Williamsburg. Super duper funness ensued. I'll have more pictures up later. While I was waiting for our dinner to arrive (pizza) I toyed around with some pictures of mark's parents.
These were taken in Colonial Williamsburg. Which was pretty cool, and I wish I had had more time to spend there. Unfortunately the two previous days completely wore the boys out and they had had enough of the whole vacation thing. This is Rickey and Peggy - or Gramma and Pa Hat in our house. A whole quarter of a decade together and they're still in love. Pretty awesome eh?

Friendly Faces...

Ok, if you read this blog you have figured out that I love to take pictures. Mostly of my kids, cuz lets face it, I don't get out much. I'm no Annie Leibovitz, but my photos are slowly progressing. Here are some of my favorites from the last little while. This is little Miss Hayley. If firecracker were to ever describe a person, she would be it.

Weeeeee! I know this one is a repeat, but I really really like it.

Woohoo, the pool!

They don't look like they want to kill eachother in this one...

This one so says "I'm a 50's sex symbol". I love you Pickle.

Alright. I'm gonna end it with that. If anybody has any hints for me, I'm wide open to suggestion. Please, I'd really, super really like to get better at this!

Don't Wake Daddy!

This last weekend I got some shots of the boys (mostly Kieran) "waking" daddy up. They're so adorable...
The only reason B-rox isn't really in them is because he was too busy jumping around to be caught by the camera. Not because of favoritism. I swear.

McDaniel "do's"

Ok, so they're probably actually "don'ts" but you'll get the idea...A little sunscreen, sweat and a good night of sleeping on it gets you this! This was a little tamer than when he first woke up, but I'm not sure I could have managed to point the camera in the right direction when he first woke up... so this is the result a few hours later. This is actually right after bath time. With his hair brushed up and back like this I think he looks like Dash from the Incredibles. It was also crazy hard to get a picture of him, because he kept crawling towards me. Silly mobile children!
Even with funktastic hair, I still think they're the handsomest little boys ever!

Vets Park

On Thursday, some moms in the neighborhood - myself included - made the mistake of heading to the local water park. Thursday was apparently summer camp day. About four bajillion kids were there. If you want a nice, safe, fun, unstressful time at a water park - DON'T go on summer camp day. We still had a decently good time though.
B-rox playing in the kiddie pool "mountains".

Rules?????

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The picture in the middle is my friend Julie. She loves to play with my boys. She also doesn't need the rules. (didja notice the plum in her hand?)

All in all, with the exception of me scorching my lower back a tad, it was a decent two hours.

Duh.

Braxton is becoming quite the little smarty-pants.
Today I gave Braxton a ten minute warning on nap time. (apparently its supposed to make it easier for them to accept. I still have yet to see this...) About two minutes later he comes in and tells me "mom, I found the problem!"
Me: "what problem?"
B-rox: "Nap Time"
Me: "Oh, how do we fix the problem?"
B-rox: "No nap."

Duh, I should have known.