{A Hogwarts Halloween}

Hogwarts Halloween, 2023...10 points for Gryffindor! 

Love,

    Ron, Hermoine, Harry, and Crookshanks. 

Auggie turns FIVE!

Auggie is five!  This last year has been an absolute whirlwind...we blinked and Auggie grew up.  Up and up and up.  In the last year Auggie started a new preschool, began reading and writing, learned to ride his pedal bike, started swim lessons, mastered coloring and drawing, figured out Lego instructions, moved from the bunny hill to the big ski lifts, and completed his first official soccer season!  Watching him learn, grow, and try new things has been one of the most rewarding things Don and I have ever been a part of.

{The Green Dragons, named by Auggie after his favorite sushi roll...teehee.}

{Washington County Community Center Preschool, Ms. Shelly's Class}

{Harry Potter Birthday Party!}

{Potion Making}

It wouldn't be an Auggie blog without talking about his deep love of chapter books, scary stories, and any story these days.  He went through several phases of loving different characters...first superheroes, then Star Wars, and now Harry Potter.  As a very devoted Marvel comic fan, our friend Heather kickstarted Auggie's love of superheroes.  He went all in and immediately fell in love with Hulk and Spiderman.  By default, Owen fell in love with Captain America (who he adorably called "Cap Mers" for the longest time...swoon!).  

Auggie never lost interest in superheroes, per se, but they were quickly eclipsed by his discovery of Star Wars.  He was beyond excited to be Darth Vader for Halloween last year and asked so many questions that he knows more about the movies than most adults do!  Frequent were our conversations about how light sabers are created, what effect each different kyber crystal has on the light saber it creates, how only Jedis can create light sabers, and that Mace Windu is the only Jedi to ever have a purple light saber, etc. etc. etc.  Auggie is so smart and is truly one of the most inquisitive kids I've ever known.  He loves asking questions, and we absolutely love his brilliant little mind!

Most recently, Auggie has moved on to Harry Potter.  I'm a big Harry Potter fan, so we decided to start reading him just a little bit to see if he would be interested.  Interested...ha! He was mesmerized!  Of course, we edited a lot, but he wouldn't let us put the first book down!  Thus began his love of both Harry Potter and chapter books.  We are now solidly living in what I call Auggie's "Harry Potter Era".  All things Harry Potter, all the time.  Admittedly, this made for a super fun October where we all dressed up HP for days and had one big Harry Potter-birthday-Halloween-extravaganza!  

{Happy Helper show-and-tell at preschool!}

I don't think anything makes Auggie happier right now than a Harry Potter Lego.  The combo cannot be beat!

{"Most Likely to attend Hogwarts" award at HP night at the Children's Museum!}

List of chapter books we've read with Auggie:

-  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

-  Charlotte's Web

-  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

-  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

If I had to use one word to describe Auggie this last year, I would use the word brave.  Auggie has faced a lot a lot a lot of new and terrifying (for him!) things this year.  Despite feeling very scared and afraid, and despite many tears, he still faced them.  Most of his accomplishments did not come easily for him, and we are beyond proud that he never gave up.  

We love you, Auggie!!

Funny Auggie quotes/words from last year:

-  Babies "hatch" instead of babies being "born"

-  The OG Owen Grey stories turned into Auggie Grey stories

-  "Look mom...I'm part runner, part church, part sumo wrestler!" (wearing running shoes, church pants, and no shirt)

-  "After 3, I'll only have 3 left!  No, after 3, you'll have 2 left.  No, mom, not in this instance.  I'll show you!"

-  In primary, Auggie shared a story about leprechauns:  "I set up a clancher and clanched the leprechaun.  Then I ground him into meat and I ate him!  I was the only one in primary who caught a leprechaun!"

-  Scary Stories:  Every night the kids beg Don to tell them "scary stories".  They aren't actually scary, but the kids love them.  They always start with "Dad and Auggie and Owen were walking home from work..."  Mom is never allowed to be in the stories :)

-  "Sometimes I don't like to do things I don't like to do, but I always say yes to toys"

-  "I'm about to poop, and then the next words I'm going to say are 'I need help wiping!', okay?"

-  Prayers:  "Toys and playing and books and reading"

-  "bath-tized" instead of baptised.

 

Preschool Pictures Before/After

We have not one, but two preschoolers this year!  Owen spent all of last year dutifully following instructions to get back in the car after dropping Auggie off, all the while begging to stay.  It's finally his turn this year, and he is officially a Tiny Tike!

Owen has started with Mrs. Kiera, while Auggie graduated to the "older" preschool at the Washington County Community Center.  This was a scary transition for everybody, but it was definitely the right choice.  After a rocky first month for Auggie, he is now thriving at his new school!  He loves his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Shelley, and it feels like the perfect fit.  Owen couldn't wait to run up the stairs on his first day, and he is so proud to be going by himself!

Love these two handsome cuties.

{End of the year pictures 😭}

Washington DC & the Farm

In August, we took a trip to Washington D.C.!  It was a two-fold mission to see the city and visit the Quebe Farm.  It had been several years (at least!) since we'd made a trip to the farm, so we were really excited to see everybody.  

{19-hour delay in Charlotte 😱}  

We have never had a travel experience as disastrous as this one.  What should have been a routine layover in Charlotte turned into a complete nightmare.  We arrived in Charlotte around 2pm, and then our flight got delayed and delayed and delayed until 8pm.  All the while, we planed and deplaned three different times, sitting on the tarmac each time.  Soon after that, our flight was cancelled.  Oof.  I quickly re-booked us onto the soonest, next flight (at 10pm) thanks to the help of a friendly passenger in the same predicament.  

Flight attempt #2 was also delayed...again and again.  We were still at the airport at midnight when I finally told the gate agent that we couldn't do it anymore.  She was in the middle of telling me that the next available flight to rebook wasn't until the *next evening* when suddenly the board behind her flashed that our flight #2 had now been delayed until 7am!  It's pretty tragic when a delay to the next morning is the best news you've heard all day...but hallelujah!  I begged her for a hotel, and within fifteen minutes we were out of there.

12:30am taxi  --->  1:30am sleep  --->  4:30am wake-up  --->  7:00am flight delay ahhhhh --->  9:00am TAKE OFF!!!!  I am no quitter, but when we came back to the airport in the morning and our flight was delayed again, I was close to giving up on the whole trip.  Truly.  I'm still both shocked and grateful we made it out.

We went through aaaallll the emotions in Charlotte...tired, exhausted!  Asleep.  Crazy.  Crazier!  Slap-happy.  Crying, sobbing, unconsolable.  Frustrated.  Angry!  So so tired...and finally, relief!

Honestly, the kids handled the whole situation like champions, given the circumstances.  The only real meltdown they had was in the morning when we woke them up after only three-ish hours of sleep.  They both scream-cried for an hour and a half straight, from the minute we woke them up until the minute we made it through security at the airport.  I started crying with them in the security line, so we were quite the show.  Everybody around us was so kind, with the exception of TSA.  They were, as expected, emotionless robotic robots from robot land.

{We made it!!!}

These sleepyheads crashed in the airbnb immediately.  V cute.

While everyone slept, it was a run to the monuments for meeeee!

{Dinner with friends}

My dear, wonderful, childhood friend Marissa lives in West Virginia now, so I was not expecting to see her this trip.  She texted me on the first day we arrived and told me they were in D.C.!!!  We shifted plans and squeezed in dinner with her family.  She's special to me, and I always love seeing her.

{Monuments at Night Tour}

We booked a Monuments at Night Tour in a fancy red golf cart, and it was a really fun experience for everybody.  The kids would've been thrilled with any vehicle remotely related to a golf cart, so it was a big win for them.  10/10 we would do this again.

{National Air & Space Museum}

The next morning, we met Aubrey and the kids at the National Air and Space Museum!  It was so fun that they came into the city for the day.  They are D.C. pros, so they showed us all around the museum, took us out for sandwiches at Potbelly's, and meandered through the Botanical Gardens on our way to the Capitol.  

Highlights of the Air & Space included a real Star Wars X-Wing (for Auggie, of course!) and the planets exhibit.  

{Botanical Gardens}

{Capitol Tour}

Philip and Penny joined us for the Capitol tour in the afternoon, which was really fun!  Owen fell asleep right before the tour, which couldn't have been more perfect because it allowed us to listen to some of the audio with Auggie.  It seems like the tour is stricter than it used to be?  Hmmm.  We were not allowed into the Senate and Chambers which I was really hoping to see.  All in all, the history and rotunda did not disappoint though.

Political side note:  On January 6th, 2021, a bunch of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.  It was scary to see it happening on the news, but even more eery and unnerving to be standing in the building where it happened, thinking about it!  Nobody asked for my opinion, but what do I think?  In a blog nutshell:  Trump is a really, really bad dude.   And storming the Capitol was not ok.

{Smithsonian Museum of American History}

Our neighbor told us that the American History Museum had quite a few real trains on display in the basement exhibit.  After seeing the X-wing, we felt it was really important to make time for our train-loving O's to see his most favorite thing too!  The trains were spectacular, and Owen was in train heaven.  It was worth the trip just to see his excitement.

And we made Auggie's dreams come true yet again...R2D2 and C3PO in the pop culture section for the win!

{Top of the Washington Monument}

Because of the delay in Charlotte, we missed our Washington Monument Tour.  Several of the workers were so kind and gave us tips on how to get in anyway.  Very glad we followed their advice!  Sure enough, after explaining our predicament to the last-tour-of-the-day's tour guide, he added us into his group.  Good luck for us and up we went!

{Dinner in Georgetown}

We unexpectedly stayed an extra night in Georgetown after a really fun, late dinner with one of Don's friends from med school, Dan Asay.  Georgetown felt like a great way to close out our time in the city, then it was off to the farm in the morning.

{The Quebe Farm!!}

It was so fun to finally be back at the farm.  We had such a great time seeing everybody again, and the kids had a blast with all the animals and outdoor things to do!  We met the chickens and all the sheep (it's finally in my head that they aren't goats}, picked wild berries, saw the garden and the pastures, and ate apples straight off the tree!

{St. Mary's Wilderness Hike}

My kids have officially named this the "rain hike".  We were on the way to a hike when it started raining decently hard outside.  When we got out of the car at the at the trailhead, everybody was a little unsure.  But we yolo'd it anyway because #yolo!  We ended up feeling perfectly warm, and I think the kids will remember the rain hike fondly for a long time.

{Beautiful country running in the mornings!}

{Frontier Culture Museum}

Aubrey took us to the Frontier Culture Museum the next day, which is a really neat interactive museum with replicas of homes from cultures all around the world.  I love this cute picture of Owen smashing pottery...he was so enthusiastic about it!

{Date Night w/ Spiderman sighting}

On Friday night, we joined Philip and Aubrey on their weekly date night.  They have a tradition of a ramen and movie night for the kids at home while they go out to dinner.  We drove into Staunton and had a great time, complete with a sighting of the local Staunton Spiderman!

Aaaaand a quick lil' filter with Penny before heading to the airport.  We had such a fun trip and can't wait to come back.  Until next time, D.C.!  Never again, Charlotte!