Summer Bucket List #4: Beach Bumming

For Father's Day weekend Drew was itching to get to the beach. We decided to just go for the day (3 hours each way), which is definitely the longer, cheaper way to do it, but equally as fun. We left pretty early in the morning and got back about 8pm, which left us 5 solid hours of soaking up the sun with an hour at the end at our favorite BBQ place for dinner in Richmond.

The more times we go to the beach as a family, the more we learn the ins and outs of how it should be done. The first time was when Makenna was 10 months old and we went to the Outer Banks. We showed up at the beach the first day without any toys or even a beach umbrella. We literally had 2 towels, a bottle of sunscreen, and some Diet Cokes (the essentials). The next time we got an umbrella and Dollar Tree toys. The next time we brought Makenna's princess tent so I could give naps in there. This time we were 90% of the way to "Beach Preparation Perfection." We invested in a little shade shelter, we've accumulated a fair share of beach chairs, and don't forget our great snack bag from Costco- free, when we signed up for their AmEx card. The only thing lacking was a boogie board, which the nicest people sitting next to us let us borrow for awhile. (I'll have you know we found some at Costco last week and will be 100% prepared for our next beach getaway.)

The girls had a blast; Addison on her chair, Makenna on the beach.

Within the first 10 minutes after our arrival, Makenna found a cute little friend whose family was sitting next to us. They were visiting from NoVa as well. They stuck like glue to each other the whole time and their little girl gave our little girl some much-needed confidence to get in the water. It was pretty cute.

Addison was left to her own devices with her sister off and running, but was perfectly content exploring the sand around her. Check out those chub-a-lub legs. I can't get enough of them. For the most part, she's slimmed down on the baby fat, but those ham hocks are adorably still in play.

Such a fun day. These sisters are so cute together and are beginning to have a lot of fun together. Addison thinks Makenna is the Last Comic Standing, constantly laughing at the littlest thing she does.

I thought it was worth documenting: Makenna taking care of business. She runs up to me, informing me of her situation. I tell her the ocean is as good a bathroom as she'll ever find. I think I forgot to mention the politeness of squatting.

We tried relentlessly, but to no avail, to get Addison to sleep in the little shade shelter we had set up. She wasn't having any of it. At 4:00 we decided to start packing up. Addison crawled up into her chair and after 5 minutes I realized she was really quiet. I found her dead asleep.

And 5 minutes after we've buckled them into the car...

Loved this day. Perfect start to Drew's special weekend. We've got a few more beach trips planned for this summer which I CANNOT wait for!

The next day we had a fabulous Father's Day. I made Drew a "Hero Box", complete with his favorite treats. I got the cute idea here. These girls love their daddy!

Wicked Fun

A couple of weeks ago, I cashed in my Christmas present from Drew and we went to see Wicked in D.C. at the Kennedy Center. I've been dying to see this musical ever since we were up in NYC for Thanksgiving a few years ago and lost out on lottery tickets to the show. Last March it came to Richmond (an hour and half away), a week after Addison was born and I was actually contemplating driving down to see it. But alas, I resisted, and waited for Drew to tell me at Christmas we would be going this summer.

It was an INCREDIBLE date night, complete with a delicious dinner downtown at Kinkead's. We took the Metro in and I met Drew at his work to go the rest of the way together (I should tell you we're not Metro folk. I much prefer driving downtown and hoping I get lucky with a parking spot. This was a BIG deal to take the Metro by myself. I know, I sound like I'm 5.) We gave ourselves plenty of time to eat a non-rushed dinner, free of kid chatter and cleaning up mouths. It was divine! The walk from the restaurant to the Kennedy Center was supposed to take 10 min. After 25, we rounded the corner to see the Lincoln Memorial come into sight. I'm getting nervous, looking at my watch and realizing my dream musical is starting in less than 10 minutes. After (gently) persuading Drew to ask a stranger for directions, we're back on the right path, full-on running to make it on time. As we show up to the entrance, breathless and sweaty, we hand over our tickets, and walk into the theatre as the lights are flashing. We made it in the nick of time.

From there, it was pure enjoyment. It took everything in my entire being not to jump out of my seat and start belting out the songs with Elphie and Glinda. I think Drew even had a gentle grasp on my arm to keep me in my chair.

We did get a picture at the end of the night. I asked an old security guard to take our picture and he kept looking through the hole between the pop-up flash and the camera body. There were lots of people waiting to pass, so I didn't correct him.

Then I asked another guy who looked a lot younger and cooler.

And so ended our incredible night. And I've been dreaming to the soundtrack ever since...

Summer Bucket List #3: Nats Game

We've been wanting to go to a Washington Nationals game forever. "2 Dollar Tuesday" ended up being the perfect night to go. We spent $6 on tickets for the family (a considerably larger amount to park, but that's beside the point), and didn't feel a ton of pressure to stay the whole game if things (read: kids) started going downhill half-way through. We were clearly first-timers, attempting to drive into the city right before the game. If we had our heads on straight, we probably would have Metro-d in and saved 2/3 of the time it took to get there. But we arrived, parked, walked into this beautiful new stadium (INCREDIBLE with a view to kill is an understatement), and found our seats way up at the tippy-top of the world. Actually, we thought they were great seats with a great view of the field and an equally great view of the skyline. One look up and we saw the Capital building, Washington Monument, and Nat'l Cathedral. Beautiful!

There were three president-Bobble-head guys walking around before hand. Clearly, Makenna and Addison were more than thrilled and not scared at all to get their picture taken with Abe.

The excitement is mounting. Bless her heart, when we told Makenna we were going to see a baseball game, she said, " I better wear my BYU shirt then. " Sadly, I vetoed that idea. Obviously this girl has Cougar pride no matter what team she's seeing.

Chowing down on some Nats Dogs. You can't see it in this picture, but I think it's worth a side note; Addison can and will pound down more food than Makenna these days in a single meal. It's mind-boggling and also quite impressive.

Beautiful new stadium. If you look hard, you can see the Capital dome on the left side of the picture.

Here's my fun girl right before heading home. I was pleasantly surprised how interested in the game of baseball she was. She wanted to know all the ins and outs of how it was played. At one point when the Nats were down (6-1), she followed my lead and very intimidatingly yelled to St. Louis, " GO HOME CARDS! GO HOME CARDS! " at the top of her lungs. I think I actually saw one Cardinal teammate look up into section 420 and start to shake.

And this, my friends, was the end of our night. Sadly, it was not the end of the Nats' night. After feeling like it would take an act of God for things to turn around (6-2 in the middle of the 7th inning), and exhausted of trying to shush a screaming baby so everyone else around us could enjoy their night out, we decide to head home. We take one last picture (below) and then exit the stadium. Immediately upon exiting, we hear the entire stadium erupt into cheering. After getting home in record time, we discover that our Nats scored 6, SIX, runs in the bottom of the 7th to win 8-2 against St. Louis.

But it was the experience that counts. We happily crossed it off our Summer Bucket List, extremely glad we went.

Summer Bucket List #2: Camping

Last weekend we dared the impossible. We realized the dream. We, the Mann family, took our 3 and 1-year-olds camping. Over night. In a tent. This was a good test run for us- just one night, 24 HOURS. We didn't want to get too ambitious. But anyone who saw our van pulling up would have assumed we were the campground's new host family, coming to move in for the next 3 months. We unloaded a few essentials upon getting there (read: food); this was about a THIRD of all our goods.



Living in Virginia the past 6 years (has it seriously been that long?) we've fallen in love with Shenandoah National Park. We usually do Skyline Drive every Fall, but we've never seen it in the summer. What better opportunity than to turn it into a camping trip? We went with some ward friends (families that were all equally insane, I mean "brave", as us). It was nice not being the only ones worrying about our little ones diving into the campfire, eating dirty hotdogs off the ground, or dealing with fussy babies through the night.



I was surprised at how well the girls behaved around camp. Addison wanted to do nothing other than sit in a camp chair, any camp chair, and watch the camping scene unfold around her. She was so content just sitting! (She was building up bonus points with me which she would later use all up that night.) Makenna was in heaven with her little bosom buddy, Neve.




The one complaint we heard about this campground before we went was their tick problem. With hefty amounts of bug spray, though, it shouldn't be a problem (I thought). Not 20 minutes upon our arrival, do I pick up Addison and notice a black bug that won't get off her belly when I flick it. She was the one person in our huge group of people throughout our time there that landed a tick on her. I don't blame the tick, though, with that sweet chubby tummy. I want to nuzzle my nose into it all day too. After Nurse Brynn strategically fished it out with some tweezers, I bundled her up with warm clothes and tennis shoes so no other little buggers would dine on her.



This is the start of a very delicious cobbler. But we didn't stop at just one; we made 3 amazing cobblers: peach, blueberry, and cherry/pineapple. Yummo! Notice the dutch oven tower our men constructed. Impressive, right?




And these are courtesy of some very fancy glow sticks.



I guess that takes us to night time. I won't elaborate too much on it, other than our sweet tick-food baby had a heck of a night and let everyone in a one-mile radius know it. Needless to say, Drew and I ended up taking shifts in the van with the doors shut, which we figured would contain her blood-curdling screams the best. The next morning while I was brushing my teeth in the communal bathroom, an old lady came up and passive-aggressively asked "if that crying baby all night" was mine. Then followed it up with "Well, hopefully it won't be that bad tonight." Thanks.

Next day we went hiking down a little trail to a beautiful waterfall. We borrowed this great hiking pack from some friends and Addison finally decided to give up the ghost and fall asleep. Maybe next time one of us should wear the pack around before we go to bed to get the girl to sleep.



Makenna taking a break with her little friend Savannah.





Back at camp after the hike. These kids thought they were super cool swinging in the hammock. Some friends of ours slept in these instead of a tent. Personally, it made me claustrophobic and sea sick, but to each his own.


I love these girls! We had such a fun time with everyone. Can't wait to go again, but maybe not for...awhile.