Capitol Tour and Mt. Vernon

Today we went into DC for our last day of sight seeing. We started off with a tour of the Capitol at 10. 

I take that back. Our day started off with another free breakfasts. I'm grateful for the nice staff at Springhill Suites for feeding us like this every morning that we've been here. It's been nice. 

Quiche today, oatmeal, egg and ham on english muffins, cereal and yogurt. We left at 9:15 and got to DC in time for our 10 o'clock tour. We were able to find parking ok, and pretty close to the Capitol. Walking up the sidewalk to the Capitol building. 

Waiting in line. This is a new entrance, different from last time we were here in 2006. No link for that though... it was before I blogged. This east entrance was completed in 2008.

It was a nice tour, and mostly uneventful, except for when K #1'd, and I must have been holding her in just the right wrong spot, cause her diaper didn't absorb quickly and she got herself all wet. And a little bit on the floor too. Just a little, a few drops, but I didn't wipe it up. Here we are close to the scene of the crime.

Unfortunately for me, I had not listened to the prompting this morning to bring an extra outfit for her, so sad. So Corey and I mostly held her after that, cause the kids were too grossed out by her wetness. Under the dome - 

A photo with our man Brigham!

After the tour, I took Katharine to the restroom and took of her clothes and gave the pants a quick rinse and wrung it out, which I was hoping would mostly dry before our next stop. Then we headed to Alexandria. After we first stopped by Costco for lunch! A 16 inch pizza, hot dogs, soda, churros, and ice cream. Chicken Bake and fruit smoothie for Corey.

I didn't know the time of our tour at Mt. Vernon but learned at 1:10 that it was at 1:20, so we were late. We got there and did the slavery tour first, cause that was at 2 so we weren't late for that, then we did the house tour. Wesley really liked the little model of the home! So cool. 

It was made by engineers and "miniaturists"... He loves working small things, so I pointed that occupation out to him. He think he might have found his future career! "That would be so fun!" At the Capitol tour, our guide pointed out a the floor with lots of tiny tile it in, and said "How would you like to put down each individual tile?" suggesting "No way, that would take so long!" but Wesley said longingly "I would LOVE to do that, that sounds so nice... that would be so therapeutic!"

So our slavery tour was a little longer than the kids would have liked, but they endured it well. After that, there was still a crazy long line for the house tour so we were debating what to do. The kids didn't want to wait in line. Corey watched the kids have sword fights. They made weapons with sticks and had a good time. 

I took the girls to see Washington's tomb.

We also walked down the hill to the Potomac River. We passed by a very large poplar tree on our way, estimated to have been there in 1766! 

We came back up and found Corey. If he had been waiting in line for us, we could be on our way inside the house... I still wanted to see it. I nursed K, she fell asleep, then I took her in my arms and went to wait in line. Abi, Sophi and Lily came and joined me after I was close to the front. We did the house tour with Katharine. It was cool. After we were done, Corey and the boys were gone. We headed to the exit to find him. We walked by another Tulip Poplar tree that was planted by George Washington! Very cool

After the house tour, we couldn't see Corey. He wasn't answering his phone and hadn't seen my text. I assumed they had left for home, cause they seemed tired and done. We decided to leave. BUT FIRST we went in the gift shop - Lily really wanted a bucket hat. So we got that, Abi got a sweater, and I got a copy of George Washington's Rules of Civility book. Ok, now we're done, we can go.

We had arrived separately after Costco so we weren't parked together. But thankfully Abi was being observant and knew where they parked. So we went to my car, then drove over to where his car was but we couldn't find it. Do we just leave? No, he had Katharine's car seat, he wouldn't have left with that, would he?

K sat in a big kid seatbelt as we searched for his car. No luck. Back to the entrance.

I decided to drop them off so they can triple check that Corey for sure is not inside, and I was going to go search again for his car. This time I found it, so I parked by him and walked back to the girls. The visitors center said no re-entry, but I said I lost my husband and kids, so they let us in. They stopped Abi and Katharine "I'm with them" haha, sure you are! We found Corey coming out of a theater where there was an amazing 4D show. I was sad that we had wasted time looking for them outside, cause now it was too late and we weren't able to see the museum. I skipped the museum when we were leaving cause I thought the boys were for sure ready to leave, but they were still there. So too bad for me I missed so much of the museum! We saw what we could before they closed. I took a lot of pictures so I could read them later. 

Go read the Washington Hypothesis by Timothy Ballard to learn about the scripture that Washington (who was very meticulous and intentional with EVERYTHING he did!) put his hand on when he took the oath of office! Ok, I'll tell you... so, when George Washington was given the Oath of Office as the new First President of the United States of America, he asked that a Bible be produced so that he could receive the Oath as a Covenant. The man who ultimately presented the Bible was a Mason and took care to mark where George opened the Bible and placed his hand. There is only one place in the Old Testament which can be easily interpreted to be prophesying about the new Promised Land - Genesis chapter 49! This chapter describes the lineage of Joseph as one day expanding across the ocean, or the ‘wall.’ This passage has been construed by scholars to mean the children of Israel, through Joseph, would move across a barrier to build a new posterity. Washington specifically chose this page to lay his fingers on as he took the oath. Could this be symbolic? Ballard's hypothesis is emphatically yes! George knew through inspiration or even revelation, that this was his mission. So go read that book and read the reasoning and make your own decision. So cool. As Corey said to the kids tonight - there are two people, in his opinion, that live up to their legend. Joseph Smith is one, and George Washington is the other. He was and is as good as we think he is. They are both 10 out of 10. 

Back at the hotel, I went by Giant grocery store, where I used to shop when we lived here in Centreville, and I bought pineapple, grapes, and popsicles and we enjoyed that sweetness. Then the kids watched Bluey and then Star Wars, while Corey and I took a break before the trip home tomorrow. 

I blogged, kids collapsed, I didn't brush their teeth. Oh well. 

Three bodies on the bed, Peter was on the floor. Wes put Peter on the bed while I pulled out the couch sofa sleeper - now 4 kids in the bed!

And Katharine is that little spot of pink in the other bed at the top. I was glad to blog a bit. Hope she doesn't wake when I move her. Glad to be going back home. I hear that the weather is winter again - like 3 feet of snow fell today! We'll see, I hope we make it home. 

Tulip Festival and 10 Stitches

Hello hello. Dog sitting is going well. He slept in the girls room last night and they loved that. The only glitch was that I didn't wake up early enough to let him outside to go potty potty, so he peed on the carpet in the music room, drat. It wasn't his fault. Chewie is just trying to help me prep for when Peter gets potty trained and we have accidents again. 

This morning we did some chores, homework, and music practice this morning, and then headed off to the Tulip Festival. We had plans to meet Stephani and family down there for a picnic, and we had also invited Father David and Iveth and her kids. We left home at noon and got there on time for our 12:30 reserved tickets. Father David and the kids were waiting for us. Iveth was sick so she wasn't able to come. 

Corey parked the cars while I headed in with our group. It took me a while to locate my tickets on my phone... when I couldn't find them in my gmail, I logged into the Thanksgiving Point website and there they were. Yay, in we go to see the lovely garden! It started off like any other previous we've had to the Tulip Festival. Well, there was one thing we did different. Usually we take the counter clockwise meander around the grounds. This time we went past the waterfall first and over to the Light of the World Garden. We thought Father David would like that. 

He and Corey began their visit to each sculpture while Abi and the kids ran ahead. I headed towards the kids with Peter. And there we were at the Woman taken in adultery scene, John 8:7...

...and now that I have had a chance today to think about it, it probably was a pretty appropriate place for Daniel to get his head split open with a rock. Being stoned must have been a bloody way to die. 

So you can see Abi there on the left holding a bandage to Daniel's head.  Zoom in and you'll see a bunch of blood on Daniel's head. That's cause he got a major gash in his head. He was running on the grass and was about to come up over the rock to the pathway where Peter was standing, when he tripped and hit his forehead on the roughly cut corner of one of those big stone rocks. The kids started screaming to me "MOM!!!!" and the kids were watching him slightly horrified as blood came running down his face. I laid him back on the grass and it ran back into his hair and some pooled up in his eye sockets. I looked around like "Ok.... um, anyone have wipes?" A nice family that was close to us gave me some wipes and we started to wipe and a nice lady gave me some wipes and her husband said "You stay here with him, I'll go get security" and he ran off. I felt so grateful for how wonderful people are and how eager to help. He arrived back shortly with the EMT lady, in black in that picture above with her bag (1:20 pm). We answered questions about what happened and how he was acting - if he'd lost consciousness or anything. He was crying/wimpering but he was good. She asked what they could do to help and what I wanted. They could get an ambulance or they could take me to my car... I thought I would be ok to take him, so the EMT lady paged for a golf cart and they came and drove me and Daniel away, with Abi as my "keep pressure on the wound" helper. Our friends that we were meeting for the picnic lunch arrived just as I was headed out on the golf cart with Daniel, which I felt was another tender mercy and blessing, as they were able to stay and help Corey with all the kids and I didn't feel like I was totally abandoning him. They had food and friends to be an extra set of eyes and I would be back in an hour or two (so I thought...). It was like 1:09. Corey had parked the car but we found it right away. I think Daniel really liked the attention and, despite his wound, I could tell he was doing little grins when they told him how brave he was. We were in the car on our way at 1:35.

We got on the freeway to head toward home, cause my phone wasn't working and I couldn't get directions to an IHC clinic in Lehi. But right after I got on the freeway, it worked, and it was close behind us, darn! I knew we should have gone straight! So we drove for a few minutes, then got off the freeway and turned around and went back to Lehi to the InstaCare. It was not busy, yay, and we were checking in there at 2:00.

Unfortunately, the guy at the Lehi InstaCare said that the wound was too deep/big for his comfort in repairing/his level of expertise. 

I was able to get a good picture if it now though - yikes...

As the doctor was moving it up and down to see how to fit it back together, I could see the little strands of tissue still holding on to each side, and the big hole that went all the way down deep to his skull. I was doing ok but then I felt a little queasy and sat myself down before I fainted. Viewer discretion is advised

Abi is a frequent fainter when it comes to shots, and she passed out once when a neighbor friend stepped on glass in our backyard, but she didn't have any problem with the blood at all today. She did great! I was glad to have her help and her company (but she was really bored and neither of us knew this was going to take the rest of the day...) So.... he told us to go to an Emergency room - either American Fork or Riverton. Riverton was a little closer so we went there. Boo, I guess would have been better if I hadn't turned around on the freeway 30 minutes ago "to save time" and to avoid ER charges, blast. Oh well. The doctor wanted to put a bandage on Daniel. He protested "I don't want a bandaid"

He was not happy. "Well, just try it and if you don't like it you can take it off at the next hospital..."

Daniel said "Once my mom put a bandaid on me and when she took it off it hurt..." Oh, this bandage won't hurt, this one is not sticky. He was ok after he learned that. We headed to Riverton. We arrived there at 3:00. Daniel was smiling now! 

I was texting Corey the whole time letting him know how things were going on my end (aka slow) and he said that his phone battery was low, they had left the Tulip Festival and were going to the Museum of Curiosity. I told them that last time I went, we got a little lecture for not having a reservation, so to just play the "My kid is at the hospital getting stitches and I'm stuck here without a car" card. He said that that worked, yay. I was glad that they had a good place to kill time. I guessed we would still be another 2 hours...

90 minutes in to this thing and we're starting our wait time over again. I took Daniel to the restroom and tried to clean the blood out of his hair a little bit. After 15 minutes we went in and saw one lady for the basic info again - 

Temperature, blood pressure and other vitals, I was asked if he's passed out at all or or how Daniel was acting compared to usual. I said he was acting fine, although this was a more tame and sober version of our little Daniel. 

He was a trouper and was super cute to the nurses (cause he's a ladies man). I know he enjoyed the attention from everyone and the praise for how brave he was being. 

Back out to the waiting room...The Lehi doctor had told me not to let him eat anything, just in case he had to be put under for his stitches. But the poor kid hadn't had lunch. At 3:40, I said oh well and "I'll just pretend he never told me that..." and bought them both a fruit snack and Abi some chips from the vending machine. 

Abi was bored and really wanted to go back to Thanksgiving Point. She asked if Father David could come pick her up. No, I'm not going to ask. You'll just have to deal with this sweetie, I'm sorry. But then, since we had already been waiting for 40 minutes, I asked the receptionist if she could tell if we'd be going in soon or if not, and if not, if it would be possible for us to leave and I take Abi back, without losing our place in line at the ER. They basically said I'd lose my spot, so we're not leaving, sorry Abi. While we were there waiting, I overheard a lady who had just been discharged ask the receptionist if there was anyone to take her home. She just lived north of the hospital, and she could/would walk but she had just had knee surgery. They told her it would be an hour before anyone could take her, and she seemed upset and anxious to get going and said she's pay them. I offered to take her. It was just close by at an assisted living place. So I left Abi and Daniel there and took her home. She was in there because her cat had bit her arm. I was glad to be an answer to her trial and didn't accept any payment. She said God must be looking out for her. When I got back at 4, Daniel has been moved back to a room. Yay. And then we waited and waited. 

Daniel colored, his crayons all broke (cheap crayons) the nurse said she's come back with new crayons, and then she didn't. She also said someone would come to put some numbing stuff on his wound. They didn't. Then another person came by and asked "Has anyone put the numbing stuff on" No. "Ok, I'll go get that... be right back". Abi commented "People keep saying 'Oh! I'll go get that, be right back!' and then they aren't." Kinda funny. I can't remember how I brought it up, but somehow I mentioned that my husband is stranded at Thanksgiving Point with all my kids without a car, and then they seemed to remember about us. At 5:00 they put the numbing stuff on. "I'll be back in a minute..." 20 minutes later they came back. They set some towels behind him and got ready to clean out his cut. 

Took off the bandage - the numbing liquid stuff made his skin slightly lighter in color 

cleaned out his would with some power pressure water bottle that shot water hard into the wound and the skin was flapping around, looked a bit nasty. Then at 5:40 we were waiting again to get stitched up.

Daniel was happy to have an ipad movie. He watched Incredibles 2. 

The nurse offered him a toy car for being so brave and brought him two of them, but he rejected them cause he wanted blue. "Actually I want this" he said pointing to the ipad. Funny kid. They came in and did the stitches at 6:00. Daniel had proved himself brave and chill so they didn't knock him out and he just held still for the stitches, good job buddy. The nurse Jodie held Daniel's left hand and also held the ipad up for Daniel to watch, I held Daniel's right hand and kept a comforting hand on his tummy. Another nurse held Daniel's cheeks to hold him still and the doctor Justin did the stitches. It took 20 minutes to do it - he got 10 stitches!!! At one point Daniel started laughing really hard and then asked the guy nurse who was holding his cheeks "Are you going to kiss me? It feels like you're going to kiss me!" and he kept laughing and we all laughed too. Daniel got three deep stitches on the muscles, and 7 on the skin! They told us to come back to get them taken out in 5-7 days and I said I'd probably just do a house call to our pediatrician, who is our neighbor. They asked his name - turns out that Dr. Schmidt is Justin's pediatrician too! And they went to school together, fun. The nurse Jodie brought Daniel a big blue car. And then she left, and then we stood there for a bit, seemed like we were done? We wandered out to the waiting room and asked if we were good to go. No, get your discharge papers... so she opened the door for us again and we went back in, they brought the papers at 6:45, Ok, now we are really going, yay! And Jodie handed Daniel a popsicle as we walked out - 

We were in the car on our way when I got a call from a neighbor - she said that she was at Thanksgiving Point and saw Corey there! "And his phone is dead..." Yes it is. Wow, perfect timing to run into a friend. She handed the phone to Corey and I told him we were in the car on our way and would be there in 20 minutes. I had told Daniel we'd get him fries and ice cream when we were done, so we did a quick swing by Wendy's and then we got back to pick up Corey a little after 7. I wasn't sure if Corey took any photos of his side of events today, seeing as his phone was about dead, but he shared these with me after he was able to charge his phone. 

Sophi and Natalie were able to do a ropes course! 

That looks fun!

Peter in his favorite spot - 

And his second favorite spot -

The Curiosity Museum is a good place to be stuck if you have to get stuck with kids for several hours. It occurred to me on the drive there that I had left him without any diapers. He told me that Peter did have a poopy diaper, but he was able to borrow one. There were just nice people  everywhere today helping us out in our time of need. We got home at 8. Our little Tulip Festival lunch turned into a whole day event! Corey was a trouper, I was a trouper, Daniel and Abi were troupers, all the kids were troupers, I was grateful that we packed a big lunch for them cause they were ok on food even though they were delayed several hours. I'm glad we were on our way home though. That was our long and unplanned adventure filled day!

Full Thursday

I went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity today with a new neighbor Stephanie. (Their family is still "new" but they've been her for like almost 2 years I think.) So we had a grand time at Thanksgiving Point today with our kids, and we might try to come again next Thursday, and maybe we'll make this a weekly/monthly tradition or "Thanksgiving Thursdays" thing again like I tried 2 years ago, yeah won't that be fun!

We are going to go with their whole family to the Tulip Festival on Saturday too and have a picnic. And we've also invited Father David and Iveth and her kids to come too, so that should be fun. Today we were at the Museum of Curiosity. Peter and Evan had fun in the kid zone, especially rolling the little pit balls down a ball slide, it was cute. 

It is such a great place. I am so impressed with Thanksgiving Point and all of their venues. Peter and Owen sitting in the airplane of the rope course.

Climbing across the rope bridge! 

I've never been up in this part before. I sent Corey a few pictures for inspiration for his cargo net idea. They are thinking it would be fun to have a rope course in the back yard. We wouldn't be able to compete with the set up they have down here, so maybe we should just use their facility instead of trying to make our own.

Climbing around inside. Owen called it "Cuzco's House" cause it did kinda look like a part of the Emperor's New Groove set. 

Peter is cute. 

We had a good time. We were lucky to make it past the gift shop on our way out without the kids having a break down, and then when we got to the car, I didn't have my car key! I had fallen out of my pocket somewhere inside. Luckily we hadn't been all over the place, but I did climb though the rope course... I hoped it wasn't lost somewhere in there. I asked at the front desk first, and thankfully it had been turned in, phew! So we were able to leave and made it back home in time for Owen to go to the bus. Peter had left over birthday cake for lunch, after we sang Happy Birthday a few times.

A few other items and pics from today. We got a notice of a speeding ticket that H got last week on his way to the dentist. $120 gone like that. He paid it without asking for us to chip in. What a responsible young man he is. Natalie had ballet, and she is enjoying it. 

Owen made friends with a boy down the street, who has a car, so that's pretty exciting for O.

Abi had a pool party with school friends - 

Corey and I took Joseph's little motorbike to go play racquetball for an hour. Corey beat me 2 games to 0. We had to fill it with gas on the way home. I felt a little bit like we were going to die, but we didn't, so that was good.

After we got home, Corey and Lily did a little bit of jammin' in the front room

Lily really liked it - here's a little video of them.

I was upstairs doing violin - a little bit with the girls, but more alone than with them. They are still improving though. Little by little we keep getting better. I think it's really fun, I just wish I had more time to practice. I have been doing get at social things and out of the house activities for the kids, but it might be to escape the reality of our home. In a lot of ways, my house still looks like the mess it was 8 years ago in 2013. I have not been on top of it, nor do I get up into the mountains for morning walks. Maybe I'm old.