President's Day - U.S. Botanic Garden

After receiving about two feet of snow and being cooped up inside for over a week, we took advantage of the President's Day holiday to visit the U.S. Botonic Garden located in front of the U.S. Capitol.

Cody and Eve formed an interesting two-headed monster of sorts. Too bad the pink blanket used to keep Eve's feet warm had the appearance of being an eccentric loin cloth for Cody.

Once inside, Kjersti took control of the camera and got some really great shots of the special Orchid collection they had on display.

We have no idea what this flower is called... but it's pretty.

And how about these... pretty.

Eve: "How many Cody's does it take to screw in a light bulb? I don't know, I can't count that high! Ha-ha, ha-ha... that joke just totally cracks me up!" Cody seemed to take the verbal abuse in stride.

These flowers never looked so good now that Kjersti is modeling them.

Of course, no trip anywhere would be complete without a few Power Ranger moves from Eli. Fortunately for us, no flowers were lost during our visit.

Witness Eli in action!

The Rise and Fall of Ms Messy Mug

A mild mannered Princess transforms into Ms Messy Mug with just a few spoon fulls of prune baby food. "Hmmm, I suddenly feel sloppy... but in a good way," said Ms Messy Mug.

"I have the chance to be somebody... somebody special and messy. Please feed me more prunes. Please..."

"I must admit, I'm feeling like a total disaster. It's borderline evil!!! Oh how I relish my complete messiness (uncontrollable maniacal laughter)!"

"Hey mom, what's with the wash cloth?"

"The feeling of messiness is quickly fading. Oh no, a terrible change is taking place!"

"Mom, for the love of prunes, stop what you're doing this instant!"

"My goodness, I'm nearly clean. This is terrible!"

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Just like that, Ms Messy Mug completes her total transformation back to the sweet princess we all love and adore... for now.

Snowmageddon

According to the official Strong House Snow Measuring Dip Stick, Snowmageddon dropped just over 20 inches on our home from 5-6 FEB 2010. While this storm for us had slightly less snow that the Blizzard of 2009 it definitely has a cooler name.

This is the front of our home on the afternoon of 5 FEB 2010.

About 24 hours later, this is what things looked like. Heidi went out to do some shoveling after Cody had already spent two and a half hours clearing the walk and parking area around our cars.

Snowmageddon does come with some down time. Now granted, it can come at some rather unusual times like here with Eli zoning out in front of the TV. In his defense, he did go running around out in the snow for about 30 minutes.

Even Snowmageddon didn't seem to have any impact on the three crazy kids living in our home.

Eve vs. Blackberry

The contestants shake hands and the match is on! Immediately, Eve takes Blackberry and performs a reverse thereby degrading its ability to receive a signal! Nice move Eve!

There she goes with one of her signature moves.. the small mouth sog. Blackberry's signal strength just went down another notch!

A flick of the wrist and the Blackberry just experienced the reverse small mouth sog! Ouch, that's gotta hurt!

Oh no! With another flick of the wrist, it's the reverse large mouth sog! Blackberry is beeping "UNCLE"!

A little tired, but still hungry, Eve tosses down a lifeless Blackberry complete with no signal and a very gooey exterior. She taunts her lifeless competitor with her signature slobber drop. Eve is one user Blackberry hopes to never see again!

Luray Caverns

Cody worked Saturday, so he got Monday off. Kjersti and Eli were out of school, so we decided to make the most of it with a two hour drive southwest to Luray Caverns in Virginia. Equipped for the self-guided tour (i.e. headphones and player), we set out to take a look at this very interesting place.

Eli was certain he heard something about Power Rangers living in the caverns on the self-guided tour.

Feeling mostly certain there was nothing living in the cavern that would come out and scare her, Kjersti none the less, kept a sharp eye out for anything suspicious. Eli started getting bored since no Power Ranger had yet come out to greet him.

Kjersti tried to convince us here that she was a stalagmite, but Eli didn't buy it claiming that stalagmites don't have headphones.

The challenge with carrrying a baby around a cave that likes to suck on it's socks is that about every two or three minutes, she decides that the sock has lost it's flavor and then discards it somewhere in the cave. As a dad, if you don't bring your "A Game" that day, you can pretty much count on losing two socks. In case you were wondering, none of Eve socks became permenant residents of Luray Caverns that day. A point in which Cody seems to take great pride.

Easing Through January

On a recent day, we walked along the pathway that runs along the George Washington Parkway. Here we are taking a rest at Gravelly Point. The kids loved watching the airplanes take off from Ronald Reagan airport.

Kjersti and Eli decided to take a bunch of pictures where the camera and the person photographed couldn't be any more than two feet from the floor. They succeeded brilliantly. How about that smile!

Eli satisfied the "two foot" rule and is now plotting his next move. When he figures out what that will be, hopefully no one will get hurt.

There's no missing a small person dressed in PJs like that! Eve actually tried to lease these PJs to the Virginia DOT to serve as a road marker, but they declined citing their preference for the color orange. As you can see, that rejection didn't even phase her.

In trying to market a new kind of hair gel, Heidi took this picture to go on the container. It's called "Bed Head" by Eve.

"Oh how I love you sweet and tasty washcloth! A kiss for your wonderful flavor!"

Holy jumping beans! What has gotten into these two?

Adventures With Eve!

"The swing rocks! I've totally sogged everything within this picture... twice."

"The Power Rangers couldn't handle this bad guy, but I managed to finish him off with the feared toe jam hold."

"A few toots along with all of this heavy clothing keeps me nice and warm."

"This hair style was soooo 2009, but I could put up with it as long as I could suck the tasty juices out of my wash cloth. Mmmmmm."

"For a few brief seconds, I was actually picking up radio signals from China with this hair style. Mmmmmm, tasty wash cloth."

"Try one more crazy hair style on me and some one is going to get hurt!"