Summer Storm

Power just came back on.  I'm grateful we'll sleep with air conditioning.  We had a quick storm come through this afternoon...and it did a number on a couple of our trees.  We spent a good portion of the evening cleaning up the mess below.  I guess when you live in Virginia with the number of trees around the house like we do, you're bound to have one or two fall during a storm.  We've been fortunate for 3 years...even with the two that fell today.  No significant damage was done.  But we'll soon learn how to replace a few pieces of siding.  The branch (actually...it was the top of a dead tree) closest to the deck hit our gutter and then slid down the side of the house.  If you have any experience with siding, we'd love a pointer or two!

Along with the small pieces of siding that were torn off, the only other damage was the screen on the kitchen window.  It didn't stand a chance!  Again...extremely grateful the window wasn't broken or more significant damage wasn't done to the house.  

Unfortunately, the beloved trampoline that our kids lived on for a week is gone.  I wonder if it will be replaced...

This really is a small, rather insignificant incident compared to what could have happened...or what has happened in places like Joplin, Missouri.  Even on this small scale, I'm reminded of the force and power nature has.  When you look at the trampoline up close, it's amazing how mangled the tree made those metal bars.

I do feel bad for the kids since they lost the trampoline.  Of all places for a tree to fall! :)

And it's a good thing no one was sitting in this chair.

I borrowed a chain saw from a good neighbor.  It's now on our "must have" list of emergency preparedness items.  Do you realize how heavy trees are?!?

It's Only a Bear

When you go to the zoo, is it really all that exciting to see the black bear exhibit?  I mean, is that the main attraction?  Of course not.  After all, it's only a bear.

This past week, our family headed to the Great Smoky Mountains for the first ever Knutti family reunion.  (More about that with pictures on Sunday.)  On the day everyone headed for home, we took a detour through the National Park.

So back to the bear.  Something changes when there is no longer a protective cage between you and the bear.  All of a sudden, it makes seeing a bear something different...something exciting.  It's no longer just a bear.  It's an adventure.  And James wasn't afraid (I think this is my favorite shot).  I can hear all the Grandma's in the audience gasping right now.

There was a mama bear with her three cubs high up in the tree.  I assume that's why the mama bear wasn't too concerned for the safety of her cubs.  (And why is there never a papa bear around?)  I didn't realize cubs were such good climbers.  And I had forgotten that bears were omnivores.  That makes me like them even more.

 

Here's one of the cubs...sorry the picture is a little fuzzy.  I had never photographed bears in the wild before.

Isn't this cub cute?  And he/she is such a good climber.

Here's the mama bear up close.

And here is my family watching the bears.  Mama bear is that black spot at the base of the tree.

Anya makes a good "rawr" face.  Seeing the bears was a fun way to end a great trip.  More in a couple of days...

Playing Catch-up

Recently, some good friends of ours moved away and in the process of moving they were giving away several things. One of which was a trampoline. My friend told me it had been well-loved, but still had some good bounce to it, so we took it. I drove over one evening and we two ladies had it down and in the car in about 30-45 minutes. It went much faster and easier than I thought it would. So I resolved that I could easily put it together by myself the next day with no problem. Well, in case you ever wondered it is about a million times harder to put a trampoline together than to take it apart. Though that often applies to most anything, I think. In any case, after about 2 hours and some near swearings on my part, it was up. It has been about three days, my soreness is fading, but it's all been worth it.

With the cooler temperatures we have been having they have almost lived out there on that trampoline. They are finding that it's not as fun when it's super hot, but this fall will see some very bouncy kids.

Then when they get tired they beg for a movie and sometimes we let them. We just got the third Narnia movie on dvd, so they all snuggled up to watch. How cute it this?

Lil' Pipsqueaks

For mid-summer's eve this year, the fairies brought our family two Zebra Finches.  As we were transferring them from the fairies' cage to ours, the male escaped.  He enjoyed a few minutes of flight...but quickly grew tired.

They both quickly adjusted to their new surroundings.  And the kids made them a permanent address.

In case you can't read it, it says, "The Robins  733 Branch St.  Nesting Hallow.  While they were creative with the address...they don't seem to be as creative with the names.  They named the male Christopher Robin...Chris for short.  And they named the female Becky after the main girl character in Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  When they name anything, it really depends on what they've read or watched recently.

But James likes to call them both lil' pipsqueaks.  You'll hear why in one of the videos below.  

And yes - having a male and female means that we will soon have eggs in the wicker nest.  That was one reason we allowed the fairies to leave such a gift.  Not only are they entertaining and fairly easy to care for...but it will be educational for the kids seeing eggs in the nest and watching them hatch and then watching the little chicks grow.  We've been told that each clutch will include 2-5 eggs on average.  Oh boy!

We were surprised at how quickly they adjusted to the new nest.  Chris has already begun using the cotton balls and paper confetti that we provided to make a soft bed for the eggs.  This picture is looking into the nest from above:

The picture with the kids was taken specifically for the "fairies" who brought us the finches.  I'm sure with the number of eggs in each clutch, we'll eventually give away a few finches of our own.  

Finches are not song birds.  They sound like squeaky baby toys.  Although, the male does learn his mating "song" from his father and then adds a few sounds of his own.  But the female just squeaks.  It's cute when they play tag and squeak at each other.  And it's really funny when we play a video of finches on the computer...that really gets them going!

This video is the mating song of Chris (he has the orange cheeks...Becky is listening from her window):

This video demonstrates how "squeaky" they can be!

Parenting and Discipline

We would like to think that we are fun parents. We try to enjoy our children. While going through old home videos I found this little bit of fun. I think the "game" was more for Daddy's amusement than anything else, but Mark and Anya did enjoy it when it went right. Enjoy a few laughs on us.

Now to the present. Luke is a charming and somewhat difficult young man. Some things he will simply refuse to do and wig out if forced. Most of the time he is extremely obedient. So when he jumped on Mark's bed and broke something Mark made we asked Luke to apologize for his poor choice. He refused (as usual) so we sent him to stand in the corner of his room. He went and he stood. We continued with the nightly pickup and most of us left the room for a few minutes as we got things all put away. Then James called us all back to see that Luke had changed position.

Lest you think ill of us, we did scoop the little guy up directly after this snippet and put him to bed, where he stayed for the next twelve and half hours. It would appear that the poor guy was just tired:)

We're Not Campers...Yet

Our family went on our 3rd annual camping trip this weekend.  Each year we have learned from the previous experience.  And they will continue to get better.  We're working towards becoming "professional" campers and looking forward to the day when we camp for two consecutive nights (that's how professional we're willing to get).

This year, we decided to visit the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

I've always wanted to drive across the 17-mile bridge/tunnel that connects the mainland of Virginia to the peninsula...and I wanted to see the sunset over water on the east coast.  The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (longest bridge/tunnel complex in the world) was everything I had hoped for.  The sunset was a little disappointing due to an overcast.

As we drove through the northern portion of Virginia Beach, the thunder clouds gathered and a severe storm caused several motorists to pull over.  The raindrops were huge and, combined with the wind, it became blinding.  Then the hail began.  We got to the toll booth right in time as we were one of the last cars to get through before they closed the bridge due to 40 mph winds.  But after a few miles, we saw clear skies ahead and the storm didn't follow us across the bay.

As we set up camp, Luke got pretty sick and he actually slept for a couple of hours.  The rest of the kids enjoyed relaxing around the campfire.

The storm clouds didn't stay away very long and there was a steady rain fall for a couple of hours as well.  So everyone retreated to the tent...except for Eliza.  We quickly learned that she had difficulty getting out of the camp chairs.  So if we needed her contained, that's where we put her!  By morning, she learned how to wiggle out of those chairs.

Fortunately, it was only rain - no hail or severe weather.  And by the time it stopped, the kids were ready to head to the beach...even Luke.  There was enough of a break in the clouds that you could see the pink hue as the sun set across the Chesapeake Bay...but it wasn't the kind of shot I was hoping for.  Still, pretty cool, right?  A sunset over the ocean on the east coast?!?  It can play tricks on your mind.

We stayed until dark and then made the short walk back to camp.  Luke fell asleep rather quickly.  And for safe measure, we had him sleep with Mr. Bucket.

Eliza was wide-eyed until 10PM or so.

Anya couldn't get her nose out of a book most of the trip!

Eliza crawled over everyone and finally collapsed at Dad's feet.  But she started to get fussy around 12:30 so Karen took her to the van until she settled down.  At 2AM, James had to go to the bathroom.  But between 2AM and about 5:40AM, Mom and Dad managed to get some sleep.  There was a surge of people (James, Anya, Eliza) waking up just before 6AM and then somehow we all fell asleep again until about 7AM.

Fortunately, the morning brought nothing but sunshine!  We enjoyed a little breakfast and then headed back to the beach.

This was the view of the bay from the boardwalk...it was beautiful:

The bay side is much more calm than the seaside.  And low tide was coming in so the kids could walk out 75 feet and I could walk out about 100 feet.  The temperature of the air and water were perfect.

James started collecting rocks and that got me looking for hidden treasures as well.  I had found a few pieces of driftwood...exciting, right?  As the low tide came in, a perfect kiddie-pool formed for Luke and Eliza.

By the way, off the shore there was a line of shipwrecked boats.  That's what you see in some of the photos.  It was pretty cool.  Anyway...back to the hidden treasures.  If you look closely, there is a darker object in the water about 2-3 feet to the left of Karen.  Without thinking it could be anything else, I tried to pick up what I thought was a large piece of driftwood.

When I lifted it up, I thought  I felt legs moving and I saw a long tail "wagging" back and forth.  Startled, I dropped it and the creature burrowed itself back in the sand.  Curiosity got the better of me, and I was determined to learn what I had found.  So I got my flip flops and attempted to pry at the corners.  But no luck.  I did, however, uncover its tail.  And this is what we pulled out of the water:

Do you like my new tattoo?  There was a guy next to us with his family.  They gathered when they saw me trying to get the horseshoe crab out of the water.  As I've grown older, I've become more hesitant to touch a wild animal with my bare hands.  I didn't have the guts to just grab the tail.  Who knew if the tail had spikes or if the crab could curl around and snap at you with it's claws.  But this guy just grabbed the tail, gave a couple of good tugs, and lifted it out of the water.  I guess tattoos make you brave like that!

It was pretty cool.  The kids were fascinated and Karen was a little freaked out that she and Luke and Eliza had been sitting so close to it the whole morning!

After a full morning of fun in the sun, we headed back to camp.

So another camping adventure was coming to a close.  We packed up camp...

...and headed back to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT).  It really is an incredible work of engineering.

There is nothing but ocean all around.  On the man-made island of one of the tunnels, a fishing pier jets out.  On our way home, we pulled off to do a little sight-seeing.  If you look above Anya just to the left, you can see the other end of one of the tunnels.  Each tunnel is a mile long.

Here's a close-up of the other end of the tunnel:

The southbound side of the bridge curves out to the left while the northbound side is directly behind the tower on the island.  It was really fascinating.

Each year we make a list of things we learned so that the next camping trip will be better.  Somehow, the list continues to grow!  But we enjoy the outdoors and we like to pull our family out of the usual routine at home. Plus, we really appreciate the comforts of home each time we return!

Anya and James

Anya participated in the Spring recital with her music school last week.  It's so fun to watch her perform.  Not sure what inspired Mark...but he did a trial run with guitar lessons and enjoyed them.  So he has his own electric guitar now.  Dad might learn to play with him. :)

We always enjoy taking pictures when all six kids are willing to be photographed.  We might not get picture-perfect smiles from all of them at the same time...but that's not real life anyway! :)  So this was our best shot given the minimal attention span of the younger ones.

We finally got around to getting pictures of James since he turned eight a couple months ago.  He's a pretty cute kid.  Here's a sampling:

And here is Anya playing (I think her teacher is smiling because Anya likes to sing when she plays):

The Capitol - Day 3

The National Zoo was a bust...I'm not gonna lie. The only time it rained was Wednesday morning - when we were at the zoo. It wasn't a downpour, but it was enough to make it unpleasant. Fortunately, the zoo had an event recently and white tents were set up everywhere. So we had plenty of shelter. In addition to the rain, we learned that the kids really weren't that interested anyway...after the fact, of course! But we spent a couple of hours there and had a good learning experience.

Because of the rain, we were planning to just skip Arlington Cemetery and the Jefferson Memorial and head home. We had lunch in Arlington and watched the clouds open up to blue skies. So we asked the kids what they wanted to do. Karen and I were tired...but we didn't want to leave DC on a soggy note from the zoo. So we decided to postpone Arlington Cemetery for a day trip (we weren't really prepared to know what we wanted to do there anyway) and we headed to the Jefferson Memorial.

I had never been there before. It's one of those monuments that looks really cool but is just out of the way...aka not on the National Mall. But I'm so glad we went. The kids really wanted to go because they feel like they know Thomas Jefferson really well. It's kinda cute.

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Peter can't see but everyone else is genuinely happy--after three days...can you believe that? They really were great considering all the walking we did. In fact, they seemed more energized Wednesday afternoon than they had the rest of the trip (with the exception of Tuesday night...they really had fun that night). So did we.
Here's a unique view of the Washington Monument as we walked around the Jefferson Memorial. I love shots like this.
Like I mentioned before, everything is so big in Washington DC. Seeing our kids next to these massive columns really illustrated that.
There are various quotes throughout the memorial. This one happened to be Mark's favorite of the group. If you want to read it, you'll probably have to click on it to enlarge the picture.
Again, watching our kids walk up and down the steps really illustrates the size of these memorials.
This picture was taken by Mark. Not bad, huh? :)
And here are most of the kids with Thomas Jefferson. I'm so glad we live where we do. Our kids are being exposed to some great historical sites. Hopefully, it will make the events of the founding of this nation more real to them. It's important for them to know that this country was founded by good men inspired by God. The Constitution and Declaration of Independence are holy documents.
Three days was just right. Maybe more for the parents than for the kids. It was a great experience for us and a lot of fun. I forgot to mention that during day two, I was taking a picture of the kids in front of the Spirit of St. Louis (the picture is the the previous post). After I took the picture, an Asian woman approached me with her camera. She pointed towards the plane and I assumed she wanted me to take her picture with the plane in the background. As I was getting ready to take the picture, she wrapped her arms around our kids and pulled them in close. It was so funny...and very sweet. Our kids ended up being in several Asian tourist photographs during the trip. I'm assuming they were all Chinese. I'm sure some hearts ache due to the laws of their land. I'm glad they were able to see what real freedom is all about.