Creepers be gone!

A sign that I've been way too neglectful of the blog: unfiltered creepers making bizzaro comments on my blog.  And of course I am referring to Willy's Nillies and his apparent blogging co-dependency.  Willy, you've been placed on notice.  Don't make me get an electronic restraining order.

So I've cleaned out the creepers, dusted off the keyboard, and made a new year's resolution.  Let's see what comes of this... stay tuned, but don't get your hopes up.

the 4th

Perhaps it was because I watched the movie Polyanna too many times as a kid, but the fourth of July always reminds me of the 1920s and barbershop quartets. It always feels like an attempt to capture a bygone era of ice cream parlors and open-air buggies. Maybe that's just me.

Today we attended a July 4th picnic...yes, I know today is the 2nd, but we're just getting an early start to our holiday. Anyway, there was a definite feeling of nostalgia to the celebrations that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

On an unrelated note, fireworks are legal here in Virginia, so we're really looking forward to a spectacular 4th.

Does the fourth of July remind you of any era in particular? What are your plans?

"Somebody is out of my mind!"

Today Griffin came to me and, holding an old cell phone to his ear said, "Somebody is out of my mind!" You and me both, kiddo. The last six months or so have been rather odd.

I was planning in November on doing a post about all of the amazing fall colors and the 30+ bags of leaves we spent 10+ hours raking,

blowing, and bagging.

I planned to do a post in December about spending Christmas week in both Arizona and Utah and the massive snowstorm that left us stranded somewhere in between the two (Flagstaff).

In January I would have posted about Landon's parents coming for a great visit and playing around DC tourist-style. Grandpa Huber was particularly patient and climbed into every available plane with Griffin at the Air and Space Museum.

In February I thought about posting something about my brother Spencer leaving on his mission to Roseville, California and my trip to AZ to hang out with family for the occasion.

(cation to this picture: Griffin: There's a camera out, time for me to ham it up. Isaac: this is my xylophone.)

In March I should have definitely made note of Anna's Spring Break visit. We spent half a week in Virginia Beach and then half a week in D.C.

In April I really should have mentioned the amazing cherry blossoms and moving into a new apartment.

And then May came and went in a blur that I don't even really remember.

And now suddenly it's June and I have nothing to show for it, but the pictures above.

*My excuse for all of my blogging laziness is this: Landon was assigned to work in Chesapeake, Virginia for six-ish months. Chesapeake is a four hour drive south of D.C. Living out of a hotel sounds fun, and it's not all that bad...but it makes life weird in so many, many ways. But now that we are back in the swing of normal life, you can expect more frequent blogging...at least until something else distracts me.

Spooky Cutie

Halloween hasn't arrived yet, but Griffin has had plenty of opportunities to dress up. His Aunt Rachael got him this fantastic set of skeleton pj's.

They have quickly become his favorite pj's. Luckily, when we packed all of our belongings into boxes for the moving van, we kept these with us. Our boxes have yet to arrive here in Virginia, so last night when our ward had a Halloween party, Griffin went in these pj's.

At the church Halloween party

Griffin as skeleton as Groucho Marx

Griffin love playing with Landon's ties and thought it was hilarious when Landon put one on him. He kept running around the house saying "Dad's tie!"

No, no one is dressed up in this picture, but it's a good one anyway. We went to the National Zoo on Saturday. Griffin liked seeing the panda bears, but he loved the elephants most of all.
We showed up for an afternoon stroll around the zoo, but it was closing early for Halloween festivities, so we only spent an hour or so there. Luckily, the zoo is free here so we'll just have to go back later to see the rest of the animals.

Confessions of a Nomad

I'm sorry.

To all of you whom I did not contact during my life's most recent upheaval, I'm sorry. There have been a million and a half time during the past month that I've thought to myself, "I really need to blog about this!" Sadly, I never did post and so now I can't remember the exact instances that inspired me enough to create a blog post inside my head. Be assured that they were nothing short of blogging brilliance and the world is currently a less enlightened place because of my inaction.

But I digress...

Back to discussing the upheaval: I'm back in Washington, D.C. Well, McLean, VA to be more precise. We are living for the next 6 months in the home of an 86-year-old woman whose late husband was a former British Ambassador. She dislikes east coast winters and so is renting her home to us for 6 months while she goes to New Zealand.

About a month ago Landon submitted his resume for a job out here on a whim. That whimsy turned into 3 weeks of home repairs, placing our home on the market, finding a place to live in the DC area, 1 week of packing, 3 days of driving, and a bucket load of anxiety.

Is your head spinning yet? So is mine.

We're here, we're excited, we're exhausted, and we're happy.

To all of our friends in Denver, thank you! Thank you again and again. To the guys who came over the night before the Open House and helped mow our lawn and paint our banister and paint the bathroom: thank you. To the friends who offered hours of babysitting and countless boxes: thank you. To our neighbor who showed up with a chainsaw and offered to get rid of the dead tree in our backyard: thank you. To the guy who lent us that amazing compressor nail gun and miter saw: thank you. To the friend who showed up the night before we left and helped me figure out how to fit everything into the car: thank you. To the dear friend who offered to rent our house on an as-needed basis: thank you. To that same friend who later agreed to oversee the delayed moving company load our stuff onto the truck so that we could leave on time: thank you. To the friends who brought us dinner when all of my dishes were packed away and I was too frazzled to cook: thank you. To friends who threw a fabulous going-away party for us: thank you. To my sister who made the 26+ hour drive bearable by volunteering as our backseat babysitter: thank you.

We were sad to leave such great friends and we will miss you each. Thanks for everything!

Where did the summer go!?

I really don't know where the summer has gone. I turned around and suddenly August is here, and almost gone. Yikes, I've totally let down Griffin's fan club. So here's the summer rundown...

• We've had 7 guests stay with us this summer.
• We've taken 3 trips to see family.
• Took an 8 hour road trip
• Gone on 1 family camping trip.
• Pounded and patched one hole in our basement wall.
• Made 1 amazing birthday cake
• Saw numerous oddballs in our first trip to Boulder
• Started, abandoned, and restarted potty training.
• Learned how to make delicious bread.
• Watched Nemo, Toy Story, and Bob the Builder countless times.

That about sums it all up. I’m following this up with a few posts to expand on some of the items on this list. Enjoy!

Happy Campers

We've been talking with some friends of ours about doing a camping trip together since April when the weather was just beginning to get warmer. As the summer has zoomed by we simply hadn't ever sat down and made plans. Then suddenly August is upon us and the nights are getting cooler, especially in the mountains. We decided this was the last of the camping weather and we'd better make the best of it. So we went on a last-minute camping trip this weekend. We packed the car Thursday night, I picked up Landon from work on Friday afternoon and we were off to the mountains. His first camping trip, and Griffin loved spending all day outdoors.

Two boys setting up the tent. Griffin really thought he was being a big helper

Griffin and I playing in the little creek near our campsite

Nothing says outdoors like cooking food on sticks. This is my favorite picture from the trip, just look at how happy those two are!

I was pleasantly surprised that Griffin slept way better than Landon or I did on the hard ground in a tent. We loved the friends, the s'mores, the campfire, the creek...and best of all, the telescope! Our friends, the Fredericksons, had brought their enormous telescope (about 4 feet long and 10in diameter) to look at the stars. And I cannot tell you how very very cool it was to look at the moon through that thing. The Sea of Tranquility never looked more tranquil. Incredible! Landon and Nate had a lot of fun trying to find star clusters and galaxies. Julie and I preferred to keep warm by the fire and then come over and look when they'd found something interesting. This was probably one of my favorite camping experiences ever!