Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Monday, August 26, 2013

Crazy Grandkids

Happy 76th to my fabulous grandma! In celebration of 76 years (not to mention the 53 years my grandparents have been married) my family, minus my Dad who was currently in St. Louis, and my uncle Ed and Uncle Kirk who were on a boat trip, got together for homemade cake and pasta salad and an excuse for my aunt and uncle to let Meg and I look after our younger cousins for a while. Most of the following photos are of Alex (age 6) and Claire (age 5), mostly because they are the most photogenic members of our family, but also because Meg and I spent a lot of the afternoon playing freeze tag and swinging on swings and exploring the "little paths" in our backyard. 
At least one of them wants to smile.
Swinging fun
Cutie.
I obviously can't compare to these cute kids, but at least they look adorable.
Chasing cousin Meg.
Decorating the cake with Grandpa.
Happy Birthday Grandma!
And think, she could have ended up with NORMAL grandchildren!

Congrats on making it 76 years grandma! (Especially since you've put up with us for most of it...) 



Sunday, August 18, 2013

Rainy Day Adventures

So, if there's anything I hate more than meat and having to wake up early, it's rainy Sundays. I mean, after all, it is called SUNday, therefore I always feel a little sad and dreary when a Sunday comes around where it is not even a little bit sunny, a day much like today. This afternoon turned out to be better than expected though, despite gloomy skies and pouring cold rain.

First of all, my family stopped for a quick doughnut run at Dixie Donuts, which is probably the cutest doughnut shop I have ever been in my entire life. They are constantly inventing new flavors of doughnuts, so of course I have to try a new one every time! This time I tried German chocolate (which was a chocolate doughnut with dark chocolate frosting and walnut creme stuff in the middle... YUM) as well as the 'OMG' doughnut (a vanilla doughnut with chocolate frosting and a chocolate doughnut hole in the middle with vanilla frosting and caramel and chocolate drizzled over it... help I think I'm going into chocolate overload... oh wait that doesn't exist...)
 Car selfies with the ever stubborn Meg
Meg looks cute even when she eats doughnuts...
After Dixie Donuts, my family and I went to the VMFA, the HUGE art museum in RVA. We decided to check out the South Asian Art exhibit because that is what I'm going to be learning about in art this year, so we figured it'd be cool to check it beforehand. This exhibit was filed with lots of pieces of art depicting Hindu and Buddhist gods, such as the above statue of Shiva, the all-powerful creator of the universe in the Hindu religion (at least that's what I read on the description plaque... I'm not actually Hindu so correct me if my facts are wrong...) 
 Chihuly is probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen...
After checking out Southeast Asian art, Meg and I ventured over to the Chinese and Japanese art since that is what I learned about this year. Meg actually seemed to like it a lot, especially some of the tapestries and screens, and I took pictures of some of my favorite things such as the picture of the bird in the branches and the two ink drawings.
This was Meg's very favorite thing in the entire museum... I think she liked that it had animals on it... I have to admit, I like it too though.
We found this room at the very top of the building where one wall was made completely out of windows, so you could see the whole city. 
What I'm wearing:
Dress: H&M
Boots: Target
(I had taken my belt off at this point because I was being lazy, but I usually would wear a belt along with this outfit)
If Meg and I work together, we have enough arms to portray Shiva, unfortunately with an extra set of legs...
After I got home, I did chores, ate Caprese Salad (possible recipe coming later!) and worked on my birthday gift for Reshini. I was actually pretty proud of it, I made her a CD of 15 love songs since she's 15 and I love her... Ok fine it's cheesy but she liked it. After dinner I went to Reshini's house for a couple hours to celebrate her birthday, and although I didn't get any pictures, almost EVERYONE I made missed from school was there, and it was so awesome to see everyone again! We all ate too much ice cream and hung out in Reshini's living room with the extremely soft rug and watched Identity Thief and looked at videos of our young embarrassing selves. Now I just have to wait a couple more weeks before seeing them all again... I'm already starting to go into deprivation...

So no matter how muggy you "Sun"day was, I just hope it was a happy day!







Saturday, August 17, 2013

Rockwood Park (featuring my mom, the pro selfie taker)


So yesterday, despite the somewhat iffy weather, my family decided it was best to get out of the house, so we took Maddy to Rockwood Park. Although the park isn't very large, they have a great paved trail, as well as one overlooking a lake, so my family enjoys going there occasionally. Luckily, we didn't see any copperheads this time!

Meg is my favorite favorite person in the entire world.
 My mom likes to take selfies...
Sometimes my eyes do weird things, and this is one of them...

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their slightly muggy day! I know I did!




Monday, August 12, 2013

Norfolk // Day Two

Here's to the second (and last) day at the beach!
Today we spent most of the morning/afternoon on my uncles's sailboat! We thought the weather was going to prevent us from actually using the sail, but once we got out onto the bay, we were able to put the sail up and sail up and down the coast!
Sometimes I wonder how me, who takes WAY too many photos, ended up with a sister who refuses to show her face in any of them... Oh well, you gotta love Meg :)
This was a fort we passed out on the bay built during WWI to be used as a lookout to see German submarines.
Our crab friend who someone managed to get all the way on the boat...
At least I have uncles who will sort-of smile for me...
Proud to say I rode on a boat that belongs to people who are happy to be just who they are.
Still won't face the camera...

So it's been a great weekend! Now I'm back to sprints and 3 hour practices and feeling like I could pass out at any minute from the heat. I'm just glad I always have a place like the beach to go to!

And yes, Maddy was probably the most disappointed when we had to leave...