Friday, September 21, 2012

Bowling

It has been YEARS since we have bowled as a family.  It's been years since Iris and Stephen have bowled AT ALL. 

So everyone was very excited when we surprised them with some cosmic bowling on a Friday night!!

Lucy dancing to the music...

Iris's mad skilz...

Stephen's mad skilz...

Clyde's....

Lu's....

Lucy celebrating some of her spares and strikes, delirious with glee....

Iris celebrating the knocking down of the pins (her victory dances were so short, it was hard to photograph)....

Clyde is really skilled at celebrating....

Yes, I was there too.

Stephen helping the girls when they got frustrated....

Clyde and Iris being all siblingish while Lu bowls...

Stephen and Clyde cracking up at the little videos they play everytime you bowl...

And right as we almost had our group shot....my batteries went dead.  But even so, much fun was had!

The End.

Girls and Ferrets

I think it's obvious from my photographs that I was merely inspired by da Vinci (seen below).

Just kidding :)  ...but they get sweeter the further down you go!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Dad's Birthday

We are planning on doing something extra fun for Grandad/Dad's birthday this year.  But it's going to fall after his actual birthday.  So Sherry and I were totally not okay with waiting until then to sing, and do cards and all that :)

Soooo.....

Here's Dad with his present, which may or may not have included peanuts...and Janet may or may not have gotten him a really SOFT calf-skin covered Scoffield Bible with wide margins.  (Since I'm not Baptist, I'm not sure if I spelled that right...forgive me.)

Dad and Lu...

Dad and Iris....

Dad and Clyde....

Dad and Clyde being uber silly :P

Janet trying to not have her picture taken...and succeeding except for her fingers :)

Feliz Cumpleanos a ti.  Feliz Cumpleanos a ti.  Feliz Cumpleanos a Padre/Abuelo!  Feliz Cumpleanos a ti!!!

Love you Dad!

Twelve Years Later

On our way home from our crazy business/vacation trip, we stopped in Bristol for just an hour....long enough to drive swiftly through our old college campus and long enough to revisit this monumental place :)
 somewhere in my many piles of pictures, there IS a wedding picture that closely resembles the one below...but alas, it could not be found...aw well.  :)  Clyde took this one.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Williamsburg!! Huzzah! Part II

The first shop we went to was the Printer's.  He was by FAR the most animated and kid-friendly tradesman.  He was all about giving them things to touch, asking if they had questions, cracking jokes and doing repeated demonstrations.  He rocked the house!!

After visiting the printing press, we had lunch.  We had been informed at the visitor's center that all of the chef's would be able and willing to work with food allergies.  We decided to eat at The King's Arms Tavern and found that to be ABSOLUTELY true!  Our waitress was a dream!  Our chef was even better!  He came out and asked us what we WISHED we could have and then said he would do it.  When the waitress realized Lucy couldn't eat the bread she brought out before the meal, she asked if she'd rather have crackers or strawberries.  They even had desserts she could eat, which is REALLY unusual.

While we ate our DELICIOUS dinner, the regiment walked by the tavern playing their drums and fifes.  It was delightful :)

Following dinner, we visited the silversmith.  Stephen and he discussed apprenticeships and the merits of teaching children while they're young....as well as silversmithing.

The next visit was Iris's FAVORITE!  She walked in to the Milliner & Dressmaker Shop and was immediately smitten and enchanted with the milliner!  The underclothing, dolls and methods of dressmaking of the day were pretty fascinating.  But Iris would have adored her even if this were not the case, because she was so pretty and soft-spoken.

Lucy and Iris admiring a linen gown.

Lucy, Clyde and Stephen found the lady who did the embroidery and ribbon-weaving engrossing.

As we hauled our awe-inspired girls from the milliner's, we decided to give poor Clyde a break and go to the blacksmith.

The blacksmith is also a locksmith of sorts and makes locks and keys.  Clyde found this extremely diverting and was not interested in leaving until he had figured out why it worked.

After exploring the ins and outs of bellows and locks, we decided to venture to the military encampment and join the 2nd Williamsburg Regiment to prepare for war for independence.

Our sargent was awesome.  He yelled at us and called us names until he had everyone laughing.  He taught our regiment how to lie about your age, load and fire your weapon, march in formation, sleep in a tent with 5 other people,  and fire a cannon...all withing 30 minutes.  This also included a history lesson on what the real 2nd regiment accomplished.

After our time in the military, Lucy and I finally started feeling that familiar light-headedness coming on and so our day of fun and frivolity came to a hurried end.  But we were plenty worn out and had our fill of play for the day.  We loved Williamsburg and it's unanimous....we all want to go again!