Powderly Road Trip

On Saturday, my friend Kerry brought her kids down to Richmond for the day from their home in Fairfax. It was billed and promoted as a "Road Trip" to her son Chris, so that's the title of this post!

We had lunch at my house (I have a LOT to learn about buying kid food!) After that, we piled into Kerry's car and headed up the street to the Children's Museum of Richmond. It was so much fun!

Chris and the self-entitled "That Yo-Yo Guy" ... Yo-Yo Guy was quite serious about Yo-Yo-ing. He even had his own Yo-Yo holster on his belt.

There were a MILLION things to do in this museum. What did Caitlin choose? To climb on a chair. You gotta love a woman who appreciates the simpler things in life!

The Children's Museum had all kinds of different areas ... a TV studio with real cameras, a grocery store, a cafe, etc. This is Chris in the classroom.

There was a huge water area where you could splash around with boats, ducks, and all kinds of other water toys. They even had a lock where you could practice lifting the boats to higher and lower water.

Caitlin enjoyed crawling around on the mat...

... and riding a brontosaurus!

I could say that Chris enjoyed digging for dinosaur fossils, but really what happened is he discoverd that the plastic dinosaur bones could be split open and work like a construction grab truck.

Kerry pointed out the expressions on the faces of the parents around us in the younger children's area ... they looked utterly BEATEN DOWN. Once she pointed it out, I was cracking up. You could see it everywhere. I had to take a picture.

Cait liked to sit on the floor of the car while driving. I envision a low-rider in her future.

Chris coming down the treehouse slide

I'll tell you a secret - Kerry likes to play with the toys, too! She's not ashamed to admit it!

Caitie and Ducks

There was one exhibit at the museum that surprised us the most ... SNOW! They actually made it snow in the Backyard, and there were all kinds of snow toys to play with. Kerry thought this was great, because apparently Chris has been asking for snow all winter.

The Powderly family (sans Dave, who is in DC with every other Police officer in the country, preparing for the Inauguration)

Chris didn't have any gloves (who'd have anticipated SNOW??), but he still had fun playing with the trucks and shovels.

Well, the Children's Museum was more stimulating than we ever thought it would be. We were pretty exhausted when we left! (Kerry even attempted to put Chris in Caitlin's carseat - uh oh!)

Thanks for visiting guys! I had a GREAT Saturday!!

Miscellanea in Gennaio

Here are a few odds and ends from my January so far.

The first weekend of the year, I brought lunch for the Luals. It was a negotiation, actually, because I'd told them I'd visit on New Year's Day but it was so cold and I was so warm in my blanket on my couch that I bailed. In a vigorous negotiation, we settled on a Saturday visit including lunch. Here are the kids all hyped up on salad, pizza and ice cream.

Duk, Deng, Adeng, Achan, Anger, Ayak and Nyabol

Duk loves having his picture taken. He thinks it's really funny.

Achan and Deng

Anger and Adeng in the woods behind their apartment.

Ayak in an unusually silly mood.

Awut - The Negotiator - in the kitchen... in a TYPICAL silly mood.

Muloh asleep on the couch.

The girls bedroom - SOOO clean! I'm pretty proud of them for this. Does this look like the typical bedroom of 5 girls, ages 8-17?

On Saturday, January 10th, I drove up to Tyson's to have dinner with the folks I used to work with at the Census Bureau.

I have known these cats for 13 years! Wow, that's pretty amazing. I'm getting pretty darn old.

Cezarina, Lori and Jackie, with the beautiful lunch Keith and Hui prepared!

Austin, Keith's oldest son, was really good at using my camera! Here is a picture he took of his Dad.

Here is a picture he took of all of his family (using the timer, of course!)

Here is the "Art Shot" of the tiramisu, Cezarina and Lori.

Keith and Alex, who is probably thinking "Why are all these strange women in my house??"

Tiramisu-a-la-Keith... apparently this was for Jackie, who did not believe he could really make one! You have to know Keith to understand her disbelief. You see, Keith is a practical joker. He is also a liar, and I mean this in the most flattering sense. For those of you who remember my political blogs from last Fall, you may remember me having to "close up" my blog to anonymous comments because some random joker posted some inflamatory comments without identifying himself. With regret, I made it so that people can now only comment when they have logged in.

Well, I learned on Saturday, that this was KEITH. He was quite proud of himself for getting my knickers in a twist!! :)

Keith serves his tiramisu, thus forcing Jackie to not only acknowledge that indeed he is capable of producing such a gourmet dessert, but that in fact it was REALLY REALLY delicious!

Austin and Cezarina. Austin is very serious about the movie Cars. He knows it extremely well, and is - we found out! - capable of discussing it for hours. (It was adorable.)

Cezarina hasn't worked this hard since retirement! :-)

THANK YOU Hui, Alex, Keith and Austin! We had a blast!!

That evening I met Torsten, who I also worked with a shorter 10 years ago, for dinner in Reston.

Torsten quickly discovered what a nuisance I am with my camera.

I subsequently discovered that paybacks are Hell.

Eeesh. That's a lot of chins.

Good people-watching vantage point.

Finally, the least pleasant part of January: putting my great-uncle to rest. He passed away the day after Christmas. His family had a Memorial service for him on Tuesday. I'll miss you, Uncle Bob.

Robert Laughlin Park, 1919-2008

Bob's niece Kathy and son, Tim (my cousin)

A Grandfather clock hand-made by my Great-Grandfather, Charles Park, or "Be-Pa." It was partially made (side panels) with wood from the original Bank of Alexandria (built in 1792 as the first financial institution authorized by the General Assembly of Virginia), with authentic Black Forest clock parts.

Amy, Nancy, Betsy, Chrissie and Kathie - all of Uncle Bob's Park nieces.

Aunt Crazy (Anne), Amy, Kathie, Betsy, and Katy (Amy's daughter) and Nancy (Mom)

Katy and her dad, Pat ("Pook") look at family pictures

Uncle Bob's grandsons Shawn and Chris, and his daughter (my cousin) Lucy

Holy Moly!

Have you seen this? It's a bit scary. I guess I knew stuff like this was out there, but I haven't seen it so detailed before. How does it know my sister??