Tag Archives: Trips

Awesome Con 2014

We’ve been busy little bees around here lately!  Spring is exploding all around us and that means there is no shortage of work to be done, despite the allergies making us all feel like we were hit by a bus.

This past Saturday, though, we put it all aside to take the kids to Awesome Con, a convention in DC for fans of various Sci-Fi and Fantasy shows, books, etc.

Neither Paul nor I had ever been to one of these conventions, and it wasn’t something we ever thought we’d wind up doing, but when we found out that Billie Piper would be there and that we could get the girls’ pictures taken with her, we knew we needed to be there.  Her character on Doctor Who has always been everyone’s favorite.

It was a lot of walking, A LOT of waiting in lines, and way more fun than I’d expected it to be.  There were plenty of actors present from The Walking Dead, yet another show we are fans of, and what surprised me most was how integrated into the event they were.  Neve walked right up to the actress who played Sophia from the show and asked to take her picture (after I had sneaked one earlier, unsure if we were supposed to or not!).

Seeing all of the people dressed up as their favorite characters was also a lot of fun; Oona especially loved all of the Ana and Elsas there were from Frozen.   The girls are already asking to attend another convention in September in Richmond – a lot of the cast from The Walking Dead will be there, and it looks like the “meet and get your picture taken with an actor you really like” bug has hit them hard.

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The kids dressed up, too.  Emily was something or other from an Anime series that I know nothing about.  Oona was dressed as Draculaura from Monster High.   Katie was dressed a Rose from Doctor Who (in honor of meeting her), Brett was dressed as something called Deadpool.(as you can tell I don’t really know my Japanime or comics).  Neve went as Claudia from Warehouse 13.

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Emily stayed up the entire night before, working on sewing her costume. By HAND. She drafted the pattern herself and used very small, even stitches.  I am crazy proud of her.

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Maddie went as Amy Pond and Jessie went as a Dalek, both from Doctor Who.

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Finding people dressed as characters that compliment your own character is a big part of the fun.

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Melissa McBride, or Carol, from The Walking Dead. She’s so much prettier in person than on the show.  Carey Elwes (Westley from The Princess Bride) was in the next booth over.

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Oona found  Elsa and Ana to have her picture taken with.

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The Lannisters! Sadly I found out later that two more of the Lannister clan were there as well and I missed out on a pic of all of them together.

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Maddie found a very convincing Doctor.

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BUT. Everyone’s most treasured moment for the day was meeting Billie Piper. It was well worth the wait in line and the aggravation of dealing with a very disorganized convention to see the looks on my kids’ faces.  And hey! I got to sneak in the picture, too!

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She was everything they had hoped for: lovely and friendly.

Some kids are really into dolls. Some, barbies.  Some kids are into makeup and dating.

Mine are cosplaying fangirls.

And I kind of absolutely love it.


Tagged: Trips

Beach Weekend 2013

 

Another beach weekend, come and gone!  It’s amazing how you can look forward to something for so long and then have it be over in the blink of an eye.

We had lovely weather for the most part; a bit of rain in the evenings but nothing that interfered with lounging by the ocean.  It’s wonderfully lucky that the ocean is close enough that we can drive there in just a few hours.

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Sometimes it’s hard not to sit and stare at the ocean for hours; it’s peaceful and relaxing watching the waves come in and the boats go out.

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First Landing State Park

We’re an adventurous group, though, so we did manage to take some time away from relaxing to take part in various fun activities.  Our first morning out we went for a Stand-Up Paddle Boarding tour.  It was our second year doing it and this time our guide was was incredibly enthusiastic and engaged with our surroundings.  He showed us all the oysters and barnacles on the shore line and piers and pulled up a crab pot full of blue crab to let us see what they look like.

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He took us into a lovely little cove where the water was calmer and showed us how to do yoga on our paddle boards in the water.

I tried a few poses (mostly child pose, table, cat and downward dog) but he wowed us by doing a headstand.  On his paddle board.  In the water.  Without falling off.

I know.  Amazing.

Of course my friend Diana did us all even prouder later when she rode the Slingshot at the amusement park.  It’s basically a reverse bungee jump that shoots you 200 feet in the air.  She’s pretty brave, that one.

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Mostly, though we did what we enjoy doing every year: spending time together at the beach.

I’m not big on getting colored by the sun (I’m pretty fair skinned and skin cancer is more of a threat than I think most people realize), so I love that we always rent huge umbrellas and create ourselves a shade fortress from which to enjoy the ocean breeze.  I had a book with me but honestly I barely looked at it.  I was either involved in conversation or napping.  Or looking forward to steamed clams for dinner.

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Laura and Margie

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Diana, Theresa, Jessie.

I really needed this recharge; summer is fading fast and before we know it school and related activities will be upon us again.  Let’s squeeze every drop of summer goodness we can get!

 


Tagged: Seasons, Trips

Somebody’s 5!!!!

We’re back from Orlando!

The bigger new, however, is that Oona has turned 5.  5!!!

SO much about my life has changed in 5 years – it is so different and so much better in so many ways.  And yet it seems that Oona has gotten to be this age in the blink of an eye.

She had a spectacular 5th birthday.  And how can you not, when you are celebrating at Disney?

But first we HAD to go to Hogwarts.

The world of Harry Potter at Universal in Orlando is pretty impressive.  It’s really a must – see destination for all Potter fans.  Although I will say that my friend Jessie and her family went to the Harry Potter attraction in London this summer and saw all of the actual sets used in the movies.  That certainly beat out our experience, but we still enjoyed our fill of Butterbeer, Pumpkin Juice and roasted chicken.  This was the all around favorite of the bigger girls for the whole trip.

Disney was not quite as easy to navigate and the weather was not quite as nice.

I will say this about Disney, though: some things they do very, very right.  We had Oona wear her Cinderella dress to the Magic Kingdom on her birthday.  To that, we got a button from a shop just inside the park that had her name and announced her birthday.  EVERY “cast member” (employee) all day long greeted her with “Happy Birthday Princess!”.  It made her millenium.

There was also plenty of meet and greets throughout the day.

Followed by the famous fireworks spectacular at the castle that night.

There is no way we will ever beat that as a birthday experience.

As for me, I found myself having the most fun at the Animal Kingdom.

Since it was meant to look like parts of both Asia and Africa there was much more plant – life (and shade!).  There were animals everywhere of course, and we were all very excited to see their petting zoo, which promised “Exotic animals of many species”.

Well.

What they had were sheep, goats, pigs and a llama.

That was a total bust.  That was the opposite of exotic.

Fortunately, the safari ride we took more than made up for it.

We didn’t have to touch any of the animals to thoroughly enjoy them.

Now we are back to reality.  Back to planning for the school year which will start in just about a week and a half. Back to digging a culvert so we can make a bridge over the stream.  Back to getting fencing set in.

Because y’all, my birthday is coming up.  And you know getting my animals home is the one and only thing left for me to be completely content.

:-)

 

 


Tagged: Farm, Homeschooling, Pets, Trips

The Beach is Back

I am happy to report that after 4 blissful days at the beach I am back and feeling great.  There really is something very healing about the ocean; just listening to the waves and feeling the sea breeze does something to your soul.

This year was my favorite beach trip.  Two of our lovely friends brought their new babies with them (both were born in December) and it was by far the most relaxing, stress – free and fun trip we’ve had. The babies were wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures of them discovering the beach and enjoying some time with their mamas.

There was so much good food that I may have put on a pound (or 5).  I brought homemade peach salsa, my friend Gabi brought a delightful Argentinian fruit spread that we ate slathered in large amounts on good hard cheese.  There was plentiful fruit and summer sausage brought by Jessie.

Of course we all splurged at the restaurants as well.

But the one thing I will really remember from this trip was the Stand Up Paddle Boarding that Diana, Jessie, Margie and I tried.  It was something that was a little bit outside my comfort zone, but I didn’t want to miss out.  I am SO glad I did it.  It was much easier than I feared and we had a blast.I wish I had pictures to show you, but I couldn’t bring my camera.

Little Liam was my seat buddy on the ride out and back.  He giggled and cooed and was a total angel both times.

Teddy was very much into exploring the sand.  And is so obviously in love with his mother it made my ovaries hurt.

Rainbow!  Fortunately the rain didn’t affect us too much – it was brief, and gave us a glorious rainbow.  UNfortunately, due to the cloudiness we were unable to see the perseids meteor shower.

The best beach crew you could hope for.

I’ve linked above to the company we used for the paddle boarding.  If you are ever in Virginia Beach, give them a try.  They were reasonably priced and a ton of fun.


Tagged: food, Trips