Kris' Birthday/Father's Day Week and Our Last Week in the USA

Kris flew in from Caracas Sunday, July 27th. He arrived at my parent’s home at 10:45pm and the kids were all still awake waiting for him. I was afraid Jamison wouldn’t warm up to him immediately but as soon as Kris walked in he went right to him and CLUNG to him for dear life. I tried to take him so that Kris could give the other boys a hug but Jamison just screamed and reached out for Kris…so that’s how he fell asleep, clinging to his daddy. I was VERY happy to see this and I know it meant the world to Kris that Jamison had this reaction because he has been such a mamma’s-boy.



Each day we tried to do something fun with Kris to celebrate his birthday and Father’s Day. I wanted to copy an idea my friend had that I had previously mentioned but there was just too much that I know Kris wanted to do so I didn’t want to leave things out…we were going to do it all!

Monday--Kris and I took the boys to “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Weston and Braedon really enjoyed it…Jamison, not so much. I spent most of the time in the hallway with him.



Tuesday--Busch Gardens with Daddy! The boys have been looking forward to going to Busch Gardens with Kris. There are several rides that I would love to go on with them but I just can’t. I used to really enjoy rides but ever since being pregnant with Weston and having my first experience with morning sickness everything that can cause some sort of motion sickness does so with a vengeance and I really get sick to the point of throwing up. I try to fight it but that just makes things worse so poor Weston and Braedon had to wait for Kris to ride the “lets go round and round in a circle” type rides. They rode them all while I watched still fighting nausea just watching them!



Weston rode his very first major coaster. It is called The Big Bad Wolf and he loved it. Braedon hasn’t warmed up to the idea of going on a coaster but give it a few years and we won’t be able to get him off of one. Jamison even got to ride a baloon ride with his brothers which he thought was pretty neat.



One highlight of the day according to Braedon: When you first get into Italy (all sections are named after European countries) there is an "Escape from Pompeii" ride where you can stand on a splash deck and get soaked by the boat as it comes flying down into the water. Weston and Braedon were getting drenched when an especially loaded boat (full of fat people…these make the best and biggest splashes!) created a HUGE wave that blew Braedon’s favorite hat off his head and into the water which then was sucked into the depths of water ride darkness. He was pretty worked up and upset about it the whole day. Just as we were leaving the park at the end of the day we again passed by "Escape from Pompeii" and Weston said he wanted to ride it so I told him I’d ride it with him. When we exited the ride, there perched on a shelf was Braedon’s hat! A little greasy from the workings of the ride but it was there! I let out a shriek of “Oh my gosh! Braedon’s hat!”. The ride operator said “oh yea, anything that someone looses during the ride gets put there, most of the park rides will have a reclaim spot near the exit if you check back there towards the end of the day.” I took the hat and was waving it over my head off the ramp and Braedon’s expression was priceless when he saw me. Little boys and their hats…a bond I will never understand.

Wednesday--Kris took the boys to the pool while Jamison took a nap and I packed. For dinner we went to Kris’ favorite restaurant here called New York Deli. Grandpa went with us and we all had steak and cheese subs. Grandpa had to leave for a meeting so the boys and I took Kris to Sno-to-Go for dessert. You choose from 40 flavors of shaved ultra fluffy snowy ice that is then layered with soft-serve, they are called Stuffed Snowballs. Braedon got a Gremlin (Blue Raspberry, Mango, Lemonade). Weston got a Sponge Bob (orange, lemon and mango). I’m surprised neither chose Frog-in-a-Blender which is lime and watermelon. Kris got a Bahama Mamma (Orange, Mango, Pineapple, and Pina Coloda) and I got a Sunrise (Bahama Mama, Raspberry, Lemonade). My problem with Sno-to-Go is that I wanted more soft serve than shaved ice. I’m not a huge fan of shaved ice so I tried to tell them to charge me extra but I wanted soft serve first then a layer of flavored shaved ice then another layer of soft serve rather than their customary shaved ice/soft serve/shaved ice….the teenager behind the counter looked at me like I was from mars (but we are known for our ultra fluffy shaved ice…the soft serve is just an accent!) Too many people behind me to argue so I said ‘nevermind’ and accepted my stuffed snowball with a smile. Someday when there is no line I am going to get my soft serve stuffed with ultra fluffy shaved ice…flavor to be determined at that point.



Thursday- Water Country! This place is a lot of fun and we had a great time. I took Jamison to the kiddie area while Kris took the boys down several water slides.





That night my dad took Weston, Braedon and Jamison while Kris and I went on a date to Busch Gardens. We were both bummed that the Griffon coaster was down due to maintenance but there were still several others to ride. We bought 2 Quick Queue passes ($15 each) which allows the holder to have priority access to the major rides in the park...only one time per ride. This was all we would need since waiting in line can take over 45 minutes this would be the only way we could hit all of the coasters with the time we had. We started with Apollo’s Chariot in Italy (we rode this twice since the first time we actually stood in line for 45 minutes before going back to buy the quick queue passes), next was The Big Bad Wolf in Germany and Curse of DarKastle (a 4-D ride). We then rode Alpengeist which is the world's tallest, floorless, most twisted inverted roller coaster that is listed in the top 10 of steel roller coasters. I mention this because it goes into several corkscrews and 6 inversions…the first time I was ok. When we got off there was no line so Kris said “lets ride it again” so we got right back on and that was a huge mistake. I had taken Dramamine because I knew that I would get sick on the coasters if I didn’t take it and it was working very well. The second time on the Alpengeist though and I was sick to my stomach…Dramamine doesn’t work if you push your luck with it. That was the end of rides for me that night so we ate dinner in France once my stomach calmed down and went to Kinetix, the major acrobatic and light show. Since the Griffon was down we only missed riding the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland but we didn’t get to it in time before the coasters closed for the night and there was no way I would be able to ride it after Alpengeist. Next time though! This was one of the best dates Kris and I have ever been on.

Friday--We woke up at 5am to get ready to drive up to Fredericksburg. Jamison had a doctor’s appointment at 9am for his 15 month shots and we knew there would be traffic. We also had to drop the van off in Woodbridge so it was going to be a long day up and down I-95. Kris drove the Odyssey while I took my mom’s Pilot. We stopped in at our home to check on things…it looked great, the yard needs more attention but that just isn’t going to happen if the house is vacant. Kris and I decided that if it doesn’t sell by the end of August we are taking it off the market and renting it. Since the garden is going to be neglected I had to rescue several of my plants that I knew wouldn’t take kindly to neglect. I bought a box of large garbage bags at Bloom (grocery store) and filled them up with peonies, Japanese painted ferns, fothergilla, twin-berry groundcover, green-and-gold groundcover, cardinal flower, hellebore, hydrangeas; some lacecap others were mopheads, Virginia creeper, asters, and heuchera. I absolutely stuffed the back of my mom’s Pilot with shrubs and perennials along with three 100ft soaker hoses that I knew would come in handy in the new landscape at my parent’s home (while they were in Utah for over a month I landscaped their backyard…I hope to post pictures of this someday on my other blog). When we got back to Williamsburg that evening my dad and I planted everything into their new landscape. I hope most of it makes it and thrives. After all of that I realized that I forgot to get the astilbes and white chelone that were along the creek in the backyard! ARGH! Next summer I will have to go back up and get those because the astilbes were from Murry Minster’s garden across the street from my Grandparents in McLean, VA and the white chelone is one of my favorite Virginia natives that just so happened to love the area along our creek bed. I really enjoyed planting all of those plants with my Dad.

Saturday--Kris and Dad worked outside digging a trench to divert the water that drenched the backyard. My dad’s neighbor likes to water his lawn A LOT. All the water that is not absorbed flows into my dad’s and turns the area into a soppy mess. I told Dad his soil was dead in that area because of the saturation and sure enough when they started digging the trench the stench of sewage was pretty strong (what it smells like when soil is anaerobic which is what happens when there is too much water saturation and organisms within the soil die…it’s not a fun problem to correct). They lined the trench with landscape fabric and then filled it with rock to hopefully act as a drain for his neighbor’s excess water. It was a quick job that needed to get done and Kris really enjoys working with my dad on projects so this was the one they chose to work on.



That wraps up our last week in the US!