Taking Washington DC by Storm

Here is Great Grandma Wright with a whole heap of grandkids and great-grandkids. Luckily we had let them bounce first so they would sit still for the picture. 

I'm not sure why we didn't get any awesome pictures at the zoo. Maybe it was too crowded to separate our crowd easily from the rest. Next time we should perhaps all wear hunter orange.

Here we are at the Washington DC temple. We loved the visitor center.

Grandma had a brilliant idea that we eat pizza in her garage. The kids loved it and the adults loved that none of Grandma's things were broken.

Were all 52 flavors of chalk incorporated into these stunning designs? Yes. Were they all worn to the nubs over two days? Yes again.

So I found out what is more fun than taking your family on public transportation -- it is taking another family on public transportation! We got to use all our favorite phrases like, "mind the gap," "stay in one seat," "don't touch the stop button," and "everyone get out briskly, this is our stop."

Who loves the National Mall?

Here we are contemplating the size of Abe Lincoln's foot in comparison to our bodies.

We tried something new for our cherry blossom picture this year. Clearly we needed shorter trees or taller kids.

I included this picture just so you could grasp how many benches the Finch's and Hackett's need in order for everyone to get along while eating.

You've seen one Air and Space Museum, you've seen them all.

Here we are living it up at Grandma's church in a game of dodgeball with all sorts of aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and other relations. We've decided that the Hackett kids need more experience with contact sports, as they each dissolved in tears if they we even grazed by the ball.

Springtime

We've had some overcast months and I don't really feel like taking pictures when I don't see the sun. Luckily, the weather need not stand in the way of a good Luau. Carl was in charge of throwing confetti at appropriate moments.

 Carl has learned a new trick - climbing our apple tree. He loves it. Up and down and around and around. 

 Where he would have learned such a trick is a mystery is a mystery to me. 

On a warm day we went on a great hike. 

 It's always fun to see the two year old taking care of the one year old. 

 Our "pet" bird Betsy had two babies this spring. The kids have loved running to the front window and watching her feeding them. This is the best kind of pet ever! She feeds herself, cleans herself, makes her own nests and has babies. 

Here are the kids pretending to be birds in our pruning material.

Winter Weather

A couple of weeks ago we had some really nice winter weather. I just love snow and how clean everything looks. Including the kids snowsuits. Sadly the snow only lasted a few days in town.

When we are not playing outside, there is serious demolition (see lower left) or wallpaper to be done. The kids like demolition the very best. Ryan got me a new wallpapering belt clip. All my needs fit right into that handy carrying case. I am pretty sure that the phone is even in there too on speaker so I can keep working while chatting. I have really come into my own. Don't worry the curtain you see is not going in that room when we are done.

  This weekend Grandma Bee came for a visit and we had a great time playing, reading and doing puzzles. One of the highlights was the trip to the Dinosaur park. What is more scary, the dinosaur or us? I'm pretty sure that we take the cake.

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday Alice and let Christmas Vacation Begin

Alice turned 4 this year and there was nothing that I could say to talk her out of a "flat chocolate cake." Not that I tried really hard, I'm a big fan of Texas sheet cake.

She was so excited to be the center of attention all day beginning with Helen shouting "Happy Birthday Alice!" when the alarm clock goes off. Jane even gave her the sticker she got from Kindergarten to celebrate. Here she is with a set of gears that are a gift that keep giving.

On the first day of winter break I decided it was time to start scraping the wallpaper off the walls of the second bedroom. The kids were delighted, ecstatic, excited beyond words to get to help. Helen is my most diligent helper and able to pull the biggest sheets of wallpaper off the wall to date.

Jane calls herself "the wallpaper scraping machine" and Alice was always willing to lend a hand with the squirt bottle.

I thought we could try the pressure sprayer to get more water on the wallpaper. Here is Carl using all his muscles and his forehead to pump it up.

I've since decided not to use said sprayer because of the number of falls we've had in puddles on the floor. When questioned the kids all blamed Carl for the water on the floor. Not that I didn't see some real casual spraying from other quarters with all sorts of swinging arms punctuating the excitement of scraping wallpaper. I'm happy to report that with recent my recent policy changes OSHA has not shut our production down. 

La Repulica Dominicana

This fall I went to the Dominican Republic for a Nutrition Conference, clearly a serious sacrifice.

It was so much fun to catch up with all my colleges and learn what has been going on in the last 7 years in the world of nutrition. One of my co-authors from years ago said, "look at what has happened based on all the work you did, it's amazing." Another woman from Venezuela said, "Michelle Hackett, I know you, I cited your work in a paper I just wrote." It's good to know that something has come from all my blood, sweat and tears. I was asked multiple times if I was ready to come back and start working. I assured them all that our two year old had just been potty trained and this was no time bail out. 

The second day I was there, none of the topics were in my area of research so I played tourist and went up in the mountains to visit a farm.

Not only was this house pink on the outside, the inside was exactly the same color. The girls think we should move there. 

Can you see the vanilla vine in the background? It was so exciting to be that close to such a lucrative crop especially after reading Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid. 

Here I am making sugar cane juice on a large scale and roasting chocolate beans on a smaller scale.

Home Repairs

I tried to capture our front room at it's worse to make the final pictures look better. Sadly I didn't think of taking the "before" picture until after Alice and I had taken the old wallpaper off the wall. It was surprisingly easy to peel the wallpaper off, in fact, Alice helped me tear it off in long sheets. She thought it was great fun (and so did I). It is a little suspicious that little pockets of wallpaper all over our house have mysteriously started "falling off the wall" since we started.

Ryan, very hesitantly, let me talk him into putting new wallpaper up. This was against his better judgment and extended family pressure (Craig and Emily). Maybe I've lived in too many rentals, but I've never lived in a house with a good paint job. Nor has said paint ever hid even a hint of fingerprints. 

Here is the final product complete with a Mt. Fuji valence. Oh, and you can see the new windows too. It's so nice to be able to open windows now. Only 5 out of 36 windows in our home opened before due to paint jobs gone bad (mmm, hmm) and broken pulley ropes. Although it's cold now, I'm excited for spring and throwing all the windows open wide.

The Johnson's came for a visit at Thanksgiving, and Craig was all about discovering nooks, crannies, and hidden spaces. We pretty much let him have free reign as documented by the picture below. Can you find him? He also helped Ryan and Spencer put a ventilation fan in our bathroom amidst his wanderings. It was no small task considering the size of the attic access and we are grateful for the help. 

Fall Flings

This summer we broke down and bought a house. We decided that it wasn't really feasible to live in Amber and Spencer's basement any longer. This picture was taken right after we bought it. We've since done some pruning, window updates and had Fall. 

One weekend we went on a quick trip up to Roan Mountain State Park for hiking.

Carl was thrilled to hike a lot, but it sure is hard for those little legs to get over those big rocks.

This fall I broke one of my cardinal rules and let my kids pick up leaves. I decided that their little hands couldn't hold that many; boy was I wrong when we got back to the car. Luckily they could be convinced that the squirrels needed their leaves to make their nests so we should leave them on the ground by the stream.

The leaves were lovely, and the girls look great in their matching undershirts.

I thought this picture of the canopy turned out really cool.

Carl is always up for a picture.

The Finch's, a.k.a. the Seven Dwarves, joined us for trick-or-treating in downtown Elizabethton. They were serious contenders in the costume competition.

Ryan and the kids talked me into getting a pumpkin this year. I thought it was festive enough to buy pumpkin window clings and put them up. Silly me. Ryan was on his own for jack-o-lantern making. Well, he wasn't really alone as you can see from the picture, but I had already put up my window clings and was wiped out.

One of the great features of big shade trees are all the leaves that make for great piles to jump in.