Boston in the fall

We are here in Boston, with Mark's parents, for a little fall vacation. Today we started out at the public gardens, where I tried to get some fall portraits of the girls. The swan boats were put up for the winter, but the fall foliage was beautiful!From there it was off to Boston Common and the Freedom Trail. We walked all over Boston today.


Rowan's favorite part of the Freedom Trail: The Old North Church. Gryphon's: Paul Revere's house
Mark most enjoyed the Old North Church, as well. My favorite was of course the gorgeous graveyards!! I got some beautif. ul photos of headstones

We're off to Concord tomorrow!

A Virginia Fall Tradition

We drove out to Centerville, VA for our annual trip to Cox Farms on Sunday. The weather was beautiful- not as hot as last year but still in the 80's.

This year we went with buddies, Gracie and Libby. The girls had a blast.

Did all the regular Cox Farms stuff- rope swing, slides, ate too much kettle corn.

This year they added a corn maze, with The Vortex. That was actually not so cool- it gave me the worst motion sickness! Of course the kids went through it a dozen times, but once was more than enough for me!

We'll miss Cox Farms next year, its gotten to be a fall tradition around here!

Coolest Field Trip Ever!

Today we went to Damascus, Maryland, to a horse rescue! Its called Day's End Farm, http://www.defhr.org/ and it was *so* neat!
First, we heard all about the amazing work Day's End does to rehab and adopt out horses taken by animal control due to abuse and neglect. Very sad to see some of the photos of the resident horses as emaciated skeletons.
With the economy in a downturn, the neglect cases rise, because horses are very expensive to keep. This guy in the barn, above, has a bad case of "cribbing", repetitive motions horses do to calm themselves if they are stressed. He spent most of his life locked in a manure filled stall in the dark, so he is quite stressed. Physically, he's fine, which is the good news!
The girls learned about caring for horses hooves and coat, feeding and watering.

Then the girls got to groom some horses.Next it was time to ride some of the rehabilitated horses who are up for adoption. Most of the horses at the farm make full recoveries, though some cannot be ridden they can be companion animals. I wish we had the room and money to take one (or four!) home.

For animal loving girls, it was the Coolest Field Trip ever. I got a kick out of Gryphon- she knows a surprising amount about horses!

*Gryphon got into...something...and has a terrible allergic reaction right now on her face and neck. The doctor said its some kind of contact thing, but what, exactly, we don't know. SO while she looks really scary, she is fine except for some itching!*

Played hooky and went to the beach today!

We went to the beach today, trying to capture the last of the warm sunny days. This time we went to Calvert Cliffs beach, in search of fossils.

To get to the water, you have to do a 1.8 mile hike through some really beautiful wetlands.

I need to find out what kind of snake this was- the picture doesn't do it justice. It was a lovely red!
We found several fossils, one of which we *think* is some sort of bone.Gryphon suggested taking it up to Natural History and asking them, which is a great idea. I hope it isn't just a bumpy rock!

We also found several shark's teeth, and another home schooled family with a girl Gryphon's age. The girls had a blast making things out of the clay found on the beach (the reason for the great fossils!) After a day at the beach and almost 4 miles of hiking, we were all tired! Love the beach.

First Day of School

Hard to believe I have a 2nd grader and a 5th grader this year!

Highlight of the day was Mark joining us for Korean. He sat at the table and took notes and everything.

Yes, I am on my way to becoming a Crazy Cat Lady

Meet Groucho!

He was a worm, flea and tick ridden feral kitten who wound up under my neighbor's porch for 2 days. Mark helped me lure him out (it took hours!) and now, well, he's ours!

Rocko is none to pleased about this, of course. Cleo thinks he's sort of cute. Groucho, who weighs in at a whopping 1 pound, does not seem to get the message that Cleo outweighs him by 73 pounds, and often attacks Cleo's tail. He has even jumped on Cleo's back. They sleep on the couch together- so cute!!

So here is Groucho, the newest Beaudry-Stauffer member.

Rhythmic Gymnastics Camp!

The girls-yes, both- went to rhythmic camp this week. Poor Gryphon- she was *so* sore. I asked her if she wanted to go back to swimming, but she said no. Looks like she may be as crazy as her little sister. Rowan still had regular practice after all day of camp, so today she had 12 hours of gymnastics. You'd think she would be tired, but....well, no.

They learned a routine at camp that will be the Level 4 floor routine this year. I need to be banned from videotaping, because I stink at it. Its crooked for the first bit of Gryphon's routine- you have to turn your head!!!! She still wanted me to post it though, so here she is, making her RG debut....Gryphon!!

Stay tuned to meet the newest member of the Beaudry-Stauffer family...!

ElastiGirl

A fun picture to share of our circus freak.

Last meet of the Summer Swim Season!

AH, the Lancer's summer swim season drew to a close today. I will *not* miss getting up at 5 am, and sitting out by the pool in the 1 million degree humidity. But I *will* miss watching Gryphon swim! She did really, really well this season. For those that didn't get to catch a meet (everyone but Mom, I guess!) here is the photo play-by-play of the 100 metre IM (individual medley) race today.

IM is all 4 strokes, 25 metres (one length of the pool) each. It starts off with butterfly, in my opinion the hardest stroke. Also, I can't do it, so I think its pretty cool Gryphon could at 7! Off the wall the girls (Gryphon is the 9-10 age group) are all pretty much together. Because Gryphon had the fastest seed time (time in the event from the last race) she is in the middle lane.Next comes backstroke- switching from butterfly to backstroke while still legally touching the wall, etc is tough and its easy to get disqualified here! As they move into the backstroke, Gryphon pulls into the lead.They touch the wall, flip over and its onto the breaststroke- another stroke it is easy to get disqualified in! No DQ's here, and Gryphon increases her lead! Go Gryphon!One more touch and turn, and its into the race for the home stretch with freestyle. Gryphon pours it on, and wins by a lot! Yeah Gryphon!A thing the kids do on the summer swim team is draw on their backs- ostensibly for the other swimmers behind them to see as they pull away. ;) Gryphon's says "Eat my bubbles!".

We're a little sad to see our last season of summer swim end, but...excited to sleep in! Summer swim is *so* intense- practice every morning, a meet each Saturday. But its lots of fun, too, with spirit weeks and cheers, Lancer Buddies and silly games. We'll miss the Lancers!

Scrapbook pages

Jackie (http://explorecreatelearn.typepad.com/) often posts her scrapbook pages after we scrap together via webcam using Skype. I never do, but I *do* scrapbook when we Skype, so I thought for once I'd post some of my recent Skypey-scrapping pages.

If you haven't heard of Skype, its awesome and *free*. And when we move halfway around the world next year (knock on wood) its a great way to keep on touch. Just don't set your Skype settings to run your video automatically, because once a friend (hi Erin!) Skyped me and poor Mark was in front of the computer in his bathrobe. He answered, not realizing the webcam would automatically start up, too. (I'll bet he'll be thrilled to read this!)

And the big news is...

...we aren't in England!

We aren't going to England after all, and will be staying right here until May. The girls were thrilled with the extension to their lives in our great neighborhood; Mark and I are disappointed. But, not totally, because when we *do* get to move, we pick up and move to:

Guess we'll be dropping Spanish class this year!

So you can find us at our old address, same phone number, the works. Sorry to take SO long to let anyone know where were moving or when, but we were clueless ourselves. And given the experience we had with the UK move, I won't believe it until we step foot on Kimpo airport, myself.

So stay tuned, but for now, the plan is Seoul in the spring!

Bhutan and Grandma

Grandma is here visiting from Seattle, and we headed downtown to the Folklife Festival today. They have presentations from different cultures, and the one I most wanted to see was Bhutan.

I heard they had yak butter tea somewhere, but we didn't find it. Instead, the rest of the family had hot dogs and I had Bhutan's national dish of cheese, rice and chillies. It was really yummy!

Then we saw some of the exhibits, and since of none of us had the faintest clue about Bhutanese culture, it was all new and exciting! Gryphon talked the ear off of everyone, of course. Above are some beautiful paints in the art tent.
The girls had their names written in the calligraphy of Bhutan- looks sort of like Sanskrit. Or not.

Then we took grandma to the National Gallery for some nice air conditioning. Are these Little Dancer's cute or what??

Stay tuned for some big news...