Saturday, May 5, 2012

Crunch time

I made the announcement on Facebook but have neglected to post our news here on our good ol' blog for some strange reason, so let me share. We're moving. Back to Utah. Draper, to be exact. Chris recently interviewed and got a job offer with Ebay, so we're heading back to the Mountain West. We're excited to be starting a new adventure and phase of our life in a place that we love and have fond memories of. Utah's where we met, fell in love, got married, graduated from college and had our first child, so in a way, it's like going back to something familiar. It's going to be a hard transition for me though- I've come to love living on the east coast and Virginia has been good to us in many ways. I'm sad to leave my wonderful friends (beyond words) and sad to leave all the exciting things to do and see here in the DC area. There's so much that we thought we'd have time to do and now that we have about a month left here, we're trying to cram in as much as we can.

Chris took a day off this week and I decided we should spend it in the city even though half of us were sick at this point. Even a nasty cold couldn't keep us from marking a few things off my list. First up, a trip to Georgetown Cupcake, made famous by the TLC show DC Cupcake. We parked in Georgetown and it's so pretty I had to take some pictures along our walk to get cupcakes (at 10:30 in the morning).

We walked down these crazy stairs and Brendan was happy to pose for me. They were so steep I was a little scared he was going to fall and break his neck, but my dare-devil was happy to stand alone and even jump around more than I would have liked.

On the street getting closer to cupcake heaven.

And here's what we ended up getting. They were sooooooo good. I think I may have to make another trip because there are still so many flavors I want to try.

Brendan was totally into his cupcake. Seriously, his plain vanilla cupcake was delicious. It was one of my favorites.

My baby has my sweet tooth so he was happy to sample each cupcake. And make a mess in the process. But those cupcakes were worth it. The chocolate ganache was heavenly.

Next, we hit up the National Museum of Natural History. Brendan was so excited to see the dinosaurs and I was looking forward to the butterflies.


The Butterfly Pavilion was so awesome. There are hundreds of butterflies flitting around you and, if you're lucky, land on you. They didn't like us but it was so cool to watch them.

Alex was mesmerized by them.

Both boys were so good and didn't try to touch or grab them (which is against the rules) and they loved seeing all the different colors and sizes of butterflies. It was a really neat experience.


We hit up the dinosaurs next since Brendan had been talking about them all morning long. Alex was a little freaked out but Brendan was in his element. He was running from exhibit to exhibit and asking questions and soaking it all in.

After the dinosaurs, we checked out some other parts of the museum and had fun watching the boys enjoy themselves.


We were pretty worn out by that point and my cold medicine was wearing off so we headed home for a late lunch and quiet afternoon. It was a fantastic day and hopefully we have more of these in our last month here.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Brendan the Amazing

A couple of weeks ago Brendan's preschool put on a music and art show, and let me tell you, it was the highlight of my week.

When it started, I expected the normal reaction from Brendan- some interest in singing but most likely a lot of looking around, fidgeting, spacing out and, most likely, some misbehaving. What I was not ready for was his whole-hearted  joy and excitement. He was so into his performance.

This was pretty typical of Brendan's performance. Lots of energy and exuberance. He was doing all the actions, jumping up and down and singing his little heart out. Seriously, he was belting out those songs. He was definitely the loudest of his group.

Oh how I wish this was a better picture but it still captures perfectly how focused he was on singing. He was so loud and adorably off-key that I couldn't have loved him more in that instant. I was so proud of my little man. And I love the contrast between him and the little boy next to him. I thought that was how Brendan would be- totally uninterested and wishing it was over- boy, did he surprise me!

Alex was equally riveted on Brendan's performance as we were.

He loved clapping along to his brother's awesome musical skills.

I was kicking myself for forgetting our video camera so all I have is this crappy cell phone video but it will give you a glimpse into how awesome it was.


Often, I am frustrated and annoyed with all of Brendan's energy and craziness but in this moment I have never been more proud of him. It was such an eye-opener for me because I would never want to take away the joy and fun that he was having, so how can I wish that he were any different than how he is? No matter how frustrated I get, no matter how many times I have to tell him to calm down or be still, I would never want to kill the amazing spirit he has. He is just perfect the way he is.