Otter Chaos

After pulling up all my favorite shots since the last time I blogged (which has been a while), these next few might be the best to describe what has happened in the last week and a half.  Yes, that's my naked baby enjoying hot dogs over the fire pit (this was the day we set up our new grill so I'm still not sure why we had a fire pit) and trying to feed June who kept sneaking over:

 "Not Me?!?!"

 while her brother polishes off 7 slices of watermelon while wearing his pajamas and snowboots:

 And two siblings being all cute:

 And cuter:

 And then less cute:

 And then chaos ensues:

It's been a rough week wherein Matthew has spent most of the week in pajamas and snowboots (don't ask) and Catherine's been ultra clingy.  Turned out that the kiddos picked up pink eye and Catherine's still having ear troubles.  I put the family on self-imposed house arrest so they'd recover before the big trip.  Working 2 full days a week instead of a mix of half days and full days has been great for me - except then it means that when the kids get sick I miss 50% of my work week.  With just Matthew I could bring him into the office and he'd sit in the corner for while I knocked out my most pressing to-dos.  With Catherine and Matthew in my office, it's chaos that knows no bounds.  Much like the rest of my days, something cute and aww-inducing like this:

 Turns into this in a matter of seconds:

(because there's nothing better than animals and puns)

However, we survived the week, leaving James at home with a messy but quiet house and my bringing my boisterous pair into other people's clean houses.  You'd think that I would have been completely packed and ready to go on our trip with all that extra time at home and staying away from work and friends but the kids were a hot mess AND they both really enjoy taking things out of containers.

 Oh yeah, and my alma mater blew up in a whirlwind of disappointment and stupidity, so I of course created a twitter account solely to stalk the news stories and the bajillions of wahoos wittier and more insightful than I am adding in commentary, which didn't help my productivity levels at all.  Even though I probably packed 5 or 6 times that week I didn't have much to show for it.  Matthew however, was pretty jazzed about the trip all week.  We counted the nights until the trip. One particular day he emerged from nap triumphantly announcing: "2 nights and go on the airplane.  No sleep on the airplane."  I won't lie, I had second thoughts about the whole trip after this declaration.  The night before we left James asked Matthew to put some toys in his backpack to bring with us.  Matthew saw this as a challenge and after fitting in as much play food as possible, he went back to the toy bin for smaller animals to squeeze in.  Once he finished with those he headed back for his flat blocks and any other small things. Well played son.  Well played.

 Once I had repacked both their bags and mine (eliminating most of Matthew's trove and finding all the things that Catherine had relocated) we were ready to roll.  I have to commend United Airlines for their flight staff on both flights.  One stewardess on each of the flights offered to walk me to my next gate and help me out and all were very attentive and helpful during the flights.  We had gotten up around 4:30am that day.  By the end of the first flight Catherine was ready to crash:

 Matthew however stayed true to his promise of no naps on the airplane.   Somehow (okay not somehow, with the quieting powers of the iPad) he did not get labeled as a terrorist on our flight and managed to charm the flight attendants enough that they fought over who got to help me by walking him off the flight and then offering him wings and a trip in the cockpit.  I truthfully thought this was a no-no since 9/11 but when I was highly encouraged by the flight attendants to take pictures, I obliged.

 When we got to town the monkeys were pretty jazzed to see Uncle Matt:

 And jazzed to see Mas and Pas.  Matthew got some good reading in before his non-napping self crashed:

 And then he work up ready to head to the C&O Canal for a boat trip through the locks.  He hung out with Mas and Pas:

 While I had this monkey on my back:

 Goobers:

 After our boat trip we took a walk down the footpath.  It was a nice day (which is me being generous because it's crazy humid here and probably only going to get worse) and it was good to get out for a walk.  Between traffic, crowds and harried people I often only get to experience the worst parts of the general DC area and growing up in the shadows of the Wind Rivers, Rocky Mountains and Tetons I'm kind of a snob about "amazing" outdoor places, but Great Falls is definitely a gem (and lest I give it a bad name, these are not the "great" falls but are just a bit upstream.  This part may not be "great" but between the foliage, river and fantastic bike path it's definitely not too shabby).

Once we released the monkey from her backpack confines, she went wild climbing up and down the picnic table, which was apparently needed so she could do some headbutting with Pas:

 As if that wasn't enough fun for the day, I had made reservations at the nature center where I used to work for a presentation on Chesapeake Bay critters.  Matthew was on the verge of losing it from another no-nap day but kept it together for the most part.  The presenter had the animals in an aquarium which he then projected up on a video screen.  Matthew found the crab hilarious:

 But put on his serious face as well.

I spent most of the presentation wrangling Mrs. No-Nap-in-the-Car Catherine but it was definitely worth it.  (And yes, I do believe her no nap stance is either directly or indirectly Matthew's fault.  On that same car trip Matthew was "teaching" Catherine different ways to "raspberry" and she was practically taking notes).  We had a fantastic day with Mas and Pas and are looking forward to a great week with friends and family.