Sometimes I get confused and think that I had twins:
Author: ryland22
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Slip and Slide
Getting to the pool was significantly harder this summer than previous years because you had to sign up to a time slot and you could only go for 1 hour at a time. While we did get to the pool several times, we also set up a slip and slide in the side yard.
I had lots of baby pink vinyl at the warehouse that was never going to sell, go figure, and so I brought home a roll and we created a slip and slide that the kids used for hours during the hotter days of summer. Soap, water, slick surface = instant fun!
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Bob’s Bees
For the first 2-3 months of Covid-19 our neighbors were outside and kids were everywhere on the sidewalks, backyards, etc. While walking I met a neighbor, Bob, who brewed his own beer, made his own Kombucha, and fermented his own Kimchi and beans.
Bob also maintained bee hives in his back yard. He had about 20 boxes of bees and he would harvest 90 lbs of honey during the most productive months.
I went back to Bob’s house with the kids to check out the bees and Bob had extra bee suits for both me and the kids and he showed us the inside of the boxes and told us tons of interesting information related to bee keeping.
The key to not getting stung is to move slowly and to breathe calmly. He didn’t even use smoke when peeking in on the bees hives and none of us got stung.
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Cardarock Covid Hiking
I really enjoyed all our time spent in nature during the early months of the pandemic. I suspect that as life gets back to normal we will not be able to get outside as much as I would like.
The kids and I went to Cardarock two weekends in a month searching for this amazing climbing rock wall that I never found. We did find some great climbs, just not the one from my memory.
I’d love to get some clicking gear and go back with the kids and try some of the more difficult runs.
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Annapolis Boat Overnight trip
A couple months into the pandemic and we hadn’t gone anywhere. All flights were cancelled and all corporate travel was cancelled for the foreseeable future. We decided to take a local off-the-beaten-path vacation and rent a 2 bedroom yacht for the weekend.
Susan booked the stay but somehow forgot that she easily gets motion sickness. After our first 15 minutes on the boat, she was feeling queasy so we went into downtown Annapolis to grab some dinner.
Nothing like some overly rich she-crab soup and saltine crackers to fix a seasick stomach! Regardless, Susan felt fine afterwards and we enjoyed the rest of our floating trip.
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Mother’s Day 2020
Mother’s Day during a pandemic was fairly low key. I don’t recall going anywhere, and the kids played outside with a new rope swing and their bunny aka “Snow Ball”.
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More animals
We randomly found a snake in the side yard. After playing with it I got the kids to get down and take a picture with Mr. slither.
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Great Falls Waterfall Hike
We were blessed with nice weather the first couple weeks of quarantine. Our second or third weekend home we went to Great Falls and hiked almost all the way to the falls.
We were hiking for close to 3.5 hours, but we took lots of detours.
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2020 Parker birthday – 8 anos
Parker would have preferred to have had a big party with all his pals, but in these strange times we are practicing social distancing and keeping contact with anyone outside of the immediate family to 6 feet or farther.
Yesterday we were on a bike ride in the neighborhood and we saw a boy sitting on his front lawn with balloons and streamers adorning his chair, as his friends drove past in cars. They roll the window down, wish a happy birthday, and then head back home.
We asked Parker if he wanted a ‘drive-by’ birthday party and he declined. We had fun regardless. Parker had his Bearded Dragon from the weekend before, and he enjoyed opening more gifts and visiting with his grandparents.
We ate crabs and had soup along with birthday cake and Korean pancakes that Skylar and Hadabogee made together. The pancakes were far better than the cake and I think we may have established a new grandparent tradition.
We also celebrated Hadobogees birthday with cards made by Skylar and Parker.
In the afternoon Parker, Skylar, and I went for a bike ride through the creek and we wrapped up with showers, screen time, and curating a music list for Parker’s new mp3 player.
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Harris Zoo animals
We’ve been stuck at home for what feels like months, although I think it’s only been 3 or 4 weeks at this point. Parker told us that he wanted a lizard for his birthday.
Upon further research we narrowed the lizard type down to a Bearded Dragon. The weekend prior to his birthday Susan bought all the necessary supplies and I built a shelf from 2×4’s and plywood.
“Spikey” has been getting along fairly well since then, and we’ve only lost him once. We also decided to get a new family pet. Susan had been researching bunnies and we chose a white lop from a seller in Manassas.
We are into our third day of owning a bunny, and while I thought I would enjoy it more because it is small, furry, and cute, I have to say that I am not enthused.
The bunny weighs about 2 lbs and eats as much as a 20lb dog. Where dare you ask does all that food and water go? Onto the floor. All over the floor. All day long. All the time.
You can’t put the bunny on your bed unless you are ok with bunny poo and pee being on it. I swear that animal is nothing more than a fluffy furry poo machine.
Even the chickens pooped less, and the chickens also pooped everywhere. One advantage of the chickens is that they lived outside once they were big enough. If this bunny mysteriously ‘runs’ away, don’t come looking at me. I do like the red fox that comes around weekdays at noon…
