This Week at Our House # 36

1. John spent the week in Utah for his Grandfather's funeral. His grandfather died at 96. He has 40 grandchildren, and 101 great grandchildren, so the funeral was more of a big family reunion in celebration of a patriarch of a great family. John had a nice time with his family and cousins. We were happy to get him late Saturday night. Somehow, John managed to get his full week of work in. He flew in and out of Washington DC. He took a bus there to leave and the kids and I just took a day to see DC to pick John up.
2. I got my laptop mailed back to Dell for repairs. I am using Ruth's laptop for the next few days, but then she will keep it at college. So I will be computerless probably until October and as a result this blog may be neglected. I got our car registered in North Carolina. Car registration is my least favorite part of being an adult. 
3. Ruth spent the week chatting with a future roommate through texting, spending time with the family, and eating her favorite meals. She and I fly out to Ut to take her to BYUI on Wednesday. 
4. Kate really enjoyed the American History Museum in Washington DC on Saturday. She loves early American history and we got to see some wonderful things like George Washington's sword and Ben Franklin's walking stick.
5. Johnny is such a sweet kid. We did a lot of walking through DC and without a thought, Johnny took the stroller from me and pushed his baby sister two miles through DC, so I would not have to do it 6.5 months pregnant. I am not sure there are many teenage boys that would do that for their mom.
6. Adam loves museums, which surprises me. He has so much energy, but he really likes to just walk through and look at the artifacts and read about them.
7. Rachel brought stuffed toys out of the car and into DC. We could not put them back in the car because we had valet parking, so there is no going to and from your car. I was pretty annoyed and told her we would throw them away if she shoved them on Susan in the stroller or tried to make other people carry them. She managed to keep them with her or with Arwen enough that I did not toss them. Rachel had a doctor's appointment. We are looking into her weight and small size again. 
8. I came up with this homeschool project idea that I would have hated if it came from a school teacher. I have been having the kids all read Fantasy books, then make up magical creatures for their own magical world, write a field guide, write a story that takes place in their world, and then draw a poster size picture of their world with all of the creatures in it. All of the kids are absolutely loving this assignment. Anya has been most interested in writing the story. She has several pages and chapters written for her fantasy story already. She works on it all day long. 
9. Joseph wanted to run in DC, but it was very crowded. My voice started to go horse calling him back to us so constantly. At times I made him hold my hand or an older kid's hand. He did not like that and dug his nails into Adam's hand. In the end, he got in trouble too much and had to have a sandwich in the car for dinner rather than restaurant food like everyone else. It was a hard punishment to carry out, but I threatened it, so I stuck to it. Hopefully, the next time we go to a crowded city, he will do a better job at obeying and staying with us.
10. There were lots of old cars and trains in the American History museum. Josh loved seeing those. He was better behaved than Joseph, but not by much. Kate had him a lot and Josh kept trying to drag her quickly through things, which annoyed Kate because she wanted to read about everything.
11. Arwen didn't like having to hold hands and stay with the family either. But there were so many people there, I was certain that if a little kid wandered off even for a moment, they would have a hard time finding us and we would have a hard time finding them. I held Arwen's hand a lot. She did not like it and she wanted to bite my hand to let me know. But she knew she would be in serious trouble if she did, so she kept licking my hand and only bit it once. Although, Joseph, Josh, and Arwen were a handful, we actually had a really good trip to DC.
12. Susan is just good and so cute. Tonight she was doing "this little piggy goes to market" to her own toes. It was just adorable.

I will get pictures up when I have time to borrow John's laptop or when my laptop returns. But we do have DC photos that will go here.