Fresh Baked Bread

I got a bee in my bonnet and decided that I wanted to learn how to make bread. After trying many recipes, and having many fails, I finally found something that works for me (and discovered that the kids will eat most any bread I make). Bread in the bread machine has too tough a crust for my taste and while, handy to muse, it makes a weird shaped loaf. But using the machine to knead and rise the dough but baking it in the oven myself has yielded some great loaves. I think I am spoiling the kids and Jason. Okay, maybe I like it a little too.  I did buy a butter crock as well. We are kinda hooked on fresh bread.

Scavenger Hunt

Brendan's mind astounds me sometimes. He decided one night to make a scavenger hunt for Jason and I. There were clues all over the house, each leading to the next. There were quite a few that he had to give us hints about.
Here are the last three parts of the hunt:

"Oh Romans. What have you left behind?" (the Roman numerals on the clock)

"Now to find the gold" (goldfish crackers)

He's so clever and creative.

Well, What Do You Know?

This is Brendan. At Busch Gardens, something interesting happened. It's about the Loch Ness Monster, my favorite ride. Upon waiting in line for it, I was not enjoying it. (I was literally repeating "Death" over and over.) But riding it, I held on extra tight. And then, my feelings were changed - once I got off. I loved it so much, I wanted to ride it again. But before that, I said I would have gone on it again if my glasses were put in a locker and if the line was shorter.

McAlister Baby

I don't know if I have ever mentioned the McAlisters on the blog before but they definitely bear mentioning. Sister McAlister used to hold Paige for me during Activity Day girls when she was a newborn. She has been holding her ever since. Micheal, their 10 year old, loves Paigey. She runs to hug him and he always picks her up. She also loves their two teenagers, Sarah and Sean. I think she might have a crush on Sean. Even today she asked to go sit by Sean. Somehow she got a picture of the two of them on my phone.

They are all so good with her. We rarely have Paige in sacrament. In fact, until recently, several new people in the ward thought that she was theirs and looked at me weird when I was carrying her.

Its people like the McAlisters that we will really miss when we move.

When Dad is Left in Charge

I went to go get my hair cut. I came home to this.

Shoeless, soaking wet with rain and stuck in a flotation device yelping, "Help me, Mama."

Spring Break - Day Three

Busch Gardens

Jason here.

Due to Christine's superior planning skills she managed to get us tickets to Busch Gardens at an extreme military and preschool discount of FREE. That's right, a family of 6 to Busch Gardens for free. It was a perfect, cloudy, slightly cool spring morning. Definitely jacket weather.

Busch Gardens is not exactly like DisneyWorld in terms of attention to detail, landscaping, and general "feel" of the place, but they are about as close as I have seen. They did a nice job with the layout. You start out in England and make your way around Europe. I personally liked Ireland and Italy, though Germany was fun too.

In England the kids were measured in red telephone booths. Paige, apparently, thought it was awesome. 

And the rides! I took Brendan and Eva on the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster. It had double loops and all that, a proper thrill ride. The kids were brave and did it, though they were apprehensive and had a wonderful time. The next coaster the three of us went on was the Verboten. This didn't go as well. It had a section through a haunted forest with fake lightning and thunder and drops in the dark. We wont be going back on that one.

Bubbs and I then went on the Apollo's Chariot and we sat at the VERY FRONT. Brendan was a champ about it and while he didn't have a great time... he did it. Darby was just a few inches too short, so next time she will go with me. She's kind of fearless like that.

Midway through the day we went to Dragonland, where there was a monster play area with the largest jungle gym ever. Eva lost her shoe in it and I had to go in after it.

We had some very overpriced food in the Octoberfest and then my phone died on me. This would be a problem when Christine and I tried to coordinate link ups while I took the older kiddos on rides. Christine had the little kids most of the day and they enjoyed the more "county fair" type rides.

OK, here is the consensus on favorites from the kids:

Brendan: The Loch Ness Monster, Verboten (especially watching Eva's video... she was not enjoying it very much), Curse of Darkastle (a 3D ride set in a haunted castle), Apollo's Chariot.

Eva: The Loch Ness monster ("so cool.. went so fast and went upside down")

Darby: The Battering Ram (a ship that swings on an axis high in the air),  the up and down Elmo ride,  and the small roller coaster. Did NOT like the Darkastle.

Paige: The Grover roller coaster and dancing in Ireland. (Mom took her on the Battering Ram and she was the most terrified we have ever seen her. Christine felt really bad).

This picture is of a stage in Ireland where Paige and Darby danced to Highland music and entertained passers-by. Celtic blood in their veins, I tell ya!

Dad: The Griffin. I went on this ride alone (thanks Christine) and it was the best roller coaster I have ever been on. It's wild. Then Apollos Chariot, then Loch Ness.

Christine: I'm not much into roller coasters. I prefer fast rides that spin and scramble. Those make Jason sick. So the kids get to ride with either parent for different rides.Since I had the littles I didn't go on many adult rides.

We ended the day in Sesame Street where the girls watched a show with the characters and then rode kiddie style thrill rides (every one of them was tall enough for every ride in this part of the park). Brendan was not excited to be in Sesame Street.

All in all we spent a full day in that park, which is kind of a first for the McDaniels. It was a ton of fun. In fact, Paige asks every time we get in the car if we are going to Virginia. She calls it "Ree-ginia".

Now, it was not all fun and games. At the end of the day we bought some ice cream. Darby was having a hard time following instructions and got the stern "If you don't start behaving, I am going to take your ice cream". Well she didn't, and I took her ice cream and kind of ruined her day at that point. But she got over it and we had a wonderful time.

After the park we went back to the hotel and went swimming, except for Paige who was not being a listener and needed some sleep. They all conked out really fast.

Third Quarter Awards

I love my kiddos. They make me so proud. The two oldest both received awards from school after this latest grading period. Eva got an AR award for the most points in her class. She also got perfect attendance and a character award. Her teacher told me that if she could clone Eva and have her every year, she would. :)

Brendan was one of four kids in his class to get on A Honor Roll (meaning he got straight A's).

He was upset that he did not get the writing award but I explained to him that he hadn't really tried for it. I think he is used to last year, being the brightest and most talented in his class. This year, in the gifted class, he needs to really try for something if he wants to attain it. Its been a hard lesson for a boy who is used to easily being the star academically.

Family Game Night

Last Sunday night Jason and I decided that it would be fun to have a family game night. It turned out to be a lot of fun. We played mostly games that even the little ones could enjoy. Eva is a mean Connect Four player and Brendan beats Jason and I at Guess Who. Paige mostly just climbs on people who are lying on the floor.

Bubbs likes puzzle games too.  He bought this single player game, Tilt, with his own money.

But the cooperative games are the most fun. We really like story dice. I love evenings like this and I think the kids do too.

Spring Break- Day Two

Virginia Beach, Aquarium, and TRAFFIC. 

After less than stellar night in the hotel where a few little people almost didn't survive (naughty, sleepless children made us crazy), we drove 2 or 3 hours to Virginia Beach. That place looks like a lot of fun. We only saw part of it. It was a bit overcast, but nice and we ate lunch at a restaurant on the boardwalk.

Paige wanted the lemon in Christine's drink. Will she ever learn?

The food was OK and soon we were ready for more adventure. 

So we rented a bike-thing that the entire family could fit on and tried to go cruise the boardwalk. After about... 20 seconds of pedaling this monstrosity, it became clear that Lance Armstrong himself would struggle trying to get this rickety-rackety thing going, and we are no Lance Armstrongs. I am proud to say we almost made it a quarter mile before turning right around and turning The Beast back in, minus thirty bucks. 

Then it was off to the aquarium. Highlights included the string ray pond, the sea otters (my favorite), and a pretty cool sea turtle.

 

And they had a huge kimodo dragon. That thing was frightfully big and buff looking. I would not want to meet one of those thing in a dark alley somewhere. There was a clear enclosure below the dragon's cage that you could get in to see him closer.  

Lots of fun there. It was a pretty awesome aquarium that the whole family enjoyed.

The drive back to the hotel, no so fun. We sat in the worst traffic of my entire life in Virginia Beach trying to get through this tunnel. Literally an hour to go a mile. And the irony of this entire trip is that the kids favorite part was driving through that tunnel. The thought of an ocean over your head separated by a bit of concrete did not phase them much and they considered the drive some kind of amusement park ride. 

When we finally arrived at our hotel and got to our rooms, we had a rather unique scenario take place. The hotel was set up with the rooms on all the edges and an inner courtyard on the bottom floor. We were on the 8th floor overlooking the courtyard. It gave me the wilies, and I am not very scared of heights, but looking over the edge gave me a bit of vertigo. The kids thought it was fantastic. Paige tried to climb the banister. Brendan wanted to throw things over. I calmly told the boy that we were not going to throw anything over the edge since that would probably end up in jail time for causing serious bodily damage were it to hit someone. Thankfully he relented, though I caught him looking suspiciously over the edge whenever we went up or down the elevator. 

That night was much better as the kids were pretty pooped. Christine promised that whoever went to sleep first would get to pick which ride we went on first tomorrow. It worked!

Christine and I then watched TV, which is our guilty pleasure on vacation. We usually end up watching cooking shows. Chopped is our favorite, and this night was super funny because some amateur writer ended up winning. 

Good times. 

Spring Break- Day One

Fort Belvoir

Jason here.

After not taking any substantial time off during residency, we finally took a week off for Spring Break. I have finished my clinical graduation requirements and I have too much leave built up, so we were given the OK to get out of Dodge City for a while. 

We decided to go and check out Fort Belvior and some other parts of Virginia for a few days. The first day we drove up to our new location to look around and check things out. Initial impressions of Fort Belvoir were very good. It seems like a small town with lots of stately homes and busy playgrounds. I went into the clinic and was amazed by the new facilities. Working there is going to be very nice. 

Next we perused the prospective neighborhoods and played in the playgrounds since the kids were sick of the car and going a little nuts. Side note: the kiddos are great travelers and Christine does a great job keeping them entertained and giving them fun things to do while in the car. 

Then we ate dinner with our friends, the Andersons. Al Anderson was the assistant program director during my first year here before moving up to DC for a job at MEDCOM. He had lots of great information on how things are Army wise and we had a good time catching up and talking shop. Christine and Jennifer went over the finer points of on post housing (we are on the housing waiting list... we are going to try out on post living in Virginia). She can talk about that later. 

While we were there we didn't get lost per se, but I did miss a few turns and ended up going around in circles a few times. We drove by George Washington's distillery and grain mill at least 5 times. It came to be a kind of joke. The roads around post are full of nasty potholes too, but otherwise it was pretty nice. 

Sunset

It was a spectacularly beautiful sunset tonight. And these are two spectacularly cute sisters in pajamas.

Easter and Conference

This year Easter was during General Conference, which I quite like. I made activity books for the kids and bought snacks. We all watched all sessions of conference. It went very well (the first time ever that it did so).

Conference Bingo was our saving grace. The kids loved it. Brendan went an hour and a half with no bingo. He was just exasperated. Poor guy. Look at this face.

But then the got three in a very short time so that made up for it. 

Jason took the kids out for exploring in the woods between sessions. They love their adventures with Daddy. 

On Sunday the kids woke up to their Easter baskets. Each had a chocolate bunny, jelly beans and a book. I love that they were all so excited about the books. :)

It was a gorgeous day. We spent time outside. Jason set his hammock out and enjoyed relaxing.

Conference talks were excellent! Many of them I will need to back and read and mark up. I love General Conference. Easter is such a special time too. Combining both just seems right. 

Happy Easter!

Picture Day

Darby had pictures in her cap and gown last week (preschool graduation is coming up). I let her wear lip gloss. Isn't she a beauty?

Brendan gets a haircut

Man, I can't believe how old he looks.