Sunday, February 18, 2018

Fall/Winter Catch-up

Last picture dump before I hopefully start posting more timely again...

[Josie finally got another haircut... this is what her hair looks like (mostly) straight]
[Audra got a haircut too :)]
[Audra's face while incredulously saying "Pencil?!" is my favorite thing ever]
[We went to an animal park in November. The girls were pleased.]
[Feeding the budgies... there were hundreds more where those two came from]
[There was also a drive-through safari park]
[Josie seems pretty unconcerned with the giant horns inches from her]
[My mom and one of the (many, many) llamas... before we realized they were kind of jerks]
[Also a jerk? This bison, who stole my bucket]
[The next day, we went to the Natural Bridge. I took this picture in the morning before we left our hotel, plugged in the address to drive from our hotel to Natural Bridge.... then realized this picture is literally of the parking lot at Natural Bridge. Doh.]
[Pretty walk on the way to the bridge]
["Do you see the bridge yet?! No? How about now? Still no? Huh."]
[I took Josie to Ford's Theatre for a little history on a day off from school]
[Almost 10 years after I started listening to them, I finally went to a Tegan and Sara show]
[They were playing one of my favorite albums in full (The Con), 
at a gorgeous new venue in DC (The Anthem)] 
[It was a great show... although the energy was pretty different from the shows I normally go to, and I was so confused about what to do with myself since I haven't been to a seated show since the very first concert I ever went to 25-some years ago (for the record, it was The Beach Boys, with Da Yoopers opening)]
[Our fig harvest for the year!]
[Another day off from school, so Josie and I went to the Udvar-Hazy Center (part of the National Air and Space Museum). I asked her to hop up on the giant ball so I could take a picture of her... and this is the pose she immediately went into :-\]
[Watching the planes come in]
[Thanksgiving at our house... my mom brought the moonshine, naturally]
[Kids' table!]
[Skipping ahead to Christmas - Josie was pleased with our new tree...]
[... Audra was a little less so]
[But she came around after a few hours ;)]
[The kiwis after some dormant pruning... the deer got to the one on the right for the few days the deer fence was down, so we'll see if it comes back next year. My bet is it's dead :( ] 
[The fig, after some heavy pruning... note all of the little figs at the top that didn't manage to ripen before the first hard frost :( ]
[Visit #2 to the National Museum of African American History and Culture... a beautiful start to a day that frankly was heavy and emotional, but so powerful and thought-provoking too]
[This was the picture and caption that particularly gutted me during Visit #1, when I was holding my own dear child in my arms trying to answer her questions and help her understand how powerless the mothers were in being able to protect their children]
[Contemplative Court waterfall fountain]
[Audra's drawings of people are pretty adorable]
[Christmas!]
[Josie Claus]
[Raggedy Ryan?]
[Audra's first time eating a PB&J sandwich... I believe this was my attempts at having her eat some toast (ref the BRAT diet) since we were all quite sick with the stomach flu over Christmas... wee!]
[Audra "helping" me recover when it was my turn to be laid out by the flu] 
[She also did my hair... so nice! ;)]
[Then it got so cold that our driveway was apparently pushed up several inches because of the frozen groundwater beneath it]
[Hello, space heater, my old friend (since of course our heat wasn't working properly then either)]
[I don't know.]
[I actually did the girls' hair...]
[...which is apparently a momentous enough occasion that it warranted pictures of the final product]
[And then Josie turned around and struck this pose. What are they teaching them at school nowadays?! Because this is certainly not something she's learning at home (ref all of my awkward pictures)]
[Audra, as usual within inches of me, wherever I may be]