A return of the prodigal blogger...we will see if it lasts!

Wow... so a year and a half since my last post.  I remember as a kid looking at adults funny when they would say things like "Wow! Where did the time go?"  Now I find myself saying that all the time. Does that mean I am old? UGH.

I DID post my mom's Closer Walk with Christ blog last spring which was really rewarding for me but not satisfactory for my kids ;)  Samantha has been poking and prodding at me the past few months to get back to blogging.  She is sick of reading the same posts over and over so I have decided to try and get back to it.  The idea of trying to catch up all the time missed is WAY TOO DAUNTING.  Instead I will start with now and if I have time I will try and do some flashback posts ;)

Winter here is always interesting.  This year we have had some bouts of really warm days interspersed with much colder days.  If I were a daffodil bulb I would be beyond confused this year.  Personally I prefer a nice cold winter with lots of snow fun but since we are stuck with laughable amounts of snow I guess the warm days are a nice break from the monotony. Here is Mandi and a friend making the most of our deepest snowfall thus far.. a mere inch or two.

 Last week the kids had Monday and Tuesday off for teacher work-days.  Monday it rained all day but Tuesday it was absolutely lovely - 70 degrees and sunny. We had to get outside.  We decided to take a bike ride from our house to Old Town. Once we arrived everyone was starving. We had fun biking through the traffic on King Street looking for a place to eat. Sam overheard some people talking about us "Hey look, there goes that bicycle family again!" We decided to give the Hard Times Cafe a shot.

 Personally I would not eat there again.... their chili (supposedly the main attraction) was mediocre (or as Sam would say: "meh",) their mac n cheese looked like it came from a box and in general the food was nothing to write home about.  Though I must say their fries were pretty good - reminiscent of Five Guys fries.

We stopped at Windmill Hill park on the way home, one of our favorite parks.  The older girls haven't been there in a long time.  They went crazy "I remember this!! Do you remember doing that? Wow this brings back memories of my childhood!"  Really girls, you are still children!!! Stop acting like your childhood is over!! (Yes I am struggling with the idea I have a HS student and that come June I will have TWO girls in YW.) Where did the time go?

The trip would have been way too long for Xander and Lizzie's wee legs so they had fun riding along in the Burley.  Yes, this is a one seater.  They are sweet and have fun talking and teasing each other along the way.  We do have a two seater carrier but it blows a tire EVERY SINGLE TIME we take it out for a ride so we are back to using this old very loved and beat up little Burley.

Once we got home Billy mapped our route out on Google and discovered we biked 18 miles.

Way to go girls, you rock!!  I love going on bike trips as a family and can't wait until Xander and Lizzie are zipping around on their own bikes as well. The challenge then would be how to fit all 7 bikes on our van when we want to go to trails further away.


Back in December we had another super warm day. We hopped on our bikes and went down to the Potomac river for a picnic dinner.

The sunset was phenomenal.  Pretty impressive photo Billy got with his new Samsung Galaxy III eh?

We love living here.  The point where you can see the sun going down is the river edge of George Washington's home - Mt. Vernon.