Jason's grandmother that lived with his parents, Ada Stockham passed away on Monday. She died in Mississippi, but was buried in Texas so the funeral wasn't until Friday. Jason was able to fly out on Thursday to go to the funeral and spend time with his parents and his aunt. "Mamaw" was a hard woman to get to know, you never really knew what she was thinking. However, I like to remember the season of our lives when we lived with Jason's parents for about four months. I drove a school bus route then and I took Gwyn with me each afternoon for the short route. Celee was just under one year old and took long naps each afternoon. So I would leave with Gwyn to go drive and Mamaw would come over to be there when Celee woke up and hold her until I got back. Those were sweet times and the fondness that Mamaw had for Celee no doubt came from those afternoons together.
Back in Maryland, this was the first time I have been here without Jason. (I'm usually the one that goes on trips) It was a bit weird. There were some bouts of meloncholy, but for the most part we stayed busy.
We went to Art Club and the girls made really neat woven and painted flowers, I love mixing textiles and paint! They get to finish them next time and I can't wait to see how they turn out.
The temp this week got up above a hundred. I joked with my mom that we were hotter than they were in Miss. So we swam quite a bit this week to cool off. This is one of the things in my "things I like about the apartment list" that I remind myself of when I'm feeling snarky. We can go to the pool! The girls have met some other kids that play at the pool too and that's always nice to have a a group of kids to play pool games with.
Saturday was supposed to be cloudy and rainy, so the girls and I decided to go to DC to the American History Museum. We decided to drive to a Metro stations and take the train in to avoid parking in DC. The girls were super excited to take a subway for the first time. They also get really excited to have their own cards for things.
We had fun seeing so many different things from US history. We got to listen to an actor play John Brown in a mock trial with us as historical jurors. This was especially cool because the girls had already learned a little about John Brown's raid from our trip to Harper's Ferry. So even Lyla kept up with what was going on and was able to ask questions. We rode a 1950s Chicago bus. We got to see the actual remains of a ship sunk by the British during the Revolutionary War. After we were thoroughly museum blazed, we went outside to the Mall and discovered it was very sunny and hot. The girls (and I) were in a pretty foul mood, so we got icees to combat the afternoon sugar low. We weren't sure what we wanted to do after that so we walked to the Capital since the girls had never been to that side if the Mall. We all had red and blue mouths after the icees, so a silly pic in front of the Capital was the best we could do.
Afterward, we got lost. We got off the Metro at Federal Triangle and I was pretty sure there was a station closer to the Capital. Well, we walked a few circles, followed wrong directions from a street vendor, and finally ended up back at Federal Station from the back way. We were so exhausted and hot! At one point in our walking Celee asked what all the red flags were for and glory be! it was the Canadian Embassy which happens to have a water feature out front. You can't drink it of course, but we all put our hands in. Gwyn and Lyla put it on their heads. It was just what we needed to walk the final bit. Lyla really wanted her picture with the lions outside the Capital City Grille on the way. So thank you Canada! That's a fine water feature ay!
Sunday afternoon we took Gwyn and Celee off to Girl Scout camp. This is the first camp either of them has been to overnight week-long camp. I can't wait to hear what all they've done!
Lyla gets to be the only child this week. It's already working in her favor. I've discovered I'm in a much more amiable mood with only one child's noise and requests at the store. I found myself saying, "Sure! You can have gum. Why not get ice cream sandwiches?". She wanted to try tofu hotdogs, so sure, why not? After I fixed her two she made a fancy hor dourves out if them. Not a bad way to make tofu hotdogs look more appetizing.
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