Feliz Navidad in August

The classic version of Feliz Navidad (the José Feliciano version) is currently playing in the family room.  This is not an uncommon occurrence at our house, it's Leo's favorite Christmas song.  Feliz was played and replayed and then replayed in December.  When the holidays came to a close, he couldn't quite give it up, so nearly every day we enjoy the mariachi goodness of Feliz Navidad. 

As a side note here, the rest of the album is really good too.  It's mostly made up of acoustic guitar versions of the classic carols.  Check it out, it's on Amazon Prime.

You would be surprised at the amount of toys that two toddlers and one mom can pick up to one playing of "Beliez Navi Duck," as Leo calls it.  That is one of those phrases that I hate to correct because I know how quickly the time passes and he grows up and stops saying things like "ambliance" (ambulance) and "snoot snacks" (fruit snacks).  He is growing and changing so fast that I just want to enjoy it for just a moment.  Who knows when the last time he'll ask to hear "Beliez Navi Duck." 

So, if you stop by the house around 6, there's a very good chance that you'll hear the peppy guitar playing of a classic Christmas song.  You'll see us dancing and cleaning because around here we celebrate Christmas all year long. 

 

Merry Christmas!

Dear family and friends,

Merry Christmas!  All is calm-ish and bright here in Northern Virginia.  For the first time in years, we haven’t had any major changes come into our life.  After the big move/job change/birth of Amy in 2014, we are all thankful for the calmer year.  

This year has been filled with park days, splash pads, walks, bike rides and trips to the library.  We are settling into our new home and have spent much of this year organizing and painting.  Heber and I celebrated our 10^th wedding anniversary with a trip to Outer Banks.  The highlight of the year was heading out to Utah to visit family and friends over Easter. 

Heber continues to his work in digital forensics trying to help catch the bad guys. One day he and his coworkers were working on a project together and another coworker stopped by and asked “Hey, did any of you help catch a bank robber today? Because, I did!”  He is a wonderful and supportive dad who wrestles with the kids and reads them stories at night.  He joined Toastmasters International, a public speaking group.  He often comes home with a ribbon for best speech of the night.

 Gentri kept the house together and everyone alive, which is a feat worth touting!  She was able to visit her dream bead store, Ornamentea, in Raleigh, NC during a quick weekend trip.  She visited Chicago.  Over the summer, she took a flameworking course that led to some beautiful new beads and knobs.  She learned how to fuse metal and added a new small torch and rock tumbler to her studio.  She continued to serve with the Activity Day Girls (8-9 year olds) at church and spearheaded a three day summer camp.

Leo turned four and is still our joyful and enthusiastic guy who loves the color blue.  He spent the first part of the year attending a joy school (with mom helping to teach) and then started at a traditional preschool in the fall.   He is most excited about space and planets and can identify each one and share details about moons and atmospheres (can you tell how proud we are).  He loves to wear shorts, wrestle and play with cars. 

Amy, at nearly two, is our determined and spirited red head.   She loves to run and to dress herself.  She loves her mom and is her constant shadow.  She talks all day long and we are starting to actually understand some of it.  Our girl is fearless and especially likes to play at the park.  She decides that she is going to do something and goes right for it even if it’s the big slide at 16 months old.  Baby dolls are her favorite.

We are so thankful for you all in our lives. We hope that 2016 is a wonderful year.  We wish you the happiest of holiday season!

Love,

Gentri, Heber, Leo and Amy Green (or as Leo says, G-R-two Es-and an N)

Leo's Birthday

We celebrated Leo's birthday this weekend.  I can't believe that our boy is four.  For the party, I hung up a bunch of pictures from throughout his life.  I hardly recognize his sweet little two year old face and the newborns, well, it just seems like a lifetime ago.  When did he become not that little boy anymore?  When did he start telling me stories?  When did it all change from toddlerhood to this boy?

I said that I wasn't going to throw a party this year.  We'd thrown a big one last year and the year before and with it so close to Thanksgiving, it wears me out.  About two months ago, Leo started talking about what his party was going to be like, that there would be a blue cake.  How could I not throw a party?

He has been really excited about the movie Planes lately and asked for a Planes party.  It was actually pretty fun to sit with him and have him look through pinterest with me and to point out what he'd like for his party.

For the first time in my life, I bought a cake.  I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to buy one but usually I throw together some cupcakes and call it good.  When Leo started asking for a Dusty Crophopper cake that was blue (and the fact that we've been hosting company all week and had a horrible cold), I knew it was time to call in reinforcements.  So, we ordered a blue cake. 

We continued on with our new tradition of birthday boxes.  I ran onto this idea on a blog and thought it was so fun.  In a box, you put some little presents and special treats.  Leo's had fruit loop cereal, a carton of little goldfish, a couple cars and of course a small Dusty airplane.  It's been a fun tradition to think about and he loved the box even more than the big birthday presents.  I think we'll keep doing this.

On the birthday day, we invited some friends for a playdate.

In four years, so much has happened.  Leo is our joyful, excited guy.  He is so happy to be alive and takes such joy in the simple things like driving his cars.  We were lucky to have his Grandparents in town to join us for the celebrations too.

New House

Our last day in the hotel.

It's been a whirlwind week here.  We closed on the house on Wednesday and signed a 2 inch stack of documents.  We are officially mortgage holders and home owners.  It feels so grown up.

We moved right into the house, even thought the truck with all of our belongings wasn't set to arrive for a couple of days.  Camping in our house seemed way better than another night in the hotel.  32 nights was more than enough for me, and for the kids too.  We took ourselves to Costco and bought a mattress (because, living here, we know there will be more than enough friends and family to visit us in the coming years). 

The truck came on Friday and within a matter of hours, all of our belongings filled the house, minus one missing shotgun (which we are told was found, just in Utah).  We have started the dance of unpacking, trying to find things and settling in.  I have never been so happy to see my pots and pans in my life.  I didn't think I would ever miss cooking but after weeks of frozen and not quite satisfying meals, I was dying to cook my own food.  I even cooked waffles this morning, which has maybe happened 3 times in the last 5 years.  I'm not a huge breakfast fan but after eating them week after week at the hotel, I really like them. 

 

 Leo and Amy have been loving the new house and all it's space.  Leo runs circles round and round and wants to ride his bike all the time.  They have immediately started sleeping better, which is a welcome change around here.

This house feels different.  We have been in the temporary for so long, not just the hotel but even our condo in Logan, that it is a relief to be in a place that is permanent.  Heber has been dreaming up renovation ideas and I have been painting and painting and painting. 

I have been feeling like quite the flake lately.  I don't have the time or energy to put anything together, my house isn't in any state to invite anyone over and I have a 4 day turn around on emails.  Really, this is maybe the second time in a week that I've sat down at the computer.  I am hoping that as things come together, I won't feel so overwhelmed by it all and can get to the business of building our real life here. 

All things considered, we are happy to be here.  We miss our people, but still feel strongly that this is the place for us. 

Hotel Living

We are in our fourth week in the hotel.  The chaos of moving, flying and finding a place have passed and we are in wait mode.  All the big things are coming together and we are just on hold as we wait for closing to take place and to be able to have all our things out of storage.   Oh, and we've been watching lots of HGTV.

The last time I spent so much time in a hotel was the summers I spent working as a front desk agent in college.  For the most part I really liked working in hotels and have some fond memories, especially since it was about that time that Heber and I were dating and falling in love.  

The past weeks have not been my most favorite time, as you can imagine.  Nobody has been sleeping and Leo had the flu last week.  One of the nights will take a slot on our top 5 worst nights of sleep with the kiddos (Do you have a list like that too?)  It's to the point where I have to laugh about it or I might lose it. 

On a positive note, all the big things are coming into place.  Heb is really liking his new job and we are 4 days away from moving into our new house.  The end is in sight!

Mason Neck State Park

The weather has been unseasonable pleasant lately, tolerable days and cool nights.  This is not the humid, stifling hot July I was expecting.  We have been taking advantage of the opportunities to be outside (especially considering our current housing situation).

Like most Saturdays, we sat around the breakfast table and talked about what we wanted to do that day.  Mount Vernon?  Eastern Market? Definitely one of my favorites but with recent long days and nights, I just didn't have enough energy for that adventure.  Great Falls? 

Well, we ended up at Mason Neck State Park.  It was a new place that we'd never been before but in an area that we wanted to explore more.  Let me just say that it was beautiful!  I can't believe that I lived 15 minutes away from this for nearly 3 years and never made the trip.

It was quiet up there with few people, which for our area with millions of people in it, that doesn't happen often.  Leo had the best time exploring, running around, chasing frogs, and playing on the playground.  We took a short trail along the water and just so enjoyed being in this place.  It was just what we needed to recharge for yet another week in the hotel. 

 

I watched Leo exploring and it filled up my heart.  My sweet little guy is so excited about the world, I hope he always stays that way.  

The In Between

The phrase "in between" is exactly how I would describe my life lately, maybe even for the last year.  For months in Logan, we were waiting for things to resolve, for Heber's job situation to become what we moved for, for some sign to come that would make it feel ok to settle and buy a home in Logan.  This feeling never came.

We decided to start looking for work outside of Cache Valley.  Heber applied for jobs all over the country and we ended up with 5 job offers in Northern Virginia.  Five.  The one he accepted is a job worth moving for, he's so excited.  Now, Virginia is a great place to live, lots of things to see and do, good people but....it's not the easiest place to live. The decision to return was difficult but we felt like it was the right thing.

I imagine that many wonder why we would make a second cross country move in a year and why we would return to the same place.  The answer is complicated.  Would I change the way that I did things?  Absolutely not.  There were some deep lessons I learned through this whole experience, perhaps too deep for the blog, but I would do it all again. 

As for continued "in betweenness," we are currently living in a hotel.  There just wasn't time in between accepting the job, selling our condo (!) and moving to plan a trip out to find housing.  We came out blind with a month in temporary housing and hope that it would all work out.  While this is not the ideal situation with two very young children (I'm trying not to lose my mind), it hasn't been too bad.

We have been in Virginia for a week now.  In that time we've searched for house, found one, put an offer in, counteroffered, accepted and applied for a mortgage.  I almost can't believe it myself, which is why I write it down. As you can imagine, this has led to several sleepless nights because I've been so worried about it all.  Did we make the right choice on the house?  Should we have seen it again before purchasing? How can anybody sleep while going through this process?
 
We went over to the house for an inspection on Saturday.  As I walked into the house, I loved it.  It's not perfect but I could picture a good life there.  For the first time in perhaps a year, I feel calm.  We found a house in less than a week, we sold our condo in Logan in less than a week and I feel like I can see the hand of God in my life. The long winding journey is starting to make sense in my head. 

Yay!

Our soon to be new home!

Our trees!  Always been my dream to have trees of my own!

The real reason Heber liked this house, the garage.

In all of this, Heber started his new job and has been liking his first week, I'm interested to see how he likes it when he gets to the actual work part of this adventure.  I've been visiting my old haunts and connecting with old friends.  The whole things has been rough on the kids but it will all even out when we get settled into the house next month.

The in between is not my favorite and I'm looking forward to being somewhere, to settling down.  It's all coming together!  More pictures to come.

Colonial Beach

We ran away again.  I like to do that every once in a while.  Just me, Heb and Leo out for an adventure.  We went down to Colonial Beach.  One of the closest beaches to us.  It's a beach on the Potomac River, as opposed to the ocean.  I would have preferred an ocean beach but they were all too far away for our taste today.

I have realized (after our trip to Outer Banks last summer), that I really love coasts and beach towns.  I think that it's how you feel when you're there.  No worries, just water and fun.  Heb and I like to look at all of the beach front houses.  I hope someday to have a coastal style home, wherever we end up.

Leo loved the water and beach.  We have a beach fan on our hands still, which is great because we're planning on heading back to OBX again this summer. 

As a side though, Colonial Beach will go down as one of the most disgusting beaches I've been to.  What can I say, it's on a river, not the ocean.  It filled my desire for being in a coast town and water and sand but bleh, I couldn't wait to get home and shower. 

The South

I am in love with the south.  The pre-Civil war era of grand plantations and fancy gowns. The Scarlett O'Hara before the war, you know what I'm talking about .  Not the whole slavery issue, of course, but the gentile parts.

We live in Virginia which is technically a southern state.  Ok, the D.C. area was part of the Union, but I'm claiming the South, but once again, not the slavery part... 

We visited a Plantation Mansion today.  It was one of those, we've been driving forever because I-95 traffic stinks, let's stop at this National Park that we know nothing about.  It actually really worked out. 

The Chathem House, built in 1771 right near Fredricksburg, had quite the history.  Most of the drama was during the Civil War when it was taken over by the different armies, turned into a hospital (home to Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross, for a while), and pretty much completely vandalized.  I just kept picturing what it would have been like in it's prime.

Leo was happy to be out of the car and running around.

The Last Minute

Heber and I are not really good planners.  I blame it on years of being students and having no idea when you're going to get done with homework.  We've been last minute people for years and tended to befriend last minute people too.  This is a bit more complicated with a baby and if friends have a baby.  Yet, we've managed to maintain our last-minutedness (not a word but totally works in this case).

This must sound crazy, coming from a person who planned events for a living for the past several years.  Somehow the planning never fully integrated into my personal life.

I realize that this is going to have to change someday but for the moment, it takes us on some pretty great adventures, and you know how I feel about adventure. The last minute is not about researching the absolute best restaurant or the neatest thing to see, oh no, it's all about the hole in the wall restaurant or neighborhood. It's about exploring and taking what you find.

We've had ample opportunity to explore.  When you move somewhere new, all you do is explore.  It's not such a bad thing (unless you accidently end up driving the opposite direction from where you want to go and turn up on a toll road with your GPS crapping out.  Awesome.). 

Last weekend, we were having one of those nights.  Wanted to get out but really didn't want to go to any of the old stand-bys.  So, we googled crepes (I love crepes) and into the car we went.  We drove to Clifton.  What?  You've never heard of it?  It's what I would classify as a tiny town amidst a big city.  It's out of the way and feels like there's not 2 million people a mere 3 miles away. 

I love pictures like this, mothering in action.

We went to the Clifton Cafe and were met with delicious hot chocolate and fresh crepes.  For me, always a dessert crepe and Heber had an entree crepe.  It's one of those places that becomes your place, it's so welcoming and cute.  We'll be back, I'm sure.  Probably at the last minute again.

Leo liked it too.

So, if you're a last minute person too, call us about 5:30 on Friday night, we probably don't have plans yet either.

Exploring

I have a fascination with caves.  I think it is the neatest thing to wander through caverns under the earth's surface.  I'm thinking it originated in Ophir by my grandparent's cabin.  There was an old mine entrance right across the way from them that cool air always billowed out of.  I always wanted to go into one but never had the chance. 

Years ago, while celebrating one of our first anniversaries, we went to Minnetonka Caves near Bear Lake.  Since then I've associated caves with being together and special times in our life.  And ok, I may have some flashbacks to Goonies (A great sick day movie). 

Last weekend, while down by the Shenandoah Mountains, we stopped in to see a cave.  The Skyline Caverns were unlike any cave I've seen before.  Their formations looked like plants you would find on the bottom of an ocean.  We were excited for Leo to see his first cave.