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Virginia 2008. We went back east for my
dad's 70th birthday, and it was a combination 4th of July, birthday
party, and family reunion. We showed up early and left late to spend
more time there, since it's a five hour plane ride. My mom had
bought a bike for each of the grandkids at garage sales, which was
so cool. |
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My mom had done such a great job putting
together all kinds of stuff for the kids to play with. They had
multiple kiddie pools, slides, ping-pong, and lots of bikes. |
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All the kids were riding bikes all
weekend. Mia found this one just her size and we went for walks down
the block with her and Amelie. |
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My mom also had all kinds of decorations
for the kids. |
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This tricycle is actually
Sue's, but Amelie claimed it as her own and Henry (Sue's 3-year old)
was kind enough to let her use it. Leesburg has a 4th of July parade
that you can walk in if you'd like, so they spent some time getting
ready for it. |
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All set for the big parade on the 4th of
July! |
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My mom has had this bunny for as long as I
can remember. |
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This is Sue's little boy Sam. He's a great
kid, and we had fun playing with him. |
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This toy was a lot of fun for Amelie, she
could do it herself, but it was more fun with Sue helping. |
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I've been trying to get a drum kit for the
kids for a long time, but Naomi keeps vetoing it. My mom had a
little drum set, and I have to admit, Naomi might have a point. |
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My mom had gotten everybody gift bags, she
really did a lot for everybody. The kids really enjoyed being
there. |
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Mia and Amelie both got new dollies from
Grandma. |
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Jordan, Joe's little girl, is really into
horses, and my mom had a huge collection of toy horses. |
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You could let these balloons go and they
would make a screaming noise and shoot all over the place. |
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The 4th of July parade in Leesburg was
pretty cool, and I especially like it because anybody could walk or
ride in it. |
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Here we are, walking down the main street
in Leesburg. Happy 4th of July! |
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After the parade was over we went
blueberry picking. It was so awesome, I could eat as many as I
wanted, and right off the bush. |
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We had fun picking blueberries and seeing
who could pick the biggest one, who could pick the most, and so on.
Amelie had a great time. |
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Mia was having fun, too, but she wasn't as
interested in the actual picking part. |
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And, lights out. She's still hanging onto
her bucket, though. |
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The blueberry picking place was beautiful.
It was down a dirt road that reminded us a lot of
Costa Rica. |
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For the fireworks, we all went down to Ida
Lee park. They had a band and the kids were throwing glowing rings
around. Joe took this picture. I took some fireworks pictures as
well, but nothing as cool as this. The fireworks were nice, but the
smoke got in the way a bit during the finale so you couldn't see
half of them. |
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Saturday was grandpa's 70th birthday, so
we all headed down to a farm to spend the day. |
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They had a lot of stuff for the kids to
do, including feeding the animals. |
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Ducks, geese, and chickens. |
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This was the best train ride we ever went
on, since it went fast and went off-road. After the train ride, Mia
got out and hugged the lady driving it. |
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These were pedal go-karts, which we all
had fun with. I was pushing Amelie's so she could drive it, which
she did, right into a pole and bit her lip. |
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Don't go into the light! This is a tunnel
slide that was pretty cool. |
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Amelie doing her best Tarzan impression. |
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After playing around for a while it was
onto the party. Mia is all ready to go. She's holding these
sugar-snap peas which she actually sat and ate, it was amazing,
since they weren't cooked or anything. Just give peas a chance, I
guess. |
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My dad, Dave, then Dino, Julie, and Dan. I
didn't get much of a chance to talk to them, though, since the place
was so big and we were chasing the kids around most of the time. |
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The entire group together for the party. |
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After the party, all the kids got shirts with their ages on
them (and grandpa too, although you can't see his number), and we
put them together for a quick photo. You can see Amelie wouldn't
wear hers (she said it was scratchy), but she didn't mind holding it
up for the photo. |
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We loosened up a bit on what we let the
kids eat. Even though we're gluten-free, a home-made cookie is hard
to pass up (the next day, though, man, what a disaster!) |
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Amelie is getting her hair brushed with a
doll brush. It worked surprisingly well. |
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We stuck around for a couple of days after
everybody left to spend more time with grandma and grandpa. |
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The weather was really nice except for the
last day we were there, which was pretty hot. But otherwise, it was
right on. |
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We ended up staying inside and going to a
mall that had a train ride and a carousel. |
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Thanks for checking out all these
pictures. We ended up with over 1,000 pictures, so that's why
there's so many here. Until next time, take care! |
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