Catching Up - Again

Lately I seem to be falling behind in everything - including my blog. This is not like me. I don't know if it's age or insanity or seminary or all of the above, but I can no longer juggle as many things as I used to do. That plus the fact that my camera is pitiful has resulted in a serious neglect of my blog. Here is my attempt to hit the high points.

A couple of years ago after getting bumped for the millionth time while trying to fly on a holiday, we decided to never try and fly standby over the holidays again. So we were super excited to be able to spend Thanksgiving with family because my cousin, Christina, has moved to North Augusta, which is only about an hour away.

Prior to heading to N. Augusta, David decided to participate in the annual ward Turkey Bowl. I was a little worried that he would humiliate me, but he was actually pretty awesome (despite the fact that he could hardly lift his arms the next day from being so sore.)

Unfortunately I have very little photographic evidence. I have this picture that looks like he throws like a girl and I completely missed the Kodak moment when he made an amazing one-handed catch. You'll just have to trust me that it did really happen.

I drug the kids out into the freezing cold to support Dad. I didn't realize that in the history of the Turkey Bowl, no other wife had ever come to cheer. Wow. 

The kids started out pretty enthusiastic.

Then they started to get bored.

Then they just wanted to go home.

Eventually, they just wrapped up and decided to wait it out.

After two hours, I asked David if he had enough. He said he wished I had asked him an hour earlier.

I don't think I took any pictures of Thanksgiving dinner, which is pretty sad. But my cousin - who is a talented photographer - took beautiful pictures of our family. I was so excited to see them. Of course it helps that my kids are incredibly photogenic.

The day after Thanksgiving, we drove to Spartanburg to meet Cynthia, a delightful young woman who was Baylie's age when I was a missionary in Argentina. Now she's married and living in the U.S. The last time I saw her was when we were in Virginia waiting for Jalen's adoption to clear in order for us to return to Utah and she was serving a mission in Washington, D.C. It was so good to see her and meet her husband.

As I mentioned above, we have vowed not to fly on holidays anymore. However, this year my niece is getting married in December, so we are flying to Utah for Christmas. We decided that we wanted to enjoy our decorations for more than a couple of weeks, so we decorated the middle of November instead the weekend after Thanksgiving like we usually do. I'm actually blogging out of order. 

When we moved to South Carolina, we left most of our Christmas decorations in Utah, including our Christmas tree. We just had a couple of 3-foot trees. It was okay when we were in the apartment, but last year - our first year in this home - it was a little depressing. So this year, we got a big tree. Amazingly enough, it is the first time our kids have had a big tree. We all love it.

Baylie was excited to help her dad set up the tree.

David tried not to get frustrated while setting it up.

We made gingerbread ornaments that would make Betty Crocker roll over in her grave.

I finally found a use for these little things I spray painted the first year we were here. We turned them into ornaments.

I also made ornaments out of oranges. They turned out pretty, but my picture of them did not. Here's a picture that will give you an idea.

I used the star my parents gave me from their mission to top our tree. It's perfect.

We love our Christmas tree!

The kids and David spent the night under the tree.

We made our annual trek to Lights Before Christmas at the Zoo. We love to do this every year. Unfortunately, this year instead of being able to buy an inexpensive bag of marshmallows for roasting, we had to buy a more expensive s'more kit. The roasting was still fun though.

We got to see Santa. There wasn't any crying, but Jalen kept his distance.

We read and acted out the Christmas story. Baylie was concerned that we didn't have enough players to fill all the parts, especially since David is always the donkey.

Sidebar: We usually act out the nativity on Christmas Eve, but my brother's family sent us an advent activity calendar filled with treats and things to do each day. Unfortunately, Jalen stole days 12 through 24 and hid under his bed covers while he ate all the candy and destroyed the bags. We are trying to recreate the activities.

Baylie and David went on their annual date to the Nutcracker.

She loves this special night, even though she usually falls asleep before it's over.

We made the annual trek to Lights on the River at Saluda Shoals. It's always so much fun and was even more so in the bigger car. The kids loved running back and forth from one side of the van to the other. Even so, they both ended up standing in front of me.

That is until Jalen took a seat and stuck his feet out the window.

This is always one of our favorite activities. (Except for the $5 price increase. The $15 price tag may put this activity out of range next year.)

I love this time of year. It is so full of memories for me. I hope David and I are building traditions for our children that will make it memorable for them as well. We are looking forward to being with family for Christmas.

In the middle of everything else that's going on, I totaled our car, and the hard drive on my computer completely crashed (These two events were not related.). First the car - I had a near head on with a car that was turning left as I was going through an intersection. I was upset that the car didn't yield until I looked up and saw the light change from red to green. At that point, I realized that I had run a red light. It was my fault.

We only owed around $300 on the car. It was almost paid off, so we were disappointed. But then we found out that the insurance company was totaling the car. Long story short - we purchased a minivan from the local LDS mission and our car payments are the same as they were with the car, plus the van is a 2012 and the car was a 2006. We love the new van.

Geico was very generous with the payout, so we were able to pay off some debt and also afford some small things for Christmas. It was actually a blessing in disguise.

The hard drive was basically a lost cause. An expert from our ward was able to pull off the financial information and most of the pictures, which were the most important things. I keep going to look for files only to realize they are gone. It's frustrating. Plus I can't stand Windows 8 or my new keyboard (it doesn't always catch all the letters I type). My computer was held together with electric tape, but I loved it. This one is much faster though.

Life in the Batchelor Pad is good. We love each other, we love God and we're grateful for this time of year when we remember the birth of His son Jesus Christ.

The Batchelors Go to Washington

This past weekend David was selected to participate in an electronic music festival. 

Festival poster with David's name on it

Originally, he was going to drive up by himself, but after I wrecked our car and our rental car was upgraded to a minivan (long story that I will blog about later), we decided to take the whole family.

Despite the photographic evidence, the kids LOVE the van. We could never have made this trip in the Cobalt. It would have been claustrophobic.

I had never seen so much cotton. There were lots of little fields of it all through North Carolina and into Virginia.

The fall leaves were beautiful. We don't get leaves like this in South Carolina.

Our original plan was to visit the Air & Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History. We only had one day, our kids are little and it was pretty cold, so we figured that would be about all we'd get done.

We did start out as planned - and loved the Air & Space Museum. There was so much to see there.

Orville and Wilbur's plane

I love history and as a former employee of a major airline, I loved seeing the aircraft.

Amelia Earhart's plane

 We had to laugh at the requirements to be a flights attendance, including "just below Hollywood standard."

We then crossed the mall to the Museum of Natural History.

We took a little break for some fine dining.

I tried to get a picture of the kids jumping.

Jalen up, Baylie down

Baylie up, Jalen down

On the steps of the Museum of Natural History

I asked David to get a picture of the kids by the big elephant in the entrance. This is why I don't usually ask him to take pictures.

Dinosaurs, dinosaurs and more dinosaurs.

Wholly Mammoth

My kids were fascinated by the gems and minerals. I was surprised to see how interested they were.

Hope Diamond

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We went next door to the Museum of American History. We only looked at the first ladies' dresses and china. I loved it. Afterwards, we decided to just want to the World War II monument since we hadn't seen that one the last time we were in DC. On the way, the kids and David persecuted some poor little birds. They went crazy and other people even stopped to watch them.

Can you see Baylie?

The World War II museum is really beautiful and impressive.

Then, since we were in sight of the Lincoln Memorial, we decided to walk there as well. It was even bigger than I remembered.

Had we been thinking clearly, at that point we would have ridden the subway back to our car. Instead, we decided to walk back. 

My favorite memorial is the Korean War Memorial. There is something so emotional and life like about these sculptures in motion.

The kids were so tired on the way back. At one point, Baylie tried to carry Jalen.

David decided to pitch in and help.

The kids were such great sports. They ended up walking for about 5 1/2 hours. They only had a peanut butter sandwich and some cookies all day, but they never complained.

We took a little break to hang out in a tree on the way back to the car.

It was really a great day and I was glad the kids got to see so much more than we thought they would. I love visiting DC. I've always taken pride in the fact that it is our nation's capital. And I love the fact that once you're there, everything is free.

P.S. Thanks to everyone that gave us transportation advice. We ended up parking in a garage close to the Air & Space Museum and walking everywhere. Other than the last walk back to the car, we didn't need to ride the Metro.