Since I had to got to San Francisco for work, Orlando decided that he would have lots of fun with Little Stuff. He kept Anastasia home from school one day and took her to the aquarium in Baltimore. The first thing Anastasia hit on was the bubble tubes.
According to Anastasia, they saw the red fish, the yellow fish and the rockfish. Apparently they also saw a grouper.
Annie also talked a lot about the dolphin show. She was very excited to see the dolphins jumb and swim.
They also made dinner every night, and enjoyed the nice weather on the patio while I was away. There's nothing like a good game of pattycake with Daddy.
She was a very busy girl while I was away. She learned new jobs, helped daddy with lots of stuff and grew into a bigger girl than I left.
After a good nights sleep (well good is relative, but a night's sleep anyway), we woke to a beautiful, if chilly morning on the mountain. Day two brought us a brunch with several family and friends, including Sparrow (Destiny's adopted daughter) and her daughter Sophia, and Nini, who was Orlando's grandmother's best friend.
The real discovery of the morning, though, was that Anastasia really loved her visit to the mountaintop. She begged to be allowed to go outside in her pajamas, and was disappointed when the dogs went back to bed. All she really wanted to do was go outside and explore.
When Sparrow arrived with two more dogs, Anastasia again asked to go out, and this time, had dogs with her on her travels. Daddy was also in tow as she made her way out into the potato field.
It was shocking how far she went out into the field. She's the teeny white dot in the middle of the picture. We figured she and Daddy went about 1/4 mile away from the house.
After a rest to recover from brunch, we got everything together for the trip home. There were long goodbyes and the realization that we have to make it back to West Virginia soon to take care of our little country girl's need for cows, pastures and cats on roofs.
For our second road trip in two weeks, we decided that it was finally time to visit Orlando's family in West Virginia. Hall and Amy have been trying to get us there for years, and since O is free now, and I was going to be leaving town for a week, it was a great opportunity for us to have a little family mini-vacation. The 4 1/2 hour road trip went well, with a pit stop in Staunton, VA for burgers.
When we arrived in Lewisburg, we headed straight for the Irish Pub for a beer and a snack with Hall and Amy. Anastasia was predictably shy at first, but it didn't take long for her to open up and ask for a Shirley Temple.
After our snack, we went to Hall's bakery for a little tour. Anastasia particularly enjoyed all the places there were to investigate.
Soon enough, we were off to the house for a little rest before dinner. Hall and Amy own about 80 acres on top of Butler Mountain, about 10 minutes north of Lewisburg. Anastasia was having none of the rest idea, and took to exploring the yard and chasing the dogs, Ruggles and Cricket.
We chatted and hung out until it was time to head back to town for dinner at Stardust Cafe (owned by Orlando's Aunt Destiny, Hall's twin.) Hall and Amy's daughter Iaana and her boyfriend Ted joined us for dinner.
Anastasia did great, enjoyed her dinner and fell asleep at the table after a well deserved dessert on Daddy's lap. It was a late night for her, but Annie had a blast on day one of her (and Orlando and my) first visit to West Virginia.
It's been years since either Orlando or I last went to Ocean City, MD, the closest beach to home. Ocean City is also home to several of Orlando's high school and college buddies. So, since Orlando has some free time, and we didn't have anything else planned for the weekend, we decided yesterday to take a day trip and show Annie the shore. She's seen the ocean before, but she's never seen a beach, so she didn't know what was in store.
It's about a 3 hour drive, so we left about 9:30, calculating that Anastasia's naptime would coincide with the middle of the drive, when she'd likely fall asleep anyway. That plan worked beautifully, and she slept for about 1 1/2 hours of the drive.
When we arrived, we first went to visit Kevin Poole, one of Orlando's college buddies who makes his living as a singer in Ocean City and Key West. He and his longtime girlfriend, Bethany, have a son who is almost 2, and we thought it would be a good rest for Annie after the drive to play with some toys while we caught up. Biggest surprise of the day came when we got into the bathroom and learned that Anastasia had made the whole trip without wetting her diaper.
So, Kevin and Bethany hosted us for a little while, the kids played with Kevin's piano and drums in the super cool music room. We said goodbye with a hug, and then it was time for us to hit the beach.
Our plan was to park near the Ocean Gallery, a shop on the boardwalk owned by another of Orlando's friends, this one from high school. We stopped in and said hi to Joey Kroart, visited for a little while before heading down to the sand and the water. That was where the day really got exciting.
Initially, Anastasia wasn't quite sure what to make of the sand. She fist thought it was sticky, but soon got the hang of walking in the sand and picked up two handfuls to carry down to the water.
We got out feet wet in the ocean (very cold) and walked back up to the boardwalk to buy a kite and some french fries. And by some I mean a small mountain.
Last stop on the boardwalk was a sweets shop for some cotton candy. Then it was off to M.R. Ducks to watch Kevin play. Anastasia really got into the show, dancing, jumping and bopping along.Here are a few highlights.
She particularly liked Don't Fear the Reaper. The sound on the video isn't very good, but the performance was fun.
Before leaving, we stopped for one more picture at Ocean Gallery and said goodbye to Joey for a while.
We left Ocean City about 8:00 heading for home. Anastasia fell asleep about 1/2 hour into the trip and when we got home, Orlando, Anastasia and I all settled in for a very sound sleep.
Among Anastasia's Christmas presents last year was her very own digital camera. It's taken her a while to figure out how to use it, but as expected, she's pretty fascinated with taking pictures by herself.
An early effort:
The quality is a little less than stellar, and the color a little blue, but when she gets a good picture, her reaction is fun to watch. Tonight she was taking a few around the house before bedtime. Daddy's picture came out really good.
Mommy's not so much:
Oh well, some day maybe she'll be the next Ansel Adams. For now, she's taking still lifes of a less intentional variety.
