Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

On Friday, William and I went back to Hunt Club Farm. I may be a little biased, but dang, he's cute, isn't he? Trying to hula hoop in the hay (say that three times fast)! The chicken coop and goat pens were closed because there were 8,257 elementary school kids there on fieldtrips and I'm guessing that there would have been fatalities of the goat/chicken type if they had been squeezed and chased around by those 8,257 kids. Who were quite wild with their fieldtrip freedom, I should add. I was a little disappointed because I had envisioned the pure joy of a newly-minted 2-year-old chasing chickens and goats. Oh well. Like I said...cute! Even with peanut butter face (oh and the nice bruise where Grandma (ahem) whacked him with the door earlier in the week)! I'm pretty sure I could have spent a $20 roll of quarters getting feed for the alpacas and he would have stood there handful by handful all morning feeding them. Playing on the playground--one of the few moments he...

She chose riding the pony over a ferris wheel ride...I think she made the right choice. Interacting with Salt and Pepper (not to be confused with the 1990s female pop group). One amazingly tolerant chicken! It just wouldn't be a De For outing if Hans wasn't messing about... OK, call me bad, but I was super-tempted to take the eggs and slip them in my purse. I had the opportunity to have farm fresh eggs while I was in St. James and they were SO good...their taste only furthered my desire to have some layers at some point in the future. Josiah's catch--love that expression! Feeding the llama/alpaca (I'm not certain which it is). She kinda had a thing for Josiah...! Playing in the hay...I swear, it was another of those "why do we spend money on toys?" moments. A few bales of hay would do just as well. These photos were all taken at Hunt Club Farm in Virginia Beach. It was a fall social put on by LEYTE GULF's Family Readiness Group, so we were treated to ...

Here they are, backwards as usual (one is always time-travelling on Minnesota is Heaven): Playing with some of Will's new gifts post-birthday bash. Opening gifts (with a little help from his "friends"--OK, more like they did it for him!). Aunt Heidi sent the alphabet/number trains which are a big hit, thanks Aunt Heidi!! Oh, the difference a year makes when eating birthday cake. Last year, it was all over him and spattered in a 3' radius of his highchair. This year, he used a fork and was quite distinguished about the whole matter. Even so, I made him do it topless. Having cake. Oh, some cake? Why yes, mother, I would like to use my fork in a most mannerly way. Only one-year-olds smash cake all over their faces. Now that I am a mature two-year-old, I will stop using my fingers like a common barbarian! Wait...that little barbarian got his fingers into the cake long before we set it on the table...that was my fault for showing him the cake when I brought it home. ...

We started off our visit to the Children's Museum of Virginia with a nice faceplant on the cobblestones outside. And lo, there was a great deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth...one of which teeth was chipped in the faceplant. Discovered that yesterday. So now I have a snaggly-toothed baby. Well, thank goodness for baby teeth, right? He may not have a future career as a model, but he can always be a bus driver! Or a ship's captain... Or a race car driver... Or a physicist...(or maybe a politician--full of hot air!) Or work on the railroad, like Uncle Eli... Or build railroads... (Recognize those pants from last year? Yeah, he was wearing them for his 1st birthday--my little shrimp is still wearing 12-18 month pants!).

I don't know anything about TJ's gardens, since I didn't go on the tour, but they sure are pretty! A few moments later, we left that idyllic bench and he dropped his lovey under it. We walked away unknowingly. Upon discovery of missing lovey, I, recovering from the flu and not yet over it, ran what felt like 26.2 miles (uphill) back to that spot to find puppy lovey lying dejectedly under the bench. I would have run 30 miles. We do not abandon our lovies! It's me and children who are unable to look at a grown man waving and holding a camera! Oh, and that Monticello place (this is the back of the house). This also, is the back of the house...much more familiar to us since it's pictured on the backside of the nickel. William and I climbed lots of stairs while we waited for the rest of the party to finish the tour. He got a little tired of me taking pictures, but he's cute, the house and grounds were pretty and it was a beautiful day. And taking pictures helped...