Crazy Hair Day

Today is Maddie's Crazy Hair Day at school. I love how happy this "crazy" hairstyle made her. Look at her little smile in the sideways picture. These are the best moments of motherhood.....

Family Fun in Virginia

Oh, how we love family!

Some of the girls in the family (and Josh) went up to Virginia to celebrate my little sister's college graduation from SVU. I just think Virginia is lovely and quant....

...And full of history! She now lives in the same town as Thomas Jefferson, so we went out to check his home, Monticello. After the tour of his house, Josh tagged him "The World's Real Most Interesting Man."

Was I the only American who didn't know that his home, Monticello, is on the back of a nickel? I think that is weird and cool. Go ahead.....go find a nickel and check it out. I'll wait.

Then we ate at a fun little Japenese Sushi restaurant in downtown Charlottesville. My family tried all kinds of random and raw seafood. Josh and Maddie stuck to their fully cooked chicken.

Then we walked around on their main street. I love small town main streets. The Strip in Vegas just doesn't have the same......um.....charm. (This is my nephew Bennett - AKA "Bo." He was born two months before Charlie, so we love watching him grow and imagine what Charlie would be doing right now. Which is basically scooting and drooling, but it's still fun.)

On our way out of town, we did a midnight drive to see the White House.

P.S.

The yellow bird's name is Bono and the blue bird's name is Gwen. (You guessed it, named after Gwen Stefani.) Our daughter is rock and roll!

Butterfly Release

Charlie's hospice has an annual butterfly release for the families who have lost a loved one. I told Maddie that we get to tell the butterfly a message, and then when we release him he flies up to heaven, finds Charlie, and whispers it into his ear. So she (and Josh and I) told the butterfly to say "hi" and "we love you." (We also snuck an extra butterfly for Evan!)

Here is the video

It was also great to see Charlie's hospice nurse again. She was at our house comforting us as we were comforting Charlie in his final hours. We are grateful for her service.

Valley of Fire

For some reason, Maddie calls us the "Mama Bear" and "Papa Bear" when we are in the motorhome, which she named "Sally". So, here is Papa Bear driving good 'ole Sally up to the Valley of Fire on Saturday for a fun family picnic and hiking.

How an only child keeps herself entertained.....

Maddie likes to be a "real cooker" and make these "delicious" desserts for me every once in a while. "Yum."

She also saved up her chore money and bought a snowcone maker all by herself. She looks way cuter than Tom Cruise (in my opinion).

Maddie just wanted pets. Any pet. Unfortunately for her, she got two parents who are not, shall we say, "pet people." Well, eventually my guilt won out and yesterday we bought her these beautiful little parakeets. Luckily Josh grew up with pet birds in his house, so he wasn't TOO mad that we surprised him. His birds growing up all had the same name "Dumb Bird." Those are our pets nicknames, but we are still working on their legal names.
Dumb Bird #1

Dumb Bird #2

I Heart NYC

Day 1:

• Tourist Bus - Downtown & Uptown Loops
• Take the subway to the Bronx
• Yankee Game
• Dessert at Serendipity (otherwise known as ice cream heaven)

Day 2:

• NBC Studio tours (we saw Ryan Phillipe rehearsing with the SNL cast)
• Dinner at The Four Seasons Restaurant
• Pedicab to The Addams Family on Broadway (I laughed and loved it)

Day 3:

• Sealing Sessions at Manhattan Temple
• Staten Island Ferry/Statue of Liberty
• West Side Story on Broadway (incredible dancing)
• Pizza in hotel room watching the same SNL skit we saw being rehearsed the day before

Day 4:

• Horse carriage ride around Central Park
• Empire State Building
• People watching in Central park
• Afternoon Tea at the Palm Court at the Plaza

Day 5:

• Wake up in Las Vegas and begin planning my next trip (or move!) to the Big Apple

Another Weird, Bittersweet Moment in the Harris Family

A bittersweet moment in the life of a parent who has lost a child - the gravemarker arrives! We got Evan a new one too so that they could be attached and matching. It is the last way to honor those we loved and lost, and this is a stunning tribute. They are just beautiful, and will suffice instead of my dream of recreating the Taj Mahal. And I don't know who brought the windmill things, but whoever did, thank you. They are adorable and Josh especially loves them.

The Vernal Easter Bunny

I have to admit Maddie's past Easters are kinda lame. Or at least different than mine growing up (where we actually proved Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest). Maddie has always gotten a beautiful, perfect little basket and all the time in the world to find every single egg. Well, not this year. I wanted to make her WORK for it. So we send a text to the Vernal Easter Bunny and let him know that we were going to join Maddie's cousins for Easter this year.

As you can see by this picture, the oldest boy is usually the "fittest" and ends up with the most full basket by running circles around the others. :o)

Maddie got a pretty good stash, even though she kind of just stood there in shock and awe for the first while. And little Maso-Square Pants even got enough candy to be happy. Strangely, the Easter Bunny in Vernal hides a lot more chocolate than the Easter Bunny in Vegas, and a lot less pink Starbursts.

We were also able to see the "crazy busy tourist trap" of Vernal. It was an old fort/ranch that Butch Cassidy used to hide out in. Maddie, the city girl, came up to me after ten minutes and said she was "bored." Eventually she played in the dirts, rock, and sticks and when it was time to leave she wasn't ready. :o)

Gotta love that little Mason Boy. We wanted to throw him in the motorhome and take him home with us.