Crickhollow

We are in a new apartment, as I have mentioned. We moved on July 1, but what with being out of town for almost 4 weeks, we didn't really get settled here until recently. I am calling it Crickhollow, which many of my readers will recognize as a Tolkien reference. Crickhollow was a little cottage Frodo used as his official destination when he moved out of the glorious Bag End. He didn't end up living there for more than one night, but it was his plausible cover, a way to transition out of the shire gently and without too much fuss.

Our Lee Street apartment, while it had many flaws and while we did outgrow it, was a place with which we strongly identified. We lived there longer than we'd lived in any of the previous three apartments of our marriage; it was our delightful landing place in the Elysium that Blacksburg seemed to be, and it was the only home that Miles or Adele remembered. Leaving Lee Street was hard. Also, we know that the likelihood is, someday Jon really will finish this PhD program, and most likely, someday he'll get a job that is Not Here. It seems likely to us that this will be our last Blacksburg address; it will, at least, probably be the last Grad School residence. It is cozy and comfortable, though we did have to get rid of a fair number of possessions in order to fit into it, and it will be our Crickhollow. "Whither then? None can say."

I was waiting for a time when the house was both unpacked and perfectly clean but I finally decided this was not going to be a combination we would see in real life. So here is the real-life apartment.

Living Room

Dining Room. (Also see, "Living Room")

Kids' Bathroom

Adele's room. Separate from Miles' room, for the first time!

New rug. Source: Ikea

Sidenote: See amazing board books from public library!!

Got this at Goodwill! Adele's current sleep strategy: counting herself to sleep.

Miles' room. Also see: NOT Mum and Papa's floor.

Birthday gifts: 8 planets (& 1 dwarf planet) for the ceiling-sky

Good times on Miles' playmats

Adult room! (See, "Not for children") (Finally)

Separate bathroom (and other marvels)

Loved ones in our hearts and on our fridge.

Small, messy kitchen from which we can see and hear almost the whole rest of the apartment. We love this. Hello Netflix while washing dishes!!

Laundry room (See, "Things NOT in the kitchen!")

Home sweet cluttered home.

Contained area for children & pets! Outside, covered from rain, and we have Miles' cooperation in not using his ability to scale it and climb out. Which  he has.

A new Ikea print to energize the space.

And, below my very favorite aspect of all:

Oh, the glory of wood floors! (See: NOT ancient nasty carpet)

We may need a dehumidifier for the basement-y atmosphere, but at least we're no longer living with decades of accumulated dust and pet hair. How's that for a happy thought!

Back in Blacksburg

Well, we've been back since July 30, and we've had a few small adventures together-- Steppin' Out, a zoo trip, a visit to RompnRoll, Price House camp for Miles-- but as always, life seems a bit less photographable when one is at home. Still, here are a few moments.

A stranger walked up to me and asked if we wanted a family photo. She said she remembered how rarely she had been able to get pictures of her whole family at once. This Yankee is still not used to strangers approaching one and asking questions, but when I got was she was trying to do my heart just swelled. It's true! we have so few family photos that I didn't request someone to take, and regard as a huge favor when they did. Here we are, August, 2013, Steppin' Out portrait:

This is our 4th Steppin' Out, our 3rd Blacksburg anniversary. This is how I remember them: The one where we loved our new town and I hula-hooped, the one where I was pregnant with Adele and Miles was in a really awkward potty training stage, the one where Adele was a baby and Miles loved bluegrass and we got rained on copiously, and the one where the weather was perfect and we all had a blast.

Here's Miles, only a couple hours in, displaying his swag

Taking a break from animal adoration

Here was an interesting moment. So, among the tents with local organizations, groups, and political candidates, was a kind of Gun Lobby group, there to celebrate the right to bear arms, and really, also, to promote the bearing of arms, there with actual guns, with neon "guns save lives" stickers and- for real- raffling off a Glock of the same variety that was used in the 2007 Massacre. Grunerts felt this last item to be in rather bad taste. So did this protesting group:

On a lighter note, this year's Steppin' Out included a scuba diving area. Far out, man.

Steppin' Out clued us in that RompNRoll, the local indoor kid gym, was having another free session. Obviously, we had to be there.

This guy is adding to his playground-based skills weekly/

Did I enjoy the parachute more than my kids? Probably not, but it was close.

Super Adele (they were handing out capes! what could we do?!) demonstrates her slide skills.

One of her favorite sentences is "I hang!"

Coming back from Roanoke after a zoo trip, the sky was full of varied beauty.

As I remarked to a friend, there's nothing like the landscape-- watching a sunset, or the progress of a rainstorm, or going out on a misty morning-- to make you feel at home in your surroundings. I have a peace about being home in Blacksburg, despite loving other places this summer, too.

Weekend in Maryland

We ended our roving where we began it: at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Maryland. Arriving on a Thursday and leaving on a Tuesday gave us ample time for varied visits.

One morning, I let Jon sleep in (he deserved it!) and took the kids to downtown Annapolis to blow off steam, and to see some water, ducks, and BOATS! They were thrilled.

Miles insisted I take their picture in front of his favorite sailboat.

Learning from Alex Haley

I have really, really missed large bodies of water since we've moved to Blacksburg.

Miles practiced his photography.

...And Adele took her first picture.

It was a charming morning.

Below: we got this vid from KinderFarm park in Millersville, which is always worth a visit. Not only are the animals entertaining, but the playground is like a small city!

Anyway, the point is, Miles is now able to slide down a fireman's pole. And climb a climbing wall, and *almost* do the monkey bars, and pump himself into motion on a swing... He's solidly in KID territory, and we are all coping as best we can. :-)

On Sunday we visited the Maryland Zoo, in Baltimore. It's a bit smaller than the National in DC, but we kind of like it better because it's less crowded and you can get much closer to the animals. It also has the advantage of being just a 30 minute drive away, in contrast to the more than 2 hours we usually spend in car and on trains to get to the Smithsonian. It was a relief to visit this zoo. 

I especially love the penguin exhibit!

You can get very close to the elephants, too!

Miles slid the heck out of this slide; he loved it. He was closely followed by Adele, who started down the slide in correct form, and then descended into a roll, then a cartwheel, and then sideways chaos. She gave us a good scare! And effectively warned off the lady behind us with a 20 month old; they took the stairs down.

(She was fine, btw)

Course we had to stop at the petting zoo! 

Here, Miles uses the brushes they provide. Goat gets groomed, child gets to pet, everyone wins.

Of course, the main attraction in Maryland is people. Specifically, Grandma and Grandpa! Who came with us to the zoo.

Hands down the best part was watching the crocodile savage an innocent turtle. Well, as I pointed out, we didn't hear what the turtle was saying. He might have had it coming. Anyway, it was amazing and happened RIGHT in front of us. As Steve Irwin would say, Crikey! This one's aggressive!

Here's the assembled family that came along with us! Tim and Corey, (my brother in law and new sister in law, if you don't know), who live in Baltimore, hopped over. Tim even works for the Baltimore Zoo! Disappointingly, he was not able to get us all in free :-)

Sunday night contained a bit of drama, unfortunately. Miles came fumbling down the stairs to find his parents in the middle of the night (he'd been sleeping in an upstairs bedroom to try to keep him in the habit of having his own room) and fell down the basement stairs. Because we didn't see him fall, and because he was so disoriented and apparently unable to answer simple questions such as, what's your name? Whose house are we in? well, we didn't know if he'd done anything serious to himself, so we packed him into the car and went to the ER at 2am. It's the hospital he was born in, and he last visited it as a dehydrated, jaundiced 3 day old.

Well, 4 year old Miles snapped out of it pretty quickly. They checked him out thoroughly, and after learning that he was unconcussed and did not even need stitches, we took the proffered popsicle and went home get a little sleep.

Guess what? he's fine too. 

Monday gave us a chance to go to Ikea and get some needed items for the kids' new rooms, and also to bask in the glory that is Ikea. Afterwards, we fit a visit in with our old friends Mike and Steph, who just welcomed their second child, Michaela, a couple of months ago. All the kids napped, and the adults all played some very enjoyable Rock Band in the basement. Just like old times.

On Tuesday morning, we were off yet again for the final installment of the driving.

Adele really, really enjoyed this McDonald's playplace.

Tuesday night we stumbled into an apartment we barely knew, still stuffed with boxes. It was the work of about a week but we are just about totally box free today. 

I have some more material for you. I'll show a few photos from the new place, as well as a couple of memories from Steppin' Out 2013 (Blacksburg's street festival) which marks the 3rd anniversary of our life in this town. 

But it will have to wait. I go back to work tomorrow for the first time since June 7, you see. And I'm tired, and I'm not excited about getting up at 6:30. But... I'm ready.