Preggo

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DC and Halloween

As most people know, I made a trip to Martinsburg, WV and decided to party it up with the Heits near Washington, D.C. over the weekend. To prove I was there, I made sure to get photos of all the monuments that just scream American history.

First off, we've got the Defender of Freedom himself. That's right, this is the man whose lowly band of misfits went against all odds and reached the Final Four of the 2006 NCAA Tournament: George Mason.

Next up, we've got William Tecumseh Sherman. This is the general who famously ripped his clothes off while standing on top of eagles eating a corpse at the battle of Shiloh while declaring, "General Grant is a great general. I know him well. He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk; and now, sir, we stand by each other always."

This is a tribute to one of America's best-kept secrets: George Washington was actually three men.

This memorial was made from a piece of marble taken from the memorial of the victims of the USS Maine found in Havana, Cuba. The original was damaged in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, so this is a memorial to a memorial.

What piece of American pride, unity and history would be complete without a memorial to Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, who, had he not died of pneumonia, may have beaten the Union in Gettysburg?

Arguably the most well-known monument in Washington, the Bulfinch Gate has inspired gates for almost 200 years.

This is why I never went very far in scouts. I was too embarrassed at the thought of putting my parents through the official Boy Scout Parent dress code.

Here's a picture of the Heit hosts so you can see a recent picture of them, leaving no obligation for them to update their blog for another few months.

This one is for Michelle, who would be delighted to see Wesley's amazing invention.

Carving pumpkins is so last decade, so instead Wesley colored one.

By popular demand, here's some trashy Halloween costumes.


And here's Wesley in his Sunday best.

The Great Pumpkin

Since Jeff and Lois still haven't given us their password so we can update their blog, we'll just have to update ours again. This week we hopped in our car that's as a big as a whale and set sail to the shack o' pumpkins and fun: Schuster's Playtime Farm.


While the rest of the country was in its heatwave, we had 40-50 degree weather, but on Saturday it was in the 80s and not very Octoberlike, so Wesley wasn't very energetic for most of the party. Like in these rrrrrrrs.

Or even the tire graveyard. The slide in the background was closed because the metal was burning the skin off of kids, but Wesley would've loved it otherwise.

When we first arrived it was almost time for some pig races. They weren't quite as exciting as the world famous Darryl's Racing Pigs, considering most of it was listening to the guy talk about his pigs while standing around under the hot sun.

Wesley was much more interested in this thing and kept waving at it every time it drove by behind us. After the pig races, the driver let him have a free ride since he seemed so anxious to ride it. It was another story once he was actually racing around in the bumpiness, as he was just holding on for dear life. It doesn't like that in this picture, because this was before it started moving. That girl in front of us wasn't performing an action film stunt.

It was too hot for little boys, so he soon lost his pants. Then we got to use our ticket that we still had because the train was free on a gigantic jumping pillow. There are no pictures, but it was one of Wesley's favorite parts. He was laughing and grinning the whole time while bouncing.

Then it was time for a hayride, so we got on this trailer that seats way more than twenty. The big rrrrr pulling us was far more exciting than the pumpkin patch it took us to.

Wesley was very selective about his pumpkin. He shook his head and pushed this one away when I offered it to him.

This pumpkin was just right.

That's all for pumpkin parties. Now we just need to wait for the perfect time to drop the pumpkin on some unsuspecting person's head from our balcony. In other news, our neighbors directly across the hall from our door put up scary skeletons and streamers and a BEWARE sign outside their door. Now Wesley won't even set foot outside our door once we open it, despite being super excited to go outside right beforehand.

Here's the special video while Amanda was at a relief society hangout. This time around Wesley wanted to try his hand at some real drums. The cymbals left him speechless.