Last Day of School and a ROAD TRIP!

Friday was a VERY exciting day for Tyson and Audrey because it was the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! They won’t start back to school again until the beginning of September! Audrey finished 2nd grade and Tyson finished 4th. He will have one more year of elementary school before he starts middle school.

Charlotte is squinting in the sun with Charmin, and you can just barely see the school bus behind her making its way to the bus stop. 

We started a tradition several years ago that on the last day of school I meet the kids with ice cream- my kids and the other kids who get off the bus at the same stop. It has become such a well-known (and well-loved) tradition that this year we even had a middle-schooler come down just for ice cream (the middle-schoolers ride a different bus and get home an hour earlier)!

 Audrey with her ice cream cone and Charmin.

Now Tyson has Charmin (and a friend has joined us over there on the left).  

Teeny reeeally likes ice cream. Like, a lot.  

Silly girls. 

The day after school let out was Saturday, and one of our family goals for 2014 was to get to the temple at least once per quarter, so we decided to head up to the temple. 

Charmin is buckled safely in between Tyson and Audrey.

To give you an idea of the distance, I have included this helpful map. :-) 

We are down south (A), just south of Richmond, and the Washington, D.C. Temple (B) is actually in Kensington, Maryland, just north of the city of Washington, D.C. We took the beltway around Washington and it took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes to get there from our house. 

 See that sign that says “Tyson’s Corner”? That’s that area with all the big buildings. As we passed it Tyson said, “Isn’t my corner magnificent?” 

Often we face terrible traffic getting up there and back, but this time we just hit a few slow spots and it wasn’t too bad at all.

Since we didn’t have a babysitter, my husband and I took turns going in. I went first while he took them to lunch and then I came out and we went to the Visitors’ Center while he went in.

 Once again, Teeny was the teddysitter.

We met some very sweet sister missionaries who showed us around (I’d been there plenty of times before but it seems like they’re always changing and updating things). We went into this little faux house to watch a clip about families.

Teeny is completely devastated that I’m not letting her out of her stroller to play on the front porch with the other kids. She was waaaay past her nap time.

Checking out some of the cool touch-screen exhibits. 

 Charmin liked this gigantic Book of Mormon.

So did Tyson. 

Charmin on top of the glass display case with the model of the temple made before it was actually built; real temple is out the windows in the background. 

Did you know that the Washington, D.C. temple is the tallest temple in the world?

 Charmin gets a closer look.

Because every teddy bear needs a temple photo. :-) 

It was a gooooorgeous day out, so after we watched Legacy at the Visitors’ Center we went for a walk around the temple. 

This temple is full of symbolism- check out a great article here to learn more.

They just lined up on the steps like that all by themselves. Pretty neat! 

 A closer shot.

Everybody wants a pic with the bear. 

It was a lovely day, and so much fun to share it with our friend Charmin! We love the temple. :-)

Exploring

Tag and I had some fun yesterday. Once he was over the jet lag, I decided to take him exploring round our little village, taking photographs of some of the interesting sites. Only problem was, I didn't think I could carry him and walk the dog (Oscar), so he had to go in my handbag. He doesn't seem too happy about that.

Our first stop was Thundersley Water tower. I love water towers because my grandfather was in charge of the waterworks for his town, so I played near their water tower a lot growing up. I'm very happy to live in a town that has one.

We passed lots of houses which were decorated to support England in the World Cup. I don't have any interest in football, but Tag seems to be getting into the spirit of things.

We stopped for a rest at St. Peter's church, where there is a lovely view down the hill to New Thundersley. The picture of the view didn't come out well (too many leaves on the tree obscuring it) but here's Tag with Oscar sitting outside the church.

Finally it was time to head back to the village centre and collect Ceri from school. Here she is with her best friend Isabelle, and new friend Tag.

So now Tag knows all about the area he's staying in, it's time for him to explore elsewhere. Next week - London.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...and a Bright and Happy Graduation Day!

On Wednesday night we had a ripsnorter of a thunderstorm, but Charmin seemed to enjoy it.

We kept him cozy and dry inside with us. This will probably be the first of many thunderstorms he’ll experience while he’s here in Virginia with us for the summer!

On Thursday morning we were off to Charlotte’s preschool graduation! Teeny was in charge of Charmin for the day.

She went to Chester Baptist Preschool and had a wonderful year!

Teeny did tearfully relinquish Charmin for one photo with Charlotte.

She’ll be off to Kindergarten in September! Congrats, squirt!

Look Who's Here!

The postman knocked on the door this morning, with an envelope for me. It's Tag!

I told the children that he was here when they came home from school and they were very happy to see him. Here they are in front of our house with our very welcome guest. They are still wearing their school uniforms because they were so excited to have their picture taken with him that they didn't want to get changed first.

We live in a semi-detached house in a large village about thirty miles east of London. Lots of people in our area commute to London every day on the train, because we are between two train lines which lead to London. We have one station a mile to the north of us, and another two miles to the south.

Ceri immediately set about making Tag in Minecraft.

Meanwhile, I made Tag a tag to wear, because I was worried that with all the travelling he'd be doing, he could get lost. It says "My name is Tag and I am a V.I.B. (Very Important Bear). You can read about me at http://internationalteddies.blogspot.co.uk. If you find me, please help me get home. Thank you." It's got my mobile number on it, and on the back is a picture of a combined US/UK flag.

 Hari sniffed Tag asking, "Does he smell of America?" (Apparently he does.) But despite that, Tag got to sleep with Ceri tonight, along with her special teddy bear (who was too special to send to America), imaginatively named "Teddy". I wonder if Tag will dream about all the adventures he'll be having over the next few weeks?

P.S. I do have another daughter. My eldest child is Gwen who is 18. I asked whether I could post a photo of her with Tag and she said this:

Guess Who Came to Dinner?

He’s HERE! 

We are happy to report that Charmin arrived safely at the Tross home this afternoon, discovered in the mailbox when Tyson and Audrey got home from school.

We gave him a warm welcome!

We live on a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia.

We enjoyed our dinner of potato soup with cheese, and cornbread muffins. We offered some to Charmin, but he said no thank you, he was stuffed.

(ha ha)

After dinner we read our scriptures- in our house there’s no dessert until we read scriptures!

Teeny is very excited to have Charmin here with us.

After dinner there was a competition to see who Charmin would sleep with. We told the kids that whoever’s room was the cleanest and had their bed made would get to have him tonight.

Tyson won!

And I have never seen my children clean their rooms so fast before...

He even made a special place just for Charmin.

(As you can see, Tyson has a soft spot for teddy bears.)

We tucked him in for the night and we can’t wait to start taking him exploring soon. So glad he made it safe and sound!