Mount Trashmore

There is a great park in Virginia Beach which was built on top of a landfill. It sounds really weird, I know, but once you think about it, it's quite genius. What a great way to recycle and turn something ugly into something beautiful. There is the "mountain" part, which you can walk up, down, and around, and where many people go to fly kites and run stairs, but there is also a beautiful park for kids to play on. It's always been pretty nice, but since I moved away, they tore everything down and started over, including the rest rooms which are now pretty nice. The new playground is super safe and friendly to kids of any age. The walkways are big enough for 4-5 kids to walk side by side, there are hardly any stairs, and the stuff they used for the ground is cushy and soft. I was super impressed. We spent a couple hours here, way more than we normally would have, because we had to check out of our hotel at 10 am, and our flight didn't leave till almost 6pm, so we had a LOT of time to kill. For the most part Hannah really enjoyed it, especially when she got licked by a dog! I wish I had more pictures of her face, but like I've said, it was really cold and windy, even away from the ocean front.

Hannah is always trying to climb up slides, so when she saw this- a slide designed to be climbed!- she had a total hay day. She was so proud of herself.

View of the park from the top of the hill

The other side of the "mount"

The beach!

We tried a couple of times to go for a walk on the boardwalk, but it was super cold and windy the whole time we were there. The first day when my mom was with us, we only lasted about 10 minutes. Dan and I went back the last day we were there and went for a longer walk, but it was still super cold. Even so, Hannah was super excited to see the ocean and kept trying to dive into it.

                                                                  
                                                                     King Neptune

Bellissima!

When we lived in Virginia, my mom and I sung in a semi professional women's choir called "Bellissima!" We both loved it and were very sad to leave. On Tuesday we had lunch with one of our best friends from the choir, Mary Zimmerman, and then that night we stopped by the beginning of rehearsal to see everyone. While we were at Mary's house, Hannah had the best time ever because she got to meet her first cat! She freaked out. It was seriously hilarious. She kept screeching at the top of her lungs, which of course, totally freaked the cat out. She would not take her eyes off of Hannah for anything.

Us with Mary:

This is Deborah Carr, the conductor of Bellissima!

Melinda

Dan, my mom, and I have a dear friend in Virginia who was at the very top of our list of people to visit. She is one of the most special people I know, and she has touched all of our lives immensely and we miss her so much. Her name is Melinda Mills, and she has a condition which is essentially a complete medical mystery. She became dehydrated, was given saline in an IV, and subsequently lost control of her entire body. She has retained her intellect, and communicates by fluttering her eyelids- up for yes and down for no. They have broken the alphabet up into a 5 line grid; so you say "line 1, line 2.." etc until she lifts her eyelids indicating that the letter she wants is on that line, then you go through to find the letter. It is a time consuming process, but very fulfilling once you've mastered it. Melinda has impeccable spelling and very strong opinions. She also has a wonderful sense of humor and an enormous amount of faith. Any time I find myself going through difficult times, all I have to do is think of Melinda and the poise with which she deals with her situation, and I find the motivation I need to do what is needed. Hannah was a pill the entire time we were there, and wouldn't stop whining and crying, but we still managed to have a good visit with her and I'm so glad we were able to go!

Monday night block party

Monday night was when we got to spend time with most of our friends from church. My best friends' mom, Jacquie, invited a ton of people over for a pot luck dinner. It was a lot of fun and the food was pretty amazing. My friend Rachel brought her son, Anthony, who's in 1st grade now. Well, Hannah was ALL about  Anthony. It was too funny. She kept following him around and trying to play with him. At one point, Jacquie got out a bin of big legos for Hannah and small ones for Anthony. Well, Hannah wasn't having any of it and would only play with Anthony's, which of course drove him crazy. It was hilarious. Finally she got distracted by a chair. There was a little blue plastic chair that was just her size, and she spent about 15 minutes moving it, sitting in it, moving it again, and so on. What a goof.

                                                            Little flirt

One of our friends, Kari Brimhall, and her family have a small business writing E-books for kids. Hannah LOVES them. She reads them over and over on my mom's kindle.

A picture with the author herself. As you can tell, she loves them so much she can't be bothered to smile.

I have no idea what she was upset about in these pictures, but I thought the were hilarious.

Thank you, Jacquie! We love you!

Sunday night

The best part of our trip to Virginia was getting to visit so many good friends. After church on Sunday, we had dinner with a couple of families from our old ward, the Ankneys and the Brimhalls. We had a great time and ate some great food. It was so crazy to see how much the kids have grown up. I didn't realize how long I'd been gone until I saw all of the "little kids" all grown up. After dinner and a delicious dessert, Hannah was on a sugar rush and had a great time running around being crazy and talking everyone's ear off.

                                              Making friends with Sister Ankney