Halloween sneek peak

October has been a busy month, and I've really enjoyed all our visitors, but I'm way behind on telling you about what's been happening. I still haven't gotten to the wonderful visit from my UConn friends, a quick visit from Grandma Getz, and pumpkin painting with 1-year-olds! But today is Halloween and that means the annual Woodberry Halloween Party, and event especially for the children of Woodberry faculty. When Jason's mom was here, she had wanted to get some photos of Sierra in her Halloween costume, but we just never got around to it. We had a photo shoot yesterday, though, so for your Halloween enjoyment, our ladybug!

Woodberry visitors

My friend Emily came to visit us here at Woodberry with her three (3!) little kiddos last week. It was a beautiful day outside and we had a nice walk up to the playground. Emily totally rocked the babywearing, with her littlest (6 weeks) in a wrap on the front and her second (I can't remember exactly how old ... older than 18 months, but not yet two) in a mei tai on her back. I thought I had taken a picture, but I cannot seem to find it. Boo.

Here's her teeny-tiny, born 09-09-09:
And the bigger ones had a grand ol' time on the slide and swings. Sierra LOVES the swings. She squeals with delight and kicks her legs in the air. So funny!!


We also happened to walk by the Rapidan Club (outdoor club here at Woodberry) climbing up the side of a building!! Crazy! Emily's oldest was fascinated (admittedly, so was I) so we stayed to watch. If only I had known ... I would love to attempt climbing up the side of a building. Looked like fun!

Auntie TANIA!

But before I get to that ...

Let talk about last weekend! (Phew, I'm a little behind) I started to write about Tania's visit, but then I got distracted and the posted ended up digressing into telling you about the history of Chaos. Such is the nature of Chaos!

But Tania ... TANIA! We've been friends for a long time. At this point, I've known her approximately 90% of my lifetime. That's a long time and I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I think about friends I've known for so long. I really believe it is a gift to still have several friends I've known since gradeschool (or earlier!)

Tania flew into Richmond late last Friday night (10 days ago, not this past Friday) and stayed with a friend of hers who lives there. We talked about meeting at a Chocolate Festival in Charlottesville Saturday morning, but I got a text from Tania at 3:21am that said "Just now getting to bed. Will have to have a later meet time," and Saturday turned out rather drizzly and blah, so not really ideal for being outside at any festival (even chocolate).

So we met about lunch time and Sierra would only eat food from Tania, and refused anything I gave her. Tania's cool like that!

Back at the ranch Forest, silliness ensued. Tania got to experience the Woodberry dining hall and Sierra got into the essense of Chaos by staying up too late. She's learning, but 9:00 is still early. Tania and I did well, making it 'til nearly 2am. (Why do I do this to myself?) We thought we should share our mini Chaos with Brian and Adam, so we gave them a call. Adam didn't answer, which actually didn't surprise us as Adam as a way of disappearing off the face of the earth for periods of time on a fairly regular basis. It's okay. We still love him. Brian actual answered his phone, but much to our dismay, told us he could not chat via Skype because he did not have a webcam (or a Skype account). This is inexcusable because Brian has two degrees in computer stuff, and his home computer set up is two ginormous monitors that are linked to one another and all the bells and whistles that a computer nerd should have. Or so we thought. No webcam!? What's up with that. So we chatted on the phone and harassed the non-responding Adam on Facebook. It's a thing we do. A couple hours later, a text message from Brian had his Skype user name and a note to give him a call. Ah, Brian! You have redeemed yourself! I guess he remembered that he actually did have webcam (who just happens to have a webcam buried at the bottom of their closet that they have forgotten about? Brian! That's who!). So we had virtual Chaos! Hooray!

Sierra let me sleep in a little bit considering her slightly later night, but I was definately up too early for a 2am bedtime. It's okay; that's what coffee is for! Sunday was a successful day of indoctrinating Sierra into the Chaos tradition. It included Jazz Hands! (props to Jason for teaching Sierra. What fun!), swinging upside down, and monkey arms. Monkey arms is very important to Chaos.

Successful monkey arms with Tania's friend Betsy on Saturday at lunch: Unsuccessful monkey arms just before bedtime:
Originally, Tania and I were going to meet her friend Betsy in Charlottesville again Sunday evening so Betsy could take Tania to the Richmond airport for her way too early flight Monday morning. But Betsy's car broke down in the interim, so that was not possible. That's okay, I just got to have Tania for one more night. We headed to Charlottesville anyway because Jason had a hockey game and I thought it would be fun to take Tania to the downtown mall.


We wandered along checking out a store here and there. We went into a stained glass place that I hadn't known about before. I used to do some stained glass and would love to get back into it someday, so it's good to know this store is there for supplies and whatnot. And we followed our nose to some Chinese food. Really. We were standing outside and said "Do you smell egg rolls?" Then we walked down the street, "The smell is stronger here." We turned down a side street "I don't really get that egg roll smell here." "I think it's coming from this way." And finally ... success! And a snack of spring rolls and crab wontons. Mmmmm.

We headed back to the ice rink to catch the end of Jason's hockey game.
Then, after the game, Sierra practiced her hockey skills with a little guidance from Daddy.

When she was finished, we decided the Chinese food was a great idea, the appetizer was not enough, and went back for dinner.

We headed to bed relatively earlier because we had a 3:30am wake-up (ack!) to get Tania to the airport in time. Sierra came along because I didn't know if we would be back in time for Jason to get to class. Luckily, she slept the entire time until we were within about 15 minutes of home.

One last monkey arms! Bye Tania! We'll miss you!

Coming soon ...

A fun weekend with a few of my girls from UConn.

It was really great to see Kathryn, Jessica and Molly. It's been over a year and I really miss them!

The background of Chaos

I started writing a post about Tania's visit last weekend, but then the background got long enough that it needed it's own post. So Tania's visit recap coming soon.

I think the best place to begin this post is with a brief explanation of Chaos. Not "chaos" the noun, but Chaos, the recurring event. The problem is, I am certain that it will be very difficult to explain Chaos briefly. But here goes. (edited later: I couldn't do it. There is no way to explain Chaos briefly)

I am fortunate enough to have several friends that I have known since childhood. Of those, Brian, Tania, Adam and I have been getting together at least once a year (usually at Christmas) since high school, when I chose to go to school in a different town and Adam moved away. We have given these meeting the name "Chaos" and they are sometimes more chaotic than others. Chaos involves, mostly, general silliness, but also usually, movies, staying up relatively later than normal, large quantities of sugar, and did I mention silliness? These meetings started when we were children and now involve embracing our inner child. Chaos always has a name. Usually, it's the main event, Christmas Chaos. But there has also been Colorado Chaos, and two years ago, there was MLChaos (which happened on the long weekend of MLK, Jr. Day). There have been others as well, and I have not always been involved. A Chaos is considered a Chaos if at least two of the Senior Members have made an effort to get together (as we now live in Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and Virginia), but there can be other Associate Members present as well (I won't get into that explanation).

The first Choas?
No, this is probably a little early. That's me on the left, and Brian, and my sister (considered an Associate member)

This is more likely about the time of the first Choas, circa 1996 (though I had known Brian and Tania for more than 10 years already. Adam moved to us later on -- 6th grade? I can't remember ... )
That's my legs, Adam, my face, Brian, Tania, and Keith.

Later on, Jason's second Choas as an Associate member (he married in), Christmas Chaos, 2004:


And a more recent event, Christmas Chaos, 2008: In the back: Jason, Christine (my sis), Tania, Sierra, me; In the front: Brian, Adam

So, Tania ... I've known her for ages. Longer than my youngest sister. And I probably see her more often. So she might as well be Sierra's auntie. And she came to visit last weekend for my 30th birthday. I am the first in this group of 4 to turn 30, so we decided that this was 30 Chaos, Part 1. I would love for 30 Chaos, Parts 2, 3, and 4 to occur in Illinois, Colorado, and Minnesota, but that is yet to be seen.

Animal sounds

It's been ages since I've upload any video, but this morning, I was on the ball. This video, of Sierra telling you animal sounds, was taken yesterday. This is longer than most videos I typically post, but I think it's totally cute. If you're in a hurry, start watching at about 2:50, where I ask Sierra what a puppy says and then she spends the next several seconds looking for the stuffed puppy under all the other animals she has. When she find him, she gives him a kiss.

Running to catch up with myself

I'm lovin this month! There is so much going on and I am getting behind in telling you all about it. After my mom left, my friend Tania was here this weekend. We had such fun and I will write more about that (hopefully tomorrow!). And I just found out that three of my best girl friend from grad school will be coming next weekend, and then my mother-in-law as soon as they leave!! Meanwhile, tonight it was out for dinner with several of the Woodberry gals to celebrate two birthdays we had this week. What fun!!

Mary's Rock, Reprise

Back in September, Sierra and I headed out with my fried Shari to hike to Mary's Rock. A lovely hike, a lovely day, and some amazing views.

Last week, when Mom was here, I had to take her to Shenandoah. We love it so much, I just wanted her to experience the beauty of it while she was here. We chose the same destination, but took the trail I hadn't been on before to get to the top. The "mountain dogs" came too!
We started after lunch and it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. The day was beautiful, but there was definately a lot more wind this time around. Phew! It was really blowing at the top!! I'm happy Sierra enjoys being outside so much. She had a grand time looking at everything on the way up and doing some acrobatics in the carrier on my back!


The leaves were just starting to change and the views from the top were just breathtaking (or maybe the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't breathe well ... but either way, it was great). Sierra collected some rocks from her "baby cave" and I looked out over the moutains.
On the way home, we stopped at a little glass and art gallery, which was lovely, but we didn't stay long. A glass gallery is not someplace you want to spend a lot of time in if you have a very active young toddler. She was not allowed to roam, of course, but she has patience that corresponds with her small size and she was not going to be happy with me standing and looking for very long. I also finally took a photo of this shop that we pass every time we head to the park via that entrance. It makes me giggle every single time. Read very carefully:

Apple Harvest Goodness

Last weekend (I know, a bit late on this post!), Mom (who is now home again, home again), Sierra, and I headed out to the Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival. A big thank you to my friend Shari who recommended we check this out because we had so much fun. I'm already planning on next year!

As we headed into the festival area, we were greeted by giant-funny-hay-bale-guy.
Then it was straight into the craft fair area.
There were a lot of people and a lot of boothes, but the venue was nice because the site is large and there was plenty of room to just stand back and observe, if that's what one desires. I grew up in a "tourist town" that has a craft fair every October, the Galena Country Fair, and that is sheer chaos. (my friend Tania is sitting here and says that it's okay to admit that we have been permenantly scarred by the insanity of it all) I like going to the Galena Country Fair, but trust me, if you go, you MUST leave early enough to get there as it opens and stay no more than an hour. There are just too many people and not enough space. It is held in a park that is just not meant to hold that many people/booths/vendors/french fries.

Of course we tried all the apple goodness, starting with the apple butter donuts and some apple cider.


For lunch we had Brunswick stew and ... apple pie! (though, I used to work at this restaurant that had Mulligatawny soup made with apples in it, so they definately should have served that!)
There were huge piles of hay for the kids to play on. I know, maybe this doesn't sound like a good time to the average adult (except me, I think it sounds great!), but the kids were having a blast! Sierra wasn't quite big enough to get in the mix this year, but I'm sure she'll be right there by next October. She thought it looked like a lot of fun, though, so she took a picture to remember.

There were tons of dogs and kids and food and fun, and I just kept telling my mom that next year she MUST bring my niece (who will be 5) because she will just LOVE all the dogs and kids and food and fun!

We listened to the bluegrass band for awhile, then finished out the day with a funnel cake topped with apple preserves.