My girls. They make me proud, they make me laugh!

On Thursday, Maggie started 5th grade Band Camp. This is 4 mornings with the band teachers where the kids learn basics of band. How to hold their instruments, how to work together, etc. Maggie was so excited to bring her French Horn home on Thursday! She loved it. On Friday she came home bursting again,"we even played all together today, like a REAL band!"
"Wow! What did you play?"
"Well, it was only 1 note......but it was awesome!"



When looking for something to watch on TV last night, the girls decided on Sound of Music from our DVR. Of course that led to much singing and goofiness at bedtime. Abby was singing "favorite things" and then she paused, and said, those aren't MY favorite things. My favorite things are........mommy, cute baby animals, flowers, and, ME! My favorite thing is myself!
Oh dear!

And Katherine? She had so much trouble falling asleep last night. It was a little warm and sticky until a front brought rain around 1030. She was still awake as late as about 945. I gave her all my best tricks (no cold cloth as I didn't want to deal with a wet bed.)
Imagine my surprise when I came downstairs before 7 today and there she was!



Sitting with a blanket, eating a banana, doing a book of crosswords, just as happy as could be!
"I just couldn't sleep after I went potty, so I thought I would watch the sunrise! But it's all cloudy-so I'm doing my crossword, and I had a yogurt and banana-all by myself!"

Last Saturday I had to work, so Chris took the girls with to 400 mass. He played and they sat alone, in our regular pew, not too far away. When I asked last week how it went, he said they had been fine. And the girls reported the same.
So I shouldn't have been surprised yesterday, when I went to mass with them, and I had 4 different people stop me to report how well behaved they had been last week without me! It was certainly a moment of parental pride!
And also a major milestone-I've avoided weekend shifts because of church since Chris started playing-now they are old enough to behave! They can be trusted!

I do love these girls!



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HOME!

We are home. Phew!

We left columbus by 830, making our first stop by 930 at the National Air Force museum near Dayton. I was hesitant about this one, especially since I just wanted to get home. But it was, once again, more interesting than expected. And we could have spent a LOT more time there. We saw all sorts of planes, and even got to fly a space shuttle simulator and tour a space shuttle and sit in a few cockpits of planes.

Back on the road we just tried to get home! We stopped for lunch near Indianapolis but otherwise we just drove and drove and drove. We got home about 6pm. At the end of our trip, we had traveled 2600 miles, over 12 days, and 58 hours. We were in 9 states and 7 hotels.

We cheered as we drove into Wisconsin, in fact we had been clapping every time we saw a Wisconsin sign as we drove. And it felt great to get home, pull into the driveway, and see our house.

We have laundry going, we have bags mostly unpacked. It will take a few days to get back into Our routines.

But putting the girls to bed tonight, they each said, in their own way, that they loved their trip, can't wait to do it again, and how much fun they had. I'd say it was totally worth it!


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Even the most wonderful of trips come to an end. And the drive home always seems longer than the drive there. That's how it felt today. Another great day overall, but a long day of driving that never seemed to end!

We stopped first in Williamsport Md to visit the C&O canals. It was actually more interesting that I expected, and the girls were happy to complete the activities required to be sworn in as junior rangers!

Then it was off to drive through the very northern edge of Maryland where we found Route 40. Route 40 took us up into Pennsylvania, and we later discovered that it was the first national highway/tollway/road. I learned this after Chris saw a sign on the side of the road for a national park and veered sharply into the parking lot! Another national park to explore! YES!
(No! Groaned the rest of us!)

This was Fort Necessity, And again, it ended up being far more interesting than expected. We learned about the French/Indians/George Washington battling for land, negotiating peace, and then the eventual building of a road through the mountains to connect distant land to the growing country of the United States. Or something like that.

Back on the road, Chris finished driving through all the mountains. We soaked up the amazing views. I took over driving just before West Virginia, and it promptly started to rain. Then Maggie announced an urgent need for the bathroom. We stopped, but not much after that, the rain became unsafe, and Maggie needed a bathroom again. It was nearly 5, so we stopped for dinner just inside of Ohio. We thought the rain would pass while we ate, and for the most part we were right.

After dinner at Panera, we got back onto the highway where traffic was at a standstill. We inched a long for about 15-20 minutes unable to see what the problem was. But then we came upon 2 accidents, it seemed both involved a spin out, most likely due to the heavy rain. I was very glad we had stopped when we did.

We pushed on and made it to Columbus before 8. So tonight we spend our last night away from home, in a fairfield inn off of I-70. Hopefully our travel tomorrow will be smooth and we will sleep in our own beds tomorrow night!







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Today was a long day of driving. But we did see some interesting things along the way. We left our hotel about 830 and went across the Chesapeake Bay via the bridge/tunnel. That was equal parts cool and terrifying. Something about being so far under the ocean, in a tunnel........it made me nervous.

Then it was a long slow trip North to Baltimore. No interstates in that area, just slow country roads. We did stop at a NASA launch site on Walllops Island. But that wasn't quite as exciting as we had thought it might be. It did provide a bathroom stop!

We stopped for lunch in Cambridge and no had a technology moment! Our iPhone gps directed us to an Arby's restaurant.......except it was actually an alley that led to private property! We trespassed only long enough to turn around and eventually found the Arby's not too far away......

Continuing on to Baltimore to our planned stop at Fort mcHenry. Did you know that it is the 200th anniversary of the Star-Spangled Banner? And that it was written at Fort McHenry? Indeed! This was actually a more interesting spot than I expected. And we even got to see a cruise ship in Baltimore harbor, and some tug boats moving barges. For only the second time in our trip it tried to rain on us, but just a light drizzle for a few minutes, nothing that stopped us!

So, we left Baltimore about 5pm and drove over to Frederick, md. This was a strategic decision on my part to be just that much farther when we leave tomorrow, and it also was cheaper to get a room out this way. As I checked in to our hotel, I realized that my drivers license is missing. I know I had it yesterday when we had to go through security on the military base.......perhaps it fell out of the car? They let me check in anyway and I've ordered a new one online, so I'm legal to drive.

We will get halfway home tomorrow........and home for good on Sunday. We hope!



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Another day at the beach! Aft stopping at IHOP for breakfast, We went out to First Landing State Park today. It is on the bay side, so the water was more calm. So calm in fact, that we were surprised by dolphins! They were not more than maybe 100 yards from us....and then they came back! Very cool for sure!

We then went to find the lighthouses we had heard of. What we didn't realize was that they are on an active military base. We had to get special clearance, had to show ID and vehicle registration, the whole nine yards! And then, Abby was too short to climb to the top and it was going to be more expensive than we thought, so we just looked from the outside! But we also got to see Cape Henry, the site of the first landing in 1607, so that was our history for the day!

We stopped near the boardwalk then, looking for souvenir shops. We did a minimum amount of shopping before continuing on to our big meal of the day at Sandbridge Beach. One last meal overlooking the ocean!

Back to the hotel for a brief dip in the pool before getting cleaned up and taking a walking tour of our hotel.

Back in the room we re-packed for our journey home. We have a couple more days of travel ahead of us. This has been a fantastic trip, but it will feel good to be home again!


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BEACH!
Today we went to the beach. First stop was the Waffle House for breakfast. This is the first hotel that has not offered a continental breakfast, and it's funny how used to that we are!
W parks in a public lot about 2 blocks from the beach and walked over. We quickly found a rental spot and secured a prime spot with a nice umbrella. For another $30 we could have had lounge chairs, but we didn't need that.



The girls were thrilled to get into the water, but I think we were all surprised by the FORCE of the waves. We didn't even have big waves, but as strong as they are coming on shore, they pull you back into the water, too! Abby didn't want to be all the way in the water, she was happy to jump along the shore. Maggie and Katherine would still be jumping in the waves if we would let them.

We also enjoyed the sand. Bridget and Mary Frances had given the girls some sand toys and they were put to good use! They made castles, they tried to Make a sand couch, they buried each other......we could have stayed all day. But, by about 2 we were ready to head back to the hotel. Oh, and we also had Dairy Queen blizzards for lunch! Hey, I had a coupon!



We came back and got cleaned up, Chris took our laundry to a laundromat and then came back and picked us up. We all went to back and waited for everything to dry before going to dinner.

We found a neighborhood Italian place for dinner. So authentic that they were even watching TV in Italian. We were the only customers at first, so it was private dining! It was delicious! Chris declared it to be the best meal of the trip in his opinion.

We came back to our hotel and put on our suits for the pool. The girls have been waiting for the pool since we got here-you can see it from our room! It was actually chilly......one of those times where you were ok if you were IN the water, but once you got out it was COLD!






And now here we are, in bed and ready to crash at 9pm! Tomorrow we have plans for more beach time, more pool time, and soaking up Virginia Beach before we start our journey home on Friday.
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(Problems once again with uploading.....might have to load pictures later)

It's late and we are exhausted, but we had yet another fantastic day!
We left Richmond and headed toward the beach. We stopped at Jamestown. Although at least one of us (me) is feeling history overload, it was interesting to all. And it was a perfect day-warm but not hot, with a great breeze!

Standing on Jamestown history.
We continued on, arriving at our hotel by 3pm. It is a gorgeous hotel and more spacious than we expected. We quickly unpacked and went in search of the ocean.

Found it!


We had lunch/dinner, actually our only full meal of the day, at a boardwalk restaurant. Sitting outside, breeze off the ocean, people all around.......it was great!

After dinner we were off to our real destination-a sunset pirate cruise on the ocean. Abs and Katherine were truly excited bat this event, Maggie tried to act too cool, thinking she might not enjoy it. But it didn't take long for her to get over that pre-teen attitude and fully enjoy the experience. It was a calm night on the sea, which meant we didn't get sea-sick and were able to watch many dolphins swimming around the boat! There was music & dancing, pirate antics, grog for adults (beer) and treasure for the kids! They fought Black Beard (with water cannons) and saved the ship.


All in all, a fantastic day!

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Today was a marathon day of touring Richmond!

We started with the Science Center. (Turns out that the Washington Redskins have their training camp in the same area, so traffic was increased.) We had no problem parking and our reciprocal membership once again got us free admission!

We probably could have stayed here all day. There were many cool exhibits. The favorite was probably watching trained rats play basketball. But there were also many interactive exhibits about music, the human body, physics, so much to see!





We left after 2 hours though because we had more to do and see! Next stop was Maymont which is a beautiful garden park. It's impossible to describe, especially since we only saw a small corner of the property. This was another place we could have spent all day!


Then it was off to the Capitol. We actually parked near Bridget and Mary Frances' apartment. We walked toward the Capitol stopping for lunch at one of PJ's favorite restaurants, an Irish pub Sine'. The entertainment at lunch was that since we were eating outside we had a few birds who were trying to join us. Knowing my fear of birds, the kids had fun watching me react to the birds. Maggie went so far as to toss a tiny piece of food at the birds to lure them to us. Argh!!!!!

After lunch we continued on to the Capitol. We ended up watching a video while we waited for our tour. Then took a great tour, if perhaps a bit too long! Our guide was full of stories and she loved talking with our girls. Our 45-60 minute tour took 90 minutes!


After our long day, we got back to the hotel and enjoyed the pool. Then it was off to one last meal with BKG/MFC. We enjoyed Panera (not chicken strips or mac n cheese or hamburger!) We also enjoyed the added bonus of feeding ducks after dinner!

It was hard to say goodbye, but tomorrow we are off to the beach!



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Ahhhhh, day 5!

We woke up in Charlottesville today. Had a great continental breakfast (although what is with not offering peanut butter! Is it so crazy to want peanut butter sandwich or on a bagel?) then we were off to Monticello.





We had a great time here. It was damp and drizzly when we arrived, but that didn't slow us down. And, soon enough it was sunny and gorgeous-not hot!
We had tickets for a "family friendly" tour which turned out to be great. Our guide had a bag of props for the kids to hold and, though she was a little steam of consciousness, she was an engaging story teller, and the kids got a lot out of our tour. After the house tour, we explored their kid discovery area. We were all disappointed that because of the rain they weren't offering the "write with a real quill/ink set" experience, but we had fun anyway. Then we offered the girls the choice, garden tour or slavery tour-both Maggie and Katherine chose slavery.
Here we had a guide who is a masterful storyteller and really emphasized the importance of family and how that played into the lives of Thomas Jefferson and his slaves. Of course, my sensitive Katherine was saddened by hearing about slavery, but it was a great perspective. At this point we all needed lunch, so we did a quick self guided tour of the gardens, and walked back to the visitors center by way of the cemetery and then left the grounds. I could certainly spend more time there in the future!

From there we went into downtown Charlottesville and found lunch along the pedestrian mall. Then it was off to Richmond! We found our hotel to be the most spacious so far: clean, fresh and fabulous!

Bridget and Mary Frances had suggested that maybe we could leave the girls with them, and Chris and I could enjoy a night out. I was hesitant to dump my kids on them, but, in the end, I dumped not only my kids, but a load of laundry as well!



W enjoyed a peaceful dinner along the river, and the girls had fun with the Aunts-eating pizza, making s'mores, and traumatizing the cats! All in all, a most wonderful day!



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(Post delayed by spotty internet at our shady hotel)
(Also by too many pictures, leaving the captions to remind me to insert the pictures later!)


Friday, Day 3!!!
We said goodbye to Pittsburgh bright and early and set off on our journey. It was, yet again, a beautiful drive. More audio book and more scenic enjoyment. Best line of the day to Katherine, who piped up from the way back seat, during a quiet moment, "Um, flight attendant, I'm ready for a cookie!"
We stopped for lunch at a first for all of us-Roy Rogers! It was good!

From there it was off to Antietam. This was an interesting spot, especially given the wide age range of our group. Maggie was old enough to know about the civil war and understand some of the history of the battle. Katherine was old enough to understand (thanks to the intro movie) just how any people died. For my peace loving, hippie child, it was upsetting. Abby didn't really get any of it. We did our best to balance everyone's needs.

Girls up in the observation tower
Going back down the steps.......
Maggie and Katherine at Burnside Bridge. (Abby was nursing a sore knee)
All 3 with a historical sycamore that has been growing since before the war.


We eventually found our way to Front Royal, Va. Though our hotel is not quite what I was hoping for, it's walking distance to a good restaurant, so we enjoyed a yummy dinner. It also has an outdoor pool, which the girls very much enjoyed after dinner.
(Abby does the Pop Pop shocked face with our dinner bill)


The girls, post swimming, post bath, zoning out to some HGTV before bed.


Tomorrow we do Skyline Drive and then meet up with Bridget and Mary Frances! Can't wait!

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I seem to be having issues with uploading the blog. Yesterday's didn't load, but I blamed it on the questionable internet at the hotel. Today we have a better hotel, but still issues with loading, maybe because of too many pictures?

So we woke up today and got out of Front Royal Va ASAP. We entered the Shenandoah national park, Skyline Drive, at 0830. We didn't leave until after 2. When the drive is 100 miles, the speed limit is 25-35 the whole way, and around every corner is yet another stunning view.....well, it takes awhile! We attempted one hike, but were realistic enough to know it was not wise to continue downhill when we had to climb back up hill that same distance. We are flat landers after all!
The girls were impressed, they loved the mountains. It was a great day.






But then it got better! We met Bridget and Mary Frances at a brewery for lunch-al fresco dining surrounded by mountains? Yes please! Then we went to 2 "grape farms" (vineyards) and enjoyed some sampling and some picnic (thanks Bridge!) with music and even more stunning views? Amazing!

Eventually we made it to the hotel outside of Charlottesville. Clean, updated, smoke and pet free, helpful staff, clean, cold, clean, did I mention how clean it is? We are all ready for a good night of sleep before Monticello tomorrow!

If this works without pictures,we might have to go picture free for this blog until I'm home. We shall see!


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On the road again........
We left Franklin yesterday morning (7/23) only 15 minutes behind our planned 0500 departure. That was our first success of the day.


The travel went smoothly until an hour into the trip when Abby announced an urgent bathroom need. So we stopped at Edens Plaza for you Chicago types. We made it through the city and didn't have any other trouble until northwest Indiana when Abby announced a different emergency. This time we handed her a bag and she had about 85% success containing her emergency. Off the road, back on the road, and not long after Katherine had a similar emergency with 100% success in containment......however that left us only one more plastic bag!
Luckily once we got out of Indiana everyone felt better and the rest of the trip was smooth sailing! We listened to music, listened to an audio book, ate lunch at a small diner......no more reading in the car though! Our car hit 10,000 miles in Ohio.


And 9 hours and 38 minutes of driving time later, we were in monroeville! Woo hoo!



We met joe, Brenda, and the babies for dinner and had a great time. The babies slept through our meal, giving us plenty of time to talk with Joe and Brenda.....perhaps too much, Abby sat with Joe and might have told him more than he ever wanted to know.......about everything! They stopped by our hotel briefly so everyone could have a chance to hold the babies, who then decided that they wanted to eat too, so they went home to eat and we went to bed. Phew! We all slept like rocks and it felt so good!

We woke up this morning and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. We left about 915 to head into downtown Pittsburgh.


First stop was the Carnegie Science Center, which gave us free admission with our Milwaukee museum membership! Score! We explored a submarine, played with robots, climbed a rock wall, and much more!








Then we took a subway ride into downtown. We strolled around, visiting a farmers market for a lunch of pineapple Popsicle and cookies, and found our way to Point Park at the joining of the 3 rivers. Here Chris had a surprise in store. Today is our 15th wedding anniversary, and we had agreed, no gifts.
But he brought 2 balloons and 3 jars of bubbles. He and the girls blew up the balloons and then the girls blew bubbles. (If you were at our wedding you might remember that our first dance was to 'tiny Bubbles'.) It was incredibly sweet!


We then got back on the train to go to the Incline! We could have ridden all the way there, but in true Geraghty fashion, we got off and had a'forced march' across a bridge to our final destination.
The girls weren't thrilled with the idea of more walking, but the views were incredible and it was a Perfect, gorgeous day! We had a few minutes to kill before we met Joe and Brenda, so we stopped for milkshakes for more lunch!


We rode the incline up the hill and took in amazing views of Pittsburgh.






The babies were not so impressed. But we certainly were! Pittsburgh is a beautiful city!


After the incline we rode the subway back to our car at the science center and drove back to the hotel. A quick rest stop before grabbing some pizzas and meeting Joe and Brenda at a local park for a picnic and play time. They even brought wine, transported in breast milk containers, to celebrate our anniversary! A fun time was had by all and there may have been tears from more than one in our party (cough, me, cough) having to say goodbye! We are so happy they let us crash their Pittsburgh party and joined us in being touristy. And we are even more glad that they are in the states for a few years so our visits can be more frequent!

Back at the hotel we did a load of laundry (remember Abby's success rate yesterday) and baths and reading and now it's off to bed. We leave early tomorrow to head to Front Royal, Va.......by way of Antietam.



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This is a long post, but it allows for some parental pride. And someday it will prove to my girls that I did watch their gymnastics performances!

This week was "Expo Week" at gymnastics. After a full school year of practicing, we could see what they learned. Monday was Abby's night. Abby's been going once a week and this was her first time in class. Skills wise, she learned about what we expected. Watching her class, I was actually most impressed with her overall behavior and attention span. I'm not sure what was going on with the other kids, but of the 6, she was the most focussed and attentive - and that is NOT usually the case!

(Video of Abby not loading.....)

"My FIRST Trophy!" She was thrilled

walking on the beam

Tonight it was Katherine's turn. Katherine has been doing gymnastics at this gym since she was younger than Abby. This fall she was invited to try out for their team, and while she didn't quite make the cut for team, she was moved to the "Training Squad" --a smaller group of girls coached twice a week to prepare for team this coming fall.  Katherine loves gymnastics. She truly can NOT walk through our family room, she has to cartwheel. And there have been times when I have had to threaten consequences if she cartwheels,"just one more time!" She has LOVED going twice a week and working in a team setting with one coach and the same group of girls. And her skills have improved!

Here are the videos from tonight. You sometimes have to look past the strangers to find Katherine, as my view point was somewhat obscured, but you can see her pretty well in each video.

Katherine on the Bars: http://youtu.be/N4XaJUW_FfY

(Look past the other kid on the beam for Katherine on the bar to the right)

Katherine on Floor: http://youtu.be/SyaNOaQVlws

Katherine on Vault: http://youtu.be/Yo6THzozNlQ

(You might need to watch twice, she runs across from left to right and does a flip onto a mat)

Katherine on Beam: http://youtu.be/BF106Or1z1A

I was afraid she might not have the skills that her teammates did, as she joined this group halfway through the year, but honestly they are all pretty equal overall. I think Katherine was the only one who didn't fall off the beam! Most importantly - she was happy.

Ready to go!

Warm up

Warm up

Side by Side with her BFF Ashley - she's the one you can't see as well

On the bar - her favorite!

Coach Jill complimenting her form

With her trophy

Training Squad 2014

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People ask me all the time these days, "What will you do next year when they're all in school?" I have a variety of responses: work more/different hours, volunteer at school even more than I already do, celebrate, cry. But honestly, I'm sure that there will be days when I'm lonely!

Abby and I spent 2 hours doing errands today and she was cracking me up the entire time. Who will make me laugh next year?
We started at Barnes and Noble to pick up a birthday gift. But we can't get out of the store without a stop in the Children's area on the STAGE! Today Abby was thrilled to find cardboard cutouts of her favorite Frozen characters. I asked if she wanted to sing with Anna and Elsa, but she announced, "No Mom, today I feel like 'dahn-cing'" and she proceeded to do a rather interesting contemporary/interpretive dance routine.

 Next it was off to Bed Bath & Beyond. She was frustrated that we had to stop here, so I told her we would be getting a list to shop from (a registry) and it could be a treasure hunt. She was quick to correct me that if we were given a list of items we had to find, it was more of a scavenger hunt. She added that we would be going through spooky woods to find our items.  I'm sure the people thought we were beyond strange as she narrated our journey through the store. But it kept her entertained while we found our gifts.

 Our last stop was the grocery store. As we pulled into our parking spot, the radio changed and she squealed - "Don't turn it off!" I humored her for a minute while I listened and discovered it was John Legend, "All of Me." Before I could point out what I heard, she said, "Hey, it's the same song, but it's different! This has a beat, it's MUCH better for dancing!" Sure enough, this was a radio dance re-mix version of the song.   She took off her seatbelt and busted a move!

Once we finished her dance party, we went into the store to get a few items. As I was looking at frozen juice concentrate, she looked to the end of the aisle and shouted with excitement, "Hey Look Mom - It's BEER OF THE MONTH!" and took off skipping to the liquor area.  Thanks to endless Dora episodes regarding crowns, she correctly pronounced 'Corona' and I swear the 2 gentlemen who had witnessed this whole exchange needed a 'clean up in Aisle 18' because they were laughing so hard. The one man pulled himself together just enough to smile and say, "Enjoy this time, she's precious. My baby just graduated High School yesterday, time flies!"

We came home from our errands, had a nice lunch and then she read me "Put Me In The Zoo" before her nap.  As she was all snuggled and I was leaving, I asked if I could take her picture. "Why Mom?"
"Because, someday you won't be this little, and I always want to remember this sweet little Abby."
"Oh Mom, I'll always be sweet, I just won't always be little!"