I’m still here. Sort of. I guess. I mean, I’m definitely still alive and a mom of four kids and married to the same guy and living my life. But keeping track of all of it, sharing it on the internet, posting regularly to my sad little mommy blog hasn’t been at the top of my to-do list.

But I was looking for a memory the other day, pictures from the last time I took the kids to Washington DC, and so I googled my own blog. It’s very handy to have a decade of our lives documented in a searchable way, with tags and SEO headings and alt text and one million pictures. So here I go, let’s document some shit.

Quick life update: we’ve moved. We sold our 1913 craftsman home in Connecticut (it was heartbreaking, I hated it, I’m sad every single time I see a photo taken there) and moved to Northern Virginia so my husband could take a job in Washington DC. He’s still in the Navy. We’re renting a house in Herndon, which is part of Fairfax County. Fairfax County is where I lived from the age of 15 until about 20, when I stopped coming home from college and decided I was never going back. Surprise, I am now back.

I have so, so, so, many feelings about being here. We don’t live so close to my high school home that I drive past it every day, but we do live close enough that I use the same roads, often go to the same shopping centers, and see a lot of the friends I’ve kept in touch with for the last 20+ years. Sometimes I feel 17 again, driving with my windows down and singing along to the radio (the rock station I listened to as a teen has the same morning DJ, it feels like a time warp). Then I remember I’m on my way to Costco in my yoga pants to buy 7 lbs of chicken to feed my enormous family. I will not be sitting at home later, 3-way-calling a boy I like on my private line while one of my frenemies listens in and then tells me there is no way he’s going to ask me to Homecoming. I will be dropping off a PTA donation on the neighbor’s porch and sewing black spots onto white t-shirts so my children can participate in the town Homecoming parade dressed as dalmatians.

Besides a daily identity crisis, our new lives here are pretty great. Northern Virginia is a really nice place to live, especially as a military family. There are opportunities galore for free tickets, cool events and day trips.

On Monday, everyone was off of work and school, so we drove out to Great Family Farms in Bluemont where we did every fall thing in one day. Animals, mining for gems, bounce pillows, cow train, hayride, rope swings, ninja course, apple cannon, corn maze, cider donuts and more. Five stars, highly recommend.

(Evan is 12 now, Caroline is 10, Lincoln is 7 and Finn is 5)

Our beach vacation got canceled this year because of a hurricane. I was VERY angry about it, that vacation means a lot to us as a family and as a friend group (we go with two friends from high school and my college freshman roommate). We didn’t want to completely cancel our time off though, and since E hadn’t been to the lake house yet this year we hung out in Virginia. It was a little colder for my taste, but it was still fun. Our best Navy friends came to hang out from Virginia Beach so Caroline got to see her favorite person. We even did a grown-ups only day in NoVa with most of the friends I was supposed to see at the beach, so we don’t have to wait another year to see my BFFs. It’s hard to complain about a lake vacation, especially now that we’re home and I’m just looking back on the pictures.

Last year I heard about the Wicked Tulips farm over in Rhode Island, but never actually made it there to check it out. I just stalked local photographers and Instagram for pictures and then cursed myself for not finding time to go. But I also had a small baby and was counting down to our Disney trip, so my attention was elsewhere. Wicked Tulips just didn’t happen.

This year, I am in the middle of what feels like the longest underway in submarine history and desperate to find things that wear out my kids and keep us out of the house. But I also really really hate people, especially crowds of people, especially crowds of people all trying to look at the same flowers I am trying to look at. I knew the weekends would be super crowded at the tulip farm (they sell tickets and sold out weekends within hours of releasing them) and I wasn’t totally convinced I should let the kids skip school just to pick flowers. Luckily, Wicked Tulip offers early bird tickets on Tuesdays – from 7-10 am only people who bought the early bird tickets can come in and take pictures or pick. It was the perfect solution, especially since early morning light is better than 2 pm light when you’re in a field with zero shade.

The only downside to 7 am tulip fields is that it’s about an hour away, so I had to get my kids up at 5:30 to get there. I bribed them with both candy at the tulip farm and donuts on the way home, so it went pretty well. We made it back and I dropped the big kids off at school before the morning bell.

We had such a good time the first time, we went back and did it again the next week. I highly, highly recommend the early bird ticket if you’re going to visit in 2019, but even if you just go on a crowded weekend you should go. It’s so much fun.

Now the farm is closed for the season and I’ll have to wait a whole year to do it again. I did manage to take JUST A FEW pictures though.

The first morning we went to Wicked Tulips it was very sunny. The left side of the fields in the pick-your-own area had some shade from the trees at the very beginning, but the show garden was full sun the entire time.

The second morning it was overcast, with even, grey cloud cover. It was also slightly foggy, but in a way that old shows in the background. I actually like the way the light and colors look in the second set of pictures more, even if they do look like they were taken on a movie set instead of real life.

About 1/3 of my pictures have people photoshopped out of them, the rest was just really good angles, using long lenses, or timing my shots between people walking past. There were several dozen people there both times, I’m just good at keeping them out of my pictures.

I’m actually really proud of that one of Linc on the bench, I only edited out one person.

See all those people in the background? That’s way less than the sunny day. Most people have DSLR cameras and are there to take photos of the actual tulips, not kids. There were almost no kids there at 7 am.

General tips for the tulip farm:

1. Wear boots, even if it’s not raining. It’s a farm. Plus they’re super cute in pictures.
2. Bring cutters or clippers. It’s easy to pull the tulips out of the ground but you get really long stems that are hard to break. You can make pretty bouquets wrapped in paper at the wrapping station but you’ll want to trim them all to the same length.
3.  The tulips cost $1/stem. They take cards. Buy LOTS of tulips.
4. The temp at 7 am is 20 degrees cooler than the temp at 8 am. Layers are good.
5. Bring your DSLR if you have one and whatever your longest lens is. Shoot zoomed in (so if you have the 18-105mm that came with your camera, set it at 105) so you get the blurred background and can avoid people.
6. You should go. Really. Even if you hate people. It was still fun and the kids loved it too.

I actually couldn’t handle looking at vacation pictures yesterday when I was supposed to do this, because it was dreary and pouring rain and my house was a disaster and my children made me insane and basically it was too depressing to think that THIS is my life versus the beach. But today I am facing reality. At least until Friday. Then school is out and we can pretend life is all just vacation again.

Sunday:

Bubbles on the pool deck

He actually DOES like lunch, I swear

Bo ssam: aka the MOST delicious meal I eat all year

Monday:

As long as it’s not ACTUALLY raining, it’s a beach day

Tiny frog friend in the outdoor shower

Hand and foot, because we force everyone we know to play

Tuesday:

Vacation breakfast of champions

So much driving

That face is because this is NOT the beach house

Wednesday:

MORE DRIVING

A+ relaxing

Embracing lake life

Thursday:

Not bad

Super happy it’s almost summer

Tents for Linc’s upcoming party

Friday:

Cannot be trusted with my iced coffee

I think she’s tired of pictures

MORE CARDS BECAUSE ALWAYS

Saturday:

Visiting the cows

That was supposed to be MY beach lounger

Inescapable floaty is inescapable

Did I mention this is the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL? I’m feeling a little unprepared for summer (who is going to feed these kids all day?) but I’m so ready to not get up at 6:15 every morning. Plus summer is exhausting, so EVERYONE will do more sleeping. More sleeping is basically my only goal in life right now at 28 weeks pregnant.

Apologies in advance for the many, many baby goat visit posts this month, but this is literally the best part of the spring and I am not actually sorry. I took the kids even though E was out of town, which meant I was watching or wearing (mostly wearing) Linc the whole time and means this first set of photos is very average. ANY pictures are inadequate to describe how sweet these babies are though. They’ve had more than 100 kids born in the past week or so, with 200 more to go (almost all mama goats have twins or triplets so it’s hard to know exactly), so in a couple weeks when the older ones are more like teenagers is when the barn gets super crazy and you’re in danger of being literally smothered by frolicking baby goats. IT IS THE BEST.

I’m a little sorry I’ve told SO many people about Oak Leaf Dairy. It’s gotten very popular and a little crowded now. I wish they were open either longer or on some weekdays so I could get my visits in when I didn’t have to share so much.

Newborn goat in a box.

THIS IS THEIR TINIEST BABY AND HER NAME IS GINGER SNAP.

That is the face of a tween who just discovered the miracle of goat birth.

Brand new baby goat!

The baby goat barn is still sparsly populated enough that they’re keeping all the babies in the stalls

Last year he just stayed in a bundle on my back and watched. This year he wanted down for a little bit to say hi, but then asked to go back up where he could pet goats without any of them trying to sit on him.

Disclaimer: Caroline dressed herself.

There are a lot of great things about the goat farm, but one of the best is that after all the goat snuggling the kids can go outside and run like crazy people.

My children ate all of the cheese curds in the car on the way home. I didn’t get ANY. So it looks like we’ll see you again next weekend, Oak Leaf!