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First Thanksgiving in Virginia

Dave's sister Melanie and her family moved about the same time we did. Our Florida-to-Virginia move wasn't nearly as much of a climate shocker as theirs: Arizona to Connecticut. Melanie's husband is an optometrist with the Navy, and they drove all the way down to see us for Thanksgiving.

Melanie and Sam are dedicated runners, so Dave signed them all up for the local Thanksgiving 5k along the James River. Sam came in first in his division, (there were several hundred runners) and may have come in first overall if the course had been more clearly marked.

While they ran, I watched the 5 kids, and we played by the riverside history mural.

Stackable cousins! Collect them all! Samuel (left), Nate, and Jane held up Andy and Jessica.

In the picture below, we're outside the children's museum with James River fountain in the background. All the kids took turns climbing down the metal caterpillar and getting "pooped" out; Jessica was the last one, shown here.

Hiking picturesque stairs in the historic section of Lynchburg on our way back to our car:

Later we played and worked on Thanksgiving dinner. I ordered a card table the exact width and height of our kitchen table, and a new long tablecloth. The dinner looked great with all white dishes. (It was a perfect warm day, and if we'd thought of it sooner, we probably could've set up the table outside.)

Melanie and Sam made sweet potato souffle, a fruit salad, whole wheat rolls, and stuffing. Dave brined and cooked the turkey and made the mashed potatoes. And I made creamy beans and peas, Indian succotash (my new favorite), and mashed trio (turnip, rutabaga, and potatoes). 


It's ironic that Samuel, forks held the highest, was the pickiest eater, but Jessica was a close second. There was only one food everyone loved: turkey!

 Happy Thanksgiving!

 After the feast we took naps, did some Wii dancing, and went on walks,

and of course, ate pie. Melanie and Sam brought pumpkin and pecan (my favorite). Dave and I made apple, cherry, and grasshopper (chocolate mint) pie. I experimented with several variations of pumpkin: maple pumpkin with walnut streusel, pumpkin with gingersnap crust, and apple butter-pumpkin with pecan streusel. (Honestly, I think normal pumpkin pie is still best, but it was fun to try, and I had to use up that apple butter.)

The next day we slept in, then did some black Friday shopping. I got discounts on Candy Land, our new Kitchen Aid mixer, outdoor lighted Christmas trees, and this:

Friday we also visited the Thomas Jefferson summer home: Poplar Forest, which is in the heart of Lynchburg. Surprisingly, the home was lived in and owned by private citizens until the 1980's; they only began restoring it, adding museum buildings, replanting historical landscaping, and restoring the furnishings (burned in an earlier fire) in the last 2 decades.

The home is octagonal, and the grounds very symmetrical.

Below our niece and nephews, pretending they are impatiently waiting to use the "necessary": the fanciest outhouse I've ever seen.

Below, Jessica, age 21 months, stands next to her 4-yr old cousin Andy. That's our tall daughter!

At home, we set up Jessica's little Christmas tree with plastic ornaments in her room. (It took forever to get this shot; silly kids!)

Bubbles + shaving cream paint + fizzy bath colors +  cousins = FUN!

And Dave opened up his extensive Lego Technics collection to make this Lego car with his nephews with gear shifts, steering, shocks, and headlights. Pretty impressive.

While Melanie and Sam had to sleep on air mattresses, they at least had their own place in the office. And the cousins slept on couches and air mattresses in the front room. We never could have accommodated them in our old squishy place. They left first thing Sunday morning. Thanks for coming to visit, Jarvis family!

Oct and Nov 2011 Videos

Here are some cute videos of Jessica in October and November of 2011. This one shows why one of her nicknames is "Meat-asaurus".

This one shows her love of chapstick and new words like "minty".

One of the first things we did in Virginia was find the libraries. We started baby storytime, then check out 15-20 books a week, and read at least 3 before naps and 3 more before bed. And there are few things more adorable than a child pretending to read books.

On rainy days moms in Lynchburg head for Liberty University, who has an indoor playground. Afterwards, Jessica, our water baby, just wanted to stay outside in the rain.

We've learned children are experts as using stuff not the way it was intended.

Jessica loves clocks, but she thought this fast-armed "clock" in the produce section was the funniest thing ever.

And play dough has entertained Jessica for hours. At first she just drew in it, but by her 2nd birthday she understood how good it was for sculpting in 3D.

And I got her to sing a little "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", one of her current favorites, for the camera.

We Are Still Alive

Friends, Family, and Fans:

Even though I haven't posted anything here in 2 months, I fully plan to catch up sometime soon. I have to figure out how to download pictures from my new phone to my laptop, and tackle the long topic of our move.

In brief: we moved quickly, love our new home, are unpacking and discovering our new town, growing and learning, making new friends, enjoying fewer commitments, and starting the paperwork for the short sale of our home. We're hosting Dave's sister's family from Connecticut for Thanksgiving, and flying to Utah for Christmas weekend. Jessica is all our joy (her speech and love) and sorrow (I mean her temper and messes), and still the subject of most of our pictures.

Love you, and I'll post before Christmas. Please send me your physical address, as I'm hoping to send Christmas cards this year.