Grown-ups Weekend!- Mama.

This weekend, Brandon and I were lucky enough to head down to Oxford, Ohio, home of our alma mater- Miami University. We had rented a cabin with 4 of our college friends, collectively known as the "601 guys" in reference to the apartment they lived in while we were all in school.

Luckier yet, we got to leave Henry and June behind with Grams and PawPaw in Marion. And luckiest- Aunt Jenni called on Saturday demanding that we let her take Georgie for the weekend so we could really enjoy ourselves! Now with a first kid, we might have been reluctant, but Georgie is our third, so we packed her up and sent her off to get some attention from her wonderful aunt and uncles and adoring cousins. We really, really, really appreciate everyone giving us the weekend off. We haven't slept this great in months and appreciate everyone sacrificing their sleep. As Aunt Jenni said, it's a good thing Georgie is so cute and happy during the day, because it takes a lot to make up for how poorly she sleeps at night.

Back in Oxford, we had a great time revisiting our old town and eating out at all of our favorite restaurants. I may have mentioned it before, but our group probably weight a collective 100 pounds more when we were in school. I sure miss those days. On Sunday, I went for a run around campus (something that NEVER happened when I was in school) and visited some of my favorite places. This is Phillips Hall, which houses WMUB- the NPR station I worked at while I was in grad school.

This is Shriver Center- probably the building most central to my entire college experience. It's the student center and the building I met Brandon in when I was working in the deli and caught his fancy while he waited in line for a spicy chicken sandwich.

I was also a manager for the catering service that was centered out of Shriver and we eventually held out wedding reception in this building.

I was devastated to find out that Miami intends on building a new student center and tearing down Shriver. It really broke my heart. The good news is that since they plan on getting rid of it, they haven't done any updating and the interior is exactly as it was when we left Oxford 7 years ago.

So much has changed since we left. It was actually very shocking to see all of the changes that have been made. Still the same is our old dorm- Thompson Hall- out on the fringes of Western College.

This is Kumler Chapel- where Brandon and I got married almost 8 years ago. Luckily, it hasn't changed much in the 92 years since it was built and I think they'll keep it that way.

Last, and certainly least is the grubby little house that for 6 years housed at least one Turner and Griswold and many of their friends. (Uncle Adam and Mike lived there and turned it over to Brandon and Jeff when they graduated.) If there's one building in Oxford that deserves to be knocked down- it's probably this one. But even so, I was glad to see it again.

It was a very nostalgic weekend in Oxford, as I haven't been back in almost 5 years. And for the first time since leaving, I did feel nostalgia and dare I say, even a little pride in my old alma mater.

And it was a great pleasure getting to see these guys again. Same time next year?

Up to Maryland- Georgiana.

After Ice!, we braved the traffic from Arlington, Virginia to Rockville, Maryland to go spend the night at Miss Leah's house.

We had a fun time playing with Olivia's toys. I liked this dolly and lucky me- Miss Leah got me one just like it for Christmas! Thank you, Miss Leah!

Olivia is truly remarkable. She's only 5 weeks older than me, but she's rolling everywhere and even pulling up on her hands and knees and trying to crawl! Watch out Miss Leah and Mister Josh! (I did roll over a few times last week, but haven't done it since.)

Before bed, we had a quick modeling session to show off the matching hats that Miss Colleen's mom- Miss Norma- knit us. That's pretty adorable.

I'm trying my best to catch up to Olivia. I can't wait until we're both old enough to walk and things really get crazy!

Of course, June didn't want to play with any toys, but she did find the wooden balls Miss Leah's dad made and spent the rest of the evening carrying around her "ornaments." Henry spent his night coloring pictures for Miss Leah with the new markers she gave him. June also got to take a bath with little Olivia. When she saw Olivia in the bathtub, she ran in and stripped down. She did a good job and only got Olivia in the face with water once.

And Olivia did a good job of handling all of the love from the big kids. Once, June hit Olivia in the head with something and poor Olivia cried. Mama was so embarrassed and swore June never did anything like that to me. Then she started thinking and came to the conclusion that June probably does do stuff like that to me, but I've just gotten used to it. Be glad you're an only child, Livy.

We all lined up for a big group shot. We don't know what it is about Miss Leah's house, but I slept amazingly! I only got up once. That's a record for me. Despite being a good sleep when I was younger, I'm now an awful sleeper- waking up many, many times a night. Mama and aunt Jenni think it might be time to Ferberize me. (Cry it out so I can learn to fall asleep on my own.) the problem now is finding a house over Christmas break that doesn't have a grandma that will come snatch me up from my mean mom.

On Thursday morning, papa headed back into the city for a conference and mama undertook the monumental task of driving us back to Marion, Ohio by herself. And to make things exciting, we hit a snow storm when we were driving across the mountains in Maryland. But we buckled down and kept going. We only stopped once on the whole trip and that was after 6 hours. We all ate a quick lunch and jumped back in the van for the last 3 hour leg. We were all great in the car. And we never even put on a movie. I slept most of the way and Henry and June read books. Mama was so proud that she declared everyone was getting dessert before supper as soon as we got to Grams' house! I wish I could eat cake too...

Ice!- Henry.

On Wednesday, we decided not to venture back down to the Capitol, because it was still as cold and windy. So instead we went to the Gaylord National Resort to see the Ice! Exhibit.

They put up a huge tent, cool it to 9 degrees and fill it with over 2 million pounds of ice sculptures. This year's theme was "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." We bundled up and even got these cool puffy coats to wear. (You know it's miserable outside when spending your morning in a 9 degree tent is the better alternative.)

The exhibit was incredible! It was seriously amazing. I didn't believe it was ice and mama had to keep telling me know to touch it.

Miss Leah and baby Olivia came to see it with us.

Despite June's grumpy face, we think she liked it. She told everyone about the Grinch for days after.

There was a room full of ice slides. Everyone that didn't have a baby strapped to their chests took their turns. Mama and Miss Leah really wanted to go, but those girls were bundled up tight and they decided not to disturb them.

As it turns out, big blue puffy coats slide well down a slide, but corduroy does not. Mama should have come helped me instead of laughing while she took this video.

Our favorite room was the Who Feast where "he- the Grunch himself, carved the Who roast beast."

As Grams says, this was worth the price of admission.

As soon as we got out, I wanted to walk through again!

Mama couldn't wait for baby Olivia to wake up so mama could give her a squeeze. She's 5 weeks older than Georgie and about 3 pounds heavier. And most of that is in those cheeks!

While Livy slept, Georgie was ready to give out smiles.

We got a super surprise when lovely Miss Maggie took off work early to go see Ice with us. we were so happy to see her, if only for a short time!

After Ice, we went back to the hotel to take a look around. We could have spent the afternoon at the hotel alone! The rooms all surround an atrium that is next to a 20 story glass window overlooking the harbor. There was a 60 foot glass Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling and this great fountain that was programmed to Christmas music. And if you look behind the fountain, there's a train for kids to ride, but it wasn't running during the day.

June loved the fountain and spent all of her time looking at it. I liked riding the glass-sided elevators all the way to the top floor and looking down at everything. That made mama nervous, but we still got to ride up and down 4 times.

We had to keep telling June to stop putting her fingers in the water, and she was soaked by the time we left.

Air and Space Museum- Henry.

After the Botanical Garden, we braved the elements again to head over to the Air and Space Museum. HOW HAVE WE NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE?

It was so cool! We got to see all of the space things that we read about in my books at home. I even got to touch a rock from the moon! We don't have many pictures because June found a 747 she could walk into and spent a good 40 minutes inside of it while Papa, Georgie and I visited the rest of the museum.

We saw an entire room of WWII fighter planes. I'm just now starting to understand about guns and noticed there were guns on the planes. So I asked mama why planes would want to fight each other. She said they were at war because in this case, Germany tried to take away land and homes that belonged to other people, so Britain had to fight back. (A small part of it, we know, but mama hopes it's enough for now.)

Mama made us go back to the lunar landing modules 3 times. This was definitely her favorite part.

Just think- 51 years ago, we managed to get to the moon and back using computers that were bigger than our house and had less power than our laptop and landed there in a module that looks like something a bunch of 7th graders glued together! Incredible. It just makes us sad at what we could be capable of today if the space program had any money at all.

Mama made a bad mistake of suggesting that I be allowed to buy a souvenir in the gift shop with my birthday money. Bad idea. My limit was ten dollars, which excludes most things at the Smithsonian. So I found the biggest thing I could find for under $10- a really flimsy plastic space shuttle. Mama and papa went back and forth over whether they should let me buy it. (the thing would honestly be broken in less than a week.) Luckily, we found a small pull-back plane with working propellers that was much nicer and even cost less. Mama really wants to teach me about saving and spending money and buying nice things and not just garbage, but she admits I might be a little too young.

We had some time left before the museums closed, so we walked across the mall to the Natural History Museum. On the way, we walked through the sculpture garden and found a skating rink! I watched for a good long time, but declared I would "never, ever want to go ice skating."

I don't think June wants to go either.

What a bunch of tree huggers.

We always love to go to the Natural History Museum to visit the dinosaurs. Unfortunately for Junie, the only thing she saw was the back of her eyelids.

While both girls slept, mama and I had our third life lesson of the day. It seemed like the only exhibits I was interested in were the ones about death. I found one where prehistoric humans were burying a human that had died and had a million questions about that. "Why is he in a hole?" "Why isn't he wearing any clothes?" "Why is he all tied up?"

But I really became interested when we walked through an exhibit on Africa and found a coffin shaped like an airplane. My main concern was why someone would want to bury something that looked so cool. Would it fly the body away somewhere? If they bury it, would it come back up when it rained? Mama did her best to answer my questions.

Mama was impressed by this carol reef made entirely of YARN!

Aunt Jenni, do you think you could make me one of these?

We got back to the Metro at rush hour, but finally made it back to our stop. It was past 6 pm by then and the temperatures had really dropped. We had to walk 6 blocks uphill and into the wind. There was much crying, but mama assured us we'd live and made us keep going. And to reward our long cold day, we had pizza and watched the Grinch when we got back home.

National Botanical Gardens- Henry.

Welcome back bloggers! It's been a big week for the Turners. Last Sunday we decided to pack up the swagger wagon and head up to Washington DC. After we stopped in Charlotte to see the Wagners, we headed to Winston to see the Paytons. Of course it was loud and crazy, so we didn't get any pictures. I thought it was hysterical that we were seeing two Mister Andy's and two Becky's in one day! Thanks for having us, Paytons!

On Monday, we made it to DC. First on our list was to stop and see our good friend from Madison, Miss Sara. She was ever so gracious to let us use her awesome downtown apartment as base for our trip. Before she headed out of town, she go to spend the evening catching up with the kids.

Here's Junnie mere seconds before her diaper overflowed and she had to be changed at the hip Poets and Busboys restaurant we ate at.

I posed for all of Miss Sara's pictures and made friends with all the people around our couches (how hip is that?).

Why didn't anyone order Georgie a panini?

Tuesday morning, we braved the cold weather (20 degrees) and the bitter wind (25 mph) to catch the train down to the National Mall. First stop was the US Botanic Garden. We went straight into the tropical dome to warm up. June had an especially hard trip and cried in mama's arms for 10 minutes before she started having fun.

For as much as June cried on the walk there, June was in a great mood inside the gardens. She spent 10 minutes running around this room alone.

We've never been to the gardens and went because they were supposed to have a great Christmas set-up.

They invited in artists to recreate DC buildings entirely out of plant materials.

It was pretty amazing.

Georgie was mildly impressed.

They also had famous buildings from around the world and a bunch of trains!

I took about 200 pictures of the trains and houses with the little camera, but we won't subject you to them all.

Here's a bigger look at the room. It was nice because it was pretty small and closed off. Mama and Papa took posts at either end and we got to run around on our own looking at the trains.

I took this video. I have about 30 more videos of all of the trains running. It was great!