D.C.!

Today was quite the eventful and awesome day! I got to sleep in until 11am and then we walked to the Metro station, it was very hilly so my wheelchair was a bit of challenge, but we got there in one piece. I must say, riding the Metro in a wheelchair is both scary and awesome, I get to ride the elevator and get on and off first, but I obviously don't have a seat and have to be wedged in this weird little area near the door so I have to brace myself and hold onto the poll for dear life so I don't fall over. It's pretty fun once you get the hang of it, but the first few minutes are a bit stressful and the starts and stops try to make me topple over...

After the ride we were still a ways from the museum, so we did some walking and figured out that there's some sort of music or folk festival in town, so we got to jam to some nice live music and smell tasty food while on our walk. And, as soon as we were through that, we walked by a farmers market of some sorts, so that was neat. I haven't gone to a farmers market yet in my life, but from what I've heard and today seen, they look like neat places to go.

Then, things got a little interesting....
I always carry a knife on my person, I've done this for years so I don't really think about it anymore or notice when I have one. Usually this isn't a problem, most people don't really notice it, but in D.C. you're not really supposed to be armed... Fortunately, I remembered that I had one before I went through the detector so it wasn't found by a security guard or a cop. But, when I talked to the guard he said that he couldn't hold it for me or anything and would have to put it in my car or hotel room. So then we were faced with a little challenge, who would go back to put the knife away? My body wasn't up for another trip on the Metro, there are a lot of bumps and jostles, and they didn't want to leave me alone in the city, so eventually we decided GT would run back and put it away.

And with that, I'll let GT talk about the rest of our day

My Wheelchair Does Not Like Hills

Today I discovered that my wheelchair picks up speed and becomes pretty much unstoppable when confronted with Virginian hills. I thought going down them would be fun at first, I like going down ramps and it just seemed like a bigger ramp that ran by some nifty looking old buildings and trees. Nothing wrong, nothing scary, just a fun ride. I'd been in the car all day, so I figured I had the strength for it and I was totally up for the challenge. Or so I thought. Once Cale started down that hill there wasn't a lot of controlling him or stopping him, only going faster and head first into traffic. I slammed down my breaks, but they didn't do anything, so I grabbed my wheels and only got friction burned hands/right forearm for my efforts. Fortunately, mom realized something was wrong and G.T. answered my cry for help and caught me before I rolled into the street to be hit by a car.
Aside from my hands and forearm, I'm fine and I have some spray and bandages that makes them feel better, so no need to worry or figure out which hospital to send flowers to or anything like that.

The hills vs wheelchair was the only real eventful thing of the day, our stereo came back to life (being without music was pretty dang lame), and we found a nice hotel near the Metro, so we should be able to head off to DC without much trouble tomorrow morning.

The plan for tomorrow is to go into D.C. As of yet we haven't decided exactly what we'll be doing, but I have a feeling we'll be going to the museums.

Road Trip! Thee Drive to Lexington, VI

So we started off the morning with breakfast and packing up the suburban and saying bye to mom. I drove between O'boro and Louisville, which was pretty much uneventful except for I get mad at people who get in the left lane to go the speed limit...
Once on the outskirts of Louisvile we stopped for lunch and Twinny got scarred for life by a man whose pants were low enough for her to see his tighty-whiteys which then bunched into a tong. I didn't see, but her reaction was hilarious!!! once out of subway MIAS took over the driving and it was again uneventful till we stopped in Georgetown, KY for gas. Those people are INSANE and set up their town very funkily. Many funny quotes cropped up from that area.
After that we drove some more through the remainder of KY and into West Virginia, which is very hilly. Yes I know technically those hills were mountains, but not to us Coloradan's. (Hey, I'm a native!) West Viriginia wasn't really anything exciting, sorry. Just a few funny quotes came from there. (Which I will post later! - as in when I remember to bring in the piece of paper I was using to write them on in from the car.) Virginia took a note from it's sister's book and was equally as boring.
Right now, we've checked into a hotel in Lexington, VI, had dinner, and are getting ready for bed. Tomorrow we plan to head around Lexington for a few to pick up some souvenirs for the older SIAS and then onto Washington D.C.

Signing off,
The Grumpy.Twinny.

A Day of Rest... and Packing

So while the original plan was to leave today, we kinda decided last night to sleep. plus I didn't have time to pack yesterday... But that's not the point!
So, I woke up before Twinny and had breakfast and coffee, sent off mom and Hil will the last of the Party chairs and then waited around. Once Twinny was dressed and some laundry folded we left for the great big town of O'boro and hit Target. Now unforuntely there was no bullets or robbery, we just got some stuff and then headed to Chik-Fil-A for lunch. We had the kids table (Twinny, Hil and me) and the parent table (MIAS and mom). Lunch was followed by Sam's Club and then Hil and I split from the herd and went to the bank. I now officially have a bank account!
After that we all met at home, and Twinny and I worked on our respective Thank you cards. Mine are all done! (yay!) After that I went to pack, Sissy got pissy/depressed then distracted by tinkerbells, and we had dinner. After dinner I continued packing and showered.
Now we are just hanging out and deciding on when to leave tomorrow for the Great Twinny Time Road Trip!!!

That's all folks.
P.S. I know its a great long post, sorry! ;)

Brunch and Fireworks

Since I slept in late today, my day was kicked off by brunch. If you're imaging a delightful little sit-down where you wash down your finger sandwich with a nice cup of tea, stop that train of thought now. This was a noisy big family breakfast with all the fixin's; pancakes, fresh eggs, potatoes, bacon, and sausage. Everyone except Jayne was at the table (he was sleeping in the living room), reaching over each other, stealing off each others plates, and trying to get the dogs to stop licking our knees. It was pretty great. :)

After that me, mom, G.T., her dad and his friend went to get fireworks and I must say it was very different than what I'm used to. It was an actual store, not a tent, with isles and isles of fireworks and we bought mostly ones that flew and exploded. I was pretty confused at first, thinking we were buying huge boxes of smoke bombs and sparklers since while I'd seen the boxes before I never asked what they were and just assumed they were some sort of bulk version of the type my family sets off...I'd always assumed that the big, non-official displays my neighbors did were stolen from the official shows for some reason, so when G.T. told me what they were I kind of panicked for a bit. Then I remembered that the firework laws were different here and decided to go with it.

Then there was a little bit of cleaning and organizing done by me before it was time for the party!

We all had a great time, dinner tasted good though Little E wasn't completely sold on the idea that broccoli was a good thing to eat. Ranch dressing good though, and she ate after some coaxing.

Once we were all finished with that and it was dark enough, the firework show started. It. Was. Awesome. They did a really good job with timing and everything so it was like a pro show except the only people around were friends and you could make requests. Little E loved to take advantage of the latter and enjoyed the show immensely, clapping and shouting that every shot was "so awesome!". I think everyone else enjoyed the show too, but Little E was the most vocal about it for sure. I think Baby C might've fallen asleep.
All in all, it was a good 4th of July celebration.

The plans for tomorrow are unclear, I know we're going to pack and mom and I will clean out the car, but we haven't decided if we'll hit the road or have another day of rest.

In other news, an entire week of this trip has been blogged! Hooray! :)

And The Twinny's Rested

This morning, G.T., mom and I kicked off the day by going to one of the churches G.T.'s been looking at. I can't really speak for the quality of the sermon, though, because I misjudged my timing on taking my sleep-aid so it was still in effect throughout church. The first thing I clearly remember from the event is going to the store for milk after, G.T. and mom said it was really good though, so I'll take their word on it.

After that everyone just rested. We ate left overs, watched tv, and the parents took naps. A storm rushed in, so that was pretty painful, but my Humira shot went well and wasn't too painful, so that was a very welcome change.

Tomorrow the time of rest ends and another party invades the house. We will wash clothes, clean out the car and pack in the morning/afternoon, before getting ready for and throwing the 4th of July party. Then, it's off to bed to get some good rest before heading to D.C. on the 5th.

Party Day

So my day started at 7:30am, when I got up cause I heard a noise and found that Jayne and Caboose were here! After that, everyone got up at various times and slowly got ourselves moving, knowing we had lots of time to set everything up since there wasn't too much to do.
Then something really cool happened! Gish, who was going to be unable to join us for the party, stopped by to give me my present. He went WAY above and beyond the call of being a non-biological brother. He gave me the Sigga 12 shotgun he had customized along with 4 loaded mags and one unloaded one.
BEST PRESENT EVER!!! BEST BROTHER FROM ANOTHER FAMILY EVER!
Needless to sat I bounced, hugged and informed him that it was FAR too much and hugged him again, and again. Gish if you are reading this YOU ARE AMAZING!
Then he had to go, unfortunately. Sis-H and my Grandpa H soon followed to go and pick up tables and chairs, then Mom and Grandma A left to pick up ice and stuff. so Jayne and Dad moved furinture and we cleaned a little more and set things up that we could. I showered and then got ready as well.
So here comes my little rant (Feel free to skip the next paragraph):
I put "Regrets Only" on my invitations to this Shindig and a phone number on ALL of them! (it was legible!) That means if you are unable to attend you call the host/hostess and Regretfully inform them that you will be unable to join them so that they don't buy food for you that'll just go to waste. It takes only a minute or two and is the decent thing to do. I invited 35 families. only 18 people showed up, roughly 8ish families. (to be fair, 5 families informed me they couldn't attend) So not only was this shindig TINY but I have a THOUSAND and 1 leftovers!!! It SUCKS! I did all that work for nothing!!!!!!!! THANK YOU, YOU USELESS PEOPLE!
So anyways, Dee comes over after a bit and we decorated the 48 cupcakes I made and hung out with the people. the hilarious part was that during the party I sat down between Newbie and K.T. and K.T. of course slung her legs over me, per usual, and I decided to use Newbie as a pillow, cause well I was tired. Everyone just stopped and stared at us! it was hilarious, cause Newbie started to feel uncomfortable and pointed out that people would probably take that the wrong way. Among my Tec-crew friends, laying on each other is normal, so I didn't even really think of that... (There isn't anything but friendship going on between us so it honestly didn't occur to me.) Anyways eventually I pulled away and the staring stopped.
So we prayed over the food and Dad got all chocked up and then we ate. I gotta see a old friend of mine for the first time in years which was awesome! and I broke a chair! then we did the presentation thingy, and slideshow I made and went back to socializing. slowly everyone left and then I got to Skype with the Ninja, Timmy, and Resa! that was awesome! I love you three! now I sit here, tired and ready for bed. So audios, amigos and horrible non-regrets-calling-people!

Thee End