Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs Takes a Vacation

Mom and Dad visited us this last week. Below is the event log:

Thursday June 7th -
6PM -- Travis comes home to find Melanie has posted a list on the wall of all the projects he was supposed to have done since January (although some projects have probably been sitting for even longer). Travis has a foreboding sense of imminent doom.


Friday June 8th -
8AM - 6PM -- Travis and Melanie frantically clean up the house in preparation for the Hobbs visit. They will be hosting a fondue party that night, so this is the only time that they have.


Saturday June 9th -
8AM - 2PM -- Other last minute preparations, including cleaning both cars. We are at DeathCon 5 now.

2PM -- We pick up Grandma and Grandpa Hobbs at the airport. At Baltimore we have free parking for up to 30 minutes, we leave BWI with G & G in tow with exactly 30 minutes on our time-card. I love it when things turn out just right.

2:45PM - 10PM -- We go out to eat at Wegman's (a grocery store) due to its affordability, convenience, kid-friendly, yet good to eat atmosphere. I know it sounds weird to go out to eat at a grocery store, but all I can say is this isn't your typical grocery store. We go home and put the kids down and chat until we all get tired and go to bed.


Sunday June 10th
10AM - 2PM -- Church. Pretty uneventful.

4PM - 11PM -- Travis comes home after doing Finance Clerk things to find Dad working off some of the projects on Melanie's list. We fix the closet. We change out the doorknob in the guest bathroom, which apparently doesn't lock. This, I might add, was NOT on Melanie's list. As a joke, we changed the lock on the kid's room so that we can lock it from the outside. After dinner, I put the kids down and proceed downstairs where I find that we are now emptying kitchen cabinets so that we can paint. I protest. This is an "extra credit" item on Melanie's list. That means we don't have to do it, right? My arguments carry no weight.


Monday June 11th
8AM - 11PM -- We spend all day painting cabinets. Melanie has spray painted all the hardware on the cabinets silver. Mom has evolved from painting cabinets to painting baseboards and ceilings. Dad has taken apart the lazy susan, and doesn't seem to know how to put it back together again. Anyone can see that this "project" has gotten completely out of hand.


Tuesday June 12th
8AM - 11PM -- We put the food back into our newly painted cabinets. Dad and I figure out how to put the lazy susan back together again. At last the kitchen appears to be done. Then, a reversal of fortune. Dad and I decide to take out the stupid decorative shelf that the previous homeowner installed in favor of a more robust shelf that can hold our microwave. Once the shelf is in it needs to be painted, then it needs an electrical outlet so that the microwave power cords don't dangle, and the wall behind it also needs painting. We go to Home Depot about 30 times. In the meantime, Melanie and Mom decide to organize the food pantry.... which lead us to....


Wednesday June 13th
8AM - 11PM -- We decided to paint the pantry. Melanie is out buying a new microwave and other necessities. We paint the whole pantry including doors, shelves, and ceiling. I'm so tired of painting at this point. Then we pull out the dining room hutch so that we can finish painting the baseboards.

At about 5PM we are finished. Melanie goes to Young Women's (she's the 2nd counselor). Dad and I move to the guest bathroom to fix the toilet which has been leaking water from the tank. After taking the toilet off the floor to replace everything in the tank, we realize that the flush valve we bought doesn't match the one that is currently installed. Home Depot is closed now so we have to wait till tomorrow to go to the store. At 11PM, Melanie finally decides to come home from YW (ie - chewing the fat with her buddies in the Presidency). What a slacker!


Thursday June 14th
8AM - 1PM -- We fix the toilet and finish putting down some laminate tiles that I hadn't gotten around to finishing in the guest bathroom. We also put stuff away that was left out overnight from out kitchen pantry painting.

2PM - 11PM -- Finally most of the projects are done (and then some). We can finally have fun. We go to the outlook malls in Woodbridge and to IKEA. Then we get the best news of all, our babysitter has offered to watch the kids for free. We drop the kiddos off home and then cruise to Chevy's to eat, and Cheesecake Factory for dessert.


Friday June 15th
11AM - 11PM -- We go out to the city. Our first stop, the Natural History Museum, where the kids enjoy seeing the dinosaurs and Mom and Dad liked the Hope Diamond. Then we go to the Air and Space Museum. I let Grant and Blake walk around until I notice them sneaking into some of the exhibits. Grant is furious, he wants to go inside all the spaceships and airplanes.

We stop for some ice-cream which settles the kids down before seeing the American Indian museum. We liked seeing some of the indian clothing and the activity rooms for the kids were great.

We then high-tail it over to the Printing and Engraving Offices for our designated tour. This is where they print all the paper money for the east coast. We had to wake Blake up to get past security because he had just fallen asleep in his stroller. Everyone goes through security and I'm the last one through. I'm assuming at this point that Blake is with everyone else, but I look back behind me to my surprise and what should I see.... Blake helping himself to a drink from the security guard's fountain drink. "BLAKE!", I yell out. The security guard just laughs. The rest of the tour was pretty interesting. Grant enjoyed looking at all the "money machines". Blake was simply impressed that each room had a clock.


Saturday June 16th
8AM - 11PM -- Gettysburg. A cool place to visit, but today it was a pretty uneventful day. The kids were ornery after being dragged around for a couple of days. Hayden has been super baby. He's hardly made a peep.


Sunday June 17th
10-2PM -- Sacrament meeting was pretty funny. We've been trying to teach the boys that they should only take one piece of bread, cup of water. When the water came, Grant grabbed a sacrament cup and drank it down, to which he proudly shouted, "I'm a big boy!". After which Blake exclaimed, "I'm a girl!". Apparently we need to work on that one.

Grant then went on-stage with the Primary to sing, "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home". He actually sang and excitedly did all the actions. That was my best Father's Day present. Melanie also did a terrifc job giving me this cool book she made from HeritageMakers and Settlers of Catan two-player card game.

4PM-10PM -- Mom and Dad evolved to another project. But they eventually finished and we had a good time watching TV and chatting. I'm glad that the majority of my projects are all done.