The Meyers

Joel needed to be on the east coast for work, and Kristen has family nearby, so we decided to turn the work trip into a family affair! Rather than flying into Raleigh, NC, we flew into DC so we could see Jamestown and Williamsburg before the business part of the trip and then return to DC to see some capitol city sites before returning home.

We had a few extra minutes in Portland after parking, checking bags, and surviving the security checkpoint process. There is a new play structure which we enjoyed exploring while waiting for our turn to get on a plane.

Finally, on our plane! We kept the snacks, iPad apps, and new toys coming!  He was a trooper.

Day 1: Jamestown. Over 400 years ago, the first permanent English settlers landed and established Jamestown. We enjoyed seeing what life was like for those first settlers and the Native Americans that they encountered. Exploring actual-size replicas of the ships on which they sailed across the Atlantic was quite something — sooo many people in such a small space for so long! Joshua loved the armor, and he is well on his way now to becoming a junior knight. Turns out that the east coast has leaves too, and we had fun jumping in the pile that had been raked earlier. With all of this fun, we wore Joshua out!

Joel’s cousins Amy and Allison came by today with Allison’s nearly-3-month-old daughter Olive, while Allison and Olive are up visiting from California. Joshua loves babies!

Allison even let Joshua help open the new baby present for Olive.

Amy is a great auntie!

Joel and Kristen enjoyed the time with the baby too!

Joshua had a really fun time this year with Valentine’s Day activities! He received his very own Valentine’s cards in the mail from family which were fun to open and read.

Breakfast was a special menu of heart-shaped chocolate chip pancakes and eggs. He was really into the pancakes – which is normal – but he was not interested in the unusual style of eggs and wouldn’t eat much of those! Or, maybe he didn’t want the eggs because he discovered that these special pancakes tasted way better!?

Later in the day, he made (and ate!) heart-shaped sugar cookies. The temptation to eat the dough was a problem, so mommy told him it was Play Doh, but he had already discovered that cookie dough tastes way better than Play Doh. Once they were done baking, all he wanted to do was eat the cookies!

Joshua and I had a great time playing in a local neighborhood park today. I snagged some pictures of him, trying to share some of the fun moments that he and I had together!

We climbed on the play structure, slid down the slides, went in the swing, played hide-and-seek (sort of…), pretended to have a picnic, and had a mostly delightful time! We even discovered that our little fingers are just the right size to stick into the holes on the stop sign pole on the way home.

Today I (Kristen) attended our church’s If: Gathering Women’s Conference.  It was an all day event, and as we recently started attending this church I was really looking forward to connecting with some other women and forming the beginnings of some new relationships.  Goodness gracious, I was hoping to be known by the 8 other women at my table, NOT all 200 attending as it turned out!

The conference had just started with some announcements when I felt something rubbing on my legs.  I wasn’t alarmed until I looked down and instantly panicked.  The scariest, hugest, meanest looking SQUIRREL was attached to my leg!  A brief thought passed through my mind that if I stood up and screamed, I would draw the attention from everyone in the room and interrupt the conference.  Worth it?  Definitely.  I literally stood up flailing and yelling, trying to fling the rodent from my body.

It didn’t work!  The more my body convulsed, the stronger the squirrel gripped onto me and the higher it CLIMBED!  Our church is located with beautiful trees outside, and I was convinced this rabid squirrel had somehow found its way inside, attached itself to me, and was going to bite and infect both me AND my baby!

My table leader lives on a farm and has killed many a mole on her property (I found out later).  She came to my rescue and grabbed a folder and started swatting me and the rodent attached, trying to kill it.  Meanwhile a woman behind me was telling me, “STOP! STOP!”  This advice made sense, because if it had been a wasp I would hold still until the insect moved.  This was no wasp, and I could not keep from swatting, flailing, and screaming.

Finally the squirrel was flung from my body, landed on the ground, and picked up by the woman behind me.  Yes, picked up.  See, as it turns out, this terrifying creature was actually this woman’s PET.  She has two of them, and carries them around in a pouch hanging around her neck.  The leader of the conference addressed all the women there and informed them that one of their members carries around Sugar Gliders and they are a service animal used for comfort.

I had NEVER heard of an animal called sugar gliders until today.  I would actually be okay if I never saw one again in my life.  For the rest of the day I kept my eye on that pouch…just in case.  I officially met the animals at lunchtime.  They were significantly less scary than the rabid squirrel I had seen attached to my leg and climbing my body earlier.  Almost….cute?  We had some great laughs, I feel bonded to the women at my table, and now all the women in the room know who I am – at least they know me as the Sugar Glider Girl!