Party Party, Wine, More Bikes

Jeremy is now 2. We had a little un-official party for him on Saturday before his official co-birthday party with Emma weekend after next. He's talking so much it's crazy. Full sentences, new words all the time, cute faces when he's learning... damn he's a cute kid. In the morning, we went downtown to check out the monuments and get the kids some excercise. This is him over by the Cirque du Soleil tent on 10th and New York (ish). Walking behind Susan and Emma, just in case...

In that parking lot, they put down this green and blue glass stuff and some astroturf with an overhead canopy. If I wasn't such a shut-in, I would probably know what this is all about but I have to imagine that it's Cirque-related. I might never know.

Emma wasn't really happy about me getting in front of her so she took off every time I turned around to shoot a pic of her. Here's her, taking off... We walked all the way down to the WashMon then over to the WWII Memorial, which I hadn't seen yet. It's not bad. I think they did a good job. I was worried about how it would affect the reflecting pool in front of JeffMo, but it's well done. Both of my grandfathers fought in the Second World War (ok, I use the term 'fought' to mean that they were in the military at the time) but it still means something to me and I managed to find a minute or two to reflect on their service and remember them as best I could. It's been a long time since I had any grandparents. I was old enough to remember three of the four and only knew one as an 'adult' (technicality as I was 18 when Grammy died, on Emma's future birthday, no less). I do remember having some sense of her mortality and took the last few chances that I had to prod her with questions about all of the wonderful pictures she had from the early part of the 20th century. She was pretty rad.

As for the grandfathers, one was stateside, doing what, I don't know, besides drinking a lot of beer, and the other was stationed in India. I heard stories about waves breaking over the bow of the ship that he was on in the Indian Ocean, but that's about it. But I digress.

So, at the WashMon, the kids were amazed at how big the thing was. Far away, it doesn't look like much, but up close... damn. Being little takes on a whole new meaning. Jeremy was just entranced. Here's him thinking about climbing it. I know he's little, but damn. By the way, when he says 'yes' it sounds like 'jush.' Which is cute. What can I say, the kid is cute. Emma would be cute if she wasn't so damn beautiful.

Saturday night, Marthea and Ryan and their kids Eve and Madelyn came over to celebrate with us. Susan made a killer potroast and cake for us and we chowed down. Here's a shot of the boy going to town on his cake with a sly look. He ended up with two plates as Emma never seems to be able to eat more than one bite of anything sweet.

Sunday, we got up and rallied for a trip up to scenic Hereford, MD, for their 'Fall and Wine Festival.' Odd name. I loves me some Fall and I loves me some wine so... It's an annual thing for the VFD up there and they added a couple (I DO MEAN a couple) of the local wineries to the event. We got to drive the 'ru, rally-style through a cornfield (chasing a John Deere 6-wheel) for parking, there were monster truck rides, hay rides, bands (of the classic-rock/cover scene) and plenty of fire equipment for the kids to climb on. Susan had her wine, the kids got to run up inflatable kids things and watch MotoX racing and I got to relax. Mike Calfo and the Racers Edge guys put on the MotoX stuff on Sunday. I missed the invite dirt jump stuff with Aaron Chase and others which was on Saturday. City Bikes was a sponsor of the event and there was a 4x race as well. THAT would have been fun. The course was on a hillside and looked like a lot of fun. Brian had a good time.

More good news: RobEDob called me to tell me that he's bringing down a Diablo for me to 'borrow' for a while. I'm going to 'borrow' that bike off of a few hairy drops and put it through some paces. I should see it on Friday so I'll make a point of heading over to Chevy Chase to pick that thing up. No riding this weekend, but I'll have to set something up with Hillary and Brian in the 'shed soon. It's that time of year when it's actually nice to strap all of that plastic courage on and go play in the woods.

Ok, shots from the BikeToberFest thing... Here's Emma snuggling up with Susan in the back of the trailer for the hay ride with the monster truck in the background (you thought I was kidding, right?). This is Jeremy, the only two-year-old on the inflatable climbing wall thingy, getting some pointers from the other kids (who obviously had little brother or sisters). He went up and down this thing, without even slowing down, for 40 straight minutes. I'm not even kidding. He only got hurt once when about 7 teenagers came sliding down on top of him, but he didn't want to stop... Damn. And finally, here's a bad shot of the course which really lacks any perspective and probably shouldn't even be put up here but it's all I got. Hillary said she had a blast on the course but they had to destroy it when they were done. Such a tragedy. We should be able to build these things and LEAVE THEM UP! Here's hoping we can get that done at Patapsco next year.