Fall leaves in the Shenandoahs

This week has been crazy. It was my first week of Chinese and it has been very intense. I with a group of people who all have to learn it for their jobs and so they are considerably more motivated than I am, and because they don't have two kids at home, they have more time to spend on it. I am doing my best to keep up but my pregnancy brain is not always very cooperative. I am still grateful for the chance to learn as much as I can before we go.
Friday night was a blast. I think it was the girls' most favorite thing we have done so far. We went to a free concert at the military base and saw the army band and choral perform a review of kids songs, designed for an audience of kids. They had a video screen with images, and about 10 performers dressed in brightly colored shirts singing to a live band all sorts of songs from shows the kids would recognize or enjoy. They danced and interacted with the audience and I think we could have listened to them sing for hours their voices were so fantastic. They had mats in front for kids to sit on and just really interacted with them well. The girls, especially Marlo, were star struck by the end.
Then Saturday, we went out to the Corbett's in Manassas, did laundry :), checked the brakes on the car, and then took the 45 mile drive to the Shenandoah mountains to see the leaves. (Here is a link to the park http://www.nps.gov/shen/) Everyone says that since we had such a dry September the leaves are not very spectacular this year, but after coming from AZ with no fall, we are loving it. We took the kids on a short hike through the trees and looked at leaves, collected walnuts and played with the milkweed pods. It was just amazing to walk around on a carpet of leaves with so many beautiful colors. I don't think the pictures really do it justice. The rolling hills here covered in a mosaic of leafy tiles breathtaking at times....I think they will all be down by then end of the week. It is so short a window we were so glad to get to go on Sat.
Today we drove back out that direction to visit some friends- Daryl and Arlene Jenkins who knew James and I while we were dating here in D.C.- and Marlo insisted we make a big pile of leaves for her and Zoe to jump in. They went exploring in the "Fairy Garden" and played hide and seek while we visited. Then Daryl got out his telescope and we looked at the craters on the moon, and Mars in all of its red brilliance. So many stars to see that far out of town. You could even see the Milky Way. Marlo was so excited as she just took a trip to the planetarium with her class. Who knows, maybe someday when we look up at the moon we will be looking for the space station and peeking in on the people who live there......
Tomorrow begins another day of Chinese and girls at school...Zoe loves the fact that she is big like Marlo now and gets to go to her own "school". They are both so happy playing with other kids they are disappointed when we pick them up. I can live with that.
Tuesday is the big day of my ultrasound.....hopefully this child will cooperate and reveal its self.
Michelle