Charlottesville, VA

Wow! If it weren't for family -- well, and the neighbors across the street -- we'd be looking for a condo. Charlottesville is amazing. We arrived late Monday afternoon, dumped our bags, and then headed to the University of Virginia. After a nice stroll around the grounds, we found a nice little Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Calamari, egg rolls, wontons, and some great Pho (Vietnamese soup). The Pho was so good it made Diana cry . . . literally! We broke up a Jalapeno slice to add to the flavor and her eyes began to water almost instantly. It was fantastic. Things took a brief turn for the worse, however, when she wiped away those tears. The corners of her eyes began to sting and that grew to a full-fledged burn. Yup, the moron wiped her eyes with the same hands she'd just used to rip up the Jalapeno! She and Emma took off for the bathroom and some handwashing and serious flushing of the eyes.

Next stop? Gelatto. We'd pretty much made that decision before the Pho incident, but the ice cream became a necessity at that point. The girl behind the counter asked Emma if she'd like to try a flavor or two before choosing, which she happily did. She settled on Pistachio Nut and Dark Chocolate with Peanut Butter. As a bonus, the girl brought Emma a Strawberry-Banana Smoothie. She'd made extra when another customer ordered one and told us she wanted to give it to Emma because she was so polite. Of course, we beamed all the way back to the hotel. Far too full at this point for a swim, we broke Emma's streak that night. Don't worry though, she's still managed to get in seven swims in seven days.

Tuesday morning began with a trip to the Virginia Discovery Museum (no admission fees because of our Omniplex membership!) where Emma attended a "Traveling Tuesdays" class. The chosen destination was Turkey. She made a shishkabob of dried fruit and a mosaic. An exhibit on various types of camouflage was a big hit as was the active bee hive. The plan was to leave the museum, have lunch at Michie's Tavern and head to Monticello, but we didn't realize how cool the Downtown Mall area was going to be. We opted instead to have sandwiches outside on the Mall and stroll around a bit.

Next stop? Fork Union Military Academy to show Emma where Daddy went to school his freshman year. While he enjoyed being on campus, Wade was a bit disappointed to find that his barracks had been torn down and the campus store was closed. This, however turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We expressed our disappointment to the admissions officer who unbeknownst to us contacted the director of development, who came and found us in the Quartermaster's office with two hats and two shirts. SCORE!!

Back at the hotel we hit our first outdoor pool of the season. BRRRRR!!!! Up to the room for popcorn and fruit and a viewing of Curious George before lights out. Tomorrow Monticello.

Emma in front of Abe Lincoln's boyhood home in Knob Creek, KY - we had a great time visiting our 16th President's birthplace in Hogdenville (despite a time crunch due to the fact we unknowingly passed in to the Eastern Time Zone a few miles from Abe's place) before making the beautiful drive to Knob Creek along a scenic byway.

We left the interstate for most of our time in Kentucky and really enjoyed the scenery! We are very excited about the rest of our trip, especially Washington DC where we will get to see tons of history and a few friends as well!

Keep checking our blog for updates!!

Our trio on Memorial Day Sunday at Central Christian Church, Lexington, KY. Emma attended the Children's Sermon and Kid's Worship and Wonder Time with a new friend she made when she went up and introduced herself.

Lexington has been great for R&R - beautiful horse farms, good eats, and a POOL!

Evansville, Indiana

Our morning started a little earlier today, but we're still enjoying ourselves. Emma and Daddy are working on the puzzle we acquired at the St. Louis Zoo yesterday. When the puzzle is complete, we'll head to the pool and then check out and hit the road. We're hoping to break up today's drive with a stop at Abraham Lincolon's boyhood home in Kentucky. Emma's been reading about the presidents lately and she's really looking forward to seeing the little log cabin.

The zoo trip was lots of fun. Wade hit the information desk to see if our Zoo Friends membership would warrant any discounts. The attendant told him that normally it would not, but, because he's so handsome, she would give us discounts on the Safari Pass. So, for fifteen dollars, we were able to ride the carousel as many times as we wanted to (once was enough for me, but somebody else disagreed), ride the tram around the zoo, go to the children's zoo, get three bags of popcorn, and a souvineer. The children's zoo was the big hit (other than the carousel, of course) with the otter habitat slide, the encounter areas -- Emma was able to pet a bearded dragon, some gunniea pigs, and brush some goats -- and the water area. They had shooting geysers that popped around a little area and surprised the children. She got soaked. Wade also took a shot up the pants leg as he was walking around to take pictures of her!! Speaking of taking pictures, Em's becomming quite the little photographer, asking for the camera multiple times a day. Yesterday Daddy taught her how to use the zoom feature.

The big animal sighting for the day was a one-week old giraffe. It looked so tiny compared to the others in the habitat and still wobbled a bit as it walked around. So cute!!

Well, Emma has donned her suit so I must close. Cheers!

Itinerary Change

Greetings from St. Louis. No, you're not crazy; Missiouri was not on our intitial itinerary. We received word just as we were driving through Tulsa that Diana's friend, who we were planning to spend Memorial Day Weekend with in Knoxville, ran into two family medical emergencies in the past two days. Seeing her is important to all three of us -- she was actually the only reason for travelling through Tennessee. After a quick call to cousin Steve, we decided to drive to D.C. via the route we'd planned to take to return to Oklahoma and instead we'll return through Knoxville and West Memphis. While we were initially disappointed, our spirits quickly recovered when we found out we'll be able to see Steve's daughter Sierra, a favorite playmate of Emma's, by stopping there in mid-June rather than late May. Please keep Clo's family in your prayers.

So, now we are having a lazy morning in a Holiday Inn outside St. Louis. After we checked in last night, we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant (Kids Eat Free!) and took in a family swim. Emma was ecstatic to be swimming twice in one day -- her end of year school party yesterday morning took place at the Stillwater YMCA pool. Emma and I crashed out around 10ish, while Wade poured over the atlas, trying to choose where we'll go from here (we're still not sure). After breakfast and another swim, we're headed to the St. Louis Zoo. It's free!!!! And, the website boasts of an enclosed see-through slide that travels through the otter pool. Emma's looking forward to that one; Mom and Dad are too tall.

As I close, Wade's talking to Brett on his cell phone, Emma's drawing a picture and watching Sesame Street (yes, this is a not-so-veiled attempt to keep her excited about Sesame Place in PA later on the trip), and I'm typing to you using HI's free wireless internet access. It's 8:40 am and we haven't even had breakfast yet. In fact, Emma didn't get up until 7:50 -- life is good.

Summer 2006

Greetings from the Watkins family! We know you have very little interest in how Wade and I spend our summer, but many of you are interested in the goings on of our Emma Caroline and we're hoping this blog will allow you to keep informed at will. Rather than cluttering up your inbox with ramblings about our summer itinerary, we're extending to you the invitation to log on to our blog spot throughout the next few months and catch up on our adventures. We'll try to post some super cute Emma photos from time to time as well. Feel free to email us about your summer at watkins@globalokie.com, but please don't be offended if we don't respond immediately, as we won't always have easy internet access.
Cheers!
Diana, Wade & Emma