Mt.Vernon

My friend Janna (Mack's mom) invited Eliza and me to Mt. Vernon.  We had a great time.  Especially because all the sheep had baby lambs.  And there were baby pigs too.  Eliza and Mack were both so brave and let the animals eat right out of their hands.  At one point Eliza was calling to one of the sheep saying "My Friend, my Friend!" trying to get him to come back for more grass.  Another little boy starting calling the sheep "Friend" as if that was his name.  When another sheep came over for the freshly picked grass, I asked Eliza what his name was.  Without hesitating she said (what sounded like anyway) "Sugar".  So Sugar and Friend were hand fed grass from Eliza and Mack. It was pretty cute. 

In this picture you can see Friend licking Eliza's hand, which she said tickled her.

So this is one of those images that is funny now but Eliza is going to KILL ME one day for having posted this!  As we were walking along, far away from any visible official structure that may contain a bathroom, Eliza suddenly turned to me and said, holding her bum, "Poop!"  I knew she was serious.  We were at a point where we could see the docks and river below to our left and to our right was the threshing barn.  Having been here before I thought there was a chance that there were bathrooms close to the docks since the threshing barn is a reconstructed building from George's time, and I dare say they didn't have flushing toilets nearby back then.  So we chose the docks.  No bathrooms.  At this point Eliza was looking desperate....so luckily Janna had a plastic bag.  I headed off for a secluded spot off the main road and found the perfect tree with a little seat and a way to hold on.  Eliza has never wanted to "go" outside, but I told her it was a "potty tree" and she was sold.  I put the bag under her and she did her business.  A woman walking by seemed surprised that we were in the woods, I just said "Poop emergency, I have a bag."  She replied "I applaud your creativity!"  It worked!  But then of course as we left and headed back toward the threshing barn we saw that should we have decided to go right instead of left we would have run smack into....public bathrooms! Aah, well.