NUTS !!!

Nuts. Didn't even see this one coming!



I am sure you all have been to a museum or antique shop and had the experience of seeing something familiar from your past. I can remember seeing items on display that would strike a chord with me ..... "oh my gosh, I remember that my grandmother had one of those applesauce grinders" , or "I remember my sister had one of those lunch boxes", or "my Mom had a ......". Those of you who are our age, you know what I am talking about? The mere sight of something familiar, but perhaps long ago forgotten brings a smile to your face as a wave of nostalgia sweeps over you.



But this time, WHAM! The wave was really a slap upside the head. Oh, it really shouldn't have been a big deal. I mean, it was just Tupperware kitchen canisters .... UGLY orange Tupperware canisters. See if you agree:







But this particular orange Tupperware was in the Julia Childs exhibit at the Smithsonian American History Museum. What made this Tupperware a unique experience is that Barb and I owned a set of our own at one time during our married life. Of course, it was when orange was cool, but still, we are now at that age where we are starting to see things WE owned, not Mom, not Grandma, but we as adults owned ..... in a museum.



Nuts.

Siblings in Town

O for joy when family reunites. We were blessed when Paul & Donna, and Chuck & Donna all came to see us in early May. What a joy to all be together, and for the first time since Justin and Renee's wedding in Lander in Sept, 2006. We spent several days seeing all the sights that topped their "to-see" list. It is fun seeing DC through the eyes of those who come to visit. And with each visitor, we see something new as well. And did we have FUN!! Oh how we laugh when we are all together. You will probably recognize some of the backgrounds in these pics, but enjoy them anyway.

At the Capitol Building

At the Smithsonian Museums

Guess Where?

At the Library of Congress

At the National Botanical Garden

Thanks for coming, P, D, C, D! Hope to see you again soon!

When the Kids Came

We had a great time in April when all the kids came to Virginia. They came in shifts but we had a few days overlapped where all five were here at one time. All our guest bedrooms were filled with our family! Nate and Shell came on April 10th and stayed until the 18th. Callie and Matt arrived April 15th, and Kacie on the 16th, and they all left on the 20th. They were all eager to see the sights of DC so we kept on the go all week long. Here is the listing of all we did and saw...


Saturday:
Deer sighting - five or so in the woods
Smithsonian American History Museum
Culpepper, VA: dinner with Jared and Lydia Gwaltney

Sunday:
Church
Easter Dinner
The Masters Tournament

Monday:
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Capitol tour
Library of Congress
National Archives: the documents of freedom, the BIG exhibit
Dinner at Capitol Brewing Company for Nate's B-D Union Station

Tuesday:
Georgetown
National Cathedral

Wednesday:
Holocaust Museum
Jefferson Memorial (from across the Tidal Basin)
Callie and Matt arrive

Thursday:
The White House area
Washington Monument
White House tour
The Old Executive Office Building
WWII Memorial
Korean War Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Viet Nam War Memorial
Declaration of Independence Memorial Park
Old Ebbitt Grill for Dinner
Kacie arrives

Friday:
Pentagon 9/11 Memorial
Arlington National Cemetery, the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Iwo Jima Memorial
The Netherlands Carillon
My offices (old and new)

Saturday:
Nate and Shell leave
Capitol tour
Library of Congress, with exhibits
Starbucks at the old Fireman's Assurance Building
Embassy Road
National Cathedral (with the bag pipers)
Georgetown: shopping and dinner at J. Paul's

Sunday:
The National Archives, the documents of freedom
The Smithsonian Natural History Museum
The Smithsonian American History Museum
The National Holocaust Museum
The White House
Marine One bringing the President home
Deer sighting - one in the neighbors yard (PS - We saw about a dozen in two groups last night!)

What a whirlwind week - what fun it was! We were able to check off some places we hadn't been to yet. We took loads of pics - there were so many good ones we could hardly cull them down to a reasonable size. So instead we broke them into three package.

First, is the time when just Nate and Shell were here:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This next batch is when we had all five kids here:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And the last batch taken after Nate and Shell left:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We were blessed to have them all here.

Mazatlan in March

This is a little anachronistic (that is, out of order), but in March (before the kids came to DC) we went to Mazatlan for some sun and fun. We met Kacie, and her room mate Stevie, and had a wonderful time. It was good to be on the beach, in the sun, and WARM! We had a wonderful time. Hope you enjoy this little photo montage.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happiness is ....

Happiness is having all our kids here together for a visit!!!

We are so blessed to have this time together!!!

Cherry Blossoms

We never paid much attention before. We had heard about the cherry blossoms in Washington DC, but we lived 2800 miles away, so it wasn't really something we thought about much. But ever since we have been here, people have talked about the cherry blossoms in the spring. The closer we came to April, the more eager we were to see what all the raving was about.

Well, last weekend the time finally came. The National Park Service reported that the cherry blooms were at their peak and the weather was to be beautiful. So on Sunday (after church, of course) we went into DC and were not disappointed. The highest density of cherry trees is around the Tidal Basin, near the Jefferson Memorial. It was beautiful. I hope you enjoy the photos ... we did the best we could to capture the beauty of it all.

(You should be able to click on the photo to make it bigger.)

Oh, yes, and that's us, enjoying it all!

What, more Lincoln Stories? (Well, it IS his 200th birthday, after all!)

Oh puleeeese! Really? Another Lincoln posting? How many Lincoln stories are we going to tell? Well, sorry about that ... if you aren't interested, close your browser or move on to something else?

On the day we ate at Ben's Chili Bowl, we went looking for "Lincoln's Cottage" that we had heard about. We learned that Lincoln lived away from the White House about 3-4 four months per year. It was once the summer home of one of DC's most wealthy bankers, later bought by the government and used as an old soldiers' home. Lincoln moved his family and staff there each spring to get away from the White House. It is about 2-3 miles away from the White House, a 45 minute commute for Lincoln, which was not entirely safe during the Civil War. At one point the Confederate Army advanced within a mile or so, even while he lived there. Isn't it something that he lived through all that and was assassinated after the war was over?

The historical society gave a very interesting tour and we learned alot about the man, the war, the politics behind the great Emancipation Proclamation.

After that, we walked through the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic Cathedral in North America, on the campus of Catholic University in DC. The sanctuary was beautiful but we couldn't take photos because there was a mass in progress.

We finished the evening off with a casual dinner at the Capitol City Brewing Company and took a short walk to see the capitol building at night.

Some night we will have to take the camera pod to take a better night photo.

All for now....