A different kind of adventure!!

We had the wonderful blessing of being a part of bringing Kibron, Reece & Trina's newly adopted little boy from Ethiopia, back to the U.S. Trina is Callie's former college roommate, matron of honor, and one of her best friends. Reece & Trina's mom, Pati, flew to Ethiopia to pick Kibron up, flying through DC on the way. We basically just drove them from Reagan National Airport, where they came in, to Dulles airport, where they were flying out. On their way back to Seattle flying back through DC, we were looking forward to having them here for a day while they rested between flights. Little did we know that those 8 hours would stretch to 52!!! As soon as Reece, Pati, & Kibron flew in last Fri. at 7:30 AM the flights got cancelled going out because of the approaching snow storm. It started to snow at 10 AM and didn't stop until Sat. about 3PM. We were finally able to get them out on Sunday morning via a limo/taxi service, which took them to Union Station in DC where they got on Amtrak to take them to Newark, NJ, where they were able to get on a flight home. We know it was hard on Reece & Trina to wait to get Kibron home, but we sure enjoyed our time getting to know him!

A lot of the time, Kibron would just sit and take it all in.

Kibron loved Kacie's old Cabbage Patch doll!!

Reece, Grandma Pati, & Kibron

We can't wait to see Kibron with his new brothers & sister!!!

Beauty After the Storm

After almost 30 hours of snow, the clouds finally cleared late Saturday and the sun actually peaked through just before sunset.

Our car and bushes show some of the accumulation.

As does our neighbor's picnic table (l). Barb ventures into the back yard(r).

A view from our driveway.

The "Alps" of Centreville. This six foot mound of snow was shoveled scoop by scoop from our driveway.

We gotta get a snow blower! We really did enjoy the snow, even though it was a lot of work. Today we finally had a plow come clear the last 40 yards of private drive from our driveway to the street. It will stay cold here the next few days and we may even get more snow on Wednesday.



Psalm 148: 7-8 says:

Praise the Lord, from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do His bidding.

27" and a Downed Tree

Well the snow kept coming - up to 27" and it is fianlly starting to taper off at 5PM EST. Early this afternoon we were startled by quite a crash when the top of a nearby tree failed under the weight of the snow and partially hit the house.

Here are a few more fun and pretty snow pics:

Walking in a winter wonderland!

More Snow - 24" and Counting

Well, we are "enjoying" another huge snow storm. This one is bigger than the December storm. We are at 24" and counting. They tell us to expect snow well into the afternoon.

Shoulda bought a snow blower!

Spies and Snow

Saturday we went to the famed International Spy Museum (www.spymuseum.org). The museum interestingly laid out the history of spying, with lots of stories, displays, photos, and spy equipment. Obviously, the best and the latest equipment isn't there, just the old and obsolete. But is was interesting. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside, so we only have the one in front of the building.

That's Dan, in case you couldn't tell, pointing out the sign board. You may also notice a bit of snow. We had 6-8 more inches so it made driving around town a lot of fun.

We didn't quite see everything inside so hope to go back someday soon.

Another Smithsonian

There are 17 museums listed on the main website for the Smithsonian, including the national zoo. (www.si.edu/museums) We have now been to eight of them. Don't know if we will ever hit them all, but there are a couple more we want to see, anyway.

Last weekend we went to the National Portrait Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery is a few blocks north of the National Mall, in what used to be the Patent Office. It is a huge building and once was the site of the Inaugural Ball after Lincoln's second election.

As the name suggests, it is filled with portraits, mostly painting but some photos and a few sculptures. They had exhibits of presidents, early notable American pioneers, Civil War figures, contemporary figures, and much much more. Hundreds and hundreds of them. It was almost too much to take in, especially if you took time to read the description of each one. However, we really enjoyed it.

Now we have culture!

Christmas 2009

We were so blessed to be in Seattle for Christmas and New Years eve/day. We were able to spend a lot of time with the fab five - Kacie, Shell, Nate, Callie, and Matt - as well as Bruce, Joellen, and Joellen's family. I could write a lot, but if a picture is worth a thousand words the following montage is worth about 44,000. Be sure your speakers are turned on and ENJOY the show.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We wanted to see many more of our Seattle friends while we were there but illness prevented that. We hope to see them next time we are fortunate enough to be back in town.

Many blessings to you all, our faithful readers, for the coming year!