Happy Halloween!!

From Bill Nye the Science Guy and Richard Castle!!  :)

My big boy is a TEEN

I can't believe it has been 13 years since he was a tiny little baby that even premie clothes were too big on.

He celebrated with his class.  They had their 7th grade picnic and his classmates were so wonderful that they made it a combined bon voyage/birthday party for Ian too!

Memorial Day

We hiked around Washington DC on Memorial Day to do the History Of Scouting Trail (HOST) hike.  It was a busy day because there were a lot of people downtown.  We even saw the President in his car as he drove over to Arlington Cemetery to lay a wreath.

#OA100 

Weekend Away

We decided to take Memorial Day weekend and go visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg.  We stayed at the Doubletree that was right outside the gates.  I feel like people who parked really late in the day were actually closer to our hotel than they were gates of the theme park.  It was a super nice hotel and had one of the best breakfasts I've ever had in a hotel.

We left right after the boys got out of school and it took FOREVER to get down there but we knew the drive was going to be bad so we planned for a nice sit down dinner along the way and also brought the audio book Eragon to listen to.  It really makes the time go a lot faster when you can listen to a book on "tape" instead of just the radio.

We woke up ate a great breakfast and were pleasantly surprised when we got to the park Saturday morning and found out they were open early!!

Evan was tall enough to ride all the rides, even the big roller coasters.  That didn't end up happening.  A teary eyed 10 year old came running out to me from Apollo's Chariot because he was just too scared.  But oh well, I don't like roller coasters and he's just 10.  He's got plenty of time to learn to like them!

Riding one of my favorite rides, the teacups -- called Turkish Delight!!

These two did Apollo's Chariot even though Evan didn't want to.  Darren told Evan when he got off that Evan made the right choice, that drop was a BIG one!

We met up with our friends the McNerney's and their 3 kids all loved riding roller coasters.  This first picture Darren and Ian are in the back row at the far end.

Their three kids are in the back row in the seats closest to us.

Then Darren decided he was done and the 4 roller coaster lovers road Griffin again.  This time they all sat together in the middle.

Then the roller coaster lovers rode Alpengiest.

All of them loved riding the water rides like Roman Rapids and Escape from Pompeii.  They all wanted to stand in the "splash zone" of Escape from Pompeii, Evan escaped the splash at the last minute by jumping behind the view window.  Smart boy!!

We spent the night at the hotel again after we were done at the park because it was a long day and it was nice to just relax in the hotel at the end of the day.  We played Ian's new Star Wars role playing game until bedtime.

WW2 Plane Fly Over

I went with my friend Michelle downtown to watch the old WW2 planes fly over the National Mall for the 70th Anniversary of VE Day.  I got to play with my new 100-400mm lens that Darren got me for my anniversary.

ANZAC Day

We have some friends who are from Australia and they invited us to come to the early morning ANZAC Day remembrance ceremony at the Korean War Memorial.  It was a very early morning for us but it was a beautiful ceremony and we got to go to the Australian Embassy afterwards to have some breakfast.  Evan got to play a couple of games of 2-Up and actually won some money!

Like I said it was an early service.  We had to get up at 4AM to get there by sunrise.  This one wasn't tired at all though the rest of the day.  He was just resting his eyes!

Happy St. Patty's Day

I made homemade corned beef hash in honor of St Patty's Day. My boys loved it!!

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