Graduation and Memorial Day 2009

Our busy month of May is almost done. We have completed our traveling for awhile, and we are ready to be at home and back to normal. Well, as normal as summer break can be...
The graduation went well, and the work to set up and clean up wasn't too terribly taxing. "Many hands make light work" certainly proved true. The ceremony was a nice tribute not only to Amanda, but also to her mom and family. There were many friends and family members in attendance at the reception, and plenty of good food. It was good to see everyone!
In between preparations we were able to wash cars and do a little yard sale shopping. Amazingly, it was "The Great American Treasure Hunt" weekend in Norwalk, and we enjoyed looking over tables and tables of items in three blocks of downtown. Thankfully, we had a little extra room in the trunk of our car to stash away a few treasures.
On to Columbus, where we packed as much as possible into fewer than 24 hours. As always, Mom and Dad made us welcome, loved and comfortable, and Mike came over to help spoil our kids. Andy and his family came down for the holiday weekend, and Doug and Lori came over to visit for a little while as well. The kids were thrilled to be able to play with their cousins (and it helped them to run off a little extra energy before we got into the car for the long trip home!).
If you are interested, there are more photos HERE.

Vacation 2009

We are home from a wonderful vacation. The mountains were lovely, so lovely that our photos cannot do them justice. However, if you would like to see way too many photos of the Great Smoky Mountains and the Biltmore, look HERE.

(It took me a very long time to get the photos ready, so as I find time I will add captions to explain them.)

Day in DC

We spent over 12 hours away from the house on Friday. Most of that time was spent in DC. We watched a Chinese puppet show called, "The Birth of the Monkey King" at the Freer Gallery. Jamie thought it was great! We ate our sandwiches outside on the steps, enjoying the beautiful weather.
A short trip through the Natural History Museum let us see the dinosaur bones (and half the student population of DC, it seemed!) before we traipsed over to the American History Museum to see the Muppets and the Star Spangled Banner.
We hopped on to the trains again to make it over to the National Zoo before we were done for the day. Unfortunately, most of the animals must have been napping or hiding. We did enjoy seeing many colorful and interesting birds, although neither penguins nor pandas were to be seen.
The trains ran punctually and we drove up to Laurel to meet the Ensmingers for dinner. The food at Don Pablos was good, and filling. Somehow the kids all had energy to run after dinner, and there was a nice park behind the restaurant where they could. Jamie found that walking all day without socks can be painful - he now has a burst blister.
Jim successfully talked Dan into heading up to the Family Game Store with us, where we all were tempted by colorful and exciting games of all kinds. We are all on budgets, though, and can't buy everything we wish for, even if it would be educational. We did leave with a new game - maybe you could come by some time and play it with us?

More pictures HERE

More Uncle Fun

Despite a little rain we did a lot of site-seeing on Thursday. The Walters Art Museum was lovely, as always, even if two children let themselves get bored at times. After a quick picnic in the van we headed up to Hampton National Historic Site so Mike could tour the mansion. Dot joined him, but Jamie and I went to the farmhouse to play since he had already done that tour earlier this year. (There is only so much "no touching, no running, no shouting" that a 5 year old boy can take!) The weather cleared enough for some playtime on the farmhouse lawn before we were all tired out. A quiet evening of games was almost enough to finish out the day. Mike introduced his Monkey King shadow puppet to the kids, and before long we had the sheet hung, the lamp unshaded, and new puppets cut out for the show.

Enjoy photos HERE.

How green was my valley

Mike is in for a visit, and we began with hiking in a nearby state park. Check out just how green our spring is now that we have had so much rain!

More photos HERE.

Keep and eye out for more photos as the week goes by.