Washington DC - Day One

Sunday was our first day in DC. We stayed at a Hampton Inn in Arlington and bought a 7-day Metro Pass for $28 each. We walk 2 blocks from our hotel to the Metro Station and ride about 15 minutes to the Smithsonian stop. It rained or misted all day Sunday which made for a cold and dreary time. Fortunately, we stayed mostly in one building. The kids enjoy riding the Metro.



We stopped first at "The Castle" which is the headquarters of the Smithsonian. We heard a docent talk about James Smithson, who donated the original money to start the Smithsonian. It is an amazing story, especially considering that Smithson had never even visited the U.S. His coffin was rescued by Alexander Graham Bell from a cemetery in Italy and brought to "The Castle" where he is now buried.

Next, we headed to the National Air & Space Museum. We spent 5 hours there, and it still wasn't enough. Landon and Greg would like to read every single word of every single display. It would take at least two days to see one museum that way!

Here Chase sees if she can measure up to the standards required of stewardesses years ago.


Gerren checks his weight on other planets compared to his weight on earth. My advice is to stay away from Jupiter.


Landon poses with a Predator. He could have posed with every plane in the place!


Landon and Chase pose with the back-up Apollo Lunar Lander.


We had to stop at the gift shop, of course. You would think Barack Obama was already the president. His picture is for sale everywhere on everything. I told the kids: "Other than the elected Republicans (and possibly their staff members), we're the only conservatives in the area." Greg added that even some of the elected Republicans aren't conservatives!



After this, we went to the National Archives. It was too rainy to take a picture outside, and you cannot take pictures in the rotunda where the main documents are. This is a truly awesome thing to see, though. Landon actually said that seeing the Constitution was his favorite part of the day.

By the time everything closed at 5:30 pm, it was dark outside. We headed back home on the Metro. Here we are waiting for our train.



Chase is enjoying the ride.


When we got home we headed to the grocery store for supper foods. We decided to eat lunch out and sandwiches in the room for supper to save money. There was a McDonalds in the Air & Space Museum. We ordered five "value" meals and 1 kid's meal. It was $50! They were all "large" size (which we didn't know ahead of time or we definitely could have split a couple). I think they do this to simplify things - less choices.

Fredericksburg, Etc.

We left Raleigh at 8:00 this morning and headed for DC. We planned to spend the afternoon exploring the separate pieces of the Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville Civil War battlefields. The material I read recommends that you start at the Fredericksburg Visitor's Center and make your way west and south. However, that would be totally opposite of the direction we are driving. So, we stopped first at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Shrine, which is the house where he died.

Here we are outside, reading about the event.


The house was actually the farm office and is the only surviving building on the property. They brought Stonewall here after his arm was amputated because it was very close to a railroad line, and they wanted to move him to Richmond. However, the rail service was disrupted when they got here, and by the time it was restored, Jackson was too ill with pneumonia to be moved.


This is the actual bed where Jackson died. It, the blanket on the end of the bed, and the clock in the room are original to the property.


Next, we drove through the town of Spotsylvania Court House, reading signs along the battlefield route. There isn't much really to get out and see there.

We stopped at the Chancellorsville Visitor's Center next, where Greg took these pictures.




Greg was going to take Landon's picture under this flag next, but as Landon walked over to the flag, Greg said, "Good. I'll have something to blackmail you with if you ever run for political office." Landon changed his mind. LOL!

Finally, we headed toward Fredericksburg. By this time, Carys was sleeping, so I sat in the van with her while the others went into the Visitor's Center.






We ate dinner at Fuddrucker's in Fredericksburg. Greg and I had eaten at one in Columbia, SC, years ago before we had any children. We thought they'd like it, and we were right.

I'm typing this from our hotel room in Arlington, VA. We're excited about the week to come. We have one small problem here. The parking for the hotel is a parking garage with a 7' clearance. We have a high-top conversion van that requires 8' clearance. The desk clerk said there is parking on the street behind the hotel. That works fine for now as parking is free beginning at 6 pm Saturday until 7 am Monday. Then, you have to put money in every 4 hours. I don't know how we'll do that when we're not there! There are 3 spots in the front for check-in parking, so Greg will be discussing this with the general manager Monday morning.

Ice Skating

Erin has been ice skating since they moved to NC. Now, she teaches the youngest kids in the Homeschool Skate Academy and works at the Ice House. Chase couldn't wait for an ice skating lesson.

Erin helps Chase put on her skates.





Erin taught Chase the correct way to get up once you fall.


Erin was a great teacher, and it wasn't long before Chase left the sides and was zipping across the ice. They started without coats, but Chase had her coat and hat on before they quit three hours later.


Say cheese!


Thanks for all your help, Erin. Good job, Chase!

Thanksgiving in North Carolina

We started our vacation by heading to Raleigh, NC, for Thanksgiving with our friends, the Miskiewicz's. Our two families have had Thanksgiving together 10 out of the last 11 years, since we both lived in Florida. They moved to NC in December of 2005. Since then, we missed 1 Thanksgiving, they came to FL last year, and we traveled to NC this year.

We usually have other people who join us for dinner. This year, Matt's friend Alex, who is also from our area of Florida but attends college at Liberty in Virginia, was spending the Thanksgiving vacation with them. It was a full house of 11! In addition, the next-door neighbors (4) and a single mom from Kim's Bible study group and her son joined us for dinner.

Of course, the best part of the day is the fellowship. The kids played ball outside, Apples to Apples, and Mafia throughout the afternoon and evening.

It's interesting playing Apples to Apples with 2-, 4-, and 6-year olds!


Carys has been deathly afraid of dogs throughout her life. Recently, friends in our small group got a new puppy. Carys calls him "the little doggie" and has gotten comfortable with him. Well, that doesn't help with a BIG dog like Abby. Imagine our surprise when she learned to LOVE Abby!


She sat on her saying, "Go horsey!"


Greg and Dave usually have dish duty, but this year Estella took over. They were thrilled, to say the least!


Carys' other new best friend is Erin. I think she's going to hate leaving Saturday morning.


Gerren, Alex (on the couch), and Matt watch a computer game Matt wrote. He's an electrical engineering major at NC State.


I don't remember what Kim and I were looking at here, but it looks serious!


Erin and Chase "posed" for the camera. Actually I don't think Chase wanted to have her picture taken.


Dave is going to love this goofy look on his face. He's a nuclear engineer with Progress Energy.

1st Sunday in Advent

The 1st Sunday in Advent is November 30 this year. For the past three years, I have given a Lego Advent calendar as the family gift for this Sunday. Prompted by a picture in a catalog and an irl friend, I decided to do something different this year. I saw a really cute Advent "calendar" train in a Land's End or L.L. Bean catalog. It had little drawers in it numbered 1-25 that you fill with small surprises for Advent. There were two problems: 1) I couldn't possibly put even the smallest surprise x 4 behind each of the little doors, and 2) the train cost $99. I loved the idea, though, and had first heard of it from my "loopy" friend Kathy in Washington who LOVES Christmas and does something similar for each of her five children.

So, I decided to look for a less expensive option and found a ton of choices online at Target with free shipping. I chose four very different calendars and wrapped them up putting no names on the gifts. We had to open them early, however, since we would be in Washington, DC on the 30th.

First of all, the kids couldn't believe there were four packages instead of one. Then, I let them choose which one they wanted to open.






I told them that the reason we decided to give them these calendars was so that when they left home, they would each have their own Advent calendars to take with them and start their own family traditions. Of course, we have one person pouting over the calendar he ended up with!


On the fly, Greg decided that we should rewrap these every year and open them in the same way on the 1st Sunday in Advent. So each child could potentially have a different Advent calendar each year. Then, the first person to leave home (not going to college on our dime - but for good) will get to choose which Advent calendar to take with him/her. That sounds like a neat idea to me!

Christmas Choir Concert #1

Chase has had the awesome opportunity for the past 2 years of singing with the Citrus Christian Girl's Choir. One of my good friends leads this group. She's been a friend of mine since she married her hubby and moved to Citrus County 20 years ago. Anyway, this group sings around the community several times at Christmas and also in the late spring before they take their summer break. Their first performance of the season was at our local Beall's store on Sunday afternoon. They were awesome.

Here's a part of the group. Chase is the 2nd from the right in the 1st row.

These two are siblings of two of the choir members. They were so cute sitting under one of the clothes racks while the girls sang.

Bird Feeder?

When Greg was hanging Christmas lights yesterday, he came upon Chase's bird feeder. It was filled with black-oiled sunflower seeds. Well, I guess the birds haven't been eating the seeds as they seem to have grown into sunflowers!

Advent Conspiracy

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Third Day Concert

We had the awesome opportunity to attend a concert at a nearby church where Revive, NeedtoBreathe and Third Day were performing. We got Artist's Circle tickets and sat in the 4th row! Now we did not know Revive. They are a band from Australia who recently relocated to the US. Here is a picture of their lead singer singing God of Wonders with Mac Powell from Third Day.


We are, however, VERY familiar with NeedtoBreathe. My kids have loved them ever since we did their song "Shine" in church. You may have heard "Signature of Divine (Yahweh)", "Washed by the Water" or "Streets of Gold" from their most recent album on your local Christian radio station. The band was started by 2 brothers and has 2 other members as well. The leader singer, Bear Rinehart, in the picture below, has a very distinct voice. It was hard to get a picture of his face, though, because of his hairstyle.


Below he is playing the keyboard for "Washed by the Water".


Of course, Third Day led us in an awesome worship experience.


Greg took a picture of the drummer specifically for Gerren.


They had a really awesome backdrop (which I think was actually just projected on a large white cloth backdrop).