Down by the Bay

On Thursday we took a drive over to the Chesapeake Bay. It was kind of like going to the beach, only not quite as warm. The wind was a bit brisk, but Paul didn’t mind. He spent the time running around a playground pirate ship with a little girl who was hanging out around there. The girl’s babysitter was a skilled shark tooth finder, because in just a few minutes she found half a dozen in the sand for Paul. I looked all over the place and only found one little pathetic tooth. So apparently there are a few sharks in the bay, but they didn’t appear to be large man-eating sharks like the ones on TV that Paul loves to cheer on. Either way, the temperature of the water probably would have been worse than the sharks.

Taking a walk on the Boardwalk. A sign told me that the Chesapeake Bay produces more crabs than any other body of water in the world. That's a lot of crabs. We didn't see any.

Ahoy! Let's check the traps! It's crab legs for dinner tonight!

We're not getting in the cage. The cage isn't going in the water. Sharks in the water. Little sharks. But still... sharks.

Adam is a little disappointed that his big brother was born near a much warmer beach.

Just running around in the sand. One of his favorite things. We'll have to take him back in a few weeks if Spring ever shows up.

Why won't it stop?!?

The average annual snowfall in DC is something like 15 inches. Last weekend, some parts of the area got 38 inches in a 24 hour period. Down in southern Maryland here, we must have gotten at least two feet. So we spent the whole weekend trapped in the driveway and trying to dig out. When we got out on Sunday afternoon after it stopped, the roads and parking lots were chaos. I've seen several cars flipped on their sides and others buried head first in the snow off the road. One building in Waldorf apparently caught fire during the storm and burned to the ground. Trees were knocked over, power lines were down, and some people went without heat or power for 30 hours. They’ve been calling it the snowpocalypse. The nice thing was that I didn’t have to go to work on Saturday. I did, however, have to work a seventeen hour day yesterday to make up for the missed work. But then last night, round two began. And now it won’t stop snowing again. Possibly another twenty inches. Oh well. At least Paul enjoyed the snow!

Aaaah!! The snow is eating me alive!

This will have to be our new home. We're just going to have to dig in and wait until someone comes to save us, or until Summer gets here.

At least we can eat some snowflakes if we run out of food.

And this is the fun that I got to have. Nothing better than continuous shoveling. And now we'll have to do it all again. The only problem is trying to find a place to put it all. Oh, the joys of winter.

Protecting the Capital

Yes, another fort. In the 1860’s the U.S. government thought it was probably a good idea to defend the capital city against any rebel attacks from across the river, so they threw together a bunch of makeshift forts to protect DC. Something like thirty of these earthwork fortifications were dug up, but I don’t think they saw much action. All that’s left of this one, Fort Foote, is pretty much just trenches with a few remnants of the stone walls. There were a couple of giant cannons still in place, one which had been there since 1864. I can understand why they never moved them, because they weighed something like forty thousand pounds. The sign said they could fire a 450 pound ball three miles! Which means it could probably fire a 38 pound boy something like 2,200 miles. That would be a much easier way for him to visit his grandparents back home, compared to airline prices. But basically, this place was just a park to bring your dog, or your kid. We, of course, brought the latter.

We fought our own battle here with ice and snow. He's not the best snowball thrower, but he takes a hit pretty good.

Nothing is more fun than standing on a log. I guess.

Overlooking the Potomac... looking for rebels to fire the cannons at!

It wasn’t much to see, but it was a good day to walk in the park, before the big snow storm rolled onto the coast.

The Awakening

I was searching the internet the other day for free things to do in DC, since we’ve seen a lot of the stuff downtown already, and I came across a picture of this statue. I thought it was pretty funny, so I thought we’d better go check it out. It actually used to be set up in DC on this peninsula called Haines Point, but apparently they sold it, and it now sits in the National Harbor along the banks of the Potomac in Maryland. The National Harbor was actually the first place we visited when we moved here, but not by choice. We got lost trying to get around the beltway and took the wrong exit. It’s basically a new development for rich tourists. Seriously, all we wanted to do was walk around and check out the stores and see the statue, but the parking meters gave you five minutes per quarter!! What?? And the meters took credit cards!! I quickly discovered that we didn’t have enough money to shop in this place. But there was a Peeps store that was pretty cool (yes, Peeps, the inedible yellow marshmallow chickens you get at Easter). Otherwise, we only could find three quarters and a couple of dimes, so we ended up with 21 minutes to check the place out (I wasn’t about to use my debit card at a parking meter… it was the principal of the matter). So we checked out the Peeps, bought some Mike and Ikes, and took a few pictures of The Awakening.

Not sure what this is all about... but I thought it was cool.

Give us a hand, giant metal dude in the sand!

Uh, you might want to watch out, Mom. I hope that guy remembered his deodorant.

Not sure where you buy shoes for feet like this.

Feeding the giant his morning snack. Look at the sheer terror on Paul's face. What a good father I am.

Down by the dirty water.

Just one of the many times we'll be taking him to off the wall places. He's used to it by now.

So if you're ever in town and want to see a big metal guy lying in the sand, I guess this is the place to go. Now I'm back to the internet to find other random things to take pictures of...

A bit of sun between the snow…

Last week, before more snow fell on the East Coast, there were a few bright and sunny days. On one of my days off, we drove down to the park by the house (because we were too lazy to walk to the two blocks over). Paul ran around, yelling “Chase me, Dad!” Which, of course, was difficult for me, due to the fact that I was too lazy to even walk to the park. But I managed to run a few circles around the playground and throw the ball at him. Here are a few pictures from that most eventful day.

Hey, hey! No cameras, no cameras!

Like Father, like Son.

Here I come!

Whatchoo want me do?

Just Dad and Paul in the park.

Just Mom and Paul in the park.

And even Adam "Frank Hotdog" Sellers came along for the fun!

But of course, the snow came, and the park is once again blanketed. Oh well, it will be spring soon! Or at least we hope so.

An American Mormon in Washington

Last weekend, a former returned missionary flew out from the land of Zion to spend a few days with us. And while it pales in comparison to God’s Promised Land in that salty valley out west where he came from, he did enjoy his stay here in the nation’s capital. In all of his travels around the globe over the past few years – from the long inhabited hills of Poland, to the untouched glacial slopes of New Zealand, the war ravaged sands of Iraq, and recently the untamed waters of the Amazon in Brazil – he had never set foot in this part of the United States. So we had a fun couple of days checking out the sites that DC has to offer.

Paul and "Brand-em" stopped by to check out the Washington Monument, along with just about every other monument/memorial.

Ok, I'll walk with him... just as long as he's not keeping me...

Teaching Paul good habits, like walking on this ice above frigid water. The Reflecting Pool was iced over enough to walk on, at least until an angry DC police officer yelled at everyone.

Even Mom and Adam tagged along! Here checking out the WWII memorial.

And we finally found the Marine Corp Memorial, just outside of Arlington. Pretty impressive, and a lot bigger than I expected.

It's always good to have visitors, and having not seen him in almost two years, it was cool that he was able to hop on a flight and come out. Ah, the benefit of working for an airline!

Bring on 2010...

The old year is gone and the New Year is here! Ok, so it was here ten days ago, so you probably already knew that. But here are a few pictures from Christmas, the big snow, and just Paul being Paul.


This one, for example, would be just Paul being Paul. Loads of fun playing out in the snow, even for a Florida Boy.

Say Cheese! Or say... snow!

Yep, we got a lot that day. How much? A lot.


Seriously contemplating something.

And this was our Christmas Tree... before it was overloaded with Paul presents, and then shipped off to the recycling bin.

And this is Paul riding in style on his Lightning McQueen racing bike! Bring on the Tour d' France!

And Paul the Builder. Can he fix it? Nope, but he sure can break it.

That's all for now. It's gotten quite cold around these parts, so we haven't been out much to take pictures. That whole frost bite thing is slightly unpleasant, so we'll be hiding out inside for a while longer.