Take Flight!

Alright, we’re back. We did get the camera back the other day, but this blog post comes from last weekend, and the pictures were therefore taken with my phone… we had to work with what we had. We have had a few things on our list of what we still wanted to see while we're here in the DC area, so this was one of mine. For some time I’ve been wanting to make it out to Dulles, VA to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s larger facility where they keep the big flying contraptions. So we took a drive out there and got to see some cool stuff.

This was really what I wanted to see. The Smithsonian currently has the Space Shuttle Enterprise, a never-been-to-Space Shuttle. It was the model used in high altitude tests before the shuttle program began, and has been in this hanger for the past three decades. Now that the shuttle program has ended, it’s going to be shipped off somewhere else and replaced with Discovery, the program’s fleet leader. I find this all very exciting, if you didn’t know.

I didn’t know this plane was out there, and while it’s definitely an important part of history, it’s somewhat strange to put on display a product of human ingenuity that was used to cause one of the single-most destructive events in human history. The Enola Gay, of course, was the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and killed maybe as many as 150,000 people with a single act. A necessary evil at the time… possibly. I had to wonder what a Japanese tourist would think of it. But it was definitely interesting to see it.

But enough with the gloomy stuff, of course there were a lot of cool planes out there, like this F-14 Tomcat! Here you see Goose and Maverick checking it out with their mom. And notice how tall Maverick is... it won't be long before he won't need to be standing on that post to catch up to his mom... but let's hope it takes a while.

So good stuff, and we can check the Air and Space Museum off our list. Now I guess it’s on to more!

It was Independence Day...

Happy Fourth of July! Uh… on the Seventeenth of July. I had the day off, which was fantastic, so we hung out all day in the heat, and watched the fireworks in downtown DC. We did the same thing last year, so this year we found a different location across the river in Arlington. It was a better view, but still very crowded. And the security was a little high, as if they were worried that something might happen. But if you didn’t mind the guys decked out in riot gear ready to beat people’s heads, or the helicopter hovering around spotlighting people, it was an amazing Independence Day in our nation’s capitol! Of course, cameras were not allowed (joking), but we didn't really take any pics of the downtown scene anyway, just these few from earlier that day.

Just the boys hanging out as goofballs do. We went to Rosaryville State Park... which was... uh, empty. Not much going on there to see, so we just stopped and took a few pics of the boys.

Adam is... well, Adam. Here you can still see the scars on his face from his multiple falls on concrete. Learning to run is not an easy thing to do. Thankfully he's not but two feet tall, and that's not far to fall.

This was about all the park had to offer, large power lines. No swings, no slides, no water, no baseball fields. Just power lines. Cool.

Anyway, the following weekend we went to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware... America's Cleanest Beach, they say. We found it to be America's most crowded beach on that day... nowhere to park, nowhere to stand in the surf. So we went a little farther north to Henlopen State Park, and let the boys (or just Paul) run in the water.

Adam on the other hand, preferred to stay far away from the crashing waves which were hitting pretty hard and sending water up over our heads. Here Adam is warning his mother of the rogue wave coming in, but... it was too late. About this time, the wave exploded into the air sending plumes of water into the sky, soaking Becky... and the camera. The sand and salt water was not all too good for the Nikon... and now it's (hopefully just temporarily) out of service. We have to send it in to get repaired... which may take a while.

So hopefully we'll be back... hopefully... but for now this blog is, unfortunately... shut down.

Yard work and tree climbing...

Becky has been busy, to say the least. A thousand trips to Home Depot’s lawn and garden center, and a few hundred new plants around the yard have been filling up her time. While I’ve been working a considerable amount lately, she’s been doing the same, just by digging holes, watering plants, and chasing the youngest boy down the sidewalk every time he sees an opportunity. But the boys have been doing far from anything considered work. Oh, to be that young, without a care in the world. As a kid you spend a lot of time waiting to be a certain age so you can do certain things… but then you grow up and you think how wonderful it would be to just be carefree and worry about things like climbing trees on a summer day. That’s just the way it goes.

There's a monkey in this tree I believe, a very loud, high pitched screaming monkey.

Mmmm.... a nice pink sponge is very tasty on a hot summer afternoon.

Almost as good as a chocolate chip cookie! Gotta love it.

Somewhat frightening, and not exactly what you want to see hanging down on you when you're trying to rest under the shade of a tree.

They're loving summer, and that's what it's all about I guess. Hope it's sunny and bright where ever you are.

The Second Battle of Manassas

It seems like ages ago now, since I haven’t been too good about posting lately, but a while back we went back out to Manassas Battlefield… again. We headed out to Ted’s friend’s vineyard in the countryside of Delaplane, Virginia first. Some of Becky’s photos are hanging in the vineyard store, so we wanted to go check them out. It’s truly beautiful out there in the country, rolling hills and thick woodlands, you can check out the vineyard here. It was the kind of hot, humid summer day only the east coast can give you. But on the way back we stopped by the battlefield for our second time. Naturally we got pictures with cannons. What else would you expect?

Here's Paul... and he's with a cannon. I'd be interested to know just how many photos like this appear on this blog through the last couple of years.


Here's Adam, running wild through the grass, with his sweaty curls. I think this was just before we cut them all off.

The boys took a break in the shade, which was much needed. Under the sun it was brutal that day.

And Adam again, with his long flowing hair. It was really out of control there for a while.

It's always smiles with Paul. You'd think his mother has asked him to smile a few thousands times or something.

Another exciting day at another exciting battlefield. I think we're actually going back out next weekend because they're supposed to be having the annual reenactment, so that actually might be kind of interesting. Otherwise, we're just enjoying the wonderful, hot summer days here on the east coast.

Paul's Fourth Birthday... a month ago!

Yes, it has been a while. As most of you know, Paul had a birthday last month, and I'm just now getting around to posting about it. I guess I've had to work a lot lately or something like that. But here you go, here are some pictures of Paul's spectacular fourth birthday.

We took a tour on the DC Duck. I just realized that Paul seems to be taking the ship ride a little seriously as you can see in this photo.

Adam came along for the ride, especially enjoying the water tour part of the trip.

And Paul got to drive the boat for a few minutes... though he had all the passengers worried for a moment that we were going to smash into the rocks and all drown in the Potomac.

Uncle Ted came along, as did Granny G... and we all thoroughly enjoyed the duck calls.

Back at the house, Adam showed is joy for Paul's birthday. Or at least I think this is an expression of joy.

Captain America showed up to the party! It was nice of him to take time out from fighting whatever it is Captain America fights to wish Paul a happy birthday.

A big thank you to Uncle Ted for buying these drums for me... uh, I mean for Paul. For as small as they are, Paul can make it hard to hear in the house.

The smallest Super Hero enjoyed running around the yard chasing his birthday brother.

And even (soon-to-be Aunt) Rachel showed up!

So all in all, Paul had a wonderful 4th Birthday! He got his cake with a T-Rex fighting a Triceratops and a trophy for the T-Rex... because the T-Rex always wins. And of course he got more presents than any four year old boy could need, so he's already waiting for his 5th Birthday party. Let's hope it doesn't come too soon.

The Return of Uncle Andy

Time disappears quickly. As in how long it takes me to make blog posts, but even more so, how quickly the years fade away. It really didn’t seem like that much time had passed since the last time Paul and Adam’s Uncle Andy and Aunt Theresa had come to visit, but since they were last here, Andy spent almost a year in Afghanistan. I’m sure the time didn’t pass as quickly for him as it did for us though. But it’s good that he got through all that, and we were all thankful that they got a chance to drive over and hang out with us for a few days.

Oh brothers... we took a trip down to see Piney Point Lighthouse... one of Maryland's many historic lighthouses.

No swimming, dangerous undertow... and if you ask Paul... killer sharks.

It was a thirteen hour rescue, but thankfully Andy didn't drown in the six inch deep waters.

The, uh... Super Hero Squad? I guess...

I'm sorry, what? What little hearing I had left... Uncle Ted destroyed that day.

Even Adam enjoyed hanging around the house... as long as his uncles were pushing him around in his truck and not actually touching him.

Two of a kind... just ask Becky... on second thought, better not remind her.

Surprise! Paul went back to the aquarium! Ok, so he doesn't get to go that often... just five or six times... a month.

All in all, a great time for all! It was good to see them again, and hopefully they'll make it back, or maybe we'll head that direction at some point.

The City of Brotherly Love

So a few weeks ago we took a drive up north into Pennsylvania. It’s kind of been on my list for a while to make it to Philadelphia to see the sites and eat a cheese steak, and Becky wanted to take the boys to Sesame Place, the theme park based off of – you guessed it – Sesame Street. So we did the park on Saturday and then checked out the city on Sunday. It rained a little bit at the park, but for the most part we had a great day, and Paul had a blast riding the rides and meeting all the characters from the show. In Philly, the day was beautiful and the cheese steak was very cheesy, so it was an excellent weekend.

First thing through the gate, Paul took his first roller coaster ride. We weren't sure how he'd handle it, but as soon as we got off, he was running back around saying, "Let's do it again! Let's do it again!" So I guess he wasn't afraid.

Then we saw these two guys hanging around in a side alley on Sesame Street. Yet again, Paul had no fear and ran right up to hug them. I guess if you see them on TV enough they're not technically strangers.

Adam on the other hand, is not a huge fan of people outside of the imaginary bubble that surrounds the four of us, but he did have fun throwing padded blocks at other kids here in Big Birds Nest.

We then went to see a "real" performance of Elmo's World, with the "real" Elmo, "real" Dorothy, and some dude that Paul was sure was definitely not the "real" Mr. Noodle (for those that don't know, he's the weird guy living outside of Elmo's window... slightly creepy).

And of course, we couldn't leave without saying hello to the Cookie Monster.

We spent the next day checking out Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Independence Hall was under renovation and you can't really see all of it, but we did take a free tour. Inside, we got to see the room where the Declaration and Constitution were debated and drafted. I even saw the exact chair where Thomas Stone sat!! Uh, you know... the guy from Southern Maryland who signed the Declaration? We went to his house in one of our less exciting posts... I think he would have been on the $7 bill if they had made one.

And we had to check out the liberty bell. It's a pretty big bell, but I had no idea it weighed more than 2,000 lbs.

And in the City of Brotherly Love, the two brothers spent some time running around in the grass on a beautiful day.

And Paul may have run around a little two much. Just maybe.

But he recovered, and we even got him to smile for a few pictures.

I'm not exactly sure what they were talking about, but my guess is that Paul was explaining to Adam that in this exact spot, Alexander Hamilton once argued with Thomas Jefferson that the federal government needed not just some level of financial autonomy, but also the ability to make laws that supersede those of the individual states. Or he may have been talking about who would win if a shark fought a T-Rex... I can't really say.

And then there's Philadelphia's favorite son... a steroided-up Sylvester Stallone.

Yo, Adrian!! We did it!! We ran the steps (like everyone else was doing) and then we knocked out Clubber Lang, ate our cheesesteak, and headed on back to DC. It was a fantastic day, and Philly was a very cool city.