We're on the back of the nickel!

A couple of weeks ago we went down to Charlottesville, VA to see Monticello, the home of one of our greatest Presidents, Barrack Hussein Obama… wait, wait… I mean Thomas Jefferson. Sorry… they’re easily confused. Anyway, Jefferson grew up on a large piece of country down in central Virginia, and as a boy decided he was going to build his house someday on a hill on his father’s property. He named it, Monticello, which means “little mountain” in Italian, or as we figured out, “steep hillside that you don’t want to climb in the humidity.” Thankfully, it was a little cooler that day, but in Virginia the water in the air always seems to be thick. But we climbed the path to the house, and it was quite a set up that Tom had back in the day. It took nearly 200 people to operate the plantation at one time. Jefferson himself was away most of the time up in Washington and didn’t get to spend a whole lot of his life there until he retired. It’s a beautiful house, and if you’re into such historical things (which of course, I am not, which is why I never drag my family to these places) it was an interesting place to visit.

So that's the main house, and if you've ever had five cents in your pocket, you've seen it. He was very interested in European architecture, so he spent a considerable amount of time designing and redesigning the house, working on it most of his life. The crazy thing was how many people it took to keep the place going. But he had cheap labor I guess, even though he was a big supporter of abolishing slavery.

The boys are probably too young to appreciate all these things, so for now, there are always trees to sit in.

Oh brother, Adam is quite a fan of Paul, if you hadn't noticed.

And there they are, waiting in line to check out the house. Adam was great all day until the moment we went into the house, so Becky missed out on the tour. Paul and I told her all about it though. Otherwise, it was a great trip, and one more thing to check off our list. Next up... well, not really sure... but there's gotta be a few more things to see around here!

Kickin' it in August

The boys have had a good August hanging out with their mom in the yard while their dad works his life away. But here and there on the weekends we all are still getting around together. Just wanted to share a couple of pics so that all of you don’t forget what they look like. So, here you go:

This was actually taken at Brookside Gardens while Becky was taking photos with Ted and Rachel. They had a play area for kids and this tree house that the boys wanted up in, and then down, and then back up in, and then down. It kept me busy for a while.

And here's Paul, being Paul, as he always is. I'm not sure if that shirt means he's a pirate or he's poison. Either way, he's Paul.

Big brothers are awesome. Apparently Adam has chubby cheeks. But that's somewhat obvious.

A Rainy Engagement

So Ted and Rachel are getting married in October, and they asked Becky to take a few engagement photos for them. The day was less than perfect, pretty sure it rained in the morning and the clouds never went away. We went up to Wheaton, Maryland to the Brookside Gardens, which turned out to be a pretty incredible place with plenty of photo opportunities… but that day there was a watery mist that seemed to be hanging around, and the lack of light ended up blurring a lot of the pictures. However, she did get a handful that turned out… so here are a few.

So there you go... on to the wedding! Should be coming up in just a matter of weeks now, so I'm sure they're still planning away. We wish them the best of luck in everything that comes ahead!

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.