We had a good time celebrating Susan's birthday today. She went to a prayer breakfast with some people from church while I took Stephen and Kevin to our Cub Scout , then we went home to relax (I baked her a cake :-). We went out to eat at a local Olive Garden, then we will go home to eat the cake and open presents. All in all a nice, relaxing birthday.
We stopped in Leesburg, VA, and visited with Steve and Betty, our
friends from when we lived in Reston while I worked at headquarters.
They are doing well, and it was fun spending the evening talking and
catching up on all the things happening in our lives. It was great to
see their children and how they've grown, and they enjoyed seeing our
kids and hearing about all their adventures. Their son Jacob is an
accomplished violin player, and enjoyed hearing him play a couple of
pieces for us. And I learned that one of the wildest kids I have ever
dealt with (not Steve or Betty's son) has persevered from when I was his
Cub Scout den leader and is about to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.
It was a nice evening, and a great way to spend the last night of our
trip. We love our friends and family!
We had a good time with Michael and Claudia in Washington, DC, today.
We rode the Metro in, wandered around the National Mall, and went
through the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The kids really
enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit and the 3D Imax movie about sharks at the
museum. We ended the day with pizza and crab cakes at Boxhill
Pizzaria. What a great day!
We had a great ride in on the Metro and are now wandering around our
nation's capital taking in the sites. Whee!
We're having a great time visiting my brother and his family in Maryland
this week! Today we went to Havre de Grace, the town that almost became
our nations capital instead of it's curent location. Then we drove up
to Wilmington, Delaware, and visited the Brandywine Park and Zoo, though
we only saw a bird as the zoo closed when we got there :-( We then ate
a delicious seafood dinner at Baldwin's in Maryland - the crab cake was
awesome! Tomorrow we plan on going to Washington, DC, and showing
Michael and Claudia the ropes on getting around via the Metro down
there. It should be fun!
We rang in 2007 with my parents at our house last night, playing Mexican
Train dominoes and eating seafood all evening - it was fun! As the
peach dropped we went out and banged on pots yelling "Happy New Year" on
the front porch, then we all fell quickly asleep in our beds. Jacob
comes home today from his retreat, and then this evening we're going to
fix tacos and chillout for a while. We hope you're having a good time
doing what you're doing, and wish you safety and prosperity in 2007!