We Love Jeni!

The past week has been a big one from Jeni! It was Jeni's birthday on April 30th and she was generous enough to let Jack help her blow out her candles!:) On Monday Jeni also defended her theses and Rob and I went to hear her and she did GREAT!! She passed, of course she did I never thought she wouldn't, and she is graduating this Friday with her Masters Degree in Geography and we could not be more proud!:) We love you Jeni!

So Many Toys!!

My brother Zach and his wife Lauren are babysitting Lauren's 2 younger brothers and so we went up to their house Sunday night to play with some of their "toys". This big huge blow up slide is in their basement and it was a lot of fun! Jack is going down with Zach above but you can see how BIG the slide is.

We couldn't even get Jack to stop and take a picture but here is an attempt!

The picture above is after one or two times down the slide, the picture below is the first time down, he was a little scared, but he did it & kept doing it!

Rob even got in on the action!

After the slides we played with some of the many legos they had and Jack tried to round up as many cars as he could.

And on our way back to the car with a screaming and kicking Jack we saw this John Deere rider and Jack loved it. It was probably one of the best 45 minutes that Jack has spent in a long time. Hopefully we will be ablt to go back to that boy paradise sometime soon!

Washington DC part II

This is of course Oscar the Grouch, and the famous Seinfeld puffy shirt! See Garrett there are fun things to see in Washington DC!:)

It is a love fest in DC for the Obama's. Here is a shop called "My Obama Shop". I am not positive but I am willing to bet that it was not called "My Bush Shop" a few months ago.

Me with the hope diamond. I told Rob that he can wait until our 10th Anniversary to get anything that big!:)

This is Abraham Lincoln's mask just a few months before he was assassinated. The artist was taking the impressions for some piece of art work that he was working on.

This is Abe's top hat that he was wearing the night he was assassinated. Funny story, the Smithsonian had it for years in its back rooms because the directors didn't want people to go crazy trying to see it.

Rob in front of a picture of Stephen Colbert, in front of a picture of Stephen Colbert, etc. etc. I am not quite sure the story on how this picture has made it into the Smithsonian. Maybe they know something that we don't. One other fun thing that we saw in the American History Museum is the flag that was flying when Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner. They have been restoring it and it is now on display. We couldn't take pictures so I don't have any but it was very cool, and a huge flag!

Rob in front of the Iwo Jima monument. Rob's Grandpa fought in the Pacific during WWII so we have an extra special family history there.

Someone forgot to tell the Obama's that we were coming for lunch. This is as close as we got. Next time.

Arlington Cemetary. The changing of the guards at the unknown soldier memorial. A very reverant and beautiful place.

The outside of the Lincoln Memorial.

Part of the WWII Memorial.

This quote is on of the ones on the walls at the memorial to FDR. He was the president during the end of WWI, the depression, and WWII. He was actually elected to the presidency for 4 terms and died at the beginning part of his 4th term. With all of the problems in our economy today it was very interesting to read the quotes from his time in office, and reflect on how pertinante they are for today's world. I am not saying I agree with everything, I just am merely commenting on the patterns of history that tend to repeat themselves.

FDR himself and his beloved dog.

Washington DC

Rob and I took a little trip out to our nations capital this past weekend. It was great to get away and just enjoy seeing some of the sites that neither of us have seen for quite some time. We left Jack at home with his Aunt Jeni and he had a lot of fun with out us! We did miss our little buddy, but we were so glad he wasn't with us this time. We did a lot of walking, a lot of taking the Metro, a lot of stopping to look at things in museums, and those are just not the things Jack enjoys doing, or any 2 1/2 year old for that matter. We were in DC for the end of the Cherry Blossom Festival and most of the blossoms were off of the trees but here we are with one of the trees that we saw that still had a lot of blossoms on it. I guess we missed the full blooms by one week, oh well.

Rob with Thomas Jefferson.

This is Rob in front of the Washington Monument. We were experimenting with some night pictures and this one isn't the best, but it is fun to see the monuments at night.

Me in front of the capital. We had a great private tour with an intern from our congressman Rob Bishop's office. A friend arranged for us to have a tour at the last minute and I am so glad that it worked out. Congress was not in session so it was less crowded but we had a lot of fun. I have been to DC but it was when I was in Jr. High, so I have seen the capital before but as we were walking on the Mall I was really struck with how grateful I am to live in the United States. I also was thinking a lot about September 11, 2001 and how the plane that went down in Pennsylvania was probably headed toward the capital and the people who were on that plane truly were heros. There are so many heros from that day and after but I was specifically grateful for those people on Flight 93 who in all likely hood protected a major symbol of our country and its history.

Rob in front of the Supreme Court.

This painting is "Le Jardin de Vetheuil" by Monet and hangs in the National Gallery of Art. There were many other beautiful works of art that I really enjoyed seeing there.

Rob with Wilbur, (or maybe Orville) Wright at the Air and Space Museum. Rob is like a kid in a candy store as soon as we stepped into that place. It is like there are so many things to see he doesn't know where to begin. I must say that I am always pretty impressed about what he knows about airplanes, and all things flight oriented.

The entire Smithsonian Institution is great. I really loved that they are free and that we can just roam in and out of them. One thing I learned from Rob was that the man who the Smithsonians are named after he was a British citizen and had never even been to the United States, but he donated his money when he died to the US so it could set up a way to preserve history.

This is me in front of a very large statue of Pres. John F. Kennedy. We went to the Kennedy Center for a play Sheer Madness on Friday night and that was a lot of fun.

Happy Easter

Rob and I were going to be gone on Easter Sunday so we asked the Easter Bunny to make an early appearance so we could have fun with Jack. It hasn't even been a week since the Easter Bunny came and Jack has already had some great times with the things that the EB left. He loves his new movie Bolt, and has watched it many many times, and he also loves MarioKart and his friend Dave has been trying to teach him how to play. We had a fun Easter Wednesday, thanks Easter Bunny!

Baseball Jack

Just some pictures and a little video playing baseball.

Seriously! I Mean Seriously!

Jack and I had a fun weekend up at the cabin while Rob was busy at home slaving away at the new house. We missed him but he got a lot done. Jack loves being at the cabin because he can play with his cousins from first thing in the morning to the last thing at night.

My Mom had an easter egg hunt with the kids on Saturday and they all just loved it. They eggs were just laying all over the ground so it was very easy for the little ones to find them. This great cheesy grin is about the 10th picture I took and I think this is more of an annoyed Mommy leave me alone kind of look.

Grandma Annie and the easter egg hunters!

Now I get to the seriously, do you see this snow, do you see how much snow there is?? We went up on Saturday and in 24 hrs it snowed at least 12" and I was kind of depressed. At least at home there is no more snow....at least for today. Notice the moose that is walking away from the house, I guess that was pretty cool. There were also 2 more hanging out in the trees.

I guess one positive is that Jack loves to play in the snow. But seriously I am ready for spring, all the time, not just some of the time.