Easter Sunday at Mt. Vernon

What a perfect day to visit Mt. Vernon. The first time we went the lines were so long that we skipped seeing the house and just toured the grounds. This time, absolutely no wait to get the house tour and the weather was gorgeous. This 2,000 acre estate sits on the Potomac River. There are many areas for gardening, raising livestock, and other agricultural interests of which was a great passion for George Washington. Did you know that George Washington was 6'2" while his wife was 4'11". Not very good dancing partners. The home is much more modest than one would expect. The bedrooms are even small by todays standards. And Washington really liked the color green, bright green painted rooms.

This is the house as guests would have arrived.

The view of the Potomac from the back of the house

Kim and Lily (look at those red cheeks, she gets hot just like her daddy)

Chris & Lily in one of the large gardens

Our southern belle (technically Virginia was in the South)

Trip to Gettysburg

Had a great time at Gettysburg last Saturday. We beat the summer traffic and had time to thoroughly enjoy the auto tour. It was fantastic with historical cliff notes and good stories about all the battles. The weather was a bit overcast, but the sun came out later in the afternoon. Did you know that the Gettysburg National Park is actually 25 square miles and sits all around the town of Gettysburg. You can step right on the battle fields and definitely get an erie feeling being in an area with such historical significance. Over three days, 51,000 soldiers from the Union and Confederacy lost their lives. Many years later some of those same soldiers came back and actually shook hands. What a strange feeling that must have been.

There were more monuments than a person could even take pictures of...

Looking out from Little Round Top. The area below is called "The Valley of Death"

Lily was actually very good the entire time... not sure why exactly???

Old Farm that President Eisenhower purchased at a later date and lived with his wife... It is the only home they actually owned.

Canon that can shoot 1-2 miles. However, over 90% of all casualties were from close range (guns, bayonnets, etc.) not from canons

One day rain, one day sun

It was a weekend of ups and downs. Saturday the weather was terrible (it flooded in Annapolis actually), but little Lily was a perfect angel. On Sunday, completely the opposite. Great weather, and Lily was a big stinker. She definitely did not want to be out sightseeing so we cut the day short. No problem there. She has come down with an ear infection (hopefully not because we took her out on Saturday in the crappy weather). And she has some congestion. No daycare for a couple days. Hopefully the little bug will get better soon.

Visit to the National Zoo

Last weekend we got the chance to visit the National Zoo in D.C. Its a fantastic zoo with great animal viewing options. It has the famous panda's of course, but they didn't come out to play all that much. The ape exhibit was fantastic, with three adults (one large male) and a beautiful little baby ape. I think we wore Lily out after being there for three hours as she fell asleep on the way back to the car. Oh, and the zoo is free (except parking). What a great deal!

Lily is a Goofball

Thought you all might enjoy seeing some pictures of our goofy Lily.

Playing with mom before bedtime. Yes, Lily loves it when her belly is hanging out of her pajamas.

Air time compliments of dad. Still enjoying the tummy hanging out.

Crazy hair compliments of day care!

Going to the park in Lily's new wagon. What a cheese head.

Cherry Blossom Time in D.C.

I'm not doing a great job of keeping up with posting, but rest assured we are having a great time in D.C. even if I haven't made time to document it. This last weekend we took Lily to a Cherry Blossom Festival in downtown Silver Spring (our new home after the house is built). A nice guy took this picture of Lily and sent it to us. Very nice of him especially since the camera bag we brought along didn't have my camera in it, then the video camera I got out to use had no battery. Good thing for nice people. It was a little cold, but not terribly - low 50's (Lily just likes wearing her hat all the time now). It warmed up on Sunday and was a beautiful day for us to visit the zoo. Yes, even the zoo is free here! And what a great zoo it is. We saw the infamous panda's and so many other things. We mostly enjoyed the apes complete with a baby ape with good viewing. Lily was great the entire time. She fell asleep on the way back to the car. I suppose maybe we wore her out. I will definitely post some zoo photos later in the week.