A visit up North

Today we hit three birds with one stone. Alex had a golf match in Ferndale at Grandview, so while he did that with his teammates, Nicole and I went to see my Grandma up in Blaine. After visiting with Grandma, and showing her our pictures from DC, I was able to catch Alex as he played his last hole. Then we went to my Mom's house for a visit, and dinner out. Alex hadn't seen her since she got back from Arizona.

Nicole likes to use Great-Grandma's pole for climbing on. She's such a monkey.

Nicole with her Great-Grandma Eagan.

Alex sees me after teeing off and heading for his ball.

Alex chipping his way onto the green.

Alex getting ready to putt. He finished the hole, and came in 2nd in his group.

April 20th, is Spring? It looks more like winter.

Our shop. This was taken pretty early in the snowfall, we eventually ended up with about 2" of snow.
Our backyard, a "winter" wonderland.
The heavy snowfall stopped around 9:00am so Bruno, Nicole and I took a ride up to Starbucks. After having our drinks we decided to drive over to West Mount Vernon and look at the tulip fields. We wanted to see the tulips ensconsed in snow. They didn't have any snow over there!

Just make sure it's not yellow snow you're eating.

By the time Nicole got outside to make a snowman, it had already started melting, and fast!
We started the day off with it snowing like crazy, by the end of the day there was no trace of snow (just the reamains of the snowman) and the prettiest sunset. Weird!!

What the heck? This is Spring???

So, it's April 19th and what's Spring without baseball? Part of that ritual is team picture day. Nicole's team had pictures at 8:06am, which means you have to be there at 7:50. Do you know how hard it is to get her up early??! I bribed her with hot chocolate from Starbucks afterwards. Only problem is, we had to go back home and get Alex for his team pictures. By that time it was snowing pretty good. Yes, snowing!!

Standing around waiting for a teammate to show up, it's snowing even harder. We thought it would be pretty funny to have snow in the background for the pictures.

Alex's team (he's 3rd from the right in the back row) The snow had stopped by the time the team pictures happened. Having been at the field since 7:50 am we were ready to finally hit Starbucks. Now, wouldn't you know it, the sun is starting to peak out. Gotta love the Pacific Northwest!!

Our Washington DC trip

The following is our trip to Washington DC. I have tried to put the best pictures and sampling of our trip, but there are many more! Due to the way this has been organized it's better if you scroll all the way down to the bottom and work your way up.

Enjoy!

Our last day--April 6th

After sleeping in, and having breakfast at the hotel, it was time to say our last farewell to DC. We drove over to the Theodore Roosevelt Island and walked across the footbridge to see his memorial. Teddy was a big activite for natural conservation and this island is dedicated to him.
You can see in the previous picture how big this statue is. After leaving the island we drove over to Langley and got as close to the CIA building as we could without getting shot.
We made our way out to the airport, and with several hours to burn we stopped at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. This one was much better than the one downtown. It was a HUGE building! Inside we saw the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Among other exhibits is the fastest jet ever built, the Lockheed Blackbird, a Concorde, and a reproduction of one of the Wrights Brothers planes. There were hundreds of other little planes and helicopters as well.

The Space Shuttle Enterprise.
This was amazing! An entire Space Shuttle under one roof!

Day Nine--April 5th

We decided to hit the National Archives first thing in the morning. Even getting there before it opened we had a long line to stand in. Nicole and some other kids find something to distract them from the boredom of another line.
Once the doors opened the line moved fairly quickly.

A copy of the The Declaration of Independence. The original, which we did see, is so worn it is almost non-legible.
John Hancock signed the original document on August 2, 1776. Seeing these documents, and having seen the room in Philadelphia where they were signed was a sureal experience. Everything we saw fell into place with this stop at the National Archives.

The reflecting pool, Washington Monument, and the Capitol.
Bruno giving the boys a history lesson.
Nicole had a hard time with all the walking. So here she is taking a break before we head up to the Washington Monument for a closer look.

The Lincoln Memorial.
This was very beautiful.

WWII Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial.
The World World II Memorial.





After a short break back at the hotel, we hopped onto the subway and went to Gordon Beirsch for lunch. Then hopped the subway again to go to the Jefferson Memorial.

Our last stop of the day, the Jefferson Memorial.
Thomas Jefferson, penned the Declaration of Independence.

Cherry blossoms blooming a long the Tidal Basin. It was the Cherry Blossom Festival while we were there. Can you say "huge crowds!"
Live music outside the Jefferson Memorial brought lots of people.

Day Eight--April 4th

Leaving the kids in bed to let them sleep in, Bruno and I headed out early to snag a Starbucks and walk around the City Hall.
The City Hall takes up an entire city block.
Such a cool building. After walking around a while it was back to the hotel to rouse the troups and start our drive back to Wash DC.
When we toured the White House on Saturday we were not able to bring our cameras, so we went back to the White House for the photo ops. Unfortunately, Marcus had some kind of illness (food poisoning?) so he stayed back at the hotel while we walked to the White House. That's why he isn't in any of these photos.

We took the subway to Union Station. What an amazing place! There are tons of shops, a food court, a movie theater, and several nice restaurants and bars. Oh, and it's also is a train station.
We had dinner at a restaurant here.

Day Seven--April 3rd

So, what to do on Day Two in Phili when you've pretty much seen all the major sites? Go to a Phillies game! Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, Kyle Kendrick, is a Mount Vernon boy so we went to a game to root him and his team on.
Alex thought Kyle would be pitching that day, but it turned out old Mariner's pitcher Jamie Moyer was pitching. After a really bad first inning the Phillies were down 0-6.

But after am awesome 6th inning the Phillies were up by 1. At the bottom of the 9th the Nationals had tied the Phillies at 7-7.
It was cold, and we didn't have blankets and Nicole was getting bored. So we left the game at the end of the 9th, got a jump on the traffic and listened to the rest of the game on the radio. The Phillies won 8-7 in the 10th. We like to say it was our presence at the game that got the Phillies their first win of the season. We didn't get to see Kyle pitch, but it was still a good day for a ball game.

The Phillies mascot, "Phanatic". He was quite entertaining.