Hey Kiddos

So, I thought I would update you a bit on what we've been doing this summer. I know it's been a while, so I thought I would try to catch you up a bit. In April, Brian, Janie, and Samantha came to visit us and to see the Cherry Blossoms. The blossoms were beautiful but it was sooo cold. Sam did such a great job putting up with us while we toured the city. (Oh, okay! Brian and Janie, you were good sports too.) We got to give Samantha her Easter bag and I think she liked the bubbles best. A close second was opening the easter eggs to find surprises in them. Also during this time, some of Daniel's family visited too--Judy, Richard, Maw-Maw, and Mr. Gene. Together with Uncle Bill we visited Harper's Ferry, WV and Great Falls Park in VA along with several other places. Those were some neat things that neither Daniel or I had seen. Great Falls was unexpectedly beautiful. I had no idea they had that kind of falls there. After visiting there, we only wished we had known about it before Brian and Janie had left so we could have taken them there. We definitely enjoyed having all of our family members here to visit with us. It brought a little bit of home our way just before Easter! As for the rest of April not much else happened other than I took a temp job with Tier Technologies and as for right now, I'm still there, going strong. I have no end date at this time and the people are superb!

In May, I headed to Atlanta for Amanda's 1st Holy Communion. She did beautifully and I'm so happy that I could be there to share that special moment with her. I also got to celebrate Adam's and David's birthdays with the rest of family, which was a pleasure. I really enjoyed spending time with everyone and getting to be a part of their family for the weekend. In the middle of May, we both flew to Birmingham for our friends Libby and Greg's wedding. It was so good to see everyone and be their to celebrate their love for one another. We also got to see Michael, Jackie and Chloe that weekend. I couldn't believe how much little Chloe had grown! I tried hard to get her to dance with me but she just wanted Mommy and Daddy. Oh well. We want to thank Steve, Susan and Elizabeth for letting us crash with them. Elizabeth's growing like a weed and likes to repeat things you say. She also likes you chasing her with the shopping cart around the circle. Daniel and I both got our miles in that weekend. For Memorial Day weekend, we went to Hershey, PA and camped out. We had our tent, grilled at the camp site, visited the Hershey story museum, the Hershey gardens, the outlets, and just enjoyed the general setting. It's a pretty neat place and we look forward to going back there.

In June, I flew down for Uncle Roy's Diaconate Ordination in Huntsville. It was such a blessing to share in his ordination. I was so proud of him and he looked very "Father" like. I can't wait for him to become a full priest. I know he will do well! I was lucky to see a lot of my family on Dad's side at the reception for Uncle Roy. I also want to thank Michael and Jackie for letting me stay the weekend with them. I did come down one day early and stayed with Mom and Dad on Friday night. I got to see Dad's handy work on the sunroom. It's quite impressive and totally changes the look of the back of the house. I can't wait to see the final product. I know Mom will be excited to look out all her new windows at the birds and nature. For the rest of June we wanted to relax because we had been going so much. So we did. Only other thing we did was visit with our friends Astu and Rishi which we hadn't been able to do since before we went to Paris. We checked out this restaurant downtown called Zengo and then to an irish pub called Fado. It was a great way to relax and catch up with them.

Now to July. As Daniel mentioned in the last blog, Ben and Celi came down to visit us. While they were here we checked out Natural History and American History Museums and also took them to Zengo and Fado. On the 4th we went downtown for the fireworks (which you already knew) and also took them to our local Gelato place. It's Daniel's new favorite "restaurant." It is very delish and quickly becoming our weekend stop. So far my favorites flavors are grapefruit, local strawberry, concord grape, (sorbets) and cinnamon. I know what you're thinking. Cinnamon??!!?? Well, it is fabulous! It doesn't taste anything like you'd think it would. Oh the other new thing is that I rented a Cello. I have always wanted to learn and now I can. It's coming along pretty well. I can play Jingle Bells, Old McDonald, and Twinkle Twinkle. I've learned 10 notes and I think I know two more even though I haven't learned them yet. Two weekends ago, Daniel took me to see Taylor Swift in Charleston, WV. She did a great job with her show. It was quite different to any other concert I had been too. It definitely catered to the younger crowd but still, it was superb. Wardrobe changes, set changes, lights, effects, videos, it was all pretty cool She even played in the back of the arena where we were so we got to see her up close an personal. We ended up being about 10 feet away from her. Her opening acts were Gloriana and Kellie Pickler, of which both did great jobs too. We decide that her show was about the most happening thing in Charleston. Daniel's commute has started to take a little longer now because of the metro crash and because the bus route that used to drop him on/off at our apartment got discontinued. He now walks to/from the bus stop in the Town Center everyday. In the evenings, I've started taking up running. I'm not very good at it yet, but I'm definitely getting better. I can run .5 mile without stopping now and I'll be winded but it won't take me but about 10-20 secs to really catch my breath. Which is a big improvement from when I started. So now, I go out about 20-25 mins before Daniel gets home and run/walk and meet up with him at the bus stop for a cool down walk. Okay, so I think that's about it for now. Oh yeah, I've also enjoyed watching all the gooses again. The babies are here and have grown up so fast. The look adult sized now, just a bit skinnier and shorter. Okay, really, I'm done. Have a good night! Love to all!

4th of July

Hello! It's been a while since we've posted to our blog, so we thought we should! Last weekend, we spent the 4th of July in DC with Ben and Celi. We had a lot of fun and were able to make it downtown for the fireworks show that night. It was a really good fireworks show (although I thought they were a little close to the ground). And I just found out that I could upload video to the blog, so I did that too! We got a pretty good video of the finale of the show. Hopefully it comes up pretty clear on everyone's computer.

We also made it to some museums that we haven't been to yet. We toured the Natural History Museum for a few hours and saw some pretty neat things, including a huge squid! On the 4th, we went to the American History Museum but, as you might imagine, it was pretty crowded and we didn't get to see a whole lot. Afterwards, we found a place to get a hamburger and fries and then found a spot of grass to sit down and wait for the fireworks show to start. There was a very long line to get through security to get a place around the Washington Monument, so we decided to stay around the Natural History Museum, which is right next to the Mall. It turns out that that was a very good spot, as we had great views of the show as well as a quick escape once the show ended and we were able to make it back to our car at the metro station in a little under an hour.

We'll post again soon to give more updates, but I just wanted to go ahead and put the video up. Enjoy! Hope everyone is doing well!