Weekly Review November 23 '12

This week has been fairly eventful.  Saturday was busy, as I predicted it would be.  Tanner was gone most of the day because there were two performances of the play he's been helping with.  Jared wanted to see the afternoon performance because a friend his age from church was performing in that one.  She was one of the understudies, and they did one understudy performance. 

 

While Tanner and Jared were busy with the play, Frank, Seth and I drove down to Washington DC to meet up with Erin, Anna, Buck and June.  It was really a beautiful day to be down there.  It was a little chilly but not too cold and the sun was shining brightly.  The sun sparkling on the water of the Potomac River and Tidal Basin really looked beautiful.  When we got there, Anna & Buck were still on a tour of the Capitol Building so we took Seth to the Museum of Natural History while we were waiting for them to finish.  He loved seeing all the dinosaur bones!

 

 

We also saw the mammal exhibit.  After that, we met up with everyone else and visited while they ate their lunch.  (We had eaten ours on the way down).  I took a few photos at lunch time: 

 



 

 

 

 

Seth talked Erin's ear off!

 

 

You probably can't tell, but that is Buck, Anna, June, and Frank having a picnic on the mall in front of the Smithsonian "castle".

 

After lunch, we all went to the Museum of American History for a little while.  We didn't have a lot of time but it was fun to see a few things and to talk a little bit with Erin, Anna, and Buck.  (June took a nap in her stroller).  Seth really liked seeing the Star Spangled Banner.  He asked to look at it again when we were on our way out.  The girls enjoyed the exhibit of First Ladies' ball gowns and White House china but that didn't interest the boys much.  We also saw one of the sunstones from the original Nauvoo temple.  After that, we had to head home.  Jared wanted to go to a dance so we had to get home in time to get him to the church for his ride.  We did just manage to get home in time to make dinner for him and then take him to the church. 

 

On Sunday after church and choir practice, we made a few things for dinner and then headed to Erin's house in Alexandria, Virginia.  We had a nice dinner with them.  Erin made yummy roast beef, potatoes, and carrots, and we brought a fruit salad, rolls, and dessert.  I intended to get more pictures of everyone but I forgot to bring my camera.  June had had a very bad night, which means everyone else did too.  So they were tired but we enjoyed visiting anyway.  We met most of Erin's roommates and her friend Dan too.  For dessert I had tried a new brownie recipe and it was a hit with everyone.  We put candles in it and sang Happy Birthday to Anna, since her birthday was the following day.  It was fun to see them (and to get to know June a little better--what a cutie!) and we hope we get to see them all again someday soon.

 

Monday and Tuesday were busy, busy getting ready for our trip to North Carolina.  We also had all the usual things that needed to be done too--things like laundry, shopping and cleaning bathrooms.  I was also doing some advanced preparation for our YW in Excellence dinner, since that is happening a few days after we get back, and we had Tanner's birthday to think about too since that's on Monday.  Frank was able to take both days off without using vacation days because of extra time he's worked on weekends.  (He did go in Monday morning for a few hours to get a few things done that needed to be done.)  With Frank home, we were able to get everything done that needed to be done and we were able to leave immediately after Seth arrived home from school on Tuesday, as planned.  We had a hotel room reserved for that night near Roanoke, Virginia--which is about half way between our house and Brevard.  It was nice to break the trip up into two manageable drives.  (Driving all night would not have been very fun.)  We enjoyed a pretty brilliant sunset that evening; the pictures I took are not very good but here they are:

 

Blurry--the car was moving.

 

Not so blurry--but with lots of obstructions; we were stopped at an intersection.

 

It was much more impressive in real life--it looked like flames in the sky.  The boys enjoyed watching movies on the way down, and I did too--I watched the second half of "Pride and Prejudice" on my computer Tuesday evening and "Thor" on Wednesday.  Tanner didn't sleep very well Tuesday night so he slept in while the rest of us showered and enjoyed the complimentary continental breakfast.  Then Tanner showered and ate while Frank and Jared packed the car back up.  We were able to get on the road by 9:30 and arrived in Brevard by 1:30.  We stopped at Sonic to get drinks--we don't have a Sonic in Frederick so the boys always want to go there when we are visiting Brevard.  We spent the afternoon and evening visiting with Frank's parents.  We made a quick trip to the grocery store and had a pizza dinner with them.  Seth liked their birds but he was afraid to hold this one himself:



 

Granny holds "Sunshine"

 



 

My turn

 



 

Now Grandpa has him

 



 

This is as close as Seth would get!

 

We are staying with Frank's sister, Dawn, so we went over to her house that evening.  We all watched the movie Brave before turning in (none of us had seen it yet).  The next day everyone was busy cooking.  There was not enough room in the kitchen for a lot of cooks, so the only thing I did to help with Thanksgiving dinner this year is to peel four carrots for the salad.  We all met at the church to eat.  There was lots of food:

 





And it was all yummy.  After dinner, we played games for most of the afternoon.  Frank enjoyed teaching everyone how to play speed Uno:

Granny taught the rest of us a homemade game called "Wahoo", similar to "Sorry!":

I played one round of that, and as luck would have it, I actually won.  After playing games, we all ate leftovers for dinner and then cleaned everything up and headed back to our homes.  Everyone else watched The Blind Side while I watched Captain America on my computer.  (Now I am finally ready to see The Avengers.  I hadn't seen any of those movies yet.)  I texted with Scott for a while--we were going to Skype him but his computer died and he forgot to take his power cord with him to Utah.   

Today we've been relaxing and doing laundry.  Tanner worked on Duty to God a little and Jared worked on his Personal Management Merit Badge too.  Dawn watches a little 3 year old girl named Emma; she and Seth have been playing a lot together and having a lot of fun.  Here they are making cookies with Dawn:

And here they are outside, sharing a snack and playing:

It's been really fun to watch them and listen to them play.  Tanner and Jared are on a bike ride now.  We are planning to visit with Frank's parents after the laundry gets done and then tonight we are having dinner at his brother's house.  We are driving back home tomorrow.  It's been a nice visit and a good Thanksgiving!  We have a lot to be thankful for.