More family visits!

Last Saturday Peter and Sherrie's cousin, Heather from Pennsylvania came down to visit! It was so special to meet her family - she has two darling little girls (Hadassah & Sarah) and a very nice husband (Sean).
Cutie-pie HadassahLook at those blue eyes!
Sean would build the tower...
...and Hadassah would knock it over. I think she could do this all day, she loved it!
Sweet lil' Sarah
Hadassah day dreaming
Sean, Heather, Hadassah, Sherrie, myself & Sarah
What a sweet little family - now it's our turn to see where they live! Hopefully soon. :)

Bobbi & Brooklyn stop in...

Our friend Bobbi brought her darling little girl over for lunch one day while Sherrie and Loren were here... Here's some pics from that day!
Sweet lil' Brooklyn
Brooklyn and Dozer were equally curious about eachother - so cute!
Isn't this precious?!
Bobbi and her sweet Brooklyn

Sherrie & Loren visit!!! 9/20 - 10/01

We've sure enjoyed having Sherrie and Loren in the area the last week and a half! On Saturday Loren had the great idea of finding a boat tour, and after a bit of researching online, we found the perfect one! The Monuments Cruise left from Georgetown and went to Old Town Alexandria - it was beautiful! The weather cooperated quite nicely too. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to the area. :) Here's a photo journal of the trip!
Departing Georgetown
The tour passes by numerous of the famous DC monuments, and many others that are inland you can see from the water. Here's the Lincoln Memorial with the very tip of the Washington Monument peeking up behind.
Sherrie and Loren on the cruise
Peter & I on the cruise
This cute sternwheeler was docked in Alexandria - reminds me of this one. :-)
My sweet, sweet hubby
Perusing the docks in Alexandria... & drooling over the amazing yachts. I took this photo however because I liked how the gazebo perfectly framed the Capitol building across the Potomac River. :-)
Sherrie and Loren in Alexandria... :-)
Peter & I in Alexandria
I love all the beautiful brick masonry out here. Brick on the East Coast is used as commonly as stucco is in San Diego! (I think it's prettier tho!)
Peter was pretty stoked to see a real live Torpedo Factory. :-)
Sherrie was totally in her element in this paper store. Obviously, so was I. Look out, it's the one-eyed-psycho coming your way!
Sitt'n on the canon...
YUCK.
Peter being artistic... We're on our way cruis'n back to Georgetown now.
Again. :-) I like this one!
My attempt at being artistic.
Remember that cute sternwheeler earlier? Here it is again a few hours later!
JFK Center for Performing Arts - We went here a few weeks ago (remember this post) for their free Open House...
And our final destination, Georgetown! All lit up - Pictures don't do it justice!
Come visit and we'll take ya on a cruise!

Dozer (haven't you missed him?!)

We keep the temperature in our place fairly cool & Dozer's constantly looking for somewhere warm to snuggle. Often he'll curl up in a ball next to you & turn his heat up. He's such a little furnace. :) Anyhow, last week he found his own personal heater that worked great until it's owner found out!

Thursday dinner with friends

One of my old roommates from when we lived in Vancouver, WA came up to DC this weekend, and we were able to meet up with her & her husband for supper. It was great to catch up with them!
We had dinner at Indigo Landing - it was a first and last for us! I wouldn't recommend it. Their website makes it look beautiful, delicious, romantic, etc etc - it's not. At all. The view is gorgeous & they have a prime location to be an amazing restaurant/venue; unfortunately they're not taking advantage of that! Anyhow, we enjoyed the scenery and company. :)
From our table... Lots of sailboats out borrowing the evening breeze, a plane taking off from Raegan Airport & far off in the background you can even see the Washington Monument... lovely setting. Harbor off to the right of our table
Sarah & Austin (they live in Richmond, VA now...)
Sun setting
We're glad we caught them while they were in town!

Hilarious... Make sure your sound is on!

*Hint: Click play, then when it starts playing pause it until the full clip loads. YouTube is SLOW...

Our little resident family

They've set stake right outside our front door... Mushrooms are growing everywhere after Hurricane Hanna went through last week. Our neighbors have 18 in one spot!
Why do I have such a strong urge to kick them every time I walk by?! :)

Kennedy Center for Performing Arts

Saturday some of our friends informed us that the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts was having it's annual Open House. Keyword: FREE! :) Kennedy Center had a very diverse agenda - we just went down for the evening & were able to catch two of the shows.
This is a band originally from Seattle, WA. Now they play in New York. I have a video, but am having trouble playing it so it'll have to wait until I can get it fixed!
Greg Pattillo and his beatboxing band - very unique sound & fun to watch!
Bass guy - He had some hilarious facial expressions. :)
Loaded auditorium to watch Step dancing... Have you ever seen it? It's... well... interesting! :) Apparently WA DC is know for their Step Afrika program - Look them up on YouTube. Again, I have a video & will upload ASAP.
Huge chandeliers in the auditorium
Then we headed out to spend some time walking along the river. We meandered our way up to Georgetown for a bite to eat & then back to the Metro for the ride home. Beautiful evening!
Oh, to have a yacht... or some friends with one... :-D
Peter & I
Douglas & Yamileth - they just moved to WA DC metro area... they're newer here than we are!
Esther & her friend Maria
Our group minus Maria (taking photo)
It was a WARM evening... quite muggy & by the time we made it back to the metro we were all (at least I was) very glad for some A/C!

Remember...

Blogs to anticipate!

Upcoming plans...
Peter's sis Sherrie and her hubby Loren are coming on Sept. 20th-Oct. 2nd.
Then we'll be in Mexico Oct. 4th-11th.
After that we're going camping Oct. 17th-19th at Seneca Rocks.
Finally, Mom and Dad are coming Nov. 6th-17th!
We have a busy few months ahead of us, but no plans for December... so who's coming?! :-)

Cooking & Baking

We had a big group over on Sunday for lunch... I didn't get any photos of our group, but I did of the food! :)
Making bread for the FIRST time... Wheat Rolls, ready to rise - they turned out great! Making bread was so much easier than I anticipated, and I'm much less intimidated to do it again now. :)
Meat, cheese & spinach lasagna. The recipe is here, but I modified it quite a bit... (I added more cheese, more meat, chopped spinach & olives. I also didn't boil the noodles beforehand, just soaked them in some lukewarm water for 20 minutes before putting them in the lasagna to bake.)
And finally, chewy oatmeal cookies... (ready to bake) Also a success!

Convention Tent'n, etc.

Peter & I decided to "rough it" at Pulaski convention & broke the tent in. We stayed plenty warm, (thanks also to our HUGE sleeping bag) and even dry! :-) We're quite pleased with it all so far - but we'll get to really test them out in October on the next trip, destination Seneca Rocks, WV. After convention we stayed the night at the home of some of the friends in Lynchville, VA. Around 50 people showed up that evening for Pizza and LOTS of games. I'll include an excerpt Peter wrote in an email that describes some of the fun we all had - he described it much better than I could. Keep in mind about 1/2 of this group was young (early 20's) single boys with lots to prove! :)
"A large family invited us out to their place after convention (just outside of Lynchburg - I wonder how it got that name...) and we enjoyed being with them Sunday and Monday. They have a lot of boys, so things were pretty crazy! There were full contact basketball games, full contact "touch" football, arm wrestling, pull-up contests, one-arm pull-up contest, improvised dodge ball (with a volley ball against the back of the garage), full contact bean bag, a riding lawn mower lifting contest, an i-beam climbing and balancing contest, night golf cart races. The prizes were a bloodied and split nose, blackend eye (football - very impressive); some face, eye, leg, and arm injuries (golf cart races); testicle damage (dodge ball and basketball); puking in the yard (basketball - after pizza dinner); arm and hand cuts (i-beam balancing/climbing and pull-ups); along with multiple bruises and smaller abrasions (all of the above). As far as I know, I don't think they ran out of Band-Aids, but they must have put a serious dent in their supply. :-) Marissa and I weren't involved in all the activities and were able to avoid any of the prizes."
Here's the group picture of those that were left Monday morning - Many of the folks lived close by and went home after the festivities Sunday night.
We had a great time with them all, met lots of new friends, and still are in awe of how hospitable the folks out here are. Hopefully we can return the favor sometime! :)

Friends & Birthdays

Last Monday night some friends in the area were having a birthday for another friend, Gordon, so we went to help celebrate!
I won't tell you how old he his... but you just might be able to figure it out from the photos! Sorry they're so grainy - I was snapping too quickly to get a good one.1/2 of the sweet Thomas family!
Happy Birthday Gordon! Thanks for putting up with us, we sure appreciate you guys!