February Breakdown

February Breakdown, not Meltdown.  Breakdown as in "lemme break it on down for ya'"

Here we are mid-February and this family is booked solid through mid-March.  This past weekend we had the big Capital Hill Classic volleyball tournament.  Coach and KJ were at the DC Convention Center Friday night for practice and we all headed down there on Saturday to start the tournament.  I only stayed in DC one night while Coach and KJ stayed two nights since she had games today, too.  Thank God for my awesome hotel discount.  We use it a LOT during volleyball season!  The Westin City Center was nice and super convenient to the Convention Center.    After we checked in Saturday, we had lunch at a cafe before we headed down to the tournament.  Saturday we got some snow (very, very light) and walked back to the hotel in the middle of the storm.  It was only 4 blocks but man was it cold!

My Peeps

So nice to have all of my peeps home for Easter!  And, oddly enough, I didn't have any of my favorite Easter candy.  So not like me!!!

T flew in late Thursday night and Friday Cosmo and the girls spent the day at Kings Dominion.  Saturday we had a nice, leisurely day walking around DC and Georgetown.  It was such a beautiful day we decided not to waste the sunshine by going to an indoor museum.  We just strolled and people watched and walked and talked.  We love to park at the Capital and walk down one side of the Mall and back up the other.  T said the pea gravel and wide Mall reminded her of our trip to Paris with it's wide boulevards and le Jardin des Tuileries.  Made my heart so happy to hear that!  Lots of families picnicking on the mall, lots of kite flying, some flag football games going on and even some adult kickball games.  We had a fun, late lunch at Thunder Burger in Georgetown:  http://www.thunderburger.com/index1.html and did some shopping.  Georgetown was hopping and I always love the vibe.  Saturday night T finally got to taste the wonderful goodness that is Jimmie Cone.

T had to fly out super early Sunday morning but on her way back to Oxford from Memphis she had a nice little visit with her cousin and his family.  They are military and are in the process of transitioning from New Orleans to Memphis.  T is SO excited to have some family nearby!

Sunday Cosmo's niece and her husband joined us for Easter Dinner.  I had only met Matt once and hadn't see Kristen since another niece's wedding in 2009!  We had a nice time catching up and hope to see more of them!

My folks arrive tomorrow and will be here through the weekend.  My mom wants to go to the Franciscan Monastery http://www.myfranciscan.org/ while they're here and my dad wants to go to the Air and Space Museum http://airandspace.si.edu/  My parents are used to high 80's coming from Florida and my mom wanted to know if we had opened our pool yet.  Ummmmm......

A Quickie

Had a nice quick visit w/ my parents this weekend.  They got here around 7 PM Saturday after going to Mr. B's football game and lunch.  After church Sunday we originally set our sights on Annapolis but detoured and made a stop in DC. 

 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, unseasonably warm.  For obvious reasons, DC was not crowded and we had no problem driving around or finding parking.  We went to the WWII Memorial and wish we could have spent more time.  It was kind of a weird situation...it was barricaded but yet the park rangers were not stopping anyone from crossing the barricade.  As a matter of fact, they offered to help me climb over the fence and opened the barricades to help many of the veterans.  

 

How about these photos, huh??  Dang!  My camera takes amazing pictures!  Looks like a bunch of postcards!  

Just a Bill

Ed & Gins are coming for a quick visit this weekend.  The weather is supposed to be pretty good (unseasonable warm, in the high 80's) and I would have loved to go into DC but with the shut down and now with today's incident on Capital Hill (I always think of "I'm Just a Bill" from Schoolhouse Rock every time someone says "Capital Hill), that's not going to happen.  Maybe we'll go into Baltimore or Annapolis (I haven't been back to Annapolis since we left the first time!). 

There is a local Octoberfest on Saturday so we might be able to hit that depending on what time they get here.  I haven't done any of my Fall / Halloween decorating yet so maybe my mom can help me with that.  There's also a nice orchard nearby that is supposed to have a great pumpkin festival (as opposed to a Great Pumpkin festival a la The Peanuts).   http://www.butlersorchard.com/

I've had a touch of insomnia the last couple of days and end up watching mindless garbage on TV.  If I read, I can read all night and that's worse.  Mindless TV makes me drowsy and I end up falling asleep on the couch.  The last couple of nights I've watched a show called Life Below Zero on the National Geographic channel.  http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/life-below-zero/  This show is CRAZY!  I totally get folks wanting to living off the grid, etc. but I'm not a big red meat eater and don't think that I could survive.  Instead of seal meat or bear meat, I'd be craving a salad.