Family Pictures 2012

Look at us getting family pictures taken two years in a row!  We wandered around the Georgetown campus, which is beautiful.  Here's a few favorites:

Spontaneous Adventures

We have the habit (good or bad) to go on day trips without really planning them out first.  Sometimes it works out great.  Other times, not so much.  But that's the chance you take when planning takes a back seat to spontaneity.  (Actually, as I look back, it seems like our lives have been a series of spontaneous decisions.  But, despite how it may seem, we actually really thought about all the moves we've made.  And we would still move back to Bosnia again, given the chance.)  For example, last Saturday we didn't have anything to do in the afternoon.  After a brief deliberation, we decided to go to the beach.  But we were feeling a little more adventurous than usual and so, instead of going to the beach we usually play at, we went to the one four miles down.  (We are quite the dare devils, aren't we?)

First off, we took a wrong turn and ended up here:

Oops.  We drove in as far as we could go, but nuclear power plants are pretty boring from the outside.

So we finally made it to our destination.  The very helpful man at the gate told us it was a little bit of a walk to get to the beach, but our usual beach has about a half-mile trek, so we weren't too concerned.  It ended up being 2 miles.  Each way.  But the walk was lovely, past ponds, through forest and marshlands.

Do you see the snapping turtle?  Brandon was thrilled!

We finally made it to the (very small) beach and were immediately welcomed by hundreds of very feisty sand flies.  Kiddo had a great time in the water (thank you swimming lessons!), but the flies chased us away from the beach in less than an hour.  Yay for BG's first beach experience!

The "cliffs" for which the beach is named.

Playing with a belt!  On the beach!

Look!  They're the same!

8 Months!

Has it been eight months already?  It seems like only moments ago that I was holding her for the first time.

Rolling Thunder to Sharpsburg

We love a good Memorial Day weekend and have been looking forward to it ever since last year's.  First of all, you can't have Memorial Day without seeing Rolling Thunder.  It's one of the many reasons we love living in this area--we can walk to a gathering of hundreds of motorcycles every year.

We had decided to go to Harper's Ferry and Antietam, but our neighbors happened to tell us how great the Memorial Day parade is in the little town of Sharpsburg, right next to the Antietam battlefield.  So we skipped the Civil War sites and settled for some Southern hospitality.  (I can already sense my dad shaking his head in consternation, so let me just say that we did see Antietam.  We just didn't stop to look around.)  

We sampled the goods being sold from the various church and PTA booths and found a spot in the shade to view the show.  The parade was awesome!  I don't know how many times we saw people dressed up in Civil War garb, but it doesn't get old.  I think the only other parade Kiddo has seen was in Germany (although he may have slept through that, I'm not sure), and that was nothing like this one.  He loved all of the old cars and trucks, police cars, fire trucks, dune buggies (which he called monster trucks), and mini Shriner cars.  Plus, all of the cars were throwing candy, so we left with quite the haul.  

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!