Thursday, June 28, 2007

It's a VERY Special Day for a VERY Special Someone

Chad's Birthday is today and although I am sad that I can't spend it with him, I'm still Happy it is his special day!

Babe, I love you and hope you have a wonderful Birthday! I thank God that I get to share my life with you and I'm looking forward to a year full of shared adventures! Happy Birthday Hubby!
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Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Mom and Dad's Visit

A week ago my parents were able to come and visit me in Virginia. Dad stayed for about a week and Mom for a about 10 days. I was so thankful they braved the many flights and airport hoping to get here. We had a wonderful time- it was so nice to have some actual time to spend together after living in different countries for 2 years! I got to stay at the hotel with them even in Lynchburg so it was a holiday at home (sorry I froze you with the air conditioning- I really am an 'oven'!)

NOTE: I can't get blogger to co-operate with moving the pictures- sorry they are out of order!

Mom Sailing on Chesapeake Bay.
Mom and Dad on the Sunset Sail.
The old City Hall in Richmond, VA.
Dad's very MANLY rental car... well, it was good on gas!
The Reflecting Pond and Washington Monument.

Karmyn and Niblet in front of the White House!
The riot police at the Capitol Buildings.
Karmyn at the Capitol Building.



I was (thankfully!) able to get 4 days off from work in a row so we headed to DC for the weekend. We stayed in Springfield at the very end of a Metro line. We took the Metro into DC and spent the whole day getting on and off the trolley and looking at all the sights. The thing that was striking was how freeking big everything was! It just doesn`t look that big and immpressive on the movies! Ha! We saw the Capitol Buildings, the White House, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the Vietnmam, Korean, and Second World War Memorials, the Washington Monument and Reflecting Pond, Georgetown, the Washington Cathedral, a zillion embassies, and a million people...and maybe the inside of every Starbucks we came across!

When we got out to look at the Capitol Building, we saw a bunch of police in their riot gear.... hmmmm.... then we saw the protest. There was a few hundred people gathered protesting the US support of Israel- all chanting "free Palestine"... then they were off on a march to the White House... wonder if they new that Bush was at the G8 summit in Germany? Ha! At least it seemed to scare away the tourists and we were able to get pics of just us in front of the Capitol Buildings (well, maybe us and a few Riot police!)

We headed down to the waterfront and ate at a most excellent Seafood Buffet. All the crab legs, shrimp, fish, crab cakes, etc you can handle! Mmmm! Took the Metro back to the hotel and crashed.

The next day we headed to Annapolis, Maryland but stopped at Mt. Vernon (George Washington`s Estate) along the way. Did the walk-through tour of the house (stationary tour guides that just say the same shpeel over and over and over and over....), saw his grave, orchard, gardens, etc.

Annapolis is right on Chesapeake Bay and after finding Starbucks we were able to find a sunset sail boat ride... turns out it was the same boat that was in "The Wedding Crashers"! A 72 foot wooden sail boat Mom even got to sail the boat! The wind was really calm and we had to use the motor a bit at first, but we sailed in the bay and up the Potomac river. The beautiful homes along the banks, the Annapolis Naval Academy and just barely fitting under the bridges as the sun set made it unforgetable.

The next morning we looked in the hoity-toity shops in downtown Annapolis. Think "Banff on steroids"! From there we headed down to Richmond, VA (the capitol of Virginia). The countryside drive was beautiful and of course I fell asleep! In Richmond we made Dad drive (in his VERY MANLY rental car which he LOVED! Not!) the freeways to downtown to see the government buildings, the Govenor`s Mansion, state court building and the old City Hall which looked like a castle.

From there is was back to Lynchburg after a brief stop at the Strawberry-U-Pick. We topped off the trip with an Olive Garden feast. Fun times. Fun times.

Dad left on Wednesday and had a very eventful trip home (not what you want on your trip home.) After his plane had to fly around a large storm, he missed his connection flight, had to spend the night in a Pheonix hotel with no American cash and no luggage. Then he had to fly all day the next day through Seattle to get home only to find out his luggage was not with him (surprise, surprise!) But at least he got home safe and the luggage (which was really full of my skinny-clothes) arrived later that night!

Mom and I then had a few days to yak, drink coffee, talk baby everything (pregnancy, feeding, sleeping, labor, diapers) and of course shopping. It was hard to drop her off at the airport-hard to say goodbye- hard to be alone again. Strange how when you look forward to something for so long how it is feels when it is finished- but so thankful for the good visit and even more excited to be going home to Canada in 6 weeks!
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Saturday, June 02, 2007

Our Neighborhood






When they say 'big old rambling houses' this is what they meant. The pictures don't do justice, but we(I) live in a historic district where many of the houses are from before the turn of the century. Crazy but big and beautiful!
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