Car Delivery

If you live in Washington D.C. but purchase a vehicle in Missouri, you need someone to help you get it from point A to point B... and the cheapest option is, of course, family.

Now the real kicker here is that courtesy of my dad, Daniela got to come along too. So we made a fun road trip out of it. Which included...

Driving through snow in Tennessee

Watching Bradley devour a massive waffle sandwich

Playing catch in front of the Washington Monument

Chilling with our nieces and nephews

Looking "official" cruising around DC in a black suburban

Getting a taste of Abigail's personality

Saying a quick hello to SCOTUS

And capturing a classic picture of these kids

Life Goal Accomplished

Once upon a time, my dad was in the hospital so his bank sent him an Edible Arrangement. My comment to Daniela, "some day I hope that my bank will care enough about my business to send me something when I am sick."

Well, I wasn't sick but I was totally surprised when the bank manager showed up at my office to drop off brownies... just to thank me for my business. That's close enough for me. 

The reactions were great... 

For Daniela: all I had to do is text her a picture and explain who it was from for her to understand this would be meaningful to me.

For People at my office: why would they send them to you?!

Chicago!

What happens when you are married to a Chilean who needs to get her passport renewed? You have to make a trip to cold Chicago in December. Yet, for our first time in the windy city, we had a blast!

Millenium Park. 

City Library. Beautiful!!

Our "Free Walking Tour" of Chicago. Yes, we were the only Americans on it... but... it is our favorite way to get to know cities.

The Bean. 

What do you do on a cold December night? Go see the Christmas lights at the zoo.

Chicago Deep Dish pizza proved my philosophy of life true once again... low expectations leads to high satisfaction... in this case, my expectations were too high.

Our Visit to the St. Louis Zoo

Every few weeks, Daniela and I pass through St. Louis. Usually our trips take us by the St. Louis Zoo and we always make the comment "you know, sometime we should do that." For over a year we have been saying that, yet things never seemed to work out. Then a few weeks ago we actually had time and excellent weather (like most of this past March) so we took advantage of the opportunity to visit the zoo. And luckily, we were wearing comfortable shoes.

For me, the highlight was seeing the elephants. I don't recall ever seeing an elephant in person before. They were impressive! 


I think the second picture is Daniela's hint that she was ready to move on but I just kept watching...

The gorillas were a lot of fun. They were very active: moving around,
swinging on ropes,  and interacting with each other.

I'm sure that some times are better than others for catching the animals out and about. We were there in the late afternoon right before feeding time. To us, it seemed like a good time. All of the animals were pacing around waiting for their dinner. And the zebras, well, they drew a crowd. 

Good activity. Glad we did it. And best of all, it was free.

Cape Weekend...a side note

This picture was taken over the weekend. After cleaning up the bonfire, we went into the garage and the first thing Miss Hannah did was jump on the lawn mower. This reminded me of this...

This was last summer when Hannah was about 13 months. She requested to sit there and that's total genuine happiness you see on her face. She is having a blast! 


Miss Hannah loves big kid toys...

Cape Weekend...continued

So before Mark and I arrived in Cape, there was a big windstorm that created a ruckus... causing a tree to fall on the garage of my sister-in-law Sarah's house and another tree to fall in the pond at her sister Emily's house. Gladly, that's the worst of it - no homes and no individuals were hurt. 


The Illinois crew were able to take care of Sarah's tree, we helped clean up the tree that fell in Emily's pond...after David and Abe cut it up nicely for us. This isn't the first tree I've seen the McMullins and Funks dispose of and I have to say that they are quite good at it.

The nice pile of wood that WAS the tree in the pond...

Last Summer's tree ridding exercise at David's house...I was TOTALLY impressed by Emily and the Kubota

This tree didn't require the heavy machinery, just man-power to use the chainsaws and lots of arms to carry the wood. Even the kids carried logs that were as big as they were. Once the logs were piled up and the sticks cleared away and in their own pile, it meant that it was time for a bonfire! And bonfires, of course require...marshmallows. No starbursts to roast though - that would have been perfect!

Joshua...

Hannah...

Jacob was not happy with the bonfire that Uncle Mark helped make. So off he went to make his own...

Very deep in concentration...

... and soon enough he was roasting his own marshmallow on his own little bonfire. Go Jacob!

The kids had fun and even let me take pictures of them...these two normally rush you to look at their pictures and don't hold still long enough for me to take them, but I got some I liked.

A little cheesy with the sun glare and everything, but she's still pretty darn cute!

After the fire, we went inside and the kids challenged Uncle Mark at the Wii. Jacob was all about that... He knew he could beat Uncle Mark! Check out how excited he is and how intensely he's looking at the screen. Ski jumping is serious stuff!

We love visiting Cape!

Cape Weekend...

This past weekend we went down to Cape to visit Mark's family...we do this on a fairly regular basis for various different reasons. This weekend we went to celebrate my father- and mother-in-law's birthdays - Happy Birthday John and Taffy!! They had their birthdays earlier this month,  lucky them though, they were able to spend their birthdays in Hawaii. We also went because we wanted to hear the scoop about their trip and the scoop was... they had lots of fun and had lots of good things to say: The food, the accommodations, the scenery were all great! Did I expect anything less from Hawaii? No, not really. :)


We arrived late Friday evening, so Saturday was spent playing with the family. David called and asked if we wanted to go on a bike ride with him, Sterling, and Truman along the Cape trail. We of course said yes! David lent his bike to Mark and I cruised along on Tara's bike. David opted to run the trail. 


The day was beautiful and the trail was so nice! While Mark, Sterling, and David raced ahead, Truman and I got to hang out and explore the trail at our own pace. Truman was awesome! He knew which way to go, even when we lost sight of the boys ahead, and he biked his heart out for almost the entire ride! Those little legs were booking it!

Black dot is Mark, White dot is my brother-in-law David, and the Green dot is my nephew Sterling...

I don't have any pictures of Sterling on his bike, so I'm adding this one from last Summer to show you what he looks like up close and in person - cutie, right?

My riding buddy - Truman!!

We got to the end of the trail, which had a nice little hill and Truman rode to the top and coasted down a few times. I took a picture and when he caught me with the camera, he jumped down from his bike, had me show him the pictures and told me to make sure and get him again. He pedaled up the hill again and coasted down again making sure that I was snapping away.

This is Truman checking that I'm taking pictures as he rides along...

Zoom! 

We did eventually get started again to meet up with the boys, which by this point were no longer dots ahead of us but totally out of our sights. Truman and I kept going at our pace, but my little riding buddy must have reached his limit because this...

turned into this...

I thought it was adorable! I sped up ahead of him to catch it from the other angle...

Tuckered out or not, Truman was the best riding buddy! From seeing his little legs pedaling as fast as they could go, to going through - not around - every puddle on the trail, or riding slowly arms and head over the handlebars, and his great fashion sense - it definitely put a smile on my face. I love having nieces and nephews!

Showing off the John Deere boots...Thanks Truman!