Right Wing Nut Jobs

We attended the Richmond Tea Party this year and in so doing, made the department of HLS's list of potential terrorists. Should we be concerned that, when we leave the house, we are followed by a black Navigator SUV with tinted windows and a black stealth helicopter?

Disney World

In April we visited Disney World with Eddie, Melissa, Scott, Kari, Clay, Tanner, and Cammie. A lot of bodies to shoe-horn into a two bedroom condo but we managed. Once you've seen a six-foot fiberglass duck and a seven-foot plastic mouse, you've seen it all.

Kiawah Island

In March, our friend, Jennifer treated us to a long week end at Kiawah Island, SC. She had won the stay with Travelocity and since the condo had two bedrooms, Judy and I drove down. The weather was nice and I enjoyed a couple of rounds of golf with Jennifer.

This is Jennifer

Yes, there were some alligators on the course - some a lot larger than these babies

Papa's drinking buddy

Air and Space Museum

Papa took Olivia and Sophie to visit the new (relatively) Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that they had filled it with airplanes and other memorabilia (old Dennis Miller joke).

Who knew that the space shuttle was sooooo big?


This is the tower of the museum in which you can go to the top and view jets landing at next door Dulles Airport.

They rode a flight simulator to find out how it feels to do aerobatics. No one hurled.



Of historical significance was the B-29 "Enola Gay", the aircraft the dropped the A-bomb on Japan to end WW-!!.

The Volcanos

Friday is our day to watch Eddie's kids. Today, Rylan and Hayden joind the mob. Our friend, Ginny came with a volcano project.


First the kids went to a web site (http://kids.discovery.com/games/pompeii/pompeii.html) to learn all about just what a volcano is.Then they each painted their volcanoes.













Then, using a secret mixture of baking soda and vinegar, Clay and Cammie make the volcanoes erupt.

Afterwards, Clay, Cammie, Tanner, and Rylan tried to see how much of the sand they could get on the deck.

The Blizzard of '09

It seems we got our entire winter's allotment of snow in one dropping. 8 -10 inches of the white stuff. Eddie's kids came over as, of course, we just can't have school in these conditions, and played in the snow. They tried their hand at snow sculptures.

First, they made this just to get the hang of it.


Than they made this one for the neighborhood contest ( 2nd place).

OK, you got me, they actually made this one:


And they did some sledding. Afterwards, Mema made them some hot cocoa and fed them the remnants of Papa's birthday cake.
Two days later, after most of the snow had melted away, Cammie looked at what was left of her once magnificent snow person and announced that only his bootie was left.

Papa's Birthday

Papa was able to ditch the walker for the evening as Ashley and Scott's family came over for pizza, cake, and Mario racer on the Wii. That afternoon it began to snow and by 6:00 had accumulated about 2 inches. By morning we had about 8 inches on the ground and it was still falling.
If we wanted to live like this, we'd move to Cleveland.