4th of July = CARNAGE!

As is becoming our tradition, we went to the Evergeen Speedway for the 4th of July. They always have great number of events for the 4th and this year was no exception. Figure 8 Races, School bus Figure 8, Boat races, rollovers and an awesome Jet Car!

Plus, Charlotte and I got to ride in a real, live Monster truck. It was entirely awesome and totally worth my $7.

In line, barely containing our excitement!

Actually on the truck, I was surprised just how tall they really are. This truly is the Monster Truck in it's natural habitat. It allowed us aboard and did donuts. So awesome!

During the School bus races, one of them actually tipped over. The crowd went crazy!

Oops!

The best event of the night; the Jet Car MELTED a Honda Civic. Melted it! Sparks everywhere, super loud engines. My little white trash heart melted too!

Emerald City Con

James and his brother went to check out the Emerald City Comic-Con. There were many folks in costume with James' favorite being a little kid dressed as zombie Captain America.

I think James may have stumbled upon a real-life elf or something. She's shorter than me!

Keep out of direct sunlight...

Also in May an effort was made to provide some fun for those of who don't worship the sun. Wedgwood held an Indoor Party with board games, Rock Band and a variety of kid activities.Greg getting his butt kicked by a bunch of girls! True, it's Monopoly, but still.

James trying his hand at Rock Band. He rocked.

This little imp is Natasha, our god daughter. Isn't she cute?

Revisiting old favs...

In May, We headed up to Snoqualmie Falls, where they filmed Twin Peaks, one of our favorite shows. It's become kind of an annual trek. We head up to see the falls, eat cherry pie at the 'T-Mar' and hang out. My very own Agent Cooper.

Getting Older

In May, James and Jessica both got older. We treated them to alcohol so they could forget their decrepitness. I kid, I kid. But they did get alcohol.

The kids all loved Edgar. He's such an awesome, mellow cat that he took it.

Hallelujah! I got a new oven!

Our house has a few quirks; one of which was a rather small oven. This oven couldn't fit a large pizza and once made me return a lovely cookie sheet I got for Christmas cause the cookie sheet was too big!

Thanks to Uncle Sam and a loving husband I got a shiny, new, DOUBLE oven!! See the transformation below.

Remove the offending appliance!Remove the offending cabinet!

Enjoy shiny new oven!

Godkids Galore!

After I got back from my trip to DC, we had some of godkids over for the day. We spent a lot of time putting on jewelry and being girly (well, the gentlemen didn't join us in that part) then it started to snow! In April!

So we suited everyone up as best we could and headed out.

After getting pretty darn cold, we headed in for the obligatory clothing change and hot chocolate!

Finally, some Cherry Blossoms

On our last day of the trip we went to Longwood Gardens an amazing expanse of cultivated gardens. They have an Italian Water Garden, many cherry blossom trees, an Orchid room and so much more. Pierre du Pont, of the Du Pont chemical company, purchased the land in 1906 to preserve the trees and he began to create most of what is seen today. The gardens are extensive and well worth the trip. Mom said that she hadn't been in spring before, so she was very excited as most plants were in bloom and absolutely gorgeous.

Below are just a few of beautiful things we saw.

When I look at some of these flowers and the many varieties that there are, I can't help but see God's hand and his masterful artistry.

I just love multiple cherry blossom trees together. It's like nature's soft focus. They make a gorgeous background. I was so glad that the season hadn't passed us by entirely.

WA DC Cherry Blossom Festival

Continuing on our East Coast adventure, we picked up members of our family and headed to WA DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. The weather threatened rain, but it was still very warm. I managed to get a sunburn even though the sun wasn't out much or ever got very hot. Sigh.Before the parade we kept seeing this guy that managed to get his cat to walk on a leash. I never would have believed it possible - but you see the proof!
The Parade started with a bunch of different US Military units in various uniforms, even one from colonial times. Parade fare then moved onto floats, dancers, cars and bands. They had unicyclists, gymnasts, a few politicians, a giant Target ad and a bunch of old, cool cars.

The rain kept starting and stopping, but aside from getting wet, it wasn't too bad. The sun would come out and dry everything up, then it would cloud up again. I'm used to it just staying cloudy, cold and wet.

Garfield showed up, which was pretty cool and I'm really glad we splurged and bought grandstand tickets, cause I would have been a sad camper if we had to fight for seats or stand for the entire parade.

I vaguely remember being in a parade when I was younger and could twirl a baton, but I don't remember it being anywhere near this long!

After the parade we wandered out to see the monuments and look for some actual cherry blossoms. Apparently we were there at the end of the fesitval and most of the cherry blossoms were gone. Sad. We did find a few trees that hadn't been savaged by the wind, but they were few and far between.

Mom and the Washington Monument. Sorry, no Martians!

My aunt wanted a picture with some passing servicemen, so my cousin managed to talk them into it and everyone joined in! After the monument looking we found a cool Japanese street fair where they had Taiko drumming, which I love, then we all headed back for our long drive back to Delware.

Atlantic City... huh.

Continuing on our adventure on the East Coast, Mom and I spent a night in Atlantic City. I had always thought that Atlantic City was the East Coast Vegas and would live up to that rep. Ummm, it didn't. It was remarkably small and seemed almost antiquated.It was also quite chilly and foggy, since we were right on the ocean. We had a good time, lost some money in the slot machines, saw the musical 42nd Street and spent time in the spa. Then we headed off to Delaware to visit Mom's sister and her family.

Coming in to Delaware we drove through Pennsylvania and thought it might be cool to see Independence Hall. However, we were on a freeway that gave us no idication where Indepedence Hall might be. After driving all the way through town and realizing we had no way to figure out where we were, we spotted a cool looking cemetary on the bank of a river. We managed to wind our way over there and spent some time looking at some very old graves in the Laurel Hill Cemetary.

Laurel Hill Cemetary was established in 1836 on the banks of the Schuylkill River and designed to be a "permanent, non-sectarian burial place for the dead, but also as a scenic, riverside sanctuary for the living."

I am often struck by the work the folks before us put into commemorating things, be it church buildings or monuments to the dead. I have disliked the current trend of economy in burial where you are forced to choose a tombstone that can be easily mowed over. While I don't endorse the borderline worship or pride that some monuments can represent, I also don't like being told, that in order to make the groundskeeper's job easier, I can't commemorate my loved one in a style of my choosing with a monument that holds significance to me or my family. You are a groundskeeper, keep those grounds! So there.

My mom has stopped aging (of course), but we went to the East Coast anyway.

My mother hit a milestone this year. I won't say which one, but I was lucky enough to accompany her on a trip to the East Coast. We got to see friends and family I hadn't seen in many years and we had a blast.
We started our trip in Old Newcastle (I know, I know) but it's a charming little town. I absolutely love the brickwork of the old houses and the colonial style. (I took quite of few pictures of dream houses.) Old Newcastle is actually quite interesting because they have worked really hard to maintain the quaintess of the houses and streets (which makes it a bit dangerous if you don't watch your step) and they even have an alleyway called 'Packet Alley' that was used by the likes of Davey Crockett. The alleyway leads to the water, so the ships of old would have docked there and you would walk up this alley to get to the main town.

We also found a Delaware Street and felt it was appropriate to commemorate the birth of a Delawarian.
Mom said she hadn't been to Old Newcastle in a really long time, so we took our time checking out the shops and looking at the cool door knockers. We stopped in an old hotel for lunch and then went on to the church cemetary. I'm always fascinated by old cemetaries; the history and people they represent. The West Coast doesn't seem to have this kind of rich historical feel and I quite enjoy checking out buldings where things I studied in school actually happened. England was even cooler in that respect, but most people know about my British obsession so I'll leave that be.

Below is the cute church cat we met.

March 2008

March offered a variety of activites, from house/kidsitting for our friends to dunking a bunch of people Easter Morning.

While housesitting, Charlotte talked me into getting "gussied up" as it were, for her "piano recital". Below you see the tragic results.












Easter morning was an amazing experience. It was our first Easter service in our new Wedgwood Campus. We had a number of people get baptized and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, my pictures were all fuzzy and incoherent.

February 2008

Apparently, a large number of women 'retreated', but we did it so well there is no pictoral evidence.

I was welcomed into a band that would eventually become Achilles Heel. See most of us "rock" below.

I also started the Wedgwood Choir which would perform at Easter. Hopefully we'll revive it for Christmas.

January 2008

Ummm... doesn't seem like much happened. Some acquaintances got married.

We did see what would turn out to be one of our favorite movies of the year, Cloverfield.

But I have no pictures, so nothing happened.

A quick look back...

Ahh, the objective perspective that can be gained from August. What has 2008 been like? I really have no idea, but I can post pictures of some of the cool things we did!

I'm going to attempt a post for each month to bring you up to speed. But first...

Here are 2 pics from our awesome trip to Israel in 2007!

This was in Jerusalem, near the replica they have of the Temple. It's a pretty big replica, so you can imagine what a massive city Jerusalem would have been.

Here we are in the dessert. Can't you tell? It's an oasis where Solomon used to bring his many, many women and David hid here when Saul was trying to kill him. How remarkable to find something so beautiful tucked back in a mountain ravine.

Harlemania Begins!

It begins with trepidation; that feeling that you are starting something that is beyond your ken, beyond your ability to keep up, beyond your ability to produce content.
Your intentions are good. Provide a way for your family and friends to keep up with you. Offer a place for fun thoughts and pictures. But can you handle it? Can you make it interesting and worthwhile? Will you post after the first week?