Blizzard of 2009

20 inches of snow in Maryland=INSANITY!

Truman is king of a giant mountain of snow! If you look at the bush behind him you can get a good sense of our snow pile up!

Christmas Crafts

For a few years I have been wanting a new way to display the holiday cards we receive and an advent calender, but I could not find anything that I liked. So this year I decided to just make them myself. I got the idea for the advent calendar from Good Housekeeping magazine, each little bag has a game, or stickers or a treat inside. And during the last days before Christmas the bags also hold a scripture reference referring to the birth of the Savior, with Luke 2 in the bag for Christmas Eve. I got the idea for the card display wreath from my friend Jessica. Although she actually made a garland for her home and she got the idea from her sister-in-law Jen. So that idea has been passed around and now I am passing it to you. Don't be too jealous of my mad crafting skills!

"Bub...Bub Dylan." "Ohh..Bob."

Here's a little story for you. Well first let me say that if you can identify which movie I am quoting in the title of this post then we are destined to be best friends! Anyway back to my story. One day I was standing in my kitchen , washing the dishes and listening to NPR on the radio. When I heard the announcer announce (hee, hee) that you could enter to win tickets to a Bob Dylan concert on their web site. And I thought, I'm gonna do it! So I did and I won the tickets! Amazing, I know, but true!
Jack and I went to a Bob Dylan concert for our first wedding anniversary, many moons ago. And it was fun to go to one again, especially since it was free.
Besides seeing Bob Dylan and his band, here are a few of the other sights you might see at one of his concerts...
A man with an oxygen tank rocking out.
Earnest young rockers, who look a little confused, because Bob does not play his songs at his concerts like he did when he recorded them.
One lone guy waving his lighter during a slow song.
$30 Environmentally friendly Bob Dylan grocery bags (same quality as the ones you buy for under a dollar at shoppers).
Foolish people actually buying the $30 shopping bags.
And aging hippies as far as the eye can see.

Mmm...Turkey!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and what am I thankful for this year? Hmm, I guess I am thankful that I don't have to cook a turkey again for a whole year. Actually, I don't mind cooking the turkey, I just hate pulling all of the leftover meat off the bones after the dinner is over. It's gross! Oh well, someone has to do it, and I guess that someone is me. Anyway we had a pleasant turkey day with just the three of us. Which is just how Jack likes it (because he doesn't like to share). And as is our yearly tradition, I will now be making stuffing one more time because my mom's recipe is so good, Jack is not satisfied only having it for just one meal. And I don't mind making it a second time because it really is super good and worth the effort! So I suppose the title of this post should have been; Mmm...Stuffing!

All Hallow's Eve

We had a great Halloween this year, with lots of parties, candy and chances to wear costumes. Jack was a party-pooper and didn't dress up this year. I only dressed up once for the Trunk or Treat at our church. But Truman got to wear his costume three times and loved every minute of it! Jack has been showing Truman all of his favorite 1930's scary movies. So Truman wanted to be Dracula or the invisible man (he likes to be scary for Halloween). We didn't think anyone would get who he was if he dressed up like the invisible man so we went with Dracula and he looked great!

Trick or Treating

Truman's class all dressed up!

Jack & Topol: A Night of Theatre

As a general rule Jack despises musicals. He says it is because his sister forced him to watch Grease a billion times when he was a kid. But I just think he is hard-hearted. It is unfortunate for him that he married a woman who loves, loves, loves musicals. My sister, cousin and I spent nearly every Saturday, growing up, watching hour upon hour of musicals at my grandma Isaak's house. There is, however, one musical that Jack enjoys watching...The Fiddler on the Roof! I don't know if it is because it is set in Russia or what, but I know part of the reason he likes it is because the lead in the movie, Topol, is so good. So when I heard that Topol would be doing a farewell tour of Fiddler and that they would be in Baltimore, I knew we HAD to go. So I bought tickets and surprised Jack. It was great to see the show. It actually took a minute after Topol started his dialogue for my mind to wrap around the fact that it was really him and not a recording. Any way as you can tell by the longest post ever, I really enjoyed it!

These pictures are blurry because I couldn't use a flash and I had to take

the one of Topol on the sly.

Hippodrome Theater

October Weekend

Okay, okay, okay! I know it is November already but just pretend it is still October and enjoy these pictures from a couple of Rowe family outings from a few weeks ago.

Fort Washington

So if you ever have a free day with nothing to do, might we suggest a drive down to Fort Washington. It is across the river from Mt. Vernon. Of course you will enjoy the visit more if you have a son and husband who are really into warfare! But even if you don't it is still a really interesting historical site. It was fun to walk all around the fort exploring.

Truman found a snake skin!

Butler's Orchard

So every fall they have a fun pumpkin festival at a local farm. With slides, hayrides, a corn maze, a pumpkin cannon and a whole host of other fun activities. We however got there too late to enjoy any of this and had to settle for picking pumpkins in the pumpkin patch! But it was still fun and we got to spend a ridiculous amount of money on some pumpkins!

At Random

Here are a bunch of pictures of stuff we have been doing in the last couple of weeks!

Look at these guys, they are quite the daredevils!

Truman loves being a goalie and he is pretty good at it. He stopped 3 goals during his turn!

Truman watching the fish at the Natural History Museum.

Nummy, Nummy Lunchy-Munchy with the Willis family at Pot Bellies! HA!

We went to the National Book Festival, which is this great event on The National Mall, where you can meet authors and also hear them give talks. We however did not want to spend hours in line so I just tried to take this picture of Shannon Hale from the side lines. It is pretty blurry, but she looks nice, right?

As you can see it was super rainy that day but there were still tons of people and we had a lot of fun! I think next year I will go sans Jack and Truman and hopefully, sans rain!

We did not labor on Labor Day!

Nor did we consider the plight of the working man. We did however go to Harper's Ferry in West Virginia for a fun daytrip. It is so beautiful there and I am hoping that we can go back and camp, enjoy more time on the river and do some of the hikes. But the town and it's history is so interesting. I know a little bit about John Brown and it was cool to see were everything happened. And as John Brown fought against slavery and the town was a factory town for so long I guess we did consider the plight of the working man after all!

The Shenandoah River was so beautiful. We wished we had brought our bathing suits for a swim.

Truman trying on a Civil War Soldier's gear.

The Fire house where John Brown made his stand.

Hiked up to Jefferson Rock or Jefferson Point or Jefferson Something. Basically Thomas Jefferson was here once and looked at the view!

Good Bye Old Friend

Well, the time has come for us to bid a heartfelt farewell to the good old '99 Camry. The water pump went out & Jack did not want to fix it, so we sold it on Craig's List. Then a fellow came with some cash and took it away. I was literally sad to see it go. It was a good car and it carried us to many, many adventures!

OK, so I was only sad for like a minute! Then I went and got in our new and improved Black Camry and drove Truman to school.

The Big Day!

Since it is the law in this country that you have to send your kids to school, I went ahead and sent Truman to his first day of Kindergarten.

He was so excited and I think he really likes his teacher and his class.

However this second week of school he has decided that maybe it is more fun at home and asks if he can stay home everyday. But I am sure he will get used to his new schedule in time and go back to being excited to go.

I do miss him but it is nice to have so much time to get things done on my own.

a little nervous

Last Days Of Summer

All good things must come to an end, and that is true for the summer of 2009. Here are a few pictures of our last weeks of freedom.

Butterflies Everywhere

Have I mentioned before that I love the Brookside Botanical Gardens? Because I do! It is really close to were we live and they have such beautiful plants, trails and gardens. They also have fun activities for kids. Including a terrific live butterfly exhibit during the summer months. Truman and I finally made it over to see it last week and although it was hot as blazes outside and inside the exhibit we still really enjoyed ourselves. The butterflies were literally every where. Even a few in our hair. It was pretty cool. We also took a walk around the gardens and had some fun with a giant bubble wand. And when school starts next week I will be able to enjoy the gardens with a few solitary (except for the geese) walks there.

The Big Cousins

Picnic at Gettysburg

At the beach in Delaware

Annapolis

My sister Jodi and her husband Dee, and their kids Devin, Trey, Rianne, and Liam (Zac stayed home) came to visit us a week ago and we led them on many (hopefully) fun adventures! They are the oldest cousins that we have so we call them the "big" cousins. It was fun to have them stay with us, even though we were stuffed like sardines into our apartment. Truman told me yesterday that he wants his cousins to come back so I guess he really liked having them visit.

In the West

Truman and I made our annual trip to Idaho a few weeks ago and we had a terrific time. It really is so nice to see our friends and family again. Truman's grandpas provide him with the best of vacations, with rides on horses, and four wheelers, and fishing trips. We had so much fun that it took me about three days to recover from our vacation when we got back home. Thanks to everyone in Idaho for helping us to have such a great visit "home"!

Feeding a Baby Lamb

Thanksgiving Point Dino Museum
Riding horses with Grandpa Rowe

Fishing with the Isaak Family

Swimming with the Bidwells

A-Way Down South

Watching a River Boat.

Picture of a race horse that Trum took.

A few weeks ago Truman and I made our first visit to the "real" south (northern Virginia does not count as the south), when we went to Louisville, Kentucky to meet my brother and his family there. We spent a day exploring the city and we had a great time. The Louisville Slugger factory tour was cool and it was interesting to see Churchhill Downs (thanks Rob). Kentucky was beautiful and it would be fun to go there again and take Jack with us the next time.

UK ANYONE?

Driving on the left
Swan family on the River Avon in Bath.

On the castle wall of the Tower of London, with Tower Bridge in the background.

Westminster Abbey

So some people (and by some people I mean Jessica Willis) have requested that I post more pictures from our tip to England. So I'm gonna! But feel free to look away if you do not want to see them. I promise not to take offence.