Labor Day, DC, and Vacation

Since our last post we have been busy! Between Labor Day and today we've only spent three days at work, which creates the illusion of a two week vacation, rather than just one.

We traveled north to Washington for Labor Day weekend to spend time with the Evans side of the family at Cyndi and Kelly's fabulous lake house. We've really enjoyed being able to spend more time with the family and this was just another opportunity. There were great family "play alongs" featuring Christina on the autoharp, Joe on the guitar, Kacey on the harmonica, and Kelly on the gutbucket bass. The women made vinyl purses with direction from Sarah. I was quite pleased with my results and may give it a go again. Cameron also made a spiffy lunch bag. It was chillier this time than last, but we had the chance to get outside around the campfire and spend time at the play ground. Kyle and I made many trips down the corkscrew.


After three intense days of work, we headed to the Airport to head to DC to see Kym, Aaron, and Lucas. We were lucky enough to be upgraded to first class, so we slept and ate well. It was fabulous to see K, A, & L. We did see many of the obligatory DC sites, but the main focus of our trip was seeing family! Saying the sites are obligatory is a little strange because they really are magnificent. Kym, Aaron, and Lucas took us to the Jim Henson exhibit at the Smithsonian, Union Station, the Building Museum and the WWII, Korean War, Lincoln, Vietnam and FDR Memorials. In the next few days we went to Arlington National Cemetary, where we checked out the tomb of the unknown soldier and JFK's grave, the Washington Monument, the White House, National Archives, Botanical Gardens, and spent a lot of time walking along the mall. Of the sites, our favorite was the FDR memorial. I pictured walking G.W. through the memorial and explaning to him how if he just governed by the quotes he'd be okay.

The true highlights were watching Lucas smile, laugh, talk, and cuddle, as well as chatting, running, and eating (oh so well) with Kym and Aaron. Joe hit it off with Lucas right away, and spent lots of time making faces with him, reading books, playing the guitar and throwing him around with Aaron. I'm not as gregarious, so it took about 5 minutes more for me to bond with Lucas. While I didn't throw Lucas as far as Joe did, I did swing him around and remark that he was quite the monkey. He responded by shoving his fists in his pits and saying ooh ooh ooh ah ah ah!

It was sad to have to leave, but the trip was so worth it.

Since we've been home we've spent the week relaxing. We took a trip to the local pool to swim a bit, biked into town and had a lovely lunch, and today we trekked up to Mary's Peak for a short hike. While we were heading up the mountain and enjoying the fabulous scenery, Joe perked up most at the site of a utility vault. It made me laugh.


We've also been playing guitar; more precisely Joe's been playing and I've been learning. Soon our friends Virginia and Margaret will be here for dinner and tomorrow we're all headed to Waldo Lake for kayaking.

It's been a great two weeks and we are looking forward to more vacations like it!