Crazy Trip to Florida

Elaine bought tickets to see Fiddler on the Roof. (Note from Elaine: The reason I REALLY wanted to see this play is because it was starring Topol, who played the role in the movie 38 years ago. It's Topol's farewell tour, and Florida was the closest place to us it was playing. And in my defense, I didn't know Florida was so far away; people in our ward drive there all the time!) Not a problem, normally. However this theater happened to be in Jacksonville, Florida. No problem, just a short drive down the road.

We left home at 0900

At10 30 we found this quaint little village and took a short tour

At 11:00 we entered North Carolina

At 1:30 we entered South Carolina

at 4:00 we entered Georgia

At 7:00 we arrived in Florida

The crazy part is yet to come, Tomorrow we will start the return trip at 5:00 pm.

At least traffic should be light.
Who says old people can't do wild and crazy things?

The Doting Grandparents

Many years ago I heard the saying,"If I'd known grandchildren were going to be this fun I would have had them first!" Kent and I love children and have looked forward to being grandparents. All I can say is, being grandparents is as fantastic as we thought it was going to be.

We found some relatively inexpensive plane tickets to Houston, and spent a week in Texas visiting Lissa, Jason and Kiera. It was fun to see how Kiera had changed in the two months since we'd seen her at Christmas, and to see her personality developing. We spent lots of quality time with her, and tried to give her parents a break from parenting. So get ready for LOTS of pictures of our much adored Kiera, who turned 8 months old while we were visiting. It was definitely the highlight of our month.

This first set of pictures is a series I took of Kiera watching Grandpa Carson (wearing his Gilligan's island shorts) work on some shelves. She had so many cute expressions and was watching Kent so attentively I just couldn't stop taking pictures of her.

Kiera's hair is pretty long in back, so I put it up in a tiny little pig tail. It didn't last long, but looked cute while it lasted. Her hair has lightened up a lot since she was born.

One afternoon when Kent and I were babysitting we decided to take Kiera for a walk around the neighborhood. The sun was shining, so we weren't prepared for how cold it was. The wind was blowing and it was pretty chilly. We were worried about Kiera being cold, so Kent bundled her up in his sweatshirt. Katy, Texas usually has very mild weather, so it figures we decide to go for a walk on one of the coldest days of the year!

As you can imagine, the time passed much too quickly. We're glad we live close enough that we can fly to see our only grandchild on a three-hour direct flight. Kiera is a lucky girl. She's well cared for and pampered by her parents, and we feel blessed to have her sweet spirit as a part of our family.

Celebrating our most Famous Presidents

February is the month America celebrates the birth of two of our most influential presidents, and Kent and I thought we'd take advantage of some of the activities going on in DC to recognize their birthdays.

February 12th was the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, and it was the grand re-opening of Ford's Theater, which has been closed for renovations. There were special presentations going on all day, so I met Kent in DC during his lunch hour and we took the metro to Ford's Theater.

Outside the theater--the weather was surprisingly mild that day.

The box in the theater where Pres. Lincoln was shot.

The room in the building across the street from the theater where Pres. Lincoln died.

When we lived in Virginia six years ago we went to see a couple of plays in Ford's theater, but we'd never been to the house where Lincoln died.
We walked past the J Edgar Hoover FBI Building as we went from Ford's Theater back to the metro stop. Seeing places like this, which I've seen on TV in FBI dramas, is one of the cool things about living in DC.

We also saw these people riding segways down the sidewalk. I'd only seen people using segways in airports and malls, and it was fun to see them in everyday use. (I think there might be a company in DC that rents them to tourists.)

Kent had President's day off from work, so we went to Mount Vernon. I went there in December, but Kent hadn't been in six years. The admission was free on president's day, so we arrived there 15 minutes before it opened. There were already hundreds of people in line. For some reason we were put in the shortest line, and we went through the gates first. Kent and I walked very briskly to the actual house of Mount Vernon and were in the second group of the day to take the tour. When we came out we could see all the people in line again to tour the house. (There's also an awesome new visitor's center, which some people went to first.)

We walked around the grounds for a bit, then went to a ceremony in front of Mount Vernon. A US Army detachment that dresses as Revolutionary War soldiers and does re-enactments put on a demonstration, then did a pass and review in front of an actor portraying George Washington. It was neat to watch.
I had the same appreciation for our first president again that I had in December when I went through the museum about George Washington. During the French and Indian war of the 1750's, at one point there were three musket holes in his jacket and two horses were shot out from under him, yet he survived unhurt. God was certainly preserving him to lead our country at a crucial time.

The museum brought out the fact that at the same time the US was setting up a democracy and George Washington was refusing to become king, Napoleon was setting himself up as Emperor of France. It was emphasized that George Washington didn't seek for power or glory; he just wanted to be a farmer and live out his life at Mount Vernon testing ways to improve farming techniques. It was others who asked him to lead, and he did it out of honor and love for the new country he had helped to create. I'm so grateful to the righteous men who were our founding fathers, and, with the help of Heavenly Father, established our great country.
Happy Birthday Presidents Washington and Lincoln! (No, not Obama)

Pirate Joke

Elaine and I ran into an old pirate buddy the other day and noticed he was wearing a paper towel on his head. I ask him, "What's with the paper towel?" The pirate replied, "Arrr! I've got a Bounty on me head!"