Kiera in the tutu and crown I gave her last year for her second birthday. She and I enjoyed some bonding time while her mom and dad spent a couple of days away. Kent's Mom and brothers Marty and Rob came to visit us the end of April. After church the first Sunday in May we went to the National Arboretum in Washington DC. They have an azalea trail, and the flowers were in bloom. Azaleas are one of my favorite flowers, and the pictures don't do justice to the many lovely colors of we saw. I hope Kent and I can go see the azaleas every year at the arboretum. Kent's mom has always loved flowers. I'm sure it's where Kent got his love of gardening. When we were first married if I wanted to know the name of a flower or plant, I would ask Kent's mom.
We took a daytrip to Gettysburg, PA, which is less than a two-hour drive away with Kent's mom and brothers.
Unfortunately I didn't have Kent get into this picture with his family members.
This civil war re-enactor was available to answer questions.
I had my spring recital in May instead of June this year to accomodate a family who was going out of town. Below is one of the 15 invitations I made.
Kent and I played a duet of Billy Joel's "Piano Man", only we changed it to "Piano Teacher". I played the piano while Kent played the harmonica and sang words adapted to the names of my piano students.
We did a couple of cool things for Memorial Day. We went to the military cemetery in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to see the 15,000 luminaries again this year on the Saturday night of Memorial day weekend.
On Sunday after church we went to the Kennedy Center for a free Memorial Day concert being conducted by Craig Jessop, who formerly led the MoTab. The picture below is of the bridge between Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln memorial. I took this picture as we walked across it because the bridge was blocked off so the "Rolling Thunder" motorcycle organization could have it's parade. We saw LOTS of motorcycles!
Inside the Kennedy Center with the US Army orchestra and a combined choir from across the country performing patriotic songs.
And now for the month of June, which started off with several Relief Society activities. I taught at class at our evening RS meeting on making organza flowers like those pictured below.
The theme of that activity was "Bloom Where You're Planted", so my counselor and I made 80 sugar cookie flowers with sticks in them. We made them into flower pots (ice cream cones filled with ice cream) and some Oreo crumb dirt. They were cute and yummy but didn't stand up very well.
I helped to prepare and serve a meal at a homeless shelter.
I hosted a "Welcome and Farewell" Garden party for the Relief Society sisters who were moving out and into our ward.
We bought a new light for the dining room, so I took the old one and spray painted it white. (With lots of help from Kent.) I added some bling and hung it below the deck during my garden party. Kent has the yard looking great.
I organized a Relief Society "Ladies Day Out" trip to the Library of Congress in DC.