Our 100th Post!

Now that June is almost over, I thought I'd better post some pictures from May.   Kent and I went to see Brian Regan's show in Washington, DC.

 The show was in a beautiful old theater right downtown in the "Theater District" of DC.   No, I didn't know there was a theater district in DC, either.

 The show was very entertaining and clean; we had a great time.

 I was able to get away to Texas for five days to visit the Stinsons.  While I was there I put Savannah's hair into pigtails for the first time. 

 Kiera and I did some fun activities together.

 We all went to the Houston Zoo.

 Hmm, I guess I took more pictures of my sweet granddaughters than I did of any animals!

 One of my favorite pictures of the girls in their matching church dresses.

On Memorial Day weekend I decorated for a wedding reception at our church building. The decorating crew and I started on Thursday evening putting the lights across the ceiling.  I spent about 15 hours decorating on Friday and about four more hours on Saturday morning.  I was mostly pleased with the way it turned out.  I was able to use some of the lighting ideas I'd seen on Pinterest.

 The receiving line stood here between the pillars.

 Putting the gazebo in the middle of the cultural hall over the food table was an idea I came up with all by myself! And yes, that is a chandelier hanging from the middle.

 Hanging paper lanterns in the trees outside was an idea I'd seen before, and liked the way they looked.

 On the same day as the reception, Tyler and his fiancee', Rachel Judd, came into town for a visit for the Memorial Day Weekend.  In the morning they did some sightseeing in DC, and Kent and I spent the afternoon with them at the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial.  Rachel's parents and younger brother were in town on a band trip from their home town in Michigan, so Tyler was able to meet his future in-laws for the first time.

Here are Tyler and Rachel reinacting the signs that say "Caution: Slippery Conditions" in the Jefferson Memorial.

  The following three pictures were taken at the FDR Memorial.

 On Sunday morning before church wev met Rachel's parents and did some sightseeing at Arlington National Cemetery for a couple of hours.  Rachel had never been to DC before so everything was new to her.  After church on Sunday we had some of Tyler's friends who we knew in Japan and Germany come to dinner to meet Rachel.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.

 On Monday morning I asked a young mother from the ward, Leah, to come take engagement pictures of Tyler and Rachel in our back yard for them to use on their wedding announcements.  She did a GREAT job.

 I thought this was a cute "behind the scenes" shot. (Kent is holding a battery-operated fan to keep them cool.) 

 I don't know why this picture is sideways since it isn't that way on my computer, but it was just too cute not to put in.  After the serious pictures, Tyler and Rachel took a few silly ones.  I think their expressions are really cute.

We also thought that Kent and I should get the chance to be in a picture, too.  It was a busy, but really wonderful weekend, with Tyler and Rachel.  They flew home on Monday afternoon.

Spring is Busting Out All Over

Here are lots of pictures of the Spring activities Kent and I did in March and April. 

The cherry blossom trees in DC bloomed very early this year because we had such a mild winter, so we took our annual visit to see the trees a couple of weeks earlier than usual. 

You can see by our attire that the weather was rather warm.  Some years we're bundled up in coats to see the cherry blossom trees. 

We love Mount Vernon but I'd never seen it in the spring, so it was another of our destinations in March.

These chairs are on the back veranda, overlooking the Potomac River. 

This is the view from the veranda.  Kinda gives me goosebumps to think George and Martha Washington saw this same view.

This is one of my favorite quotes on the wall at Mount Vernon.  It really makes me believe that George Washington's life was preserved so he could lead our young country.

I did some spring entertaining this year. 

I invited the neighbor ladies over to lunch. 

 I made the envelopes for the invitations out of square doilies and lined them with vellum.  They were lovely, but fragile, so I hand delivered the invitations.

 

I served lunch to the members of my Relief Society presidency on my great-grandmother's china.

We had company over for Easter brunch, where I used my mother's china and silver goblets.

Kent and I took this picture one Friday evening before our shift working at the temple because the tulips were so pretty.

We spent a Saturday morning working to clean the temple grounds.

Kent was pretty excited to see that the temple has an engineer, and is hoping someday "temple engineer" will be his job.

Another wonderful spring destination is the azalea walk at the National Arboretum in DC

I met Kent after work one day and we walked through the arboretum.

Kent and I took an overnight trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Our first stop was the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

It was very interesting to hear about how the first working airplane came to be and why they chose Kitty Hawk North Carolina to test it out.

We saw a couple of historic lighthouses.

And went to the Elizabethan gardens near the lost colony site on Roanoke Island.

This is a replica of the ship that the early settlers came over in.

I flew out to Utah and spent a wonderful week with Adri, Russ, and Sophia. Tyler also flew in from Alabama to attend graduation and see his girlfriend.  You can see lots more pictures from that visit on Adri's blog.

 Tyler graduated from BYU and got engaged to the lovely and charming Rachel Judd.  It was a GREAT week for Tyler!

 After I got back from Utah I went on a home and garden tour of some historic homes in Fredericksburg, Virginia.   Pictured below is Kenmore, the home of George Washington's sister.

  There were fabulous flower arrangements in the six homes I toured.  I liked the arrangement below because I thought it was fun they used asparagus around the bottom.

 Lastly, we went to the National Botanic Garden another day after Kent got off work.   

 This European-looking fountain below is pretty close to the capitol building.  The building over Kent's right shoulder is the Botanic garden, where the picture two previous was taken.

 I'd say we did a very good job of getting out to enjoy an especially beautiful spring in Virginia!!