Birds in my Back Yard

We have had lots of colorful feathered visitors to our back yard this spring!

Here are a few glimpses of our Visitors;

First we have the primary colors ..... Red,

..........Yellow......

.................and Blue..........

Then these "Scary guys" show up and everyone flies away!

They must like that "Head Turning" pose

And then my favorite "little chick" of all.

(Editors note; this little one has NOT been here this spring, but will hopefully be back in the fall again, which is when this picture was taken)

Spring in DC and Virginia

Kent and I have a tradition to see the cherry blossoms in DC every year. This year we took a ranger-led lantern tour to see the trees in bloom. As you can see from how warmly we're dressed, it was a chilly night.

The 7th of April some of our friends we knew in Germany were in DC from spring break and came to Arlington Cemetery so Kent could give them a tour. Below I wanted to point out the Moroni symbol that's put on the LDS graves.

There was a large group of Veteran's who were watching the changing of the guard at Arlington.

Today after church we visited the home of an artist who lived and painted in Stafford county a hundred years ago since they were having a free open house. We toured the house, an art gallery with Gari Melchers' paintings, and the grounds.

The trees have lost their blossoms, but now the daffodils and tulips are in full swing.

Gari Melchers painted Teddy Roosevelt's portrait, among many other works. It was a lovely way to spend a spring afternoon.

The Carsons Take New York City

The picture by the Statue of Liberty was taken on our second day in New York City, but thought it was a good one to have as the first picture of the blog.

DAY ONE, SATURDAY: One of the first things we saw after the bus from DC dropped us off near Madison Square Garden, was the Empire State Building. We'd also seen it from the bus as we were driving into NYC from New Jersey.As we walked down the street to our hotel, we were greeted with the sight of lovely, fragrant spring flowers that were for sale on the sidewalk where our hotel was located. A very good way to start our time in New York City! After checking into the hotel we took the subway and spent our first afternoon in Central Park. The fountain below was where the big dance scene in "Enchanted" was filmed, (if I'm remembering it correctly) so we went to see it.

Our friends who we met in Germany, Matt and Tracy Phillips, met us for dinner. We had pizza at the "Angelo's Pizza" you can see next to the Ed Sullivan Theater.

We walked down Broadway to Times Square.

We saw the play "Mary Poppins" in an awesome old theater on 42nd Street.

DAY TWO, SUNDAY--In the morning we went to Stake Conference in Brooklyn with the Phillips. We spent the afternoon at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was rainy and overcast all day. We had dinner back in Brooklyn with the Phillips.

DAY THREE, MONDAY--Our first stop was the Empire State Building. The skies were blue and it was a relatively nice day.

After going to the site of the former twin towers, (not much to take pictures of) we stopped to see the Manhattan Temple. We got on the bus back to DC at 4:00pm and were home by 10:30pm. It was a great trip!!