News Flash

I subscribed to our local newspaper just so I could check the Sport section for our son's name this swim season.  

SCORE!

Today is his first meet of the season!

Sent from my Galaxy S®III

Senior Pictures

My Sister-in-law posted senior pictures of her son

that she had taken herself.

I decided that this might be fun.

The problem is,

McKay decided it wouldn't be fun.

I took advantage of Halley while she was here

thinking that she would help me to twist McKay's arm

and get him to let us take pictures.

He wasn't serious very long.

We took hundreds of pictures and I think got some good ones.

Very Amateur pictures,

but fun nonetheless.

These first few pictures are the ones Halley took: 

And the ones I took.

Halley's camera is much faster than mine.

I had a hard time catching him holding still!

This one was Halley's shot,

and was indicative of the poses

and faces he was giving us the whole time!

Halley's Visit Continued

After a long wait,

I'm finishing up blogging about Halley's visit!

Here is a picture of McKay and Halley at the Skating Rink.

Before Halley came to visit I had a couple of things I wanted her to shop for.

These peaches were one of the items. 

There is NOTHING like a Utah peach.

I don't know if it is the nutrients in the ground

or just what. . . . . 

Every September my mouth waters thinking about the peaches that are ripening in Utah.

Here they are dry, woody, tasteless, and odorless.

These peaches were divine!

They were drip down the chin juicy,

and oh the aroma!

They got better as the days went by.

We only had these 7 peaches.

I would slice one up and we would share it.

They lasted a few days, 

and then sadly were gone.

We savored every fuzzy, glorious bite!

One of Halley's requests was to eat crab.

She got this deep fried crab at a restaurant,

and then we had crab at home also.

YUMMMM!

Halley hadn't been to the Botanical Gardens in DC

I ALWAYS love to go to the botanical gardens.

I was very surprised at the amount of plants that were in bloom.

There were a lot of orchids in bloom.

The cactus section had some very interesting cacti.

Venus Fly trap.

Lincoln and Halley

Daddy-Daughter!

Loved this pic of Lincoln and Me.

The Children's Garden was fun.

Always a child at heart!

After the botanical garden we went and ate at the Native American Museum.

Indian Fry Bread.

I forgot to take a picture . . . . 

We had buffalo on our fry bread.

We also had never been to the Engraving and Printing Museum.

We didn't know that in the "off-season" you don't need tickets

to get into this museum. 

We got right in and it was a very interesting tour.

We got to see the new 100 dollar bill that will soon be issued.

I highly recommend this tour.

Our Crab feast:

It was great to see Halley,

and to get to see the lesser seen areas of DC.

I was super happy that we missed the government shutdown by literally days!

The first of the lasts

 I am starting to count the

 first 

of the lasts.

This was probably the LAST

summer swim season we will have with McKay.

Bitter/sweet.

He has had a good time swimming.

He loves it and he is good at it.

 Here is the team warming up at our home pool. 

It's been nice to have McKay's cousin Zane in summer swimming with him.

In High School swimming they compete AGAINST each other.

Zane is in the lane nearest the camera.

I tried to catch McKay's flip turn but only got his derriere!!!  

McKay at the starting block

in the green cap on the left hand side.

The first of the lasts . . . . . . . :(

DC fun

We are on vacation in Williamsburg, VA.

It is a rainy cool day,

and nothing we planned on doing here,

could be done on a rainy cool day.

So, we went clothes shopping

for all of us!

There is an awesome outlet mall here!

What a good time to blog.

This summer we went to two (yes two)

concerts on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building.

The memorial day concert and the 4th of July concert.

It is always fun to do this.

Just being on the lawn of the Capitol makes me feel so awe inspired.

I just can't believe we live here and I don't take it for granted.

This is McKay and I.

For the memorial day concert we invited our good friends the Sparks and their children to come along.

They were moving soon and hadn't been to a concert there 

and so it was good experience for all of us.

This is their 3 cute girls getting out of the sun under three umbrellas.

They all had sketching materials and were busy at work!

The Washington Memorial is once again enclosed in scaffolding

after the damage that was caused in the earthquake last year.

It is fun to see all the "big names" that are at these concerts.

Here you see Colin Powell,

the Washington National Symphony Orchestra

and the Air Force Singing Sergeants.

Actually these look like Army guys . . . . . 

but the Air Force was there!  

Halley's old voice teacher probably was there also.

One of my favorite parts of the concert is when they play all the "forces" anthems

and all the military personnel stands up to be recognized.

"Off we go......into the wild blue yonder . . . . . . . "

Barry Manilow was there.

He is old, but still good!

Again, I just couldn't believe I was hearing this live.

So FUN!

He sang a few of his most recognized songs.

Everyone was given a flag or two to wave!

John Williams.

Again, what a privilege to see him.

This man has written sooooooo many tunes we all recognize and love! 

Neil Diamond.

Sweet Caroline (singing)

They come to America (singing). . . . . . 

he sure knows how to work a crowd!

It was amazing to see the professionalism and magnetism of these old guys

compared to the American Idol stars they had sing.

(the newbies have much to learn!)

Our REAL goal was to see the 4th of July fireworks downtown in person.

BUT

because we decided it would be a great idea to see the concert

(which WAS a great idea)

this was the view we got of the fireworks.

The concert hadn't even ended when the fireworks started!

They were still pretty :)

Fun times!!!

To the temple we go

After church, we decided to make the hour trip to the DC temple

to a "Why I Believe" fireside.

I visit teach a new convert to the church,

and she was going to be giving a short testimony at the fireside.

I wanted to support her and my two men came along with me.

Members of our ward who also made the hour trip.

We came to hear the lady on the far right, bottom.

She has her two adorable children with her.

It was either a hazy day, or my cell phone camera lens has a finger print on it.

Pretty anyway . . . . .. 

A nice end to a Sabbath Day.