Lincoln Memorial

We're in DC for about a month while we're waiting to close on our house.  Scarlet and Torre, friends from Italy, live just about an hour south, so on our first full day in our nation's capitol they came up to walk with us around the mall and take us to their favorite pizza joint.

Scarlet brought popcorn to feed the geese, but they weren't too interested.  

 "The geese were next to the Washington Monument". (caption by Jonas)

 WWII Memorial.

Jonas posing with some soldiers near the Vietnam Memorial.

 Ezra was very impressed with the enormity of Abe.

 

Ezra and Jonas pose with a Union soldier in the museum inside the Lincoln Memorial.

 The Allisons with our friends Torre and Scarlet!

 Jonas took this picture of Rev. Martin Luther King. 

 By the time we were done walking 1/2 the length of the mall and back, we were all hungry for lunch!

The Phillips took us to Comet Ping Pong.  It's a gourmet pizza place where you can play ping pong in the back while you wait (to be seated, in our case).  Super fun!

 Not bad for our fist day in DC!

St. Louis Arch

 Ezra's been fascinated with landmarks, so while we were visiting St. Louis we had to be sure to see the famous Gateway Arch!

It was kind of a long walk from the parking garage.  The long walk was made longer because of the snow and ice and freezing temperatures.  

The boys wanted me to take this picture to email to their teachers.

 

The second we got into the little pod for the tram to travel up the arch to the top, Ezra began to have anxiety about being so high up.  It wasn't a meltdown though, just overall nervousness.  We busied him with looking at the brochures.

It was still pretty hard for him to look out the windows and the was ready to go down after just a few minutes, but in general he thought it was cool.

 The rest of us thought it was pretty great too.  (Although it was a little hard for me to look straight down...Yikes!)

 This was a seriously ginormous gaggle of geese we saw as we were driving.  Thousands in the field and thousands in the air. Of course the picture doesn't it do it justice, but it was incredible!

Sweet Reunions

After Christmas, the boys went back to school for a couple of weeks.  Then, Mike supervised the packing and loading of 95% of our household goods from storage into a truck, he packed up his dorm room, and I packed what we had at my parents.  We loaded it into our two vehicles and a UHaul trailer, said goodbye to our family and friends in Houston and headed north.

First stop:  Cabot, Arkansas to see the Stafford family.  I love the moment shared by Judith and Kirstin in the kid picture. 

 

 

 We had hamburgers and hotdogs.  Even though they are friends from Germany, we've actually seen them a few times since we all moved back to the US. Each time is a blessing.

 Second stop:  St. Louis, Missouri to see the Moll Family.  Unlike the Staffords we had not seen our dear friends since Oct 2011 when we left Germany.  It was a welcome reunion!

We had some really amazing BBQ for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day after we visited the Arch.

We had planned to see the Huard family in Dayton, Ohio for our third stop.  However, winter storm Janus which brought sub freezing temperatures and snow, forced us to change our route.  We were sad to miss seeing our friends from Italy, but I think it was a good decision since we were just south of dark skies as we drove east to Lexington, Kentucky.  We would have been sure to be driving through snow if we had gone through Ohio. 

In the morning, we continued over the Appalachians in West Virginia.

Next Stop: Charlottesville, Virginia to see the Howard family--more friends from Germany.

Julie fixed us some chili which sure tasted great after driving through several days of snow!

 

 The next morning, three short hours later, we arrived at Fort Meade.  We checked into our hotel on post where we would for the next week.  

On Sunday we traveled abut an hour south to attend church with more friends from Germany, the Farmer family and meet their boys for the first time!

 In the same town, we were also able to stop in for a quick visit with the Dowling family--friends from Italy.  Sadly, I didn't get a picture.  Maybe it didn't feel complete because Jerry is deployed.  Oh well, we'll be sure to see them again soon since they're so close!

I can not iterate enough what a blessing it is to have friends all over the US.  So thankful for these dear folks and their place in our hearts.

 

We began house hunting in earnest and finally settled on a house we hope will work for our family for the next 5 years or so.  

Now we have moved into a condo in downtown DC to take advantage of our still-homeless status until we close on our house.  We are more than eager to be settled!