Working out to work out

Bob and Noah spent an evening putting together the new weight bench, that Bob received for Christmas. They had fun and all their IKEA experiences surely came in handy.

Noah's Art

Noah is taking an art class and is thoroughly enjoying learning new techniques. The collection is getting to big and is too nice for the refrigerator and we are off to Michael's to find an art portfolio to keep these.

War of 1812

The main activity for the January Boy Scout weekend was to attend a re-enactment of a battle from the War of 1812. It fit nicely with the history studies this year and gave us a great reason to brush up on our facts about this important, yet somewhat more obscure war.

"Monthly Photo shot"

As the boys prepared to leave on their January Boy Scout I had to whip out the camera. Lukas quipped: The Monthly Photo Shot.

Noah is ready to leave, and takes the time to eat his home made pizza before heading out to a weekend of Boy Scout fun.

Serious discussion

It is such a joy to see the boys and Bob spend time together. The discussions are often deep, challenging and I step back, take a picture and get out of the way. This conversation was about the quad copter and what to do next...

Horns??

Noah and Lukas were given magic putty for Christmas and it has already afforded hours of fun. This morning, while reading on the couch, Noah opted to enhance his appearance with his putty. He laughed and joked around until it was time to peel it off, or should I say rather cut if out of the eye brows....  The putty is still a favorite past time, but no more horns...

Sunrise

One of the advantage of living a bit further north is the later sun rise in the winter, giving me a sporting chance of catching it in all its splendor. It is a wonderful way to wake up, see the sun rise over the tree, sky painted in a rainbow of colors while waiting for the coffee to brew - a great start of any day.

What time is it?

Lukas received multiple electronics parts for Christmas, it was on his list after all. One was a watch set and he successfully negotiated time to solder, wire and connect so that he can tell time.

Do we really know our geography?

 One would wonder if we had ever looked at a map of the US when we planned this trip,: Michigan to Missouri to Virginia to Maryland and back home, and think that three out of four of us were studying US geography this year.  3010 miles later, 10 states, countless bags of mini carrots and two audio books, we are back home ready to get back into the routine of learning and earning.

Amazingly all this fit into the car along with four rather tall, not too small people and a bunch of electronics and a large cooler for snacks and food. Only Bob could make this happen. 

Happy New Year

We spent the last hours of 2014 with dear friends in Vienna.  Streamers, horns, bubbly - can it get any better?

Some sight seeing

Bob, Lukas, Noah and good friend Will spent the last day of 2014 sightseeing in Washington DC.

Visiting friends

We were fortunate that so many of our friends were spending the holidays in our nation's capital. It made it easy for us to drop by for a friendly chat, a walk in the park and some fun play time at the river even.

Can't help it...

Thanks for gracious friends we had the use of a comfortable home in our old neck of the woods, Vienna, VA. Being so close to WDC and the Smithsonian we could not resist the pull and headed off to the Air and Space Museum, just one more time.

This is the aircraft that Bob worked on while we lived in WDC - it is now in a museum, what does that say about our age?

I have this exact pose with our boys about 'thousand times' from our many trips to Air and Space when they were little. 

Heading East

With filled bellies, hearts and a stuffed car we headed east to visit friends for New Years.To break up the long drive from Missouri to Virginia we stopped at Monticello. The weather, although cooperating with driving, was less than pleasant and we dashed in and out of the chilly rain to marvel at the splendor and opulence of this mansion. The history, the architecture and the setting makes for a must see stop and we were glad we made the time.

Thank you!

Thanks to Barb, a great mother, fantastic mother in law and the world's best Grammy we had an amazing Christmas. Yes, there were others who helped made Christmas special, but Barb stand out in a category of her own. There is no better hostess and no place we rather be than celebrating with you, Barb. THANK YOU!

Getting culture

After the Christmas celebrations were over, and some of the family had left, we decided to get cultural. We headed to Bentonville, AK to Crystal Bridge Museum and while in town, we 'had' to do the Walmart Museum as well. Barb treated us to a lovely lunch, which Lukas and Noah promptly 'yelped' and also to old fashion candies found in the Walmart Gift Shop, which did not look anything like a Walmart.

Stockings

Joel shouldered the important responsibility of gathering up Christmas stocking stuffers. He must have spent a lot of time in the Camping store as well as the gourmet grocery - our stockings were filled to the brim with fun, useful and tasty treats alongside the traditional ones: note book, pen, tiny orange, and a coin. Joel was kind enough to index for inflation and replaced the shiny penny with a shiny dollar coin.