Father's Day Weekend, sure.

So, I actually sent a card to my dad this Father's Day - 2pts for me... (I'm one of the worst at sending cards)...although I did ponder the fact of mailing an envelope to him with a piece of paper inside of it, along with $3, saying "happy father's day, I saved the $3 on the card and sent it to you." - he thinks cards are a waste of money - but regardless, he got one.

On Sunday, Father's Day, Lauren and I went to the Texas State Society picnic in Gaithersburg, MD, and had a pretty great time. I of course zip-lined and somehow got forced into the 2-stepping contest....have no fear, we came out with 3rd place and a pretty sweet Texas plate complete with a bluebonnet!

Lauren took me to BWI as Sharla and I were heading to Tampa on Sunday night for 3 days for a work meeting for her. Charlie and I hung out a the pool, watched Baby Einstein, ate yummy food and had a lot of laughs and smiles!

Below are some updated pictures of Olee's baby, a little 2stepping, and a few pictures from Tampa.
Oh, and a video!

As of lately....

Since it's been over a month since I have posted anything, I decided it was about time for some sort of update.

For the most part, my life has slowed down immensely in the past 25 days. I have been on an airplane in 12 days, don't worry, I'll be getting on a plane again here in, oh, exactly 2 weeks from today. I think it's safe to say that I've been on an airplane as many times this year as I have been in my life (23 yrs)...maybe a little less, but definitely a close call.

Since May 4th (my previous post)... I have traveled to Annapolis, MD (just for fun) Keystone, CO; Lake Las Vegas, NV; (both on work) and then on Memorial Day weekend I went home to Texas, which was probably my most favorite time ever of being home. A wonderful, long weekend, of relaxing, fishing, and hanging out with wonderful people who I miss a lot. (Most of whom will be traveling to see me on July 9! yay! Also, during my visit in Texas, my horse Olee, had her baby - so that was really exciting to get to see. I also got to visit Mimi and see my brother Robert and his family.

My sister, Susan and Will visited last weekend. I loved having them up here but hated seeing them leave. It's always fun having visitors but the aftermath is not always easy. We did 2 full days of shopping and walked ourselves out...complete with a sunburn of course.

Yesterday, Rob, Sharla, Charlie, Phil and I went to Bluemont, VA to Great Country Farms in Bluemont, VA for their Strawberry Festival. Not only did we enjoy picking strawberries in probably a 3-4 acre field, complete with a wagon pulled by a tractor... They had 60ft slides, of which I took part of, two huge rope swings, a massive bird cage (of which I think my father should build), go-kart racing, corn mazes, a pig, emus, a peacock, I mean - this place was very cool. They also have other 'berry' picking seasons as well. Not to mention it was absoultely beautiful.

Here are some photos from the past few weeks:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Pentagon Memorial

So this past week while Robert & Sarah and the kids were here, we stopped to visit the Pentagon Memorial...one that I had seen from afar but never gone to basically because it didn't look all that great. (Is that wrong to say?)

However, this memorial has soo much symbolism, it's amazing. It actually reminds me a lot of the Bonfire Memorial.

Entrance to the memorial

You can see the "new part" by the color variations. The Pentagon has been being re-done in phases...this part had just been re-done before it was hit...had that not been the case, the damage and loss could have been much worse.



To honor the 184 victims, 184 illuminated benches, have been arranged according to the victim's ages, from 3 to 71, in a landscaped 1.93-acre plot. Each bench is engraved with the name of a victim. The benches representing the victims that were inside the Pentagon are arranged so those reading the names will face the Pentagon's south facade, where the plane hit; benches dedicated to victims aboard the plane are arranged so that those reading the engraved name will be facing skyward along the path the plane traveled.





1947 had the highest number of losses.




Pilot

Update

So I've been so busy here lately I have forgotten about the whole updating process on the blog.

This past week was super busy...On Monday I flew to Atlanta, GA until Wednesday with Sharla & Charlie. The highlight of the trip?? A Chick-fil-a in the Atlanta airport!

Wednesday evening I went to see my brother Robert and his family in Woodbridge, VA. They had slowly been making the trip up to Washington, D.C., since Friday, April 24th. I went and had dinner with them at OTB (amazing) and hung out for awhile.

Thursday was spent getting Rob, Sharla and Charlie off to Keystone (where I'm headed today)..and then the RBDwyer Adventure team would be arriving at my house to spend three nights with me and be touring DC.

Thursday night we went into DC to drive around the city at nightime (my favorite) and ended up scoring an awesome parking spot pretty much as close to the Capitol as you could get on the National Mall and played a few games....so fun!
We started out early Friday morning. I took them all over it felt like, but really they just got a small glimpse - though we did try to hit the major sites. We ventured to the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam War Memorial, the Capitol, Natural History Musuem, Air & Space Musuem (where it was 'Space Day' so lots of fun stuff to see there), American History Museum, the Pentagon Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.

We wore their little legs out (as well as ours)..and they had already done quite a lot before arriving in DC. It was so fun having them up here and getting to sort of show them around and having them stay with me. Of course I'm pretty sure their favorite thing was riding the metro!

They took of Sunday morning, heading back to Texas. I headed to Annapolis for the day with some friends and although the weather wasn't ideal (it was raining) we did get to walk around the Naval Academy, the cute town of Annapolis, and of course eat some really good seafood.

Tonight I'm heading to Keystone through Saturday and Saturday we fly out to Las Vegas for the weekend...and then we get back to DC on Tuesday morning!

Here are a few pics from the weekend:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Home for a week

I successfully made it back to Virginia on Sunday evening after flying back home to Texas on Thursday evening!

I never thought I'd say I was tired of flying or traveling, but I think I'm coming to the point where I can say that. Less than a week from now, on Monday, we'll board another plane headed to Atlanta for 3 days.

I had a great weekend back home at my parents house hanging out with the family. At points during my time there I thought to myself, "really, why do I live so far away?" I love my family, and I'm so thankful for them, but it was nice to get to come back to VA and feel 'at home' again. Of course there was no beautiful, warm, sun shiny days while I was there, it was torrential downpour. Though I did make it out into the pasture once on the 4-wheeler.

My brother and his girlfriend and both of their kids were there as well as my sister, Eric & Will; Rachel and Anna were there as well. It was nice to get to see mostly family but a few close friends as well.

We had fun making oatmeal-raisin cookies, red-play dough, and playing many rounds of Quiddler.

Of course all of the dogs were thrilled to see me, especially Ozzie and Roma!

Oh travel.

4 states in less than one month! I think I'm setting some sort of record!

Since I've been working for the Warren's, I've been traveling with Sharla to her conferences....only I have only been to Orlando, FL thus far. On Sunday we set off to San Antonio, Texas (of all places) until Thursday! I'm super excited about the fact that it is in SA because I'll get to see Jennifer, Will, my Dad, and Susan!! How much better could a "work trip" be!?

Then just 1 1/2 weeks later, we'll be heading to Atlanta, GA for 3 days, and then a week after that I head to Keystone, CO and then just 3 days later I'll be in Las Vegas, NV!

The best part is, the whole time, I just hang out with Charlie.... so we'll take walks, we'll take naps, we'll just hang out and play and have a great time.

In between my trip to Atlanta & Keystone...the RBDwyer Adventure team will be making a trip to Washington, D.C. to see me which I am really excited about! I can't believe that they're coming all this way, though clearly D.C. has a lot to see and do, and with the ages of the kids, it's perfect time.

Needless to say, I'll be officially exhausted come May 12. Did I mention we're taking the 'red-eye' flight out of Vegas, back to D.C.! We leave at like 11:30pm and arrive back in DC at 7 a.m. the next day. Of course, this will be the easiest flight for Charlie which is why we are taking it! I mean, we're practically flying from the West Coast to the East Coast... almost.

I'm super excited about all the traveling, however it's going to be super busy at each destination!

But before I leave on Sunday... I'm going to see Chicago with Rachel which I'm pretty excited about! Should be a great way to leave D.C.!

Spring.... Sardines...

So this past weekend, I ventured out into D.C.,...on my own, to see the Cherry Blossoms - not quite sure of really just what I would experience, at all.

Before I got to take in the Cherry Blossom beauty and smell, I went over to Ebenezer's Coffee House to help stuff Easter Eggs for the Easter Eggstravanganza I volunteered to help out with this upcoming weekend. That was a feat in itself because... I metro-ed in from Falls Church, had to CHANGE train lines (big deal people) and then go on to Union Station and then walk to Ebenezer's - the most I've done "on my own" thus far. The good news was I made it...the bad news, the process.

Saturday also happened to be the day of the Cherry Blossom Parade, so mind you, everyone who lives in D.C. plus 1 million visitors were out and about, also using the metro- perfect. I officially felt overwhelmed by the amount of people I was surrounded by...and this included me being FORCED onto a metro train, like no way I was turning back, people were pushing on...and even better, I could barely breath, not to mention how there was no personal space at all. Granted, this might be a normal occurrence for people who live in D.C. or just metro more than I do, especially in like rush hour - but for me, definitely a first, and I definitely felt like a sardine.

After I finished stuffing eggs I decided to make my way down to the National Mall and enjoy the day for awhile. It was quite the site to take in....the mall was filled with tons of people and lots of kites - it felt like I was in some sort of movie....way cool.

After venturing down to the Tidal Basin and noticing just how many people were here, and at the Jefferson Memorial, I decided to just stay where I was and take pictures there...no need to try to move through that many people. So I didn't, and I took a whole lot of pictures - some of which are posted on the shutterfly site ... I didn't post all 200 of them, don't worry!

So I had one more shot at being a tourist, and it was definitely worth it...the Cherry Blossoms are quite beautiful, no doubt.