I woke up this morning and needed to throw some clothes in the dryer (like I am gonna iron them lol). On my out to the laundry area in the kitchen, I see Magic all curled up on a Christmas present! I love this time of year :)
The picture is much clearer with the flash, but I like the look of the Christmas lights in the dark in the blurrier picture.
Cody's 3rd grade picture
I especially like his 2nd grade pic. He is 2nd row, 4th in from the right (the one making the funky face). That pic is the best because not only did he ruin his pic, but 3 other kids as well. Note the boy beside him looking at him like "is he really gonna do it?!!!" Then there is the girl in the lavender shirt on the far left in the top row laughing at him and the girl next to her laughing at her. Good stuff! He said his 3rd grade pic was his Frankenstein face, but I don't think that one is too bad (he is 2nd row on the far right).
Karrie watching me shoot :)
Aside from my class, D.C. was a blast! Cody and I did a ton of touring.............which he hated lol. Everywhere was so packed because it was the last weekend of summer. First, we hit the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Just like all of the others, this museum was huge and we only saw a very tiny portion of it.
Meteors.....I had never seen one before. It looks like a machine has etched them, but it is their natural composition.
They had a lot of jewelry on display, this one was one of my faves. Amongst other things, they had Napoleon's diamond necklace, Marie Antoinette's earrings (HUGE diamonds), and the Oppenheimer diamond (253.7 carats).
The famous Hope Diamond! It was gorgeous, I wish there was a way to capture all of the colors. It was near impossible to get this pic will the huge crowd there.
This is the "mall." It is a very long walk end to end, and all of the museums, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln memorial, the capital, etc. are all around here. Of course, here is the capital bldg.
I love this pic, it is a little deceiving, the light dwarfs the monument. The clouds were definitely full of water. We were still dry at this point.
Right about here it started dumping on us. It was a warm rain, and we had fun in it. Naturally, we didn't bring an umbrella, so we got soaked through all of our clothes. Cody's funky shoes came in handy then..........while I ruined my Birkenstocks.
And we finally arrived at the Lincoln Memorial (soaking wet). That is one hell of a walk from the Monument to the memorial, but it looks like it would be a short walk.
Once we finally got back to the hotel after the Lincoln Memorial, we decided to lay low the rest of the evening while it poured. We went out to dinner and had a few drinks, and saved more fun for Sunday. When we finally got up around 11 on Sunday, we first went to this tower. At the very top is the best 360 view of DC (thx babe for the cool idea)!
We also went to the National Archives. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Magna Carta, and many other original documents are displayed here. It was really cool to see, but difficult to photograph due to the lack of light.
Cody checking out the bathtub President Taft got stuck in LOL.
We were staying in Chinatown, so all of the signs were in Chinese and English. Cool!
1 block from Chinatown
I was selected by leadership in my building to attend Leadership Training in Washington, D.C. for 11 days. :) I arrived on Sunday August 16th, and will leave Wednesday August 26. I flew in via United and had a layover in Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Of course, it was storming there, and my plane got delayed 3 hrs! There was a cool dinosaur in the airport I had to get a pic of.
I made it to Hotel Monaco eventually. They put us up in a very nice hotel, across the street from one of the Smithsonian Art museums.
The hotel is very trendy, and even has a complimentary wine tasting every evening.
The training is held in a room on the top floor of the hotel. This building is historic, and actually used to be the postal building until 2002 when it got converted to the hotel.
After class, I have started to explore downtown Washington, D.C. I am fortunate enough to have all the major museums, the monument, the archive building, and the capitol within walking distance. First, I explored a sculpture garden.
The sculptures were ok....... they are nothing compared to the quality you see in Loveland, CO. However, the gardens throughout were superb (probably because of the insane humidity).
I also toured an art museum. I could not believe the quality of art they had there. It was free admission, which was shocking!
First off, I saw an original Da Vinci painting!!!
Here is the back of the painting, beautiful!
Next, a sculpture of Jon the Baptist completed in 1460!
Of course you all know, this is a Monet. They had 5 on display, all equally astonishing.
One of my favorite parts was the private armor collection from the 1500's on display.
It was so immaculate. I could not believe how detailed it was, could you imagine how long it would take someone to make this?! This was all royal armor. I wish I had some kind of scale for you to see how small they are. The full suits of armor would fit a 10-year old in today's world. 
It came with XM radio, and bluetooth. We can sync our phones with the truck and there are buttons on the steering wheel that allow you to talk on your phone hands free as you drive.
Other than buying a new vehicle, we really haven't been up to much lately. A few weekends ago, we went to Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, CO to people watch and buy these funky shoes. These are like toe socks with soles, and Cody wears them all the time. It looks really weird, but I can't believe no one thought of these things sooner!
Here is what we normally do, kick back and relax! Have a good weekend!
Happy Birthday Mom! Enjoy your day,make sure to eat lots of green chiles and birthday cake, and RELAX! We love you!
Cody had to change the tire 6" from traffic coming from both directions going 65+ mph. I was standing in front of him to warn traffic he was there so he wouldn't get hit. From that point on, we had to go 60 mph because of the spare tire. We lost so much time, we decided to stay the night in Phoenix and just get new tires in the morning. We eventually made it to Las Cruces Thursday evening, and started the trip with a visit to Burger Time for some rolled tacos and cheese fries smothered in green chiles! Yummy
We ate tons of mexican food, and shot off fireworks on the 4th.
Poor Joey (my mother-in-laws' cute little boston terrier) needed consoling pretty much all evening, he was scared of the fireworks!
Her is Aunt Judy and her friend, Gene. We were all hanging out watching the chaos at the park unfold. My mother and father-in-laws' backyard faces the park where the city fireworks are shot off, and it was absolutely packed.
Hanging out in the backyard by the fire after eating hamburgers and hotdogs.
Some of the Las Cruces fireworks. I actually went up on the roof this year to watch the fireworks (with a little persuasion from Cody), and I am so glad I did! That was an awesome view!
We had some mortars that were really loud................. poor Joey!
*giggle* *giggle* :) This is what the fourth of July is all about. We had to fill out a permit to buy these, but the permit was in a different city where these fireworks are legal. Cody didn't even sign the permit or give them the full address, and we still somehow got them. These were louder and better fireworks than mortars we have bought previously. This year, we figured we only get to blow our money up once a year, so why not do it right?!
Cody and Kyle got a system going where they lit off two mortars at the same time, here are some green and white ones. 
