Uncle Hebe... I mean Jed

Uncle Jed paid us a visit last night. He stopped over on his way home from a work trip in Florida. We were excited to see him.

We gave him a taste of the suburban life. (He lives in the heart of San Francisco.) We played in the yard, grilled some fish (for fish tacos) on the deck in back, and chatted with our neighbors from deck to deck. The tacos were awesome, by the way. Grilled tilapia topped with tomatoes, guacamole, and chopped peaches.

After dinner, McKenzie knocked Jed out at Wii boxing and I played him to a draw at Wii baseball.

Only problem is, I kept calling Jed by Hebe's name. I guess I don't see either of them enough to tell them apart. They'll both have to visit more, maybe even at the same time!

Thanks for taking time to hang with us, Jed.

Back Home

On Thursday in DC, we went to the Holocaust Museum and then the American History Museum. They were cool. On Friday we walked around Alexandria a bit and then headed to Charlotte.

We spent the weekend in Charlotte and went to Austin Deal's farewell. Austin is Aunt Sam's husband's sister's son. And we were in their ward when we lived in Charlotte. And he's going on his mission to London, where we used to live. We told him all about it: to put his luggage in the boot, to always wear trousers over his pants, et cetera.

It was cool being in our old ward again. Everyone thought I was so big. I thought everyone looked like strangers.

After the farewell, we headed home. After being gone for a week and a half, it was nice to be back home, where the weeds were a foot high and we had two weeks of laundry to catch up on. Home sweet home.

Rocket Man

On Wednesday, we went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. It was pretty sweet. We saw lots of planes and spaceships and stuff. They had stuff that explains how planes fly. They even had a paper airplane contest (Daddy's plane was great).

They also had a room on planets. We've been talking about planets in school, so that was cool to see. I even learned something new: there are rings around your Uranus. Did you know there are rings around Uranus?

After the museum, we walked over to the Jefferson Memorial. It was really pretty. It looks out over the tidal pool toward the Washington Monument. You can also see the White House in the background. Very cool.

Monumental Walking

Last night, after it cooled down a bit (it was 90 degrees during the day), we walked around the monuments. We started at the Washington Monument. Then we walked to the World War II Memorial. Then we walked along the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial. Then over to the Koren War Memorial, then back to the other side for the Vietnam War Memorial, then back to the subway. It was a lot of walking.

White House

Yesterday, we went to see Barrack Obama's house. Our appointment was for 11 am, but I think Barrack Obama was busy when we got there so we had to wait outside for a while. I think he was having a prayer breakfast for the miners. Later in the day, we saw a clip of him "speeching" from the East Room.

When we finally got in, we walked through the rooms they let visitors see. We saw the Library, the Vermeil Room, the China Room, the East Room, the Green Room, the Blue Room, the Red Room, and the State Dining Room. My favorite room was "all of them." McKenzie's favorite was the "tea party room/wedding room" (the East Room), because it looked like a princess tea room.

The Capitol was Capital

We're in DC this week for spring break. We had planned to spend the week here anyway, before Aunt Sam died. She was going to spend some time with us. After her funeral in Richmond last week, we drove up Sunday to DC.

On Monday, we went on a tour of the US Capitol. The rotunda was pretty cool. Someone painted on the ceiling. I don't know my Mama and Daddy get so upset when I draw on the walls at our house...

On Monday night we drove out to Fairfax County to see Mike & Karen. Aunt Rach and her family came up, too. So did Uncle Ken and the kids. We had a good dinner (Daddy made Lomo Saltado, a peruvian dish) and played some fun games. Mike & Karen are great hosts. Thanks guys.

The Funeral

It was a hard week with the passing of Aunt Sam, but the funeral and other arrangements helped put it into perspective, and having lots of family around made it a little better.

I made friends with my cousin Noah. I drew a map to his hotel room so I wouldn't forget how to get there (it was across the hall from our hotel room). McKenzie made friends with Maggie (Noah's sister).

Josie made friends with everyone. She was so sweet and agreeable the whole time. Even Uncle Matt couldn't resist her.¹

¹ Which is pretty good, since Matt used to eat babies.²

² Just kidding. Uncle Matt used to deliver babies and I don't think he ate any of them. As you can see from the picture, he's a baby charmer.