Karate Kid

I've been taking karate lessons. Today I got my yellow belt. I graduated up from yellow belt with white stripe. Check it out. I didn't even have to sand the floor.

Justin's Greatest Hits

Put Me In Coach

I play T-ball. This is my first year. Saturday was my first game.

It's not your normal T-ball, though. The rules are kind of weird (it's a church league). The coaches pitch a few pitches and if you don't hit those, then you hit off the tee. The only way you can get out is if the other team catches it or if the ball beats you to first. There are no outs at other bases. Each team bats through their lineup each inning, unless they get three outs first, which is only theoretically possible at this level (we got the other team out once during the game... one more time than they got us out). Also, we don't keep score. Everyone wins.

I got to bat three times (games are limited by time, not innings). Each time, I hit it off the coach pitching. No need for the tee here.

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.