Farewell

Gonna be hard to say goodbye today. We've been thinking and praying for our Papa, and the new Vicar of Christ. I originally posted this back in April of 2008. What an exciting day that was for all of us, that we will cherish for years to come.

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This was such a once in a lifetime event for us that I wanted to catalog it in detail.
We left the house at around 7:30 on Wednesday morning.
We drove into DC to Pentagon City where we parked and boarded the Metro.

Took the Metro to the Foggy Bottom-GWU station.

Staked our claim Found our spot at Washington Circle around 9:30 and began our wait.

We brought activities for the kids to do:

Alright-- truth be told; I didn't have it together enough before the event to have done the posters ahead of time, so we had to bring the stuff with us. But, hey, it all worked out...

There were plenty of security folks: secret service, police, bomb dogs, motorcycle police, helicopters, etc.

The boys were well entertained:

We managed to catch up with our eldest who went with a local ConQuest group.

They were all there in bright yellow shirts. You could see 'em comin' from a mile away:

Then the excitement began to build as The Holy Father started to come around the turn. He paused for a few seconds just before he entered the the road where we were. I got all teary eyed and my heart began to race.. then his driver must have wanted to make up for lost time, because it seemed like he just raced by. :-( But not before I snapped these:

The lighting was terrible for taking pics-- I was staring into direct sunlight, but it's him! And we were there--20 feet away. And it was awesome. I even caught a picture of him waving at the monkeys. At this point on the route, mine are the only littles in his line of sight. They were waving and holding their bright yellow signs. Dh's video confirms it.


When it was over, the monkeys were a bit disappointed-- they thought he would go by at Disney parade speed. They wanted it to last longer but were still thrilled that they saw him and he waved to them. Only the princess was still bottom lipped about the whole thing. "Momma, I taut I cud hug him. I wanna hug him."
Me too Sister...

Wanderlust

Outsourcing

ETA:  I created this post from my phone....  oh, the possibilities... 

Wordless Wednesday

Day of Rest

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday...

Love from NOLA

Arrived on our front porch today. Really, is there anything better than this with a cuppa joe on a cold Friday afternoon?

Wordless Wednesday

Seven Months and counting..

Lil' mister is SEVEN months already so I thought I'd share a photo or two.  I think he was actually closer to 5 1/2- 6 mos in these shots, but if you just imagine him a little rounder and a little longer then that's what he's lookin' like at seven months(-ish).

ETA:  Gak!  Note to self-- must not photograph kids with numbers or letters on them-- kinda looks weird if you need to flip a shot.

 

Thankful Thursday

Being a military family means we move.  A lot.  Currently, we are in our third house-- in THREE years.  So when our children meet someone that they connect with so easily, so wonderfully, well... it certainly does this momma's heart good.  When not in school, or sports practice, these two are together any chance they get.  Both have such beautiful, loving and kind spirits, and for that, I am thankful.

     

She flies thru the air with the greatest of ease...

In a 2013 attempt to capture more with my camera and post more on the blog, I'm sharing some shots from this past weekend's meet.  I am NOT a sports photographer, that's for sure, but it was fun giving it a go...