Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

The local news recently did a story on bed bugs that featured Ray. Check it out, prepare to be grossed out!

You can fit a lot into 36 hours...

Over labor day I spent 36 hours in Washington DC. My sister Abby lives there with her new husband David (we like to call them AC/DC-last name Chipman). The were our gracious, enthusiastic hosts-emphasis on gracious and enthusiastic! Boise State was there to play their season opener with Virginia Tech (they played at FedEx Stadim in Maryland. At a "neutral field", yeah right, if neutral means 90% VT fans/10% Boise fans). Anyway, I didn't go to the game, I wasn't even planning on going at all. Ray had always planned on going to the game with the rest of my family. But my youngest sister Dana insisted that I come visit for a little while because most of my siblings were going to be there. So I went for my 36 hours and I passed Ray in the sky on my way back home. I'm SO glad I went. I wasn't there for long, I didn't get much sleep, but we packed so much into that 36 hours. It was so great to see my family, it was so great to get away from my precious little darlin's for a little while. I wish I could've gone to the game but I guess you can't have it all!

Washington DC is such a fun place to visit. It is a photographers dream, I didn't do it justice. It was so great to be able to concentrate on my budding photog skills without kids there. I think everyone got annoyed with waiting for me, sorry! I would love to go with just Ray and I sometime. There is so much I want to see. There is something so inspiring about being in our nations capital. I'm such a sucker for America.

We went to the famous Ben's Chili Bowl (I guess it's famous, really). It was super busy and crazy and I guess it is like that all the time. It was some serious sinful food, but sooo good and indulgent!

I got to see these little cuties, Jack and Mia. My brother Colin and his family came down to the game from Cleveland. (They are moving to Spokane next summer, yipee!!)

We went back to Abby and David's after dinner and played "Rock Band" and "Just Dance" until the wee hours of the morning. Oh my gosh, you HAVE to get this game. It is SO fun and SO hilarious. We are totally getting it for Christmas. Check out this video for some of the awesomeness.

We went to church the next day, their church starts at 8:00, which is like going to church at 5 am for me, weird. But we had the rest of the day to see the sights. We went to see some of the monuments. I loved this so much. I want to go back so I can see more.

The Albert Einstein Memorial (whose foot is that?? should've spent some time cropping)

Pretty amazing likeness

Abby, David, Leslie, Alex, Jason (where's Dana??)

There was a spider web in the stop light that I wish you could see better. I thought it was so symbolic, a spiderweb on the Constitution Ave. street sign :)

I *heart* American flags

A memorial to the nurses of the Vietnam War

Vietnam Veterans Statue

Les and Alex, awwww

The Washington Monument

...from the top of the Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial. Amazing.

I *heart* Abraham Lincoln

The Declaration of Independence

There's Dana!

The Korean War Memorial

The Vietnam Memorial

My kind of self-portrait ;)

Arlington Cemetery from the car window

We also went to the Eisenhower Memorial. I didn't take any pictures because it was at night and my camera isn't very good in really low light. But it was really neat, it spurred some interesting discussions. My brother-in-law David is the photographer extraordinaire and he took some shots of us being crazy.

Posers

We tried so hard to get a picture of us all jumping...

And here are a few of David's shots of the game.

That's what it was...

Awww Yeahhhh

(Boise State won, of course)

Everyone. My brother Colin went to Virginia Tech. He and that dude next to him were the lone wearers of VT gear in a sea of blue! I guess some drunk lady verbally assaulted him. Awesome. Wish I could've been there for that part, but I had such an great time! Thanks Abby and David!

Dance Party USA!

Check out how smooth Elliot is. And as far as Grace goes...well, can you say *white girl*?
(Please ignore my incredibly messy kitchen!)

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She would kill me if she knew...

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Grace apparently has a crush on a boy, *gulp* *yikes*. She decorated her poetry notebook to ensure that no one opens it, but she put all the incriminating evidence right on the front. Notice the G heart B and B heart G. I've seen this Bennet, he's shorter than her so I don't think it will last ;)

Preschool Girl

A little over a year ago I put Maggie on the waiting list for a preschool at the high school. There is one main teacher and the high school students help plan the curriculum and teach the kids (they all have background checks done, I checked :) ). It is a great preschool and REALLY cheap (like $15 a month!!) so you can imagine that the waiting list would be long. (I put Naomi on the list at the same time.) Anyway, I hadn't heard anything over the summer about her getting in so I was just keeping my fingers crossed for next year. Then about 4 days before the preschool was to begin I got a call from the teacher telling me that someone had dropped out and Maggie was in! She was so excited to start, and so far has l.o.v.e.d. it. A few days after she started she, out of the blue, said, "preschool makes me happy", awwww! I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. Not to get off subject, but last week our lesson in family home evening was about baptism because Grace is going to be baptized in 6 months-how could it possibly have been almost 8 years ago that she was born?? Anyway, here are a few shots of the preschool girl.

Fun With My Phone

I am currently blogging from my new phone. Just because I can. Technology is so amazing. I have this really cool retro camera app. I love it! Here's a little taste of the awesomeness.

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