Springtime flower, by Mason

Choir

Kenzie loves choir! They performed at the high school with older students and an adult choir. She smiled the whole time and sang her heart out.

Here is their final song. Warning: long. :)

In need of a hair cut

Sun for sports

First baseball game, plus a soccer game for each. Weather couldn't have been better.

Nice people

In the midst of our vacation craziness, including the emergency landing, Janel losing her wallet, Mason getting lost at the zoo...oh, and the one I haven't mentioned yet...Felix fainting on the plane before take-off (getting him and me kicked off the plane to spend an extra night in DC), we had several random acts of kindness.

When we had our emergency landing into Dulles instead of Reagan International, I had to scramble to get a rental car from the new location. Just rebooking at Alamo at the different airport for some reason cost $400 extra. So, standing at the ticket counter of Alamo, I called Budget who gave me a much better deal. Leaving the five others behind, Kenzie and I flagged down a cab driver to head to budget. Without explanation, he refused any money. I realized I was frantic and his calm, generous presence really changed my mood and probably the trajectory of the rest of the afternoon. He just genuinely was a nice guy.

Later in DC Grampy, Grammy, Cindy and Mason had an Ethiopian cab driver who was grateful to learn that our family has adopted two Ethiopian boys with David and Daniel, and he also refused money. He simply wanted to show his appreciation for our family helping his people.

And, on the last night when Felix was so sick that he couldn't fly, the paramedics that tended to him were so great. They stayed with us and, when we were ready, joked and made us feel very comfortable. They found out that we were the emergency landing that was diverted to Dulles just a week previous, they said, "oh, YOU were that plane! They never let us do emergency landings here. They're the varsity over there, we're just the JV here." I asked them if I could take their picture, assuring them that eventually Felix would want the picture (true, as it turns out). They were all super nice.

They turned us over to the Alaska Air agent who spent a full 45 minutes rebooking us and making sure that we had seat assignments the next morning. I had purchased a companion fare, so the system made it very difficult for her to rebook. But, she persisted, even after the entire terminal closed. She was smart enough to book one of us in the window and the other in the aisle, making it so that we had an empty seat between us.

Later when we settled into our hotel, Felix was feeling up for a walk (and a pizza) so we went to Crystal City and found a cool street with hip restaurants, most of which had outdoor seating. We found a little Italian restaurant and opted to wait for a table outside. We weren't in a hurry as we had nothing better to do. After we sat I ordered a glass of wine, then we ordered our food. It took a bit for the food to arrive, so they brought me a complementary glass of wine. After a bit the owner came out, apologized for the wait, and told us that our entire meal was free! Free food tastes great, and we both enjoyed it very much. Timing was also good...the end of a stressful day, made a little bit better by generous strangers.

The next morning the same Alaska Air agent was at the gate. She saw me arrive, jumped out from behind the counter and gave me a big hug. She later found Felix as he was boarding the plane and hugged him saying, "I'm your airline mom."

Little and big trouble

The Misters Social make friends everywhere they go. Nature wins out over Nurture in this one.

Gettysburg address

Kenzie soaked up all the history around us today. At one point when we were in the Lincoln Memorial she disappeared. I found her video taping the etchings on the walls.

View from the Lincoln Memorial

International vacation

We have been having a lot of fun with accents and cultural jests. A heavy-handed German accent seems to be the universal go-to for anyone needing to crack a joke, but we have hints of Australian and Spanish interspersed...even South Carolina ghetto. Regardless it's awesome that our kids get to spend a week with three amazing teenagers visiting our nation's capital.

White house posers

Wow, armed guards at the Federal Reserve

I asked Kenzie to pose on the steps of the Federal Reserve as we were walking by, wondering aloud how many billions of dollars were stored there. Yet somehow not quite aware of the machine-gun armed security guards lurking in the shadows. That is, until Kenzie stepped across the perimeter. They yelled at us while we retreated. Sarah convinced me it was not appropriate to take their picture, so I have to settle for this. Kenzie is feigning a smile, but is actually quite annoyed at getting yelled at.

Presidential tour

Amazingly enough we were out of the house by nine this morning. We took the metro to the city and made it to our 11:30 White House tour. The weather was a perfect low-70s. Grammy and Grampy opted for loaner wheelchairs for the tour itself which, as it turns out, gets you special access to areas not on the general tour. As I pushed Grammy we took a detour through the White House kitchen! Grampy got to ride in the presidential elevator. The rest of our group took the stairs and were fairly limited to the dozen or so rooms that they put on display. It was great though and, thanks to Sarah's insistence six months ago, we were happy to have planned it out.

We found a guy with a Rickshaw who drove Grammy and Grampy...and Mason...to the Hamilton for lunch while the rest of us walked the few blocks. Cindy, Grammy, Grampy and Mason then headed back home while the rest of us did the extended walking tour.

Kenzie was so happy to have her personal tour guide, Sarah, available to answer her every question as we went back to the White House for more pictures, climbed the Lincoln Memorial, walked the Vietnam War Memorial and finally relaxed at the World War II Memorial.

At six we caught the metro back and had a big barbecue dinner to celebrate our last night. And try to finish off the case of wine that we bought on Monday.

Kissing cousins

It first started in 2005 on our family vacation in Seaside...and continues today.

Baltimore

Today was fairly lazy until about 5 PM when we decided to head to Baltimore. Sarah, Janel and I had a hankering for sushi, so we found an authentic yet seedy little place near the Inner Harbor called Geisha Sushi Bar. We split some sake while the rest of our clan fended for themselves across the harbor.

Grammy and Grampy were already settled into the Irish pub by the time we took this picture.

Zoo Day

We had another crazy busy day. We got up and split into two groups. One group, Team Metro, consisting of Cindy, Sarah, Kenzie, Ruby and Sarita, headed to the metro station 20 minutes away with the goal of meeting us at the zoo whenever they could arrive. Surely the underdog, we didn't expect to see them until later in the day. The second group, Team SpeedWalk, had A CAR and a German navigator. Grammy, Grampy, Janel, Mason and I headed out, led by Felix and an iPhone. We started heading in a direction that we had never been before, but Felix reassured us that we were just avoiding traffic. Then we went to a little town called Germantown, and again had some suspicions. Then we drove past a donut shop and were compelled to stop... an experience that stands on its own.

The three-toothed owner with a fabulously strong Indian accent was not impressed that we were rather undecided in our ordering. The menu board just said "donuts," and did not give their entire selection. So when I asked him what donuts they had he listed every donut name (of which there must have been fifty) in about 10 seconds. That started the giggling. We finally drove to the window, with muted permission from the owner, to order in person. When we asked if he had any donuts with nuts he sternly said "no, we only have peanuts." But clearly we thought Team Speedwalking had plenty of time for a detour.

Then we kept meandering. Going nowhere near a freeway. Felix again reassured us that we were avoiding all traffic, which was very true.

After an hour into the trip (which should have been about 20 minutes total) everybody was parched from the salty donuts. So we stopped at strip mall, which happen to have a German grocery store. Coincidence? It is then that we begin to wonder. As we got back on the road and saw the no traffic freeway just paralleling us, we also began to wonder how much traffic there really was that we were avoiding.

Finally, when we hit the DC limits, a full 1.5 hours into our 20 minute trip, I asked Felix how much longer it said we have. He said "5 miles and an hour and 36 minutes." I asked him "Felix, are you using the walking directions or the driving directions?" We have been taking the walking path the entire time and once we got on a thoroughfare we quickly got on to the zoo!

Due to all the walking at the zoo Grammy and Grampy opted for the motorized scooters, which actually made the rest of us quite jealous. They broke all the rules, including the "no kids on scooter" one.

We did have a terrible scare. At one point we looked around and realized Mason was nowhere near. We split up in opposite directions and started looking for him but couldn't find him until a couple told us that the security had come to claim a little boy. So we found him in the visitor center safe but rattled.

After the zoo we again split into our two teams and hit the next leg of the race...this time to downtown DC and the Holocaust Museum. Grammy and Mason opted for a nap in the car, which had been thoroughly searched by the police as we entered one of the two parking garages in DC. Team Speedwalking arrived 1.5 hours behind Team Metro, who patiently waited so we could all go through together.

For our final adventure, we sought out German food in the city. We thought it was only fair since we had Spanish tapas to celebrate Saritas country a couple of days ago. We found a place near Georgetown called Old Europe.

This time Team Speedwalker beat the Metro clan who caught a cab for the final leg. When we walked in Felix was horrified to see that Old Europe didn't represent the modern/hip Germany that he loves...but instead accordion-playing yodelers and lederhosen!! The more embarrassed he became, the happier the rest of the group became and soon we were clapping in step with the polka. Ten out of the eleven were animated and festive. The other tried to bury himself in his hooded sweatshirt. It was perfect! What could make it better? Only one thing...Janel asked the musicians if they could possibly sing him Happy Birthday in a way to fully embarrass him. He whipped out his ID card to let them know this was all a terrible mistake, and his birthday is actually in June. Undeterred, they slowed down the song to make sure we were fully living the moment with him.

Shopping in Annapolis

Today we didn't venture too far, just to Annapolis and then the mall. Cindy failed on her photographer duties so just one worthy picture.

Scary politics

Kenzie and Nixon

East Coast Chirpie

Chirpie (Kenzie's beloved dog that she got from Becka on her first birthday) came with us. She is tattered but well traveled and loved. I just learned today that five years ago Kenzie put glow-in-the-dark nail polish on Chirpie's eyes so she is creepy in the dark.

The new man on the moon

Random DC by Mason

Grammy and Grampy stayed back at the house today, so Grampy gave Mason his camera to fully document the day. Mason took the assignment very seriously. Most of these pictures were taken by him.