Early Morning Smiles

Ignore my crusty hair and lack of make-up and focus on the cute boy sitting next to me.

Segway Tour

I forgot to mention a highlight from the weekend my sister's were in town. On Saturday afternoon, the crew pictured above, took a Segway Tour of DC.

I did not attend as I was working on my gift for Addy and helping my mom take care of the little ones who couldn't go on the tour for obvious reasons.

Everyone who rode recommended the tour very highly. So if you are in the area and want to give it a try please call me -- I wanna go sometime myself! And I don't know about you, but these pictures make me think of a chimpanzee riding on a Segway.

Bethany's Crabby

My sister Bethany has a tendency towards negativity. Although she is usually sweet, her outlook can sometimes be a bit pessimistic. As a family we choose to tease her about this.

So, when planning for the weekend's activities, Sarah came up with an EXCELLENT idea. She sent everyone but Bethany and Kelly an email challenging us to each make a t-shirt that said BETHANY'S CRABBY.

Of course we all accepted this offer and set about secretly creating our t-shirts. No one was allowed to discuss ANY ASPECT OF THEIR SHIRT before we all slipped them on at the beginning of the crab feast. We also decided that Bethany and Kelly would be the judges of the winning shirt.

Fix and I tag-teamed our shirts. He helped me with the designing, and I did the iron-on transfers.

Rocket's shirt focused on the great truths of life... God is love. Time is Money. Gators (Bethany went to the University of Florida) are #1 (for now). And Bethany (initials BBB) is Crabby.

The back of his shirt (and the color and the Gator reference) seemed like a shameless attempt to sway the judges. He used fabric markers to draw his own design.

Susanna also used fabric markers to re-create scenes from our childhood. The first shows what would happen when (crabby) Bethany invited her sisters to spend the night in her room. One by one she'd kick us out.

The back of Zuni's shirt also depicts a real-life moment when all four daughters were crammed into the back seat of the Taurus and Sarah got a little crabby herself.

Speaking of Sarah -- her shirt was also clearly made to woo the judges as she choose a simple design in Gator colors.

Juju's entry poked fun at all of Bethany's family... there is a crab for each one of us.

Ron's shirt was a nod to Napoleon Dynamite...

With a twist.
Annie made a last-minute entry with this shirt for Clip. In case you can't make it out, it reads "If you think THIS is crabby (pictures of a very upset Clip) You should see BETHANY!"

Close up of Fix's shirt and his son's wiffle-ball-bat.

And a close up of the WINNING SHIRT!!!!! I credit my win to the circa-1994 hairstyle that Bethany was sporting in this picture.

Crab Feast

What good is a visit to Maryland in the Summer if you don't have a CRAB FEAST?!

On the last night that everyone was in town, we all gathered at my parents house where we ate an entire bushel of crabs. And they were GOOD!

The people in this picture (and Addy and Rock) did not eat any crabs.

We ate crabs into the dark hours of the night. Then sat outside talking, smoking cigars (well, only a few of the menfolk did this), and eating cake and ice cream.

Here's the whole Crab Feast crew (minus Rock and Addy who were already asleep at this point).

Birthday Cake for Two!

In case you forgot, let me remind you that Rock and his cousin Addy share a birthday. Juju is not going to be with either of them on their actual birthday, so she threw them a joint 'party' while we were all together at her house for the crab feast.

In case you can't tell, Rock and Addy wore matching outfits for the occasion.

Like any good one-year-old, Addy dug right into the cake.

Rock waited patiently while we all sang, blew out both candles,...

And dug right in! The homemade ice cream was provided by Judy and Marty.
Sarah and Ron got him a set of RESCUE RODS Hotwheels.
And later he opened a wiffle ball set from Juju.She even demonstrated how to use it.

Ben's Chili Bowl

On Saturday we ate lunch at one of DC's most famous eateries, Ben's Chili Bowl.
I tried to snap a picture of Rock sitting by the bear, but he was busy waving and calling out to Addy, Bethany, Juju and Rocket who had just arrived across the street.

He was successful in getting them where they needed to be.
Inside, everyone ordered the chili half-smoke and fries. Everyone but Rock and Addy that is. They split a hot dog and some fruit puffs. We all agreed that Ben's lived up to all the hype.

Back outside we got a sorta good picture together by the bear.

Cousins.

The Awakening

When I heard they were moving The Awakening sculpture from Hains Point I was devastated. It has been one of my favorite DC attractions since I was a kid and I thought it was gone for good.

But thankfully they didn't take it far... it's just across the river at National Harbor!

While Fix and Ron hung out with this happy couple...

We went down to explore the 100-ft. statue of a man climbing out of the earth. Rock thought it was particularly funny to pick his nose...

But he was afraid to climb up on the giant's face like Aunt Zuni.

Or sit in the giant's hand.

Perhaps he was thrown off by all the sand that was sticking to his toes.

Friday night

When Uncle Ron got into town, we went out to dinner at...

Rosa Mexicano in National Harbor.
If it wasn't for that building on the right, we would have had water-front seating.

Even Fix came along for a quick bite before he rushed off to a meeting.

After the Crab Bomb the night before, and the fish-n-chips for lunch, I figured I was due for some seafood, so I got the Crab Empanadas. They were fantastic. The perfect dish to help me prepare for the Crab Feast the next night.

Rock and Juju and the Dodge racecar. What you can't see is the Custom Willy's Coupe in his left hand. Right after we took this he rolled it off the balcony we were sitting on.

Thankfully Juju was willing to walk down with him to retrieve it. Hooray!