New Home...

The Front: Note the size of the front yard. I could almost trim it with scissors!
Living Room...

Stairs up to Bedrooms...

Kitchen. I love the tile floor, with nice dark grout, hides dirt well. I love all the drawers, and the pot rack high on the wall. It makes up for the lack of cabinets, but I like all the low storage. The place I am in now has such high cabinets, it's almost impossible for me to use them!

Main floor 1/2 bath. I am taking down that little cabinet, it's kinda rusty and dated, and serves no real purpose.

Dining area off kitchen. I love the wood floors! The curtains to the right are on a pair of french doors that lead to the deck.

This picture doesn't do the deck justice. It is HUGE, as wide as the house, and about 2/3 the length of the yard. Enough room for a grill, table and chairs and more. It's basically like an outdoor living room!

Stairway to basement off dining area....

Closet in dining area/kitchen. I am going to put a set of shelves in here and make it a pantry.

When you turn left at the bottom of the basement stairs there is the laundry room, it is big, with metal shelves already in it.

This is the basement full bath. I am taking down those ugly little shelves, they don't match and look wierd. This bathroom also has a full bath and shower, behind the door.

Under the basement stairs is this great storage closet. I love all this storage!

The main room of the basement. It is bigger than this picture makes it seem. Sliding glass doors to the yard are to the left.

The backyard is all paved with concrete and bricks. I was sad at first, but now I am seeing benefits to it...

The deck view from below.

Upstairs full bath...

Our bedroom...Love the ceiling fan!

The only thing I really don't get in this house? This odd dressing table thing.
It has that crazy 90's mirror and then some shelves to the right of it. Weird.

These two bedrooms are really small, but nice and have good sized closets.

William and I picked up the keys to our new place today. It was nice to see it again, and start figuring out where to put things.

Smithsonian Adventures...

William and I have been spending many of our days with our buddies Kelsey and Jack. Friday I decided to brave DC with 3 kids in tow....It was great!

I think all the kids enjoyed the Metro most of all!
William loves Kelsey and insists that she alone care for him when she is around!

Here's Jack looking super cool in his sunglasses...

One of the main reasons I wanted to go was to see this butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum... It was lovely.

Jack got to hold a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. I declined.

William was fascinated by this beehive. It was all too real and they were actually making honey in there. They had a special clear tube to the outside and you could see them coming and going through the tube. Very neat.

Burning Off the Energy...

William took a long nap today so it was vital to get him out this evening for some running. I love the outfit. He looks so cute! He is getting to that o-so adorable stage of wanting to bring things with him and wear costumes pretty much all the time. Tonight he told us "When your skin gets cold you get goosebonks!" So funny!

Will's Week...

He spent a lot of time dressing up this week. Here you see the half naked-firefighter-confederate soldier look...
Will and I spent a rainy day at the Playseum. He was into veggies that day.

Here he is playing near kids and trying to ignore their attempts at stealing his trucks...

We had a picnic dinner by the Potomac on Friday night...Jason and Will recited stories together.

Then we all went down to the river to throw rocks in...

Will spent lots of time throwing things in and deciding if they floated or not...

Jason caught some tiny little fish in this tea bottle...

William was fascinated, and then moments after this picture was taken, he attempted to drink them...

Jason and William spent Saturday at the playground and Panera while I was at work...

Then that evening we went to Solon and Andrea's for dinner. All in all a great week!

In other news, we found out this week we will definitely be staying in Maryland for the near future. Probably the next 3-5 years. This isn't our ideal, but in this economy we really can't look a gift employment in the mouth! I am still looking hard for a place to live, it is frustrating, but I think we will all be happier when we are settled somewhere bigger with more room to run!

All Little Shaken Up...

We survived a little earthquake this morning unscathed. It was only 3.6, so when it woke me I thought it was a clap of thunder that hit the ground near us. It lasted about 5 or 10 seconds, it's hard to tell because I was half asleep. I don't remember the Seattle one having such a loud rumble though...this sounded really loud! What a way to start the day! William and Jason both slept right through it by the way...

Ring Around The Rosie...

In the Same (Gene) Pool...

Our dear little cousins came to visit us today, and we spent a nice hour swimming. Alessandra is really becoming a little fish and is swimming so well, and she just started lessons! Gabbi spent lots of time practicing kicking today, safe in Solon's arms. William spent his time scaring us all to death by running around the pool, getting too close to the edge and saying "Don't You Dare!" over and over to himself...

I'll Have What He's Having...

Jason had set William up with his cereal, milk, and juice this morning, and then stepped away for a moment. When he returned he found this: William eating Daddy's cereal and drinking his coffee! I love the rough morning look he has, it looks like he needs the coffee!

I'm With The Band...

Every Friday and Saturday night there are live bands at our town square. William is FASCINATED with all these bands! He loves to sneak up as close as he can. A few moments after this he started to haul away the top guitar case, which was especially funny since it said "Question Authority" on the side! Too funny!

Happy 4th of July!

Gabbi is getting ready for the Bocce game...
William spent much of his time stealing other people's drinks...

Many, many soccer matches were played...

The Boys were having a ball kicking up some dust...

Sisters getting ready to watch some fireworks!

The next day we rode the metro in to town...

Max and Ben in front of the Washington Monument...

and the Lincoln Memorial.

And we finished the day at Star Diner.

We were lucky enough to have our dear friends, the Guerne-Kieferndorfs, join us for the weekend. We had a great weekend, but are exhausted! Max and Ben have grown up so much since we last saw them in 2005! 4th of July was great, but very hot. We managed to stay in the shade though and had a great time BBQing at NIST. That night we layed in a big field and watched the fireworks. Will loved them for the first 5 minutes, but soon tired of them. Everyone else loved them, they were really well done this year! The next morning, we got up early and headed in to DC, trying to beat the heat. Well, it wasn't possible. It was about 100 degrees yesterday and miserable. We walked the mall, and back to the American History Museum and then ended at the American Indian Museum. It was a long, hot day, but the boys enjoyed seeing all the sights, and William was happy to hang out in the stroller for most of it. Today is supposed to be over 100 and it is not letting up any time soon! UGH!