Balitmore, MD

Okay so here we are still at the aquarium. If you look closely you will see a little monkey holding on to that tree ( I would too- there were "things" in the water like gators).

Sharks, sharks and more sharks.

Rich's favorite - the megalodon ( a 60 foot long shark that went extinct 2 million years ago). He was in heaven when the guy told him what it was.

Baltimore by Warrior Weekend

Warrior Weekend provides weekends of rest and relaxation for soldiers and marines who have been wounded in combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. They are undergoing recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. The missions are funded by both individuals and organizations and are no cost to the soldiers and marines who participate.
Missions focus on small groups of 8-10 and allow participants to enjoy themselves at various destination cities. The mission provides activities, but also allows each participant the freedom to do their own thing.
The mission was started by Steve Udovich, a retired Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel and decorated Iraq combat veteran. He paid a visit to Walter Reed in December of 2006 and started this mission the following month.

Over the weekend we went to Baltimore with a group from Warrior Weekend. We had a wonderful time. These pictures are at the aquarium. I have more pictures but blogger and or my computer is not behaving. The one on top is dolphins and Brandon. The one below is Brandon feeling the shells.

This one is Brandon with a fake frog on his head - courtesy of daddy. I will post more pictures on Wednesday.

skating

I thought more practice would help Brandon with ice skating but with ice skating you have to skate on ice and they only offer that, on sat and sun. So I thought I would buy us some roller skates and see if I can get him to start gliding.

Lesson 6

So here is lesson 6 which was actually a test so here is Brandon being tested. He passed everything but two items so he is going to retake tot 1 starting today :) In tot 2 they glide on one skate and he's just not there yet.

I thought I was taking a picture and didn't realize that it was on "movie" I can't figure out how to rotate the movie... But here is Brandon skating.

Climbing trees

All of you who have trees know that trees and little boys go hand in hand. Here is Brandon climbing our tree.

Update: If it looks like there is no video, just click on the play button and you will see the video : )

keep away

Brandon and Luma love to play with each other lol. Here they are playing keep away. It's a good thing that Luma is such a mellow dog.

Caps Won!!!!!

Yeah! I'm so excited the Caps won the game today. I was worried because Washington had only won one of the last four games and if Philadelphia won then it would have been over for Washington. I just wanted to post and say yeah!!!!!!!! By the way the final score was 3-2 (this picture is from their web site http://capitals.nhl.com/.

Yes, family I was watching the playoff on TV. It's a crazy world isn't it, and no I am fine. lol
Go Caps!!!!!

Normie and Luma

Ok, so know that no animals were hurt or ever have been hurt playing with each other. This is Luma and Normie playing. When we got Normie he was about 2 lbs (he's now 16 lbs and on a diet), Luma would put Normie's head in her mouth and play...those were the days. We would have the two of them chasing thru the house like someones tail on fire lol. Now it's mostly Normie sitting on something (chair, freezer or the top of the couch) and batting at Luma. It's quite funny. Anyway Brandon's last ice skating class is tomorrow so I will post those pics next week. Have a great weekend.

Luma

We have squirrels in our backyard and our dog loves to chase them (she never catches them). I believe she thinks they are giant rats with fluffy tails. They drive her nuts flicking their tails at her and then running up a tree. After she has "treed" one she just waits at the base not knowing that the squirrel has jumped to anther tree and is long gone by now. She knows that they go up the tree and then disappear... It's fun to say "squirrel" and see her take off.

Operation Second Chance & Tournament of the Kings

This is Cindy McGrew she is the founder of Operation Second Chance.
What is Operation Second Chance you ask?

Operation Second Chance:
~To aid in the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded service men and women.
~To assist in the modification of housing to accommodate disabled veterans.
~To assist the families of wounded service men and women.
~To facilitate the transition of wounded service men and women back into civilian society.
Their web site is http://www.operationsecondchance.org. This group helps soldiers get back on their feet and have been very good to us. The picture of Cindy above is when we went to CA. We went there to promote OSC. Anytime a soldier needs help, OSC will help: a car payment, morage etc. When the soldiers are able to leave the hospital she takes us out to baseball, hockey (go Caps!), basketball games, concerts, circus and dinners. Last Thursday we went to the Tournament of the Kings courtesy of OSC. I'm not sure how many soldiers went, but we were in two buses. We had a blast, Brandon keeps telling me that he wants to go back and see the men fighting. He is going to be really sad when we leave and don't have the opportunity to see and do all these things anymore. If anyone is interested in donating to OSC please check out the web site http://www.operationsecondchance.org.

Getting ready to eat our dinner (with our hands). We were cheering the yellow knight on.
I think that this is the King.

Brandon thought this was pretty cool. We told him that this is what the knight wore years and years ago when they fought.

Lesson 5

So last Saturday was Brandon's fifth lesson in ice skating. All of the kids are doing really well and the teacher (and Mommy's) are all very proud. Brandon participates in this class much more than he did in Taekwondo. He tells me all the time that when he get bigger he is going to play ice hockey (among other things ie: fly helicopters, drive fire trucks, be a teacher etc). Now if only we could get him to glide across the ice instead of walking...

I don't remember what he was doing here but it's a cute picture.

Here is Brandon one more time. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. See you on Monday.

Cherry Blossmom Festival Pt2

I thought I had added this picture but when I looked at it today I saw that it was missing. And adding a picture always adds it to the top sigh.... Anyway they had a Jr Ranger area and Brandon made this Cherry Blossom. Cute huh :)

So like I said on Monday, last week we went to the Cherry Blossom Festival. Here is my favorite picture of the cherry blossoms.
Rich and Brandon posing in front of the Tidal Basin. Can you see the cherry trees on the other side of the basin?

This is Jefferson Memorial peeking through the cherry blossoms across the tidal basin.

Cherry Blossom Festival pt1

So last Thursday we got on the Metro train and went to the Cherry Blossom Festival. For those of you who haven't seen this in person, let me tell you that it is the most beautiful sight you will ever see. I copied some of the history information from the official National Cherry Blossom Festival website. "The National Cherry Blossom Festival annually commemorates the 1912 gift to the city of Washington of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and celebrate the continued close relationship between our two peoples."

So here we are checking out the tulip garden before we reach the cherry trees. I just love the orange/yellow tulip up top. Some of the flowers weren't even blooming yet but the ones that were were beautiful.
As we were walking to the cherry trees we walked past the Washington Monument, it too was surrounded by cherry trees. We still need to get tickets and check it out before we move...sigh.

Cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. I will post more of our pictures on Wednesday so be sure to come back and take a look.

Teaching his animals

I just couldn't resist taking these pictures. A couple of months ago Brandon had to give a talk in Primary. I thought that he should practice giving his talk so we brought out all of his stuffed animals and he taught them about Jesus. Well, my darling little boy did wonderful :). Anyway, he likes to bring out his animals. He tells me to set them up and he will teach them about Jesus. Isn't that just the cutest thing ever. He has his two Book of Mormon books and tells them about the pictures.
Next week I will post more pictures of Brandon ice skating and the Cherry Blossom Festival. Until Monday...have a great weekend.

Spring has sprung

This is how my backyard looks now. Yeah!!!!! Spring is finally here.

In contrast - here is my backyard after one of our ice storms.
I like summer better. What do you think?