The National Postal Museum

 Today we went to visit the National Postal Museum!!  We went because I had heard great things about it and even though I couldn't imagine that a museum about the mail would be interesting, it totally was!  The kids and I had a great time and it was - by all accounts - the best museum visit yet!  Everything was colorful and very interactive.  There were touch screens or things that opened and closed all over the place.  You could sort mail, throw packages, scan barcodes with scanners and all sorts of other things that the kids thought were amazing!  There was a train, stagecoach, planes and a big truck - all inside the museum!
The big kids really liked the Post Secret exhibit.  They read all of the postcards on display - some were funny and some were very sad but they were all intriguing!
As you can see from the pictures, the museum was very empty.  We had it to ourselves for a while - and then another family showed up about an hour after we got there.  The NERVE!  It was a really great morning - we even got street parking about a half a block away! That is the DC equivalent of a miracle!!

Capital Sprints 10K

I don't post about running or fitness too much here but it's become a bigger and bigger part of my life in the last 3 years. On Sunday I ran a 10K to get an official time to submit for the Disney half marathon in December. You may remember that Brendan and I ran the full

Marathon 2 years ago. It wasn't the greatest thing for me. I was running injured and only ended up running 8 miles - them had to walk 18.  That was not fun.
This year I have my sights set a bit lower - the half is completely manageable. The only problem is that I've been working back from injury - AGAIN. That means limited miles and longer to recover between runs. I'm still working on strength and cardio several days a week but it's not the same as running. Anyway - I ran another 10K a few weeks ago and was pretty disappointed in my performance and time. My injury flared up during the race and I had to walk a large portion of the last 2 miles. This weekend I felt much better, ran the entire race, took 5 minutes off of my time from a few weeks ago, placed 25th overall and 6th out of 29 in my age group. (It was a small race!!). The best part was that Brendan and Declan were at the finish line!  Nothing better than that after a race - well, except maybe an ice cream cone!

More Emmy in Goal!

Crazy kids!

Just hanging out in the backyard with some beautiful light - I had to get the camera out and do a little practicing.  Declan wanted no part and went inside!

My First Wedding Cake

Today I delivered my first wedding cake!  Wow, that was a super stressful week!!  I learned a lot - mostly that I don't really have the time or space to be making wedding cakes!!!  You really need a lot of counter space that doesn't have cabinets above it to decorate the cake - and I have NO counter space without cabinets.  It made for an interesting couple of days.  It came out well in the end and I think the bride was happy.  I think I may stick to smaller projects that I KNOW I can accomplish and put out a great product!!

Wenckus Family Visit

We had a quick visit with the Wenckus family as they drove back from sleepaway camp in NH.  They were with us in England and we haven't seen them since 2010!  The kids are way bigger and we each have a kid that we didn't have then!!  Here's a picture of Julianna with the girls.

Here's a picture of Julianna and Emmy in Bath, UK in 2009

4th of July Fireworks at Ft. McNair

 This year, Brendan's boss invited us to watch the DC fireworks from his backyard at Ft. McNair.  His house backs right up to the Potomac and is so beautiful.  I have serious house/furniture/life envy while we are there!!  The day had been a little wet - sprinkling on and off and we were really hoping for the rain to hold off until after the fireworks.  They had a very nice party with some yummy food and since the fireworks were at 9, we were able to hang without totally melting down.  I was so excited to try to photograph the fireworks.  I spent a bunch of time that day reading up on how to photograph them and I got all set up with my tripod and my shutter release.  About five minutes before the fireworks started, massive clouds rolled in and brought the ceiling down really low!  Most of the fireworks just went up into the clouds and disappeared but I did manage to get some shots of the ones that stayed below the clouds.  Even though it wasn't as good of a fireworks show as it could have been, it was still pretty great to be in such a special place to watch them.  It's not that often that we get to do something so special!!