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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Fun with Burney


Burney is the black lab that lives next door to Grandma. He is being socialized until he is old enough to be trained as a companion dog. He is one good dog. We love Burney!



Going up the stairs!

Perhaps this is not where I want to be...


Much better, being near the head of the dog is much nicer.


One good looking dog!



We love Burney and it looks like Burney loves Lon too!

Pumpkin Patch


This is the first time Lon and I have ever been to a pumpkin patch. It was very nice.
Cox Farms in central Virginia. Lots of pumpkins and everyone who had a wristband (proof of paid admission) got to take a sugar pie pumpkin home. Our three are now in Grandma's yard. I took home the pumpkin in the sweater!

There were fun things for all ages at Cox Farm's Pumpkin patch. A bridge to climb. Lon liked it at the top, not too wild about getting to the top, but he liked it once he got up there.

Lon and I fed goats. Mommy likes goats. Especially pygmy goats. They have never eaten my shirt.

We went on a hayride. I do not remember ever being on a hay ride before. How fun! It was long. They had all sorts of strange creatures on the pathways. Some were very well done, some were just plywood cut outs. It was eclectic. I liked it. Lon seemed to like it too.









This is the inside of the scary barn. It was not scary, not even for Lon. The lights were pretty.

Lon and Grandma dance to the live music!

PIGLETS!! Lon loves piglets. His face lights up at the mention that there are piglets near by.

Lon studied the pumpkins and other assorted gourds.



Lon and I took home some yummy cider too.

It was a beautiful day, fairly warm and dry.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Drive By DC



These are a few photos that I took while riding in the car.


This is Lon. Can you see him? It was taken while I was outside the car. I have a couple of others that are similar.
I like them, they are a bit weird. But they are not retouched. These are just the way they came out of the camera.



There are lots more photos of drive by DC but I will post them a little later. This is enough for now.

The newly retired Grandma! WoooHooo!!

Back to the Start


I am not going to delete the last couple posts, I am just going to start blogging our adventure from the start! On the 12th of October we went to Virginia! Grandma was going to retire, for good this time. We had to be there for that. We arrived late on Thursday.
Lon was a joy on the airplane! He seemed to enjoy having his own seat. He is not at the age where he needs his own seat but companion fares are a great thing.
He liked to play with Mom's pocketbook. That was fun, inside Mama packed things like a couple trucks, some snacks. Lon was impressed.

Friday was Grandma's Birthday. It started out with a pink flamingo in the yard. Everyone knew it was her birthday! What a fun thing to do for a friend! We all went into DC with Mom to share her last day at the Capital. Grandmother spent the day at my sisters. Lon and I went all over the place with Grandma. There is a ton of paperwork involved in retirement.

Lon enjoys himself where ever he is! It helps that most everyone likes him. The nice ladies took time to entertain him while Grandma filled out reams of paperwork.

Lon reads the Hill.

Grandma has a birthday cake, and best of all, it was chocolate.

Lon learns about collating. He is not yet good at it.

Time to leave the office for the last time. Let's get this retirement thing started! WOOHOO!

Later on that evening, Lon had his first baby sitter. Oh my. I was feeling rather guilt ridden about it. Lon did very well. I think it was that he had some other children with him along with his new friends. The family went to Teatro Goldonis. The most wonderful restaurant in DC. We did not want to order, so my sister arranged to have a tour of the menu for us. The best food! I am sure I am going to spell some of these incorrectly I will fix it as soon as I find out it is wrong.

The menu tour started out with Frita Mista, a mixed platter of fried food. Scallops, calamari, shrimp, red pepper, and zucchini. Not a hint of grease, light crisp breading, with two different dipping sauces, a spicy red sauce and a garlic aoli.

Our next course, a perfect pan seared scallop, with a spicy ginger sauce. Next, came Fettucini Bolagnese. Following that was a ricotta gnocchi in a tomato basil sauce. The picture is of the next course, a beef purse with mushroom sauce, it is called a faboti. There is more! My brother in law's favorite came next, lobster risotto, with a sliced black truffle. We followed that with more fish, a swordfish with polenta that was so buttery it melted on the tongue. Not only the polenta but the fish too. Swordfish is so yummy. I had never had it before. Our last course before dessert was the bistecca. Beef, with potatoes and mushrooms. Dessert was amazing. It came to the table in a total of seven plates. Two tiers of three dishes and one large dish for the center of the table. Each dish had a different dessert. We all shared. A flourless chocolate cake, a cassatta, fruit and zabigolni, gelatos, (coffee, mango, lemon, raspberry, mint), a tiramisu and pistachio biscotti. We ended with coffee and lemoncello. Michelle, my mother's neighbor and friend wanted me make sure I blogged that she cleaned all of her plates. The meal was amazing. We even got a tour of the kitchen. It is such a tiny place for the amount of wonderful food they consistently make. Every time I go there I am so thankful that I was able to enjoy such wonderful food. Teatro Goldoni is on K street, Washington DC. I slept very well that night. Lon was happy to see me I think, even if he wasn't really all that awake when I came back.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

I am slowly adding photos

I added a few photos. Next week look for all new posts of everything we did! It was alot! And a super fun time was had by all!


Tonight I had some time to post a new blog, with tons of pictures from PA, and CT. Even some more from Virginia. However I can not get my camera to download the photos onto my mother's computer! Rapidly becoming annoying.
Lon did VERY well on his drive up to Pittsburgh. I was very pleased. We took care of the family stuff we had to do. Lon got to meet his Cousin Joe, but we call him Uncle Joe. He is my Grandfather's nephew. I would have known he was somehow related to me, he has that wonderful Yetka face. I am glad we got to see him again. That was really special. We left Pittsburgh later than we had planned in the afternoon and made it as far as Hershey. Where we stopped for the night. The next morning we went to ChocolateWorld. Lon had a wonderful time. The place smelled like chocolate. Lon really did not want to go! However, on we went. We made it into Flanders, CT that evening. It was a really pretty drive. The fall leaves were all at Peak. So nice. Lots of drive by shots of leaves along the highway. Pictures will be inserted soon. We saw Grandma Carolyn and Uncle Eric. We also saw Godfather, Uncle Jeffy and Uncle Tek. We got to see Grandpa too! It was just family all over the place! Lon was so happy. He was the star of the show! We spent four nights up in CT. It was alot of fun. We went to Mystic Seaport. As I always knew I would, I LOVED it. I am even willing to go back and spend more time around the old boats. They have made it into a whaling village type setting. Very nice. In the summer they even have actors to tell what life was like way back when. The museum of figureheads was so incredible. They had this giant Scotsman, and sisters and some very formidable looking women. There were a couple of cat's heads there too. (catshead were to cap the large timbers, near the anchor, hence the term everyone has heard of catting the anchor) I never heard that one before either. Those are cool. I really liked them. Lon wants one. (sure, it is Lon who wants one, it doesn't light up or make noise)
Lon did great on the ride back to Fredericksburg. He is becoming the world class traveler! (insert even more photos)
These last couple blogs will be enhanced and photos added as soon as I can.
Monday we rested and did laundry. I am still amazed at how much laundry one baby can generate! Today we went to downtown Fredericksburg and we toured Mary Washington's home. The home that George bought for her in town when life on Ferry Farm was getting to be too much for one woman. The kids were all gone, and it was easier to live closer to her daughter Betty. (Kenmore) The house was very nice. We stopped at Carl's on the way home. They close for the winter in 25 more days! We will have to go again. No line today. It was 53 degrees when we stopped for soft serve ice cream. The ice cream did not melt as fast as it did this summer. Lon ate most of mine. We have some more fun things planned for the little bit of time we have left over on this coast. I should be able to get the blogs all caught up in a week or so.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

On the Fly


Lon and I are traveling again! We made it out on the airplane this time, without anything bad happening. The worst thing that happened to us was the plane want a little sideways on landing. No big deal. We made it to Virginia just fine. Lon had a nice flight. We got him his own seat this time. That was pretty fun!
Even though he mainly sat on the floor or in my lap. The extra room was nice.


Mom seemed to have a great birthday. On her birthday morning we went into work with her, her very last day ever at work. That was fun, then we went to Teatro Goldoni. On K street. I know I have written about this before, but it was divine. The best food I have ever eaten. Ever.


This is just a quick overview as right now I am so very tired. I will enlarge this story soon. There will be pictures of Lon's very first pumpkin patch adventure, a listing of what we had for dinner at Goldonis, and yes, it is impressive! I can not believe we have only been out here for three days! I have some drive by DC to post, some really funky pictures of Lon through the car window. I will be adding lots more pictures and story line sometime later. All next week we are going to be on a driving tour. There will be alot to write!

This is the uber-cool birthday bamboo. Mom likes it very much.

Lon misses Daddy. He wanted me to let you know.