Fun with Bob and Christine

Over the past weekend, Heather's parents Bob and Christine came to visit our humble abode. One great thing about Heather's parents is that they love to get the real, authentic experience of an area when they travel. As a result, they find the coolest, most interesting stores, restaurants, and sites to visit.
Unfortunately, we were in charge of this weekend's agenda, and while we had a great time, Heather and I both realized that we are sadly lacking as tour guides. Thankfully, as they left, Bob and Christine left us an insider's guide to some great driving routes, historic sites, and other places to see around DC. So now we're properly armed for all visitors of any interest!

I think I've rambled on enough, so let me get on with our weekend. Friday night we had dinner at this fantastic restaurant that Heather found called Tuscarora Mills in Leesburg. The restaurant is actually a restored and converted wheat mill, three stories high and very quaint. The inside decor was great and incorporated nicely some of the old wheels and belts. The area around it is all built up too with myriad shops and other restaurants, the Mill being the gourmet one of the bunch. The best part, though, was the food. It was incredibly good. None of us wanted to share with each other we loved it so much.

Saturday was a fairly laid-back day. We mostly hung around and relaxed. In the afternoon, we went to Great Falls Park and watched these adrenaline junky kayakers brave the falls. Even though Christine thought they were crazy, it kind of seemed fun to me. Maybe one day I'll give it a try, but I won't tell Christine about it. : ) At night we got some awesome ice cream and watched the new movie 9. The movie was kind of weird, but okay. The ice cream was amazing. Christine picked out the best Rocky Road this side of the Mississippi (and the other side, too), and Bob pick out an original flavor that I really loved: caramelized pears and hazelnut.

Here we are at the falls.


Sunday after church, we spent the afternoon at George Washington's home, Mt. Vernon. Since all of us had been there before and had toured the home, we spent a lot of time on the grounds and in the new museums. We toured the forst burial sight of Washington and his family, strolled through the gardens, and relaxed for a while on the back pourch. His home sure had a great view. It's the perfect spot for a leisurely nap. The new museum was great, too. No matter what faults our country's first president may have had, one thing was abundantly clear as I learned about his life: he was an truly virtuous person whose life's pursuit was always to benefit the country and people around him. If you can't tell, I was really inspired by the man and the place. I wouldn't mind going back for a third visit sometime.

Here are Heather and Christine posing as if they're a part of the George Washington family.


At the tomb of Washington and his family.






The greenhouse.


I decided to try out the flower setting on our camera. I think these turned out alright.






That night we played some games and Heather showed Bob and Christine the plays she did in her kindergarten classes last year. It was a great cap to the weekend. The only thing lacking at all with Bob and Christine's visit was that it went too fast. We look forward to when they can come and visit again.

Heather's Bold New Hair

For at least the past two years, Heather has talked about cutting her hair very short. Her nervousness has always stopped her, though. She's even done a lot of research to find out which short hairdo would fit her best (I had no idea that there was an entire magazine dedicated solely to different short hair styles ... wow is all I can say about that). One day right before school started up again, she called up a friend who cuts hair professionally, went over, and took her hair to the chopping block. And in my opinion, the result is great; she looks amazing! She's so diverse; she looks hot with long or short hair! But let's not try no hair, okay?

Yard work ... a never-ending story

So I finally accomplished one of my bigger goals for the yard; I got rid of that hideous old triangle-shaped planted box and the nasty, ragged shrub-bush that was in it when we first moved here. Heather, actually, played a hilarious part in enticing a Latino work crew into cutting down and de-stumping the bush. Thankfully, she only uses her stunning looks for good purposes and not for evil.
After the bush-thing was gone, it took about half a day to dig up and cut up the rotten planted box wood and then dig up most of the major roots from the plant-thing.

With everything prepared, Heather and I picked out a lovely little autumn blaze maple tree and some fine-looking landscaping rocks and I spent another full day planting a tree and building a nice little rock wall around it. It only took three times before I dug a hole in a spot that both Heather and I could agree upon. There's a lesson learned there: show Heather where I'd like to put the hole BEFORE I start digging. And just for the record, Heather making me dig so many holes in rocky, clay-like dirt is much worse than me simply having an opinion on how the inside of the house is decorated.

Anyway, it turned out nice, and we're looking forward to seeing our tree grow over the years. Here are some pics.

The Woodruffs Go To NY

A few weekends ago, as many of my family as could decided to go to New York for a weekend. It was one of the last weekends before Tyson, who had been doing an internship over the summer with Deutsche Bank on Wall St, headed back to school. I should add that Tys was working as a paid intern, one of the few in his class. He was living the high life!
Anyway, so we came driving from all over and spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday exploring the Big Apple. We had a great time, although we were sad that Kyle, Jamie, Diana, Nate, and all the rest of the nieces and nephews couldn't make it.

We started the day by riding the Staten Island Ferry. Here's all of us as we passed by the Statue of Liberty.








Tys doing his typical camera pose.






After the ferry, we tackled the rest of the city by foot! We passed by all sorts of iconic NY places. Here's Trinity Church.


Wall Street


The site where George Washington took his first vow of office when he become the President. That's right; it wasn't in Washington DC.


Here's the trading floor where Tyson interned all summer. Apparently, during a regular day, this place is a zoo of people yelling across the floor at each other and everyone running around. Sounded totally chaotic, but Tys said it was fun, too.


With all the walking around we did, some of the kids got pretty tired. At one point, I had to carry Jayci while trying to comfort and encourage a puckered-out Tyson (I couldn't carry him, too).


Here we are at FAO Schwartz.






One thing we all wanted to do was see Wicked, but tickets are really expensive. Instead of trying to get full-priced tickets, we all went to the theatre on Sat night and on Sun afternoon and entered our names in for the lottery. We won two tickets on Sat night and two more on Sun afternoon. So Alyson and McKenzie went Sat night, and Heather and I went Sun afternoon. Since we were driving back with Mom and Dad, we decided to wait in line for canceled tickets and ended up getting two more on Sun afternoon, so Mom and Dad went with us! Talk about the stars aligning, right?! The show was fantastic ,better than we expected (and we already had high expectations), and Heather and I got to sit in the very front row, so that was awesome, too.




So all in all, a fantastic trip. We can't wait to go back to NY for more!

Alaska by Land

With only a few days to go before the start of a new school year, Heather has been pulling some long nights. I believe the phrase is "burning both ends of the candle." Well, in her place, I'm posting a few pictures of her time in Alaska after I had to return home for work. When she gets a few minutes, she will add more details about this trip, but until then ...

ANCHORAGE



A wildlife preserve outside of Anchorage:








A very large glacier:


The train ride north to Fairbanks:








A day in North Pole, a very festive city:














The 40 degrees below room:


Alaska's most common form of transportation:






The sled dogs loved Gracie:




Jenny and Bullwinkle:


Ice sculptures:




Gracie being a star!