Priscilla and Mud Racing: BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER!

My dear Priscilla flew up to visit me for a few days and we had such a great weekend of sightseeing around D.C., shopping, and... MUD RACING!

We did the 2010 Run-Amuck Mud Race. It is a obstacle course 5K with 2 huge mud pits, rope obstacles, climbing walls, crawling obstacles, and more with the culmination of a mud bath. We entered the Costume Doubles Race and Priscilla made great shirts for us; we went with the the theme "Texas chicks: Birds of a feather flock together!" Thus, the feathers in the Texas hat and the orange legs!

We didn't want to ruin our shirts so we wore corresponding shirts for the actual race.

BUFF and TUFF!

Are you ready to see this! Here we go-- almost.

Okay- Here we go for real!

I wish you could see all the obstacles, but you only get the beginning and the end. I will say that the mud pits were much crazier than I thought. The mud was the consistency of really thick brownie dough. If you tried to walk in the mud, you would sink up to your waist and many people were actually stuck in the mud! So you had to army crawl the whole way- it was way fun but we were way muddy even before the mud bath!

Here is the last mud bath at the finish line. I got completely drenched! It didn't taste too great but I was still smiling and having fun!

YAY! We are the winners!

There were a lot of great costumes in my fellow racers (obviously not as amazing as ours!), but I thought you all might enjoy the honorable mentions.

Black swan in the background.

Crayons

Gnomes!

My favorite: A barrel of Monkeys!

We had such a great time the entire weekend and I am so grateful that Pris was able to come and visit me! I love you Prissy!

Patrick and Sarah!

At the end of April, our good friends Patrick and Sarah came to town for a visit as they toured around the country. They spent two fun-filled days with us and they helped Todd and I actually get much more aquanted with our big D.C. city. Sad that it took us four years to find a great place to eat downtown! Thanks Sarah and Patrick for the help!

On day 1, I was able to tour around D.C. with Patty and Sarah while Todd worked and Elli stayed with Todd's mom who was in town one last day. Thanks mom! We spent some fun times in the Hirsch Modern art museum shown below.

So I was VERY impressed with Patrick and Sarah's knowledge of fine art, but I was proud of myself that I was the one who found this gem below. This is a picture of an old woman made entirely out of thumb prints. Seriously-- thumb prints! Look at the close-ups to see the detail. If I were Patrick and Sarah, I would tell you the artist and then five more art pieces by this artist that I know. But- I am me, and I don't remember the artist's name, but I KNOW that HE/SHE is AWESOME!!!

Here is Sarah with Me under a cool light exhibit in the Modern Art museum.

CAPITOL TIME: Of course, being in DC, we had to go to the capitol building. We even visited the Californian senators' office and got tickets to see the house of representatives and senate areas (which we saw the next day with Todd)!

Top of the capital-- Good Ol' Georgie surrounded by 13 angelic ladies representing the 13 original colonies.

Elli (and Todd, too) came with us the second day in D.C. and she was pretty good; she definitely enjoyed walking around with Daddy.

Here we are in front of Good Stuff Eatery. Good food. Good friends. Good times!

New Jersey Shores ... Woodruff Style

My family decided to have an early family gathering this year. Sarena, my oldest sister, was amazing (as usual) and found for us a great beach house on the Jersey shoreline. This was Heather's and my first trip to New Jersey, and we had a really good time. The location turned out to be perfect.

Throughout the week, we did all sorts of things. I'll hit some of the highlights.

First, we did a massive Easter egg hunt. With 15 grandkids in the hunt, you can imagine that it was a mad house. But it was pretty fun, too.

The house we stayed in was within 30 seconds walking distance from the beach. Even though the ocean water was quite frigid, we still had a great time playing on the beach. We built sand castles, flew kites, threw the football around, buried each other, and just had fun.

Elli LOVED the sand. In fact, she ate handfuls of sand the first day. Of course, that sand eventually had to come out, which caused all sorts of problems (think sand paper coming out of your rear end). Experienced parents probably already know this, but for you younger parents, don't let your infants eat sand... it will cause all sorts of issues.

Lighthouses are the iconic image of the northeastern shoreline, and so of course we had to go see one. Right below the lighthouse were all sorts of rocks and small pools of ocean water, which the kids loved exploring. Jared and Trevor even found a starfish in one of them.

This year, the family gathering happened right around the time of 5 people's birthdays, so we celebrated them all at the same time. It was quite the party. Happy birthday Jamie, Sawyer, Jayci, Logan, and Elli!

This was Elli's first time eating cake. She was only lukewarm about it, but she was absolutely thrilled about the balloons. Grandpa played with Elli and the balloons for over a half hour, and she was mesmerized the whole time.

Adam and Sarena were extremely generous and paid for us all to go to the local pool. Everyone had a blast.

We found a great park just a few miles away. We played kickball, home run derby, follow the leader, pirates, and basically just messed around. The park was perfect in that each age group had something to do.

Here's Adam, Jared, and Trevor playing follow the leader.

Kenzie and Grandma found an interesting surprise in the water.

Family photos!

Grandkids and Grandma and Grandpa

All the babies-- each showing a little piece of who they are...I so wish Elli didn't love eating sand so much!

My male model brothers. If only I could be as good looking as these two studs.

More than anything else, Elli loved being around her cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. She gets so excited she can't contain herself and she squeals with delight (a very high pitched squeal) when she's around everyone. In particular, she loved being around her cousins that are roughly the same age as her: Griffey, Izzie, and Sawyer.

One day, we went to nearby Philadelphia. Heather and I were impressed by how much we enjoyed this mini-trip. We saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence was signed), the first building used by the U.S. Congress, the site of Benjamin Franklin's house (now a museum), and of course we had a Philly cheese-steak sandwich (yum!). Great trip. We could definitely spend more time in this historic city.

At night, we played games and just hung out. An unexpected delight came from watching Swamp People for the first time. We were cracking up at that show.

We love being around our family. We can't wait for the next reunion!