Grace's cake!

Last weekend the school had their Haunted House and Halloween Carnival. One of the big events is the cake decorating contest and cake walk. Grace was invited to a neighbor's house to work on cakes with their daughter. Imagine my surprise when Grace came home with this beautiful cake!

Gracie helped make the cake and then learned how to work a frosting bag to make the jack-o-lantern cake.

At the carnival Brock won this fun looking spider cake. We like the candy corn teeth the best!

Happy Halloween!

Love,

4Vs

Gracie Riding Hood!

We got a special package from Grandma Cone this afternoon. Grandma made a little red riding hood costume for Gracie this year.

"Grandma- What a good seamstress you are!" says Little Gracie Riding Hood :)

Gracie is absolutely thrilled! She tried on the outfit after school today. She is already asking if she can wear the dress and cape for Christmas parties or perhaps to school....

Gracie Red Riding Hood!

Thanks Grandma Cone!

Love,

4Vs

Brock's Fun Run

During Bob and Shirley's visit, we had some nasty weather. We had a good day or so for their first day and their last day was beautiful. In between, it was cold and rainy. Blah!

That Saturday, the kids had a fun run day with the local elementary schools. It was cold, wet and miserable... Amazingly the school did not cancel. It was an event where the school with the most participant would win a trophy. Rolling Valley has had the trophy for several years so the pressure to show up and run was on!

Grandparents were troopers and joined us in the rain and the mud.

Here goes Brock! He ran a mile with the 4th - 6th grade boys! Go Brock Go!

Love,

4Vs

Grace's Fun Run

Here is Grace getting ready for her 1/2 mile fun run! Did I mention how cold and rainy it was?

There she goes with her red hat!

Here she is at the end of the race. She may be a future track star! Go Gracie Go!

Love,

4Vs

Union Station

Bob and Shirely and Mike and I made a quick stop in DC's Union Station. It is a huge train station with tons of great architecture, amazing ceilings, shops and retaurants. There was also a great art exhibit of art made from Red Bull cans.

I am going to take the kids here. Brock will love all the mythology statues!

Here are 3Vs hanging out!

Love,

4Vs

The Other Air and Space Museum

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport (also know as the Air and Space Museum out by Dulles) is Brock's favorite museum. He has been there with us, another tour with Grandpa Cone and happily went another time with Granddad Bob and Grandma Shirley. Here he is checking out the Space Shuttle model- He likes to wear his Cowboys gear out and around town here! He always gets comments from other fans :)

Enola Gay

Brock's favorite plane- SR 71 Blackbird! Another plus to this museum- this is where the second Transformers movie was filmed.

Mike's favorite plane is the P-40.

Love,

4Vs

Lincoln Monument

We got some great pictures while visiting the monuments with the Plano Vaughns. Here is a view of the Washington Monument from the stairs of the Lincoln Monument.

Here is Mr. Lincoln himself.

This is the first time we saw this marker. This is the spot on the Lincoln Monument stairs where MLK delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Love,

4Vs

For Alma

Bob and Shirley came for a visit in October. Mike gave us his best Pentagon Tour! We walked and walked and walked.

Part of the tour was the 9/11 Chapel and Memorial. The hallway leading to the 9/11 chapel is lined with quilts from around the country that folks made as a show of support for the tragedy at the Pentagon.

We aren't supposed to take pictures in the Pentagon, but we risked it to get a shot of this lovely quilt. Just for you Alma! The flag is made from coordinating calico prints and we thought it was beautiful. We will show you in real life when you come to visit after Christmas!

Love,

4Vs

War Memorials

Here are some great pictures from the war memorials we visited with Bob and Shirley.

World War II Memorial

Korean Memorial

Love,

4Vs

More views from the top!

One more set of windows in the Washington Monument shows us the White House. There was an event tent on the lawn that made it difficult to see the back of the building. In the forefront you can see an undecorated National Christmas tree!

In this picture you can see the area to the left of Capitol Hill. The Equality Parade was scheduled for the same day as our visit. You can see the crowded streets of the parade in this picture. Luckily, we didn't come across much of the parade...too much explaining for Brock and Grace!

One last picture shows the Pentagon across the Potomac from us.

We had so much fun with Sandy on this visit that Mike and I took Bob and Shirley a few days later when they came to visit us. Let us know if you are interested and we would be happy to go again!

Love,

4Vs

Views from the top of Washington Monument

The top of the monument has two windows on each side. The views of DC are amazing. Here we are looking down the National Mall toward the capitol.

This side shows the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial.

Out of this window we could see the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool.

At the end of the Reflecting Pool is the World War II Memorial. Just beautiful!

Love,

4Vs

Washington Monument

Thanks to Gracie, we realized you can take a tour and elevator ride to the top of the Washington Monument. Gracie red a kid's A to Z Mystery book about the Washington Monument. A part of the story mentioned going to the top of the monument. She asked about it, we did a little research and low and behold- we got tickets to go to the top!

We took Mrs. Mosby for a tour when she came to visit us earlier this month. It is a great tour.

At the bottom, there is some great tile work on the floor and a nice looking statue of George Washington.

Not much else on the first floor. Next entry shows the views!

Love,

4Vs

Nationals Game

After the W-Nats loose 100 games they start giving out free tickets at the P-Gon. Mike got some tickets and went with Biscuit n Gravy along with the Mikks. Washington stadium is off one of the metro stops just a mile south of the Capitol. It took us about an hour to drive from home, park at the pentagon and ride in on the Metro.

The Nats played the Braves and played OK until they 7th inning and then lost it with their pitching and errors. Grace got a free build a bear Eagle mascot at the gate so she was happy. Mike bought her some nachos as promised. Brock talked the whole game about different players and random baseball facts.