Our Trip Part 2: Our first day in Washington DC

 Hi all! This is Libby. So Marie and I have finished our Christmas break, and are going back to telling you all about our trip. We are sorry we are taking such a toads long time to "tell you all about it", but oh well, we're doing it now right? So anyway, the day after the last day we posted about (see HERE) we drove to Washington DC and got settled in with some relatives. The next morning we drove around almost till lunch looking for parking. Finally we found a small, free, parking lot over near the Jefferson memorial, right next to the river. We ate lunch there, watching all the planes come in ( by the way, if you have ever been to Washington DC you will know what I'm talking about. Planes always coming in, at this really constant rate like they are coming in then taking right back off again, just to come down yet again! I mean, goodness!) But anyway, going on.

 Here is a picture Marie took of one of the waterfalls in the FDR memorial. Isn't it pretty? I love waterfalls. So, we went here first. And I liked the waterfalls.

 And here, is a picture of Marie and I in front of one of the pools in the Korean War Veterans Memorial. I wanted to take dip in the pool but Dad said no.

 Next we went to the Lincoln memorial. I was so excited. It's super exciting for me to be at a place you have heard about and seen pictures of all your life. It looks almost like it does on the penny except you can barely see the Lincoln statue inside ( unlike on the penny) and of course, all the people. 

 It was a great, big, solemn feeling place inside. There was a little bookstore that I hadn't known about and Marie-Grace bought a postcard for her travel journal in it.

 Marie and I in front of the reflecting pool.

 On our way to the Washington monument, we stopped at this pool and watched the funny geese. We also met a girl named Isabelle who was very pretty and had cute pink highlights.

 As well as the pond, we also quickly stopped at the World War Two Memorial. It was really cool looking, but we didn't stay long. We were impatient to get to the Washington Monument.

 So we climbed all the way up there and when at the base, bent our necks almost at a right angle to see to the top. One of my main disappointments of the trip for me was that we were not able to get tickets to climb to the top. But, oh well.

 While we were still at the base of the Washington Monument, we saw a this helicopter come up. From the place it rose from, Dad guessed it came straight from the White House helipad. Is that cool or what?

 Since there was time before we needed to go to the car, we decided we would go to the National Museum of American History. It wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be, but I think we missed a lot of stuff, like the original ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. I did like seeing the first lady's dresses though. That red one belonged to Mamie Eisenhower.

 On our way back to the car we stopped at the Jefferson memorial. It was really pretty but not especially memorable.

 That day was super memorable though. I love vacation.

Where do you like to take vacation?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Marie and I had a fab Christmas!

 As is our tradition, we went down to our Grandmother's house for Christmas. It was decorated quite extensively.

 The Walkers came too, bringing with them another adopted girl from England named Sarah Wakestand.

 My favorite gift was a watch given to me by the Walkers. The amusing thing was, that our family also gave Addy a watch!

 My favorite gift was Veggie Tale's "Lord of the Beans". We watched it to end out our night, and by the end of the movie, we were all laughing! The next day we came back home.

 Yesterday, from 6:00 to about 9:30, we had a fabsome New Year's Eve costume party. This picture is of signs that say Happy New Year in lots of different languages.

 There was lots of FOOD and games.............

.............and a costume contest! I was dressed up as a pajama fashionista in the new PJs I got for Christmas. Jewel wasn't sure what she was. At first she was going to be a gypsy, but then we thought she looked more like a Hispanics girl or a pirate queen. She never really decided. And I was a flower nymph.

What is your favorite way to celebrate Christmas and New Year's?

Our Trip Part 1: Virginia

Good day, pleasant readers! This is Marie-Grace. As we promised, I am giving an update on what we did on our trip. I am sorry it is late,  but we (all except Father and Jewel) have been rather sick, and are just getting over it.

 On the first day (October 20) we drove for half the day and reached this lovely house. We took this picture the next morning.

The next night we reached this house in Lexington, KY. This was my favorite house that we stayed in on our trip.

 An interesting fact: I learned while we were here that Lexington is the World's horse capitol or something of that sort and for that reason, the Queen of England keeps many of her horses here. This is one of the pens that is behind their house. The horses were not out at the time, which highly disappointed Libby, who would have loved to say the she had seen the Queen of England's horses!

That night, we reached the house of one of Mother's old friends who lived in Gloucester, Virginia. She did have two girls who became our friends, but they asked not to put any pictures of them on our blog. That night we stayed up talking until nearly midnight. The next day we went to the Nauticus museum and the battleship Wisconsin. Unforgettably, our camera died the minute we reached the museum. Our father took this picture of the battleship. If you want to find out more about this museum, you can go to their website. we have provided a link HERE.

The next day, we went to James town and Historic Jamestowne. I will explain the pictures starting from the picture in the upper left-hand corner and going counterclockwise. 1; This is the famous statue of John Smith at Historic Jamestowne. 2; A man dressed up at the weaponry in Jamestown settlement. 3: Myself scraping at a deer hide in the Indian village at Jamestown settlement. 4: A guard outside James fort. 5: Myself on board of one of the three ship replicas at Jamestown settlement. 6: A costumed man in James fort. 7: The inside of one of the Indian lodges. 8: Myself at the Indian village. 9: Libby sitting in one of the chairs in the officers house at James fort making a statement. 10: A cannon in James fort.

The next day we went to Yorktown, the Yorktown battle field, and Whitley's Peanut Factory. I will be explaining the pictures using the same method as before. 1: View of the farm at the Yorktown victory center. 2: Myself looking at a horn book in the little cabin at the farm. 3: Libby feeling a small pile of beans for no apparent reason. 4: A lady named Sally explaining medicine in that time. I found some of it rather ghastly, but interesting. 5: Some beams of sunlight breaking through the trees at the encampment. 6: Libby looking greedily at a huge lollipop in the gift shop at Yorktown. 7: Our tour guide at the Yorktown battle field, She kept us all interested, even though she talked for nearly an hour! 8: Libby and I at the Yorktown battlefield. 9: The inside of Whitley's Peanut Factory. Libby mentioned that she loved the samples. 
Well, I best be going. We will be telling you more about our trip soon, I'm sure.  Until then,
Have you ever been to any of the places we mentioned?

We're Back!

 Hi all! It's Libby. As some of you know, Our family has been vacationing in Washington DC for the last three weeks. It was totally awesome! As we have so many pictures to post and things to post about, Marie-Grace and I thought it would be best not to post them all at once but we will instead post them gradually, maybe one at a time, if our day was particularly full. We'll post again soon!

Fall News

 Good day pleasant readers! Hey, all! Today we have four bits of news and we will save the most exciting for the last. 1: Fall is incredibly pretty right now! While in town today, I gathered these great mums at our church and Marie got some pretty fall leaves to press in a book. 2: I am making a new dress for Washington DC. We will probably post about that later. 3: It is only 11 more days till we leave for Washington DC! I can't wait!!!! And 4 (drum roll please):We have found out why Mom and Dad were acting so mysterious (see HERE)! They decided to keep this fact for a surprise. I don't see how they managed! Mom and Dad are going to be foster parents! We are going to be fostering a girl named Jewel, and she is in between Libby and I in age. She lives near DC, so we will pick her up when we go there! Isn't that to cool?! We're getting a ready made sister (for a while)! Oh, Libby.

Have you ever fostered a child?

Have you ever been to Washington DC?

To Lake Calamus!

 Good day, pleasant readers! Indeed, my sister and I enjoyed our church's annual picnic at this lovely lake. 

 Here is what we beheld when we first stepped from our car. "That would be lovely to paint," I murmured to myself, "perhaps I shall." Libby started immediately to bound towards to water, but I stopped her, saying, "Don't forget, Mother said we should not swim until we have eaten." "Oh. Yeah." 

 Until dinner, I busied myself picking a bouquet of wild flowers for Mother.......................

 ...................while Libby tried to take a picture of the pelican that had been roaming around. She apologizes for the quality of the photo.

 After a sensational dinner, Libby dashed to the water.

 She floated on her back.............

 ..................and clung to a log, paddling.

 Then, after she was almost numb and shivering, she emerged from the water and scratched her name in the sand.

 I meanwhile, had only swum a little and had been busy taking pictures and making this sand sculpture, (it is a turtle, if you cannot tell). 

 We would have taken many more photos, but something had happened to our camera so we could not (we have settled the problem now). We took this photos on someone else's camera. This may not be the sea, but it is a marvelous substitute for us.

Do you have a "substitute" ocean?

Back to school

 Good day, pleasant readers! Hi.  Being home schooled, we didn't start schooling till today. Summer has been lovely, although I find it nice to start school again. I don't! I wish we could have vacation all year long! By the way, those are my books in the picture. Well, not the history book on the bottom.  Off topic, Mom and Dad have been acting awfully mysterious lately. Not letting us see the mail, finishing up strange calls as soon as we enter the room, buying things they won't let us see- Yes, well, I don't think that's a necessary topic, is it Libby? What do you think they're doing? Libby. Anyway, we were very excited (or not so excited) to start our first day of school!

When did you start school?