Dome Sweet Dome

This morning, Bryan and I got to go on a tour of the Capitol Dome. The Dome has been closed to the public for years -- to see it, you have to go with a Senator or Congressman. Senator Craig graciously offered to take a group up to the Dome this morning, so Bryan and I took advantage and tagged along.

The tour requires you to climb over 300 steep steps through areas that are often very narrow with low clearance (another reason I'm thankful to be short). On the tour, we got to see the inside of the Rotunda, and at the end of the tour, we got to go outside on top of the Capitol.

This view is looking down from about halfway up to the top of the Rotunda.

This view is from the same spot, looking up. If you look closely, you can see some railing around the mural. We worked our way up and stood behind that railing....

...which is where this picture was taken. At this point, we were about 180 feet from the floor of the Rotunda.

After that picture, we stepped outside onto the top of the Capitol. There is a small walkway around the top. It was a clear day, so you could see for miles in every direction. The Mall and the Washington Monument are in the background.

This is the very top of the Capitol building -- the Statue of Freedom is right on top of this structure.

The tour was great, but exhausting. Not only did we have to hike up 300 steep steps, we also had to hike back down...

Day off...

Bryan and I had the day off today, so we visited the National Arboretum. It's about 450 acres of gardens right in DC, just a couple of miles from the Capitol. A friend of mine told me about it -- we had never even noticed it. That's probably because it's in northeast DC, which is one of the more unsavory areas.

As you can see from the picture below, the leaves are starting to change here. I love autumn in DC -- the leaves are amazing!


This is another beautiful view from one of the paths winding through the arboretum.

One of the really interesting things we saw were the National Capitol Columns. These columns were originally on the East Portico of the Capitol Building. You can read more about how they came to be at the National Arboretum here.
This is my attempt at an artistic shot. I'm not a photographer by any means, but I think this one turned out ok.
Next time any of you come to visit, we'll take you to see this place. Another DC treasure.

George is very Cute

I know you may be thinking that this is a very presumptuous title for a post - but I'm really sorry, fact is fact.


One fun thing about kids growing out of there clothes every season is that they get to wear cute new ones every season. If only that were the case with adults (although I would like to think that I would grow smaller instead of bigger). These are just some pics of George in some of his new clothes - I love his little cardigan, his boot-cut jeans and baseball shirt. I know, Blaine and I like clothes too much, but they are just so fun!

We love you guys and can't wait for Christmas so we can all be together again!

Summer is ending.

We have had a great Summer here. Lots going on and fun people came to see us!

We love having the Rays here. It is always sad to see them go. They came at the summer's beginning. It seems a long time ago. We were sad that Jason couldn't come. We notice when someone is missing!!!!

Bryan came for about a week to take the Bar exam. He was solo. We missed seeing Chels, but it was great to spend time with Bry. Bryan seemed relived to have the test over with, and start life without studying. Good news!! Bryan passed the Bar, and will be sworn in on Oct. 23rd.

We had our little Ella arrive this July. She is very cute, and is such a good little baby!!! She is good mix of the other two kids. She was blessed this last Sunday. If kisses and hugs can make a baby grow, then Ella would be 6feet tall by now!!!! Abby and Oliver never pass the baby without giving her a kiss. When they leave the house, they say "love you Mom, love you Ella"!!!!

Lindsay was in a play this Summer. She did a great job as the female lead in "Pirated Penzance". It was great for her and nice for us. We saw Blaine and George more than ever!!!! We still see Georgie some, but alas, not Blaine. He is too busy!!!

Beth went to school this Summer. She has not had a break from school, since she went to Ecuador. She is steadfast, though, and keeps up with her homework while having fun. Jason worked lots of hours and saved up for going part time this Fall!

Dad and I joined weight watchers. Dad has lost over 20 pounds, and is looking great!!! He has already dropped a pant and shirt size. Me, not as good. My clothes just look a little bigger. I have miles to drop, before I'm thin!!!

Just a little recap. We love you all and are so proud of you and your families. We are so blessed to have children and their mates that support and love us!!!
We realize how lucky we are to have everyone in our family be friends.

Thanks for all you do for us!!!!

Mom

One year ago...

Time flies when you're having fun. Here is what we were doing one year ago today:

This weekend Bryan and I went to New York City to celebrate our anniversary. We had a great time. Below is our attempt at a self-portrait in Times Square (as you can see, we didn't manage to capture much of the view).

I've wanted to see the Broadway musical Wicked for a long time. In fact, we had tickets to go when Beth and Jason were here over Thanksgiving, but as luck would have it, the stage hands happened to go on strike that week and Broadway shut down. This weekend we finally got to see it. It was totally entertaining. The music was great. Bryan even enjoyed it.

We also went and saw a play called Boeing-Boeing. We liked it even more than Wicked. Bradley Whitford, who played Josh Lyman in The West Wing, was one of the stars. The all-star cast had great chemistry and we laughed our heads off. It was well worth it.


We also spent some time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It was a great weekend -- we definitely celebrated in style. And as if that wasn't enough, when we got home, there was a package waiting for me. For an anniversary gift, Bryan got me a signed first edition of my favorite book -- The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye. I have it proudly displayed in our living room already. For my gift to Bryan, I had his law school diploma matted and framed.

I am so lucky to have Bryan. He's wonderful, and this has been such a great year. I'm looking forward to many more to come!

The Musical Genius!

Here is yet another video of George doing what he does best - dancing! Actually, I think he is conducting the music in this particular clip. He likes the can-can demo the best still, except it has to be set on the fastest tempo our keyboard will allow. He is such a fun kid!

We really miss the Rays - it was so much fun to have Lucy, Graham and Maggie here for so long. Love you guys!

Keep on rockin' in the free world...

Last weekend, we drove to Camden, New Jersey to see Pearl Jam. Camden is just a few miles away from Philadelphia. Camden is the ghetto. All around the arena there was nothing but abandoned warehouses, saloons with bars on the windows, and rundown liquor stores. But the venue was nice and we had a good time.

We went with another couple, Ryan and Maren Vogel. We refer to them collectively as The Vogue. Here we are enjoying the show.

Here's a shot of the stage from where we were sitting. We had pretty good seats, and we had a really good time. Camden is a 3-4 hour drive from DC, so we stayed overnight in Philadelphia and drove home in the morning. Bryan was completely hoarse the next day, because he was shout-singing along with every song. One of our very first dates was a concert, so I was somewhat prepared for what Bryan would do at this show, but he really took his performance to a whole new level.

Shear Madness...

For the last few weeks, it has been really hot and humid in DC. This last week was particularly steamy. When the weather gets this way, my mane becomes a little difficult to tame. After blow drying, straightening with a flat iron, and applying a substantial amount of product, my hair usually looks pretty smooth. However, the heat and humidity can undo all of that in about 5 minutes.

So, after much deliberation, I decided it was time to lop off some of the locks. This is how my hair looked before...

As I sat in the chair at the salon, I could actually feel the clumps of hair hitting the chair's base -- that's how substantial they were. About six inches later, this is how I looked...

And from the front...
We'll see how this style holds up to the weather. I have high hopes. I had a little bit of separation anxiety -- that hair and I had been together for a long time. But I'm pleased with the result. And I passed the most important test: Bryan likes it too!

Proud parents and glad grad...

Sorry it took me so long to post this, Nancy! Here's a picture from graduation...

Just learning

I wanted to say more about the trip. This is the first time I have tried to add pictures. As you can see, it didn't work out. Sorry. We saw the Liberty Bell, Indepence Hall and Ben Franklin's grave site. We went to the "Rocky" steps and Dad and Bryan ran all the way up!!!!

On Monday Dad and I went on the Duck tour. I have wanted to go since the first DC trip. I thought that the boat took you to all the monuments and you could view them from the river,..... No such luck!!!! It was fun, but not the trip I had imagined.

I will try and add more pictures. Maybe Chelsey and Dad could add one of Bryan's big day.

It was so great to see Bry's and Chelsey's home. It is good to be able to picture them there.

We had a great time, can't wait to go back!!!!

Know any good lawyer jokes?

It was a great trip to DC in the middle of May. We went to see Bryan receive his Doctor of Juris degree at George Washington University. It was a great day. I was so proud of Bry and his achievement. Not too many people have to work full time while they go to law school. Congrats again Bryan.

We had a great time sight seeing. Bryan and Chelsey took us to Philadelphia. We saw some great sights.

Walkin' in Memphis...

This weekend, Bryan and I went to Memphis, Tennessee for a wedding. We had a great time. We stayed in a hotel on the famous Beale Street, right in the heart of Memphis. We wandered Beale Street, ate ribs at the famous Rendezvous Charcoal Ribs, and had a lot of fun. And of course, what trip to Memphis is complete without a visit to the home of the King -- Graceland!

This is the front door of the house at Graceland.

This is the front room at Graceland. Notice the stained glass peacocks on the way into the piano room...
This is the famous Jungle Room. The brick wall has a waterfall flowing over it, and the carpet is green shag. The best part about the Jungle Room is that there is also green shag carpet covering the ceiling.
Here is his grave. He's buried at Graceland alongside his parents and his grandmother. Graceland receives flowers and memorials and other tributes on a DAILY BASIS. Let me tell you, there are still some very serious Elvis fans out there. And we saw plenty of them at Graceland. You can actually buy season passes. Can you imagine being a Graceland season passholder...?
This is actually not at Graceland -- this is at the wedding dinner. After everyone had eaten, the DJ said that we had a special guest, and out comes the Elvis impersonator. He sang a few numbers, stayed for photos -- it was hilarious. We had a lot of fun, but it's good to be home!

Victory Trophies

AYSO sure knew what they were doing when they gave each child an end-of-the-year trophy. These kids were on cloud nine. So much so that they asked their dad to take a picture of them. The part that I thought was awesome was that it didn't matter that almost every other kid on the block had one...they still thought it was great!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

We had a nice day Yesterday. Lucy Called and Sang Happy Birthday to Grandma and Bryan and Chelsey sent Mom some flowers. It was a perfect opportunity to try the new Frontrunner train so we rode down to the Gateway in Salt Lake City, had dinner, watched a movie, and came home. We even did the silly staff at the restaurant thing. The new train is nice. I hope a lot of people ride it and they stay off my highway. The kids came over last night and brought a cake. It was all a lot of fun. (If only the Jazz had won.) Nancy's foot seems to be getting better. Maybe in a month or so she can get rid of her brace.

Happy Late Easter!

I finally got a picture of George in his cute Easter outfit given to him by Bobby! He was not very happy as you can see, and had just thrown a bit of a tantrum previous to this picture. He doesn't like to get his picture taken, he only wants to look at the pictures on the digital camera screen.

Abby and Ollie Annual Easter day photo

Finally Abby doesn't Squeeze Ollie to death while getting a photo!

Happy Birthday Bryan!!

Well it's been a rough thirty years but we've made it through. I was worried about him and the teddy bear. He finally quit sleeping with it last summer. May you have a joyous and blessed year. Your Mother and I love you so much! (Check out the featured celebrity on the slide show)

Mom's Doing Better

Mom had Surgery on Thursday. The Doctor was quite hopeful that this would help her. He said the surgery went very well. She is getting around now and looks forward to life after the next 3 weeks when she will be on crutches. Thank you all for your calls and flowers. We so much appreciate your support

Wanted: VISITORS!

This morning the kids and I drove a family to the airport in Fresno. Lucy couldn't get over the fact that we weren't picking up Abby and Oliver and we weren't going to Grandma and Grandpa's house. The family was going to visit their grandparents and Lucy said, "THAT'S NOT FAIR! I DON'T GET TO SEE MINE!" It was quite depressing for the two of us. Who is going to come and visit us??

Wow, we really work here

If you have been watching the news lately, you might have heard my boss, Kay Granger, mentioned as a potential running mate for McCain. Last night on Fox News, they talked about her. If you missed it, you can see the clip here.

Now, I don't think Kay will really be McCain's choice for VP, but stuff like this reminds me how neat it is for Bryan and me to be right in the middle of all the pomp and circumstance of Washington politics. It can be a grueling, thankless job sometimes, but once in a while, when I walk into the Capitol, I think, "Wow, I really work here."

And if that isn't enough to entice you to come and visit, I don't what is. So come, visit early, visit often.

Why you should make sure the batteries work in your smoke detector

Well, we were saved by the "bell" (smoke detector) tonight. At about 8:30 the smoke detector downstairs went off, So Heidi and I ran down to find the furnace had been on fire. I opened the front cover to find the wires still smoking. I called my neighbor who is an HVAC guy and he came and assesed that we definatley need a new furnace. SO, with that said you can send your contributions to the "keep Ryan and Heidi family warm this winter" fund, or donate at your local HVAC Dealer, make sure you mention "Heidi" so that we also get the matching payment from the goverenment program that has been set up to help those in just this type of situation, (thanks Hillary!). God bless you all ahead of time for your generous donations! :) And go MAC!