old town alexandria

A day to explore this beautiful town on a perfect summer in Virginia day.  Complete with shopping, dinner at a restaurant in a building built in the 1700's, watching the famous Jamey Turner play the glass harp, and some Skylar antics inside one particular French country summer house decorating store!  Oh, and a couple of shots of the McLean farmer's market to boot.

corner view~box of tricks

For my 5 months of travel -- my goal is to keep a healthy, balanced, sane body and mind!  Here are my tricks...

1.  Daily yoga stretches (I use a towel on the floor since a mat is too bulky to travel with.  Even 15 minutes a day is really helpful)
2.  Drinking lots of water
3.  Having good walking shoes
4.  Taking time for photography and blogging
5.  Staying in touch with life via the internet, email...
6.  Getting enough sleep and down time (which means my kids are allowed to play some video games).  Yes we put them away all school year, but they are back now.  Everything in moderation.
7.  A box of markers and a pad of paper for the kids for restaurants.

And...I love this tool for massaging hard to reach points so much that I brought it on my vacation with me.
What a smart move on my part!  A gift from God I tell you.

Thanks mlleparadis for this idea!

water park and oobleck

For two nights and three days...while the kids were involved in various merrymaking, including eating meals, making s'mores, walking to the park, playing Wii, and running around outside in the warm summer air...

I got to catch up with a dear old friend.

a day of museums with friends

My best friend from college lives in Virginia and our kids have grown up together and had frequent visits.  These photos are from our day in DC visiting the Spy Museum and the International Art Museum.  It was so wonderful to see my friend and the kids had a blast.  As a bonus our weather all week has been so lovely, warm but not much humidity, perfect for being outdoors!  DC is such a clean and beautiful city, so full of excitement and energy.

our nation's capital

We finally had a long enough vacation in DC to show the kids the monuments, a Smithsonian museum (National Air and Space Museum, so very cool!), and experience one of the most beautiful, clean cities in the U.S.  I went to graduate school here, at the George Washington University, and I have always loved this city!