HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!

Life has been in a whirl since Grandpa Cameron passed away and I nearly missed blogging my favorite girl's birthday SO..... I grabbed a few random pictures to share a few memories. Time is speeding by....She turned one so long ago....
then before I knew it she was cleaning the bathroom...she had such a way with doing her chores. I remember taking this picture of her singing with her rubber gloves on like it was yesterday:)
....and spending months learning to dance latin style for the dance festival. Now she is married in her own brand new home (lucky girl) and a baby on the way. Like I said....time is speeding by:)
HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY JENNY!!!

Homecoming

I wish I had taken my camera out for our arrival home today. As we walked past the security gates into the main terminal at the airport we were greeted by friends and family , television cameras and more. I got teary eyed as we heard the cheers for our kids. Josh was pulled over right away and interviewed by a local radio station KEX 1190, so he missed the television cameras. After the months of preparation, the trip has come to an end. Before I tell about "Inauguration Day" here are some pictures of our time in DC. This is as close as we could get to the Lincoln Memorial. It's hard to believe, but there were tons of people in front of us...so many we could easily have been lost in the crowd and separated.
This is how the mall looked on Sunday morning...not many people. Just 4 hours later it was nearly PACKED with people....250,000 people from this end to the front of the Lincoln memorial on the other end. You can see the huge television screens. Obama's motorcade going to the Arlington National Cemetery...we got out of our busses and took pictures. Notice the officers are standing at attention.
The Washington monument also before the concert started and people came in droves. The Lincoln Memorial is where the concert was, and it is on the other side of the monument.
As we waited on Monday morning in the very frigid outdoors to get into the National Archives, Josh and some others passed the time by playing a game .
Some of our chaperones, braving the cold waiting to enter The Archives.
This does NOT do justice to how many porta potties there were. They say there were 5,000, but it looked more like a million. They were EVERYWHERE!!!!

Day 3 and the Declaration of Independence

Another wonderful day!!
As I write it is nearly 10PM and the kids are out in the hotel parking lot practicing, so I have to hurry before they get done.

It was very cold as we waited in line to get into The National Archives, but well worth it:) We saw The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights to name a few. The Constitution was worn and fading. I so thought of Jon and wished he was here, because all of those things mean so much to him.

We spent a few hours walking to the memorials......The Lincoln Memorial was closed to walking up to because of concert yesterday, but we did get pictures. We saw the Vietnam Memorial, The world War 2 Memorial (which was absolutely beautiful and moving). As we walked the memorials, loudspeakers were re playing the concert from yesterday, and Denzel Washington gave a very moving speech, and my friend Michelle and I were crying as we felt the patriotism of our country. We didn't make it to the Jefferson Memorial because of our time restrictions, and we were sad at that, BUT we decided NOT to complain about it since after all, we are here to march for The President of the United States.

This evening we went to a Midevil Dinner....a BLAST!!! The kids really got into it.

I forgot to mention as we drove in on Tuesday night the first thing we saw was The Washingtonb Temple. It was so beautiful!!!!

Gotta go, the kids are done. Josh is on an end....his horn is silver with a big bell.

Love you all......

Day 2

I'm unable to post pictures from this computer....BUMMER!!!
Our Day in Review:
Cool Things about today:

1. Arlington National Cemetery - we saw the Kennedy Gravesites

2. Smithsonian Mall was INCREDIBLE!! We were all able to wander at our own leisure.
I think my group went into 4 museums....we got to see Dorothy's red slippers, gowns of the past first ladies, planes and spaceships, The Hope Diamond....to name a few.

3. There was a HUGE concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial...there were 1/2 a million people...There a huge screens set up all over the Mall as it's called where you could watch it. It was HARD not to get caught up into the whole thing.

4. We saw Obama's motorcade as it went by to Arlington National Cemetery. Our busses were stopped and like 30 police cars, motorcycles, and secret service cars were in between his limo. We were able to get out of our busses and stand along the sidewalk and take pictures.

Which brings me to the UnCool thing about today:

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the Guard was closed because Obama was going there.

Great Day....Very exciting......Awesome experience!!!

We've Arrived!!

Well, it was a VERY long day. We flew from Portland to SanFrancisco where we had a long layover. Everywhere we went people were congratulating us and wishing us luck in the parade. Josh had a pretty hard time of it with his anxiety, but we got through it. On the second leg of our flight, we met an angel lady named Helen, who visited with Josh and she got the airlines to take Josh up in the cockpit and meet the captain before the flight. There was a delay while they took fuel off the plane, apparently it was too full.
We arrived in DC just before 10:00. We are now in our hotel, where they fed us pizza and got everyone settled.
Tomorrow is a busy day!!

We're Off.......

Stay Tuned.....
I'll try to blog while in Washington DC:) If not, see you when we get back:)
Okay, so I need to change the date...and I'm posting 5 hours before we actually leave, but you get the drift!!

Parade and Proclamation

Seventy Six Trombones led the big parade.............
Well, maybe it was not TOO big, and there were only SOME trombones........today the city had a very short parade with OUR marching band as a send off to the Inuagural Parade. Grandma and Grandpa Cameron came. Richard was on the street cheering the kids on. I waited in the park with G&G for the band to arrive.
The kids started off from an elementary school down the road from this city park. They were escorted by a veterans colorguard and some vietnam veterans on their motorcycles. They marched into the park playing their song "Washington My Home" our state song.
There were dignitaries, speeches, free Krispy Kream donuts and an official proclamation declaring next Tuesday, Jan. 20th, Evergreen High School Marching Band and Colorguard Day. This is our director Mr. Kuske, thanking the city for the outpouring of support they have given us.
Cousin Jane was very sweet to come and support Joshua and the band. It had been a beautiful day, but by now it was getting quite chilly. We were all getting cold.....a small sacrifice:) The kids got back onto busses, and we headed back to the school, loaded up the equipment and our luggage (it's being driven by truck to save money).... then the kids ate pizza and MORE Krispy Creams!! We're flying out bright and early Saturday morning.
I'm so glad Josh will have this experience AND that I will experience it with him!!!

Christmas has come and gone, New years has passed........

While I have been very flakey about posting, I have loved reading everyones blogs even though I haven't had any motivation for posting. Call me LAZY!!!

Our Christmas was very nice...it was a most beautiful white Christmas, snowing a good part of the day. We spent time with both sets of Grandparents on Christmas Day as well as our Christmas Eve tradition with Art and Marilyns family.
I was whining about not having a snowman so Jon and Josh built me one...isn't he cute????


The boys ended up in a snowball fight and dragged me into it in the process.

AND....this icicle was 40 inches long that was hanging on Art and Marilyns house.
AMAZING!!!

You may be wondering why my blog is patriotic. Just getting ready for Josh and my trip to the Presidential Inauguration as he marches in the parade with The Evergreen High School Marching Band. We leave in 11 days!!!