Turkey Day

We started Thanksgiving off by taking photos of things we were thankful for. Rowan chose...me! (Awwww....) S here I am, photo by Rowan.

Gryphon is thankful for her neighborhood buddies, shown here in her photograph. The girls played outside all morning unil it was time to go, then we drove up the George Washington Parkway into the city. The leaves are *still* just gorgeous!

Cleo is thankful to have a nice home, even if we do leave her all alone on Thanksgiving. No dogs allowed at the Old Ebbit grill, in downtown DC, right across from the White House. This was the same restaurant we went to last year.

I am thankful for someone else doing the cooking! As a bonus, whiel they have a Thanksgiving meal that everyone else ordered, you can still order off the menu, and I had the yummiest steak ever.

Mark is also thankful for someone other than me cooking! Here they are enjoying pie.

After dinner, we drove down Embassy Row and checked out the National Cathedral. It is beautiful!

A wonderful Thanksgiving, with so much to be thankful for. Hope all of you had a fantastic Turkey Day as well!

Skyline Drive

Today we headed out early to the Shenandoah Valley and the beautiful Skyline Drive. The road winds along the Blue Ridge Mountains, with spectacular overlooks off into the hazy distance.

Because of the drought here, the fall colors were late, and the trees were still breathtaking. We saw a bald eagle, too, but I couldn't get a picture that looked like anything besides a black smudge!

Cleo came along, and we did a little hiking- not too much.

For lunch we stopped at the Skyland Lodge, built in the 20's and right into the side of the mountains. Cleo had to stay in the car, but she got the doggy bag!

The girls had a great time looking out the window, and I think maybe a few of the pictures I took will end up on a Christmas card. Come visit us and we'll take you out there, too!

A happy little photo to share

Rowan reading to her best friend, Ben. How cute is that?

The Center of the Earth

We are doing Earth science and astronomy this year, and yesterday we studied what the center of the earth is like via pizza! Then today it was off to the Natural History Museum to see their fabulous geology exhibit, where we made earthquakes and learned about tectonic plates and volcanoes. Fun was had by all :)Gryphon has a swim meet this weekend, so check back for swim meet photos soon. And Rowan's turn is coming, a dad of a girl on her gymnastic's team took some gorgeous photos of Rowan in her competition leotard, all pretzel-y. Just waiting for them to get done!