Stop Three - Washington D.C.

One of the (many) highlights of our trip was Washington D.C. It was awesome! There is SO much to see, and we really barely scratched the surface, but we still had a blast in one FULL day. We saw the National Archives where the Declaration of INdependence and the Constitution and other documents are kept, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, Ford Theatre, and other sites from the outside. :) What a great city!

One of the cool things was as we were about to head home. It was already late - like 9pm, and we were just walking around the outside of the capitol building, taking pictures and stuff. Well, then Dominique had to go to the bathroom and there was nothing around. We asked some cops where the closest bathroom was, and they told us to go in the back of the capitol building and ask to see the gallery. Then we could go in, use the bathroom and come back out.
Well, once we were in, we realized they had let us in to watch Congress in session - so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity! I'm so glad we did. It was neat to see - something we totally didnt expect being able to do!
So, here are a smattering of pics of our day, in random order:

Part Two - Baltimore MD

In Baltimore, we were able to meet up with one of Luciana's YWAM friends, Jeff, who introduced us to his house church and even arranged a place to stay for us! It was wonderful!!


Here we are trying blue crab!







Worshipping late at night:













Nan, the lady we stayed with, is an amazing lady! She keeps her farm house open for missionaries and others in need of hospitality and she was such a blessing to get to know! Jeff is the one in red, and the others are friends from the house church.








Nan's house:













Luciana at a local park they took us to - what a place!


















Luciana with Jeff and Tony, who also went out of his way for us while we were there!












At the park:

Our Amazing Road Trip! ~~part one~~

These pictures are not in order and there are too many to sort and try to arrange in order. If I tried, I would never get anything done! So.... this is the best I can do now. :-)

We drove a total of 2, 332 miles over the course of nine days, stopping many different places on the way there and on the way home!

If you want to know how we survived, here are my road trip tips for keeping small children happy! :)


So, this post is of our first two stops. First was in eastern Ohio, where I grew up! I hadn't been back in eleven years, and it was great to see some old friends and introduce Fabio and the fam to my old stompin' grounds!
After that we went on to Lancaster, PA, where my former Japanese teacher lives now! It was great to connect with them again too and we have a wonderful visit.





In Lancaster, we were able to see some Amish sites:





































Here we were having a cookout at the beautiful home of our friends!

























We go WAY back - can you find me in the picture?? This was my first trip to Japan! In 1994....











Yep, this is me, and this little cutie is the one in the middle in the photo below! It's been a few years.....





























Ohio friends. I know my family will enjoy seeing these pictures!












At the Dunlaps:


















Their zipline:













Their treehouse and fireman's pole:


















Ardena:
























The house I grew up in! The lady was in the driveway and I told her who I was and she let us go in and look around! It was great to see it all and show my fam where my room used to be and all. What a walk down memory lane!



Mariellyn and Ellen:













The train Lynn built in their yard for the grandkids! It was SO much fun for the kids! They went around and around and around in the Thomas train!





























Thomas coming our of the barn:














The train even lulled Israel to sleep! LOL

















Back in PA again. :)







More about the trip in future posts!

Interview with Mrs. Kendra Smiley !!

I had an awesome opportunity to interview author Kendra Smiley LIVE last week, and I have just published the first segment of the interview on MamaKnowsBest! It was so great to meet her - what a godly woman and so full of life!

She has generously donated ten of her books to MKB readers, so be sure to enter a comment for your chance to win!!! The books are from a biblical perspective, on parenting, marriage, and managing a home-based business!

Here is the direct link to the interview: INTERVIEW WITH KENDRA SMILEY

An attempt at catching up!

I am so behind at blogging that it is overwhelming to try to catch up at all!
So, I just am posting this hodge-podge of pictures from the last while, and will try to do better keeping up from now on!















These first pics are from "Legislative Day" when homeschoolers from Illinois travel to the capital to visit their legislators and take them homemade cherry pies, encourage them to vote in favor of homeschooling, and gather to sing on the steps in front of Abe Lincoln, etc. It was so much fun! I used to go back when I was a homeschool kid, but this was the first time I had taken the next generation.


























We also took a weekend trip to Milwaukee to visit our Peruvian friends. These pics are from that visit:











We have been having a lot of fun with Luciana here!


















A couple weeks ago, we had a surprise party for my sil, Amanda, who was turning 30. She was genuinely surprised, so, YAY! We all had a good time!





























We have also been to visit my Grandma Nita and we had some beautiful weather to help her with some yard work. HI, Grandma Nita! (She is a faithful blog reader!) We can't wait to see you next week!!!















While there, I got to meet my cousin Brian's baby Sophia for the first time!


















And we made it to visit my other Grandma Jean and Grandpa Albert as well. I interviewed Grandma Jean, as I had done last year with Grandma Nita and Grandpa Howard, and was able to video tape it as well. I just loved hearing her tell about the "olden days" and other aspects of family history.


This is only a tiny percentage of all that we have been up to lately, which is why it's been so hard to find time to blog about it! I will try to keep up better now. :)