Our Last day in DC

Today was Jesse's day. We had spent Saturday and Sunday going to the Rallies I wanted to go to so today we did what he wanted. He had had his heart set on going to the museums. We spent the morning at the Museum of Crime and Punishment. Boy that place can really suck you in. We finally had to start skimming through exhibits so we would have time to visit his other museum and also have lunch.

I wonder, have these been outlawed? Just thinking they could still come in handy with a kid that just does not think he/she needs to obey. Maybe they could be outfitted with a muzzle too.

Jesse thinking maybe he would make a pretty cool policeman. We left this museum at about one o'clock and went around the corner to a nice little restaurant called Camille's. It was a sandwich type place. Obvious from the clientele a favorite for the office workers in the area.

After lunch we walked across the block to the International Spy Museum. We were barely in the door and into the first exhibit when one of the workers came in and directed us out to the street.

The entire block was being evacuated. Seems someone had pulled a fire alarm. I must say the hundreds of people who poured out of the three buildings involved did so in a very orderly manner. I was very impressed. The employees are highly trained to handle a situation properly.

One of Washington's first responders who came to check out the buildings. Once we were back into the building, we were once again sucked in. This time into the life of intrigue. We did not emerge from this building until well after six o'clock. I was almost running on overload by the time I saw daylight again.

One of Jesse's requests was dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. On Sunday, he wanted to have a seafood buffet at the hotel. (Bad idea. They eat their salmon cold!) I made a deal with him that if we went to the buffet, we would not do the Hard Rock Cafe. However, once we were out of the museum and it was fairly late, I asked a police woman standing on the corner for a fairly inexpensive place we could walk to for dinner, guess just where she directed us? I could not say no to the boy, I could not remind him that we had spent our big dinner out budget on a crappy seafood buffet. No I could not. Besides I was just a little curious myself.

So, that is where we supped.

Jesse finishing up his watermelon lemonade and

Gramma finishing up her strawberry lemonade.

The only night Jesse got to swim was tonight. All of the other nights, we just came back to our room and collapsed. We were worn out from all of our walking. We did walk a lot today also, but we were inside where it was air conditioned. We did not come back to our hotel all hot and sticky. The two kids he is playing with were some other kids staying at the hotel. They were from Germany. The brother spoke very good English. The sister did not speak it as well. It was fun watching them play and listening to the brother keeping the conversation going between the three of them.

It is currently 1:15 AM here in DC. I have to be up and moving by 4AM in order to catch my ride at 5AM and be on my plane back to the Left Coast by 7AM. Probably should sign off and catch everyone once I catch up on my sleep sometime tomorrow or Wednesday. I must say, this has been a very enjoyable four days.

Restoring Honor

Some Restoring Honor Pictures are posted at Grammasrightagain.

I had an amazing time. It is difficult to even articulate the feeling this brought to me. Unlike Chris Matthews, the tingle did not go down my leg though. It was more like a swelling in my heart!!

Jesse and I

Are in Washington DC. Attending the rally tomorrow!!!

I think I've mentioned before

that one of my favorite sources for recipes is Taste of Home. I have most of their magazines and buy their cookbooks as soon as they are available. This one is my favorite "wow" them cheese cake recipe. I am sorry I do not have a picture of it, but I guarantee it is every bit as pretty as any you can buy from any bakery and far tastier!

Luscious Almond Cheesecake

Submitted by Brenda Clifford

Prep:15 minutes.

Bake: 1 hour + chilling

Yield 14-16 servings

1 1/4 cups crushed vanilla wafers (about 28 wafers)

3/4 cup finely chopped almonds

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter melted

FILLING

4 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

4 eggs lightly beaten

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

TOPPING

2 cups sour cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tblsp sliced almonds, toasted

1. In a bowl, combine the wafer crumbs, almonds and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom of a greased 10 inch springform pan; set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in extracts. Pour into crust. Place pan on a baking sheet.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove from the oven; let stand for 5 minutes (leave oven on). Combine the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Spoon around the edge of cheesecake; carefully spread over filling. Bake 5 minutes longer. Cool pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.

4. Just before serving, sprinkle with almonds and remove sides of pan. Refrigerate leftovers.

HELP!!

Does anyone know how to cancel a bid on eBay?

I put in a bid for a “Mickey Mouse Outfit” and now it seems I'm only six minutes away from owning Obama’s entire Cabinet.

Sunset in Big Sky Country

"Cooper, Darius

if you are finished with the chairs, please put them back under the table."

One was very literal in his translation of what Gramma said. Hint............he does not get to spend almost every day with her.

As I have said before, it has been a very busy summer

I really have let my Birthday honors slip by for the past two months. Will begin with my one and only, Stan who celebrated his big 64 on June 1. I actually did mention him in the May Birthdays, but it does not hurt to mention him again.
My son in law, Dave Hull, here baptizing grandson Benjamin, celebrated his on June 17. I think he was born the same year I graduated from high school. Love you so much Dave:)
Miss Chelsea Lynn #1102 turned 20 on June 19. She has been her Gramma's kindred spirit since the day she was born.
Abagail Evalina, the Romanian derivative of Evelyn, #6415 turned 8 on June 20. Abby is a very gifted child, drama queen, and dancer all rolled into one beautiful person. Remember Ab's Gramma loves you the most. Just don't tell the others:)
Brandyn Michael #4104 tuned 18 on July 3. He is an amazing person with a mind that never quits working. Gramma thinks he should be an attorney because he is the very best person I know to argue. Usually always right, but I won't concede that to him:)
Darian Evyn #2105 (notice the play on his middle name) turned 18 on July 14. He also graduated from High School this year. Darian is the family musician, artist and drama king.

His entire high school career was spent perfecting the arts. All to his advantage. Gramma expects him to do great things with his gifts.
Last but not least, on July 29, Angela Marie, my third child and I celebrated our shared birthday. Like Stan I turned 64. Angela was born on my 22nd birthday.

Happy Birthday one and all. I truly love each of you for the unique gift you bring into our family.

God has truly blessed us.

It has been a very busy summer.

Tricia and her boys came down from Dillingham and spent nine days with us before heading down to Vancouver to visit the "other" grandparents. Kris came over from Port Orchard and spent the week with us also. This trip was to Fort Casey on Whidbey Island. The picture above is some kind of fungus that was growing on the walls of the fort. I thought it was pretty interesting looking.
One of the fun things about being at Ft. Casey is that there is always a good wind for kite flying.

Both Andrew and Ben got the kite up. It garnered a lot of attention from others on the grounds.

Cooper looking at us from under one of the huge guns that protects Puget Sound.
Tricia and Ben enjoying a little time together. It is kind of hard to get when you are not at home and everything is topsy turvy. Kris in the background reading.
Darius, Cooper and Olivia under the gun.
On the steps of one of the gun bays.
After we explored the fort, we went down to the beach and waited for the ferry so we could
ride it across to Port Townsend for dinner. One half hour ride, went to pizza and then back to Ft. Casey and home.
Cannyn, Cooper, Olivia and Darius.

From Wikipedia:

Fort Casey State Park is located on Whidbey Island in Washington state. Admiralty Inlet was considered so strategic to the defense of Puget Sound in the 1890s that three forts, Fort Casey on Whidbey Island, Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island, and Fort Worden, were built at the entrance with huge guns creating a "Triangle of Fire" that could theoretically thwart any invasion attempt by sea. Fort Casey is now a 467 acres (1.89 km²) marine camping park. TheAdmiralty Head Lighthouse is located in the state park.

Construction on Fort Casey was started in 1897. Her big guns on disappearing carriages, which could be raised out of their protective emplacements so that the guns were exposed only long enough to fire, became active in 1901. Unfortunately, the fort's batteries became obsolete almost as soon as their construction was completed. The invention of the airplane in 1903, and the subsequent development of military aircraft made the fort vulnerable to air attack. In addition, the development of battleships designed with increasingly accurate weaponry transformed the static strategies of the nineteenth century into the more mobile attack systems of the twentieth century. Most of Fort Casey's guns and mortars were removed and sent to Europe and the Pacific during World War II, where they were mounted on railcars to serve as mobile heavy artillery.

In 1935, the Coast Artillery withdrew the station's battery assignments and placed it on inactive status. As World War II approached, military officials reactivated the station after making physical improvements to the aging frame-plaster construction.

The two 10-inch (25-cm) seacoast artillery guns on disappearing carriages at the fort were salvaged in the mid-1960's from their final active duty location atFort Wint on the U. S. Naval Base Subic Bay,^[1] and are scarred with the effects of the Japanese bombings in the Philippines at the opening of World War II. Two 3-inch (76-mm) rapid-fire guns from Fort Wint are also mounted at Fort Casey.^[2]

Public Service Announcement #1

I am watching Sean Hannity. Bill Bennett was just on. He was talking about a site called mousemail.com It controls your child's texting. It is programmable to block texts from inappropriate texts. Will also shut down the function while the child is in school. It will, however, allow you to reach your child at any time.

We have a favorite park we like to go to

We usually go two or three times a week. This week these signs greeted us at the entrance to the play area.
Last week there was the neatest wooden ship in the play area of the park, along with this steel and plastic structure.


Here are the remains of the ship. Of course the little kids loved climbing in and out of it, pretending to be pirates or what ever else little people pretend.
Instead of getting to play on the play structure, we spent our entire time in the lake. Darius can almost get out to the dock without going over his head. He had to have a little help in the last couple of feet, but that was all.

We really are not complaining about spending all of our afternoon in the lake, it is a great lake.






Some pictures of us on the play structure last week before it was destroyed.

Going to the lake was still fun, we just missed our time out on the play structure. We certainly hope whomever destroyed is really proud of their selves.