Birthday Girl!

For Tracy's birthday, we had a nice celebration and a delightful day.  She had breakfast with her mom and sister and dinner with her husband.  Real Seafood was a delight and such delicious food.

After dinner, we returned to the Quockert abode, where there was PLENTY of dessert and many laughs. 

Video Diaries en route to Ohio

On the car trip to Ohio, we had a few other video diaries.  The first one is especially fun to watch (and only 55 seconds), as it captures Rania's personality pretty well.







And lastly, Gabi helping sort out our lunch decision with her assistant (NOT SISTER), Reeve.

Sad Goodbyes

It came time to say goodbye to our newfound (and fondly remembered) friends, so there were lots of photos of goodbye.

Hopefully it will not be a full decade before we reunite again!

Salem Red Sox & Fireworks!

After our hike, we had an amazing meal at an Italian restaurant in Salem (Mama Maria's).  With some delicious gluten-free pasta, it was quite a treat.  A falling chair, a lot of laughter, and many memories were part of the fun.

Afterwards, we caught the last bit of the Salem Red Sox Single A baseball game.  After blowing a lead in the top of the 9th, the home Red Sox came through in the bottom of the 10th - after which we were treated to some fireworks!

It was the first time I had the privilege of sitting right behind home plate in any baseball game, I think!  Jon is one of the sponsors and official eye doctors for the team (see the Invision sign in right field) so the tickets were a real treat!

Star of Roanoke

We had a wonderful day and afternoon seeing just a few sights around Jon and Abbe's house.  They took us to Jon's impressive office.  The girls had an absolute blast riding around in the convertible (a 1991 Pontiac).  We got outside into nature for a  little hike around the Star of Roanoke, which was fun. 

It was fun since the girls were instant best friends!  What fun to be together and for our kids to make great new friends. 

We stopped briefly for a bit of bouldering and there was a dead tree that just had to be attacked!

Roanoke Reunion

There was quite a bit of mutual screaming when we pulled up to Jon and Abbe's house outside of Roanoke.  It had been more than a decade since the last reunion, and it was a great way to start our short visit in Southern Virginia. 

What a feast we had on the first night!  There wasn't much room on the table, and there definitely was not much room in our bellies!  And what a beautiful setting (and good weather) for a delightful evening meal.

Video Diaries en route to Roanoke

The kids are only young once, right?  Even when they are bored and saying nothing, this is a chance to capture their own thoughts, their own voices and get some of the experiences on camera.


Like Rania's addiction to "boom, snap, clap."

Birthday Book from the Past

Putting together a birthday book for Tracy was not easy - but hopefully the memories from our family from a few years ago will serve as a good birthday gift, whether or not we can get it in time for her birthday, we'll see. Click through the book to see some of the highlights from the Woodwards of 2009.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

Grandpa Levi & Grandma Ramona Depart

We had to say goodbye to Grandpa Levi and Grandma Ramona.  But we didn't go far without a last burst of Grandpa's incredible generosity.  He managed to get us all out to a tasty breakfast, and we all enjoyed the delicious food before waving them off to the airport.

Lunch with Connie!

We had a delightful chance to meet Connie near the State Department and had a wonderful lunch together.  How amazing to always be reminded of one of those incredible people with such a skill for relating to others and remembering so many details.  Wow! 

American History Museum

Mark generously took part of the day off on Thursday and we made our way to the American History Museum, which was a delightful experience.  The interpretations of history were big highlights with stories from the old west, Rebecca Flower-Young telling about making the Star Spangled Banner and Gabi being one of the representatives of the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins.

It was a fun trip downtown and a delight to see some incredible displays.

 

The girls sure did have another fun day with Auntie Marta. 

Air & Space Museum

We made our way out near Dulles to the larger Air & Space Museum.  There were a lot of pretty amazing sights and such an incredible facility.  We enjoyed going on the first part of the tour, hearing about aviation history.  Some highlights were the Panamanian pilgrims getting to see the airplane that the Japanese tried to hide in a submarine in order to bomb the Panama Canal.

Their tour guide in Panama had said the plane was here, and they should send her a picture if they saw it.  This was a big reason for our destination choice for the day.

Also, the first airplane to go from the Pacific to the Atlantic (across the isthmus of Panama) was a surprise highlight, as well as learning more history of the Enola Gay. 

But what a sight to see the Space Shuttle Discovery.  We had not been there since it had replaced the Enterprise, which had only been for in-atmosphere practice, gliding and landing. 

The kids had a great time in the space simulator, though when Reeve decided to treat his mom with a flight simulator, there were a few too many barrel rolls for mommy's taste!

65th Birthday!

 

We celebrated a big birthday.  It was quite a great celebration with Grandpa Levi providing the ice cream cake (yum!) and all six grandkids around to add to the festivities.  We sure have been blessed to have had grandparents nearby in Kuala Lumpur, and it will be a bit of a culture shock when we return with no grandparents around.

But how fun to be able to celebrate a big birthday together!

There was lots of fun times as well, with Just Dance 4 from Wii being a major hit!

Panamanian Return!

How fun to go to the airport and get Reeve and Daniel and grandparents.  They were sure excited telling about their trip!  What a great experience.  We will get pictures from their trip to include over the past week, so be sure to look back in our blog!

Natural History Museum

How wonderful to get to DC and see Mark and Marta.  We had a delightful time downtown at the Natural History Museum.  It was a delight to get to see some of the incredible sights.  The Hope Diamonds, the dinosaurs, the "Written in Bones" exhibit (which we had to navigate to find the bathrooms) and finally the mammals.  The girls loved so many of the exhibits.  What a privilege to visit such an incredible museum.

 

You can decide if the first picture (with all the kids) is better or the second one with some selective cropping? 

Afterwards, the girls got a brief visit to the National Mall so they could see the capitol building.

Birthday

A birthday celebration! 

Of course yummy food and family fun must be part of the recipe.