The Weekend of July the Fourth

Happy Independence Day!

This last weekend we went down to Virginia for the Fourth of July. While there I had the opportunity to try out the Wii Fit. It was fun to try to balance on the board and to watch Daniel trying to balance on the board. The Wii Fit gave me a "fitness test" (yes, in quotes) and then assigned me my Wii age.....da da duuuh... I'm 38. Apparently having James aged me considerably. At least Dan is still older than me; he's the Wii old age of 40. Hee hee. Ben and Josie brought the Wii version of Rockband with them and we had a lot of fun playing the guitar, banging the drums, and warbling into the microphone. My favorite was the drums. I played until I had to stop because I was getting drummer's elbow. You can tell James enjoyed it because he fell asleep to Daniel and Ben playing in their own Wii band.
We discovered that Aunt Josie has a very calming effect on James. He fell asleep on her whenever she held him. She says it's because she exudes tryptophan from her pores.:)We had a great dinner of broccoli rabe stir fry and a huge fruit salad for the Fourth. Afterwards we celebrated Grandpa Howell's birthday (June 26th) and mine too. Grandma went the extra mile and made a cake for each of us. Delicious! We watched the fireworks on TV, safe from all the mist and rain outside.
James had his first train ride on Saturday. We took the metro into Washington D.C. to see the exhibit put on by the Smithsonian. They had an exhibit of Bhutan, Texas, and NASA set up in the Mall. This is the Bhutanese temple built in the Mall:
The Bhutanese are very talented scupters and carvers. Their work is exquisitely done.
I was very impressed by their weaving too. Using the back brace to create the tension needed to weave is an ingenious idea. Their weaving showed a lot of attention to detail and high level of skill.
This is us in front of a Bhutanese tent dwelling. It was smokey and the canvas was handwoven. Rustic. I am very grateful for my running water and apartment comforts.
A Bhutanese artist did some landscapes of Bhutan that were absolutely breathtaking. Here is one of them:
At about this point in the tour I was extremely hot, starving, and cranky. James too. I fed him and Daniel got me a quarter of a watermelon from a nearby stand. Yum.... (Everyone else sampled deli sandwiches to stave off their hunger pangs.)
The NASA exhibit had some fun science type displays. My favorite part was the electric fan they had blowing into each tent. James and I people-watched, and were watched by people, as we stood in the air stream testing theories of aerodynamics a.k.a staying cool. We received comments such as:'What a cute baby!', 'Ahhhhh....', 'Isn't he adorable!' etc. I highly enjoyed this portion of the show.:)
We stayed for Sacrament meeting on Sunday at Grandpa and Grandma Howell's ward. It was nice to be there and get to introduce James to everyone.