Brothers

 

Came across both these pictures and like putting them up next to each other.  Brothers for sure.

 

An Afternoon in D.C.



Even with living in the United States for 18 years and in D.C. area, Andy really hasn't seen any museums in D.C.  So, with a free afternoon, we just went to a few quickly.  Our first stop was the National Art Gallery.  The following our my favorite paintings. 

 

 

The Copley Family by John Singleton Copley

 

 

I love Impressionism.  The Bridge at Argenteuil by Claude Monet.  Monet was obsessed with this bridge and did countless paintings with it in the background with different sailboats.  This is just one of The Bridge at Argenteuil prints.

 

Little Girl Miss Willoughby George Romney

My all time favorite painting in the museum.  Another Impressionist Painting.  Garden at Vetheuil - 1880 by Claude Monet

I tried to get Andy to get his picture taken next to the countless nude women paintings, but nope.  :)  He finally agreed for a photo next to a Degas called Four Dancers.  How original. 

Two of my favorite paintings by Childe Hassam.  Allies Day-1917

Poppies, Isles of Shoals - 1891

The tunnel between the two art galleries.

We stopped by the Museum of National History.  If I could have a crown, this would be mine. 

We also stopped by the American History Museum, which again is going through renovation.  Almost pointless to visit.  But the evening sun on the flag was pretty. 

Car Ride

The last fun in Michigan was a sweet "hot" car ride in a classic old car.  It was fun, but I think the best part of the whole night was actually dad's imitation on the way home of how this classic car drove.  Imagine me belly laughing.  Good times!  Bye Michigan!

 

Enjoying a little fire on a summer night

Funny Dog

I loved Mom and Dad's flowers this year

Beach

While in Michigan, we went to a beach over by Rebecca's house.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves until the last few minutes.  It was a nice day with plenty of sunburns in the end. 

 

Cousins

Dressing up

 

The two oldest put on a nice presentation that they had prepared for us all.  Don't they look related!

 



The Chef

Recently, Emma put a post on her blog about one of her tasty treat creations.  I asked her to make it for us when I came to visit and she did.  It was great!  I'm going to have to make it for Uncle Andy soon.  Well done Emma!

 

4th of July

Summer

Getting your nails done by Aunt The-The is always a must.

 

Molly

Good to be home!

D.C. Fireworks

This is our view of the D.C. fireworks.  We got stuck in traffic that wouldn't move.  We basically only got to see what came over the tree tops.  But with only a pathetic 15 minute show it was actually worth just sitting in an air conditioned car for the whole thing.

 

Zoo

Andy and I decided to go to the zoo one Saturday.  Not the best choice considering how hot it became, but we did get a parking spot for free on the street only a block from the entrance.  Score.

 

We saw a leopard first at the zoo.  By the way, it was so hot there that day.  Even the animals were hot.  

 

Next to the leopard, was the three pens holding the animals that the leopards eats.  Lovely..

We were so excited to see the pandas.  They were indoors that day because it was too hot outside of course.  Um...yeah, we came to the first panda and found it was dead asleep....and not giving us the best view.

And the second one was sitting eating bamboo.

Elephants were also inside out of the heat.  Only one was outside spraying itself with water. 

Oh, then we got a great view of the tiger...

only to have it go to a corner, get down in the water, and not get out. 

The lions were actually the best animals.  They gave us the most show.

Working on your claws is a must if you are a girl.

Hot day but good time.