Advent Calendar Progress

I got quite a bit done on my advent calendar while on vacation!  Here are the progress pictures from right after I got back.  I finished the green, 2 shades of red, 2 shades of brown, 2 shades of gold and 2 shades of khaki.

Unfortunately, since Thanksgiving hit right after we returned, I have not been able to make as quick of progress since then.  I've completed the white, pale gray, and am almost done with 2 shades of purple.  I still have 2 shades of pink and ALL the backstitching to go.  I guess I won't be finishing it for use this year, since December first is only 1-1/2 days away now.  :(  Oh well.  Maybe I'll be able to finish it in time to pack away with our other Christmas decorations so we can have it ready to use next year.

I'll try to get the last of the actual cross-stitches done today and tomorrow, then I'll take a picture for you.  But, I'm going to have to take a break from it for a week, since I am sending some of my Etsy inventory to a Secret Santa gift shop at an elementary school nearby in a couple weeks.  I have to have everything ready by Dec. 6th and I'd like to make a few more doll dresses before then.  I'll post some casual pictures of the new dresses I make, since if I sell them, I won't have need of nicer shots to post on Etsy.  :)  When that preparation is finished, I can get back to the advent calendar and work on the back-stitching.  Everyone in Oregon will get to see it almost done when we visit in THREE WEEKS!!!  :)

Washington D.C. - Day Four

Smithsonian Institution building.  All the architecture here is so cool!  Having lived on the West Coast my whole life, I haven't seen very much old-style architecture in person.  I'm sure I would be even more impressed if I were to ever visit Europe.  :)

Seeing the Capitol Building through the trees on the way to the Air & Space Museum.  We spent the morning at that museum, and ate lunch there also.  Pretty interesting stuff.  We shelled out some money to watch a 3D IMAX movie on the Space Station - very cool to know that there are actually people living in space right now!  Nathan and I also paid to ride a flight simulator.  I ended up being the gunner since I couldn't figure out the flight controls.  We shot down 3 enemy aircraft and spent a good portion of the time upside down.  :P

Then, we hiked on to see the Capitol.  Very impressive!

We passed by the Supreme Court building while trying to find the visitor's center at the Capitol.

We were able to get passes for a walk-in tour of some of the old rooms at the Capitol.  They showed us the old Supreme Court room, the rotunda, the old Congress room and the old House of Representatives room.  You need special passes to go into the current rooms - which were actually in session when we were there - but we were running out of time, so we decided not to try to do that.

The "back" of the Capitol Building - the side that faces away from the National Mall and all the monuments - still quite detailed and impressive.

We passed by the Library of Congress building on our way back to the train station.

After sunset in Washington D.C.

Some of our group needed to use the restroom before heading back to the train, so we stopped off in the Botanical Gardens, and I took the opportunity to take a few pictures!  Right when you walked in, they had all the monuments recreated in miniature set among tropical flowers - very cool.

That night, we ate dinner at a fun diner, then just relaxed.  Several members of our group went home this day.  The next morning, we slept in, leisurely got ready and went back to the airport.  We ate lunch there with Sandra (who had a flight home about an hour after ours) at a place called Five Guys - very yummy hamburgers!  It was a fun trip, but it's always good to be home again.  And to be with Luke again!!!  :)

Washington D.C. - Day Three

Hi - I'm back and finally getting to the next day of our D.C. vacation. Thanksgiving kind of snuck up on me and I had lots to do to get ready for that - including making a video contribution for the first annual Hughes Family Film Festival. So, here I am again trying to get caught up. Enjoy!

True to tourist form, I wanted my picture taken next to this sign of the Virginia seal that was in the train station. I'm excited to have added two new states to my list of states visited! The football stadium was in Maryland, Andrew's house was in Virginia, and if you count D.C. - that's 3 new "states" I've been to! :) Previous to this trip, Wyoming was the farthest east I've ever been.

In front of the Washington Monument. It was quite sunny and warm that day - despite being November on the East Coast! I eventually took off my coat, too, but we're already squinting into the sun. :)

Artistic shot of the Washington Monument.

Pretty view of the Capitol from the Washington Monument. Everything was so pretty since there were several trees with colorful leaves all around the National Mall area.

World War II Memorial.

In front of the Lincoln Memorial, a shot looking back at the Washington Monument, and in front of the Lincoln statue.

Vietnam War Memorial.

A pretty shot of the Washington Monument among the fall colors. We walked the length of the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and there were so many pretty picture opportunities. I frequently lagged behind since I kept stopping for a picture - there will be A LOT more posted on the Hughes gallery - Jen be sure to take a look!  I tried to use the "rule of thirds" as much as possible when composing the shots on this trip, and I think they turned out very nicely.  :)

BRIGHT red leaves on the trees in front of the boys. And a picture from underneath one of those trees once I reached it.

The White House. This is as close as we came to it, since we wouldn't be able to go inside anyway. We were several blocks away, and this is pretty zoomed in, but still got to see it! I cut off much of the foreground between us when composing the picture since it was just cars and parking lots. They were decorating a Christmas tree in one of the lawns around there, too, but it must have been seen from a different angle than this picture.

We ate lunch at and spent the afternoon at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Here are some fun salt water aquarium had fish like the ones in Finding Nemo - very fun to see them for real!

In front of the big elephant in the rotunda.

Diamonds cut in the shapes of the alphabet! I thought this was so cool!

We walked back to the train station after the museum was nearing closing, then had dinner at a Chinese place. The boys wanted to play poker, so us girls went shopping - and I actually found some boots that fit me!!! Yeah for a HUGE selection of boots on the East Coast!

Washington D.C. - Day Two

Our day Sunday was taken up pretty completely with the football game.  As we were leaving for the train station (how we did the bulk of our travel on this trip), I took this picture of the neighborhood since it was so "Autumn in D.C." to me with the pretty leaves and American flag.  :)  I took a lot more fall leaves pictures the next day when we were walking around the National Mall, so stay tuned for those, Jennifer!

We were sitting in the middle of the bottom section of seats at about the 10 yard line, so it was very easy to see what was going on (unless crazy home-town fans stood up to cheer!).  Here's a picture of the marching band, too.  Lots more pictures will be up on our gallery.

An example of the actual football game.  Denver was doing pretty well in the first half, as was Washington - I believe we were tied (or close to it) at the end of the first half.  However, when the 2nd half started, we discovered that Denver's quarterback had twisted his ankle and wouldn't be playing anymore!  Their replacement quarterback did NOT do very well, and Washington won pretty easily after that.  Half of our group was rooting for Washington, so they were happy at least!  :P

Proof that we were there!  The weather was actually quite warm.  We had been expecting to be cold and bundled up while on this trip, but Sunday and Monday were in the 70s, with pretty hot sunshine.  Thankfully, we were sitting on the side of the stadium that was shady the whole time, so it wasn't TOO hot.

That evening, we went to the Hard Times Cafe, which was famous for their chili - cooked like Texas ranchers would make it on their cattle drives.  It was essentially just flavored ground beef - not the soup-like chili with beans I was used to.  I ordered some served over tater-tots and it was quite tasty.  :)  That night, we all played Apples to Apples and Taboo!

Washington D.C. - Day One

Nathan and I left for a vacation to Washington D.C. on Saturday!  This whole trip started being planned a couple of years ago when Nathan's favorite NFL team (Denver Broncos) and his friend Brian's favorite team (Washington Redskins) played each other last.  Apparently the two teams are in different leagues, so they only play each other every few years unless they were to both make the Super Bowl.  They decided way back then, that it would be fun to go to the game in person when they played each other again.  So, when we found out this year that they were playing each other, the timing worked pretty well for everyone, and they were playing in D.C., we decided to make a trip out of it - complete with sight-seeing.  I'll be posting pictures and commentary on each day of our trip as I have time.

Since we were leaving Luke with Grandma & Grandpa while we were gone, I wanted to have a quick way to "remember" him and his cuteness.  So, Saturday morning, while Nathan took the first set of bags down to the car, I snapped a few pictures of Luke to keep on my camera.  :)

We flew on Virgin America, and they had these cool video screens in front of each seat.  You could choose to pay for headphones for sound, or to watch movies or order food.  But, there was also free TV and games to enjoy.  I especially enjoyed this journey map they had - it showed visually where the plane was en route, as well as how fast we were going, how high we were, how many miles left to go, and the outside temperature.  It got as low as -67 degrees on the way there, and -71 on the way home.  I didn't realize it got so cold at 36,000 feet!

Due to the time change, we arrived in time for a late dinner.  Brian's friend, Andrew, lives in the D.C. area and has a house there where we all stayed.  Andrew's friend, Josh, arrived at the airport about an hour before we did.  Andrew and Josh met us at baggage claim, then we drove to a pizza/American food restaurant to have dinner and meet up with Brian and his girlfriend, Kat, who drove down from Philadelphia.  Brian's sister, Sandra, flew in the next morning to round out our group of seven.

Advent Calender Update

I previously posted about my progress on this advent calender with pictures of how far I was about a month ago.  Now, I've completed stitching the little bits of black and 4 shades of blue.  You can really see a lot more structure to the project!  I'm working on the red & green now because I want to fill in that yawning expanse of calendar now that the border is completed (sans back-stitching) - we'll see how much I can finish while on vacation this week.  I'm really hoping to finish this to use with Luke this year on December 1st.  :)  (and yes, I know I need to iron the fabric to get rid of that ugly crease down the middle - one of these days!)

Alphabet Puzzle

Luke is doing GREAT with his letters recently!  He can identify quite a few of them just by sight - not context or repeating after me.  It's evident when he's going through his ABC Bible Verses book and when he's doing this alphabet puzzle.  He does a really good job with all the pieces and knows where they go - and can say the words for most of the objects represented.  It's so fun to see him grow in learning and understanding - and the more he can say, the more he can show me what he knows.  :)

Birthday Party

Sunday after church, we had an impromptu birthday party for my sister-in-law, Tara, with all the family.  Luke was actually interested in the birthday hats this time, which was quite amazing since he has shied away from them for a long time.  The best part of all of this, is that even after all the activity and getting home after 2pm, LUKE ACTUALLY TOOK A NAP!!!  Wah-hoo!!!  That is a rarity indeed on Sundays especially, and for various reasons, he hadn't took a nap on Friday or Saturday of last week either, so this was a welcome thrill!

Speaking of why he didn't take a nap on Friday - he was too excited from having my friend Kristy and her husband, Francisco, visit to settle down to sleep.  I just realized that I didn't remember to take any pictures while you were here!  Hopefully we can meet up at Christmas and take one then.  :)  Thanks for coming, Kristy - we enjoyed the visiting and giggles!

"Reading" Books

Luke has enjoyed "reading" his books by himself a little bit more recently.  He still likes it when I read to him, but it's cute to hear him making sounds like he's reading, and doing the sound effects when appropriate.  I took two videos of him looking through a couple books, but will have those up later.  For now, this cute picture will have to do.

Lego Tower

Luke was really enjoying making these Lego towers at one point last week.  He would make it as high as he could, then knock it down while saying the word "crash" for sound effects.  Eventually, he enlisted my help to make the tower as high as the amount of blocks we have would take it - he couldn't place any that were much higher than his head.  I thought it would be fun to take a picture of him next to this tower because it was SO much taller than him, but he was camera shy for awhile.  Eventually, I convinced him to try being in the picture, and he gingerly stepped sideways into the picture frame while I quickly snapped a picture before he could change his mind.

Then this picture was a tower or two later, and he proudly placed himself between the camera and the tower!  Silly boy.

And here is a study in concentration as he's working on one of the towers.  I got a video of some of this also, but I don't have time right now to mess with those.  Nathan and I head out on vacation to Washington, D.C. tomorrow morning, so I'm hoping to catch up on pictures before then, but videos aren't going to make the cut I'm afraid.  Hopefully I can get to them soon after we get back - there aren't that many that I'm backed up on this time, so it shouldn't be quite as overwhelming.  :)