A Day at the Pier

After a delicious breakfast of waffles and eggs, the family headed to the hotel's pool where Evie displayed her kicking and splashing skills.
The next step was to the Santa Monica pier, where Evie got to dance to the one-man band, eat Dippin Dots, and go high in the air in the giant ferris wheel.
Our final stop was at the carousel... but Evie didn't want to ride on the horsies! She went straight for a sleigh just like we sat in two summers ago when we rode in the oldest carousel at Martha's Vineyard.

Evie's L.A. Story

Mommy, Daddy and Evie had a wonderful California vacation this past week. Our first stop was Los Angeles to visit Uncle Patrick, where we stayed in the West Hollywood neighborhood, just steps from the famous Chateau Marmont. Uncle Patrick was a great tour guide of the city, driving us around in style. On our first full day, we checked out the beautiful grounds of and views from the Getty art museum. As you can see from the pictures, Evie loved running around outside in the delightful 70-degree weather.

Daddy, Evie and Uncle Patrick pose in front of the blue sky and city skyline.

The family portrait (mommy needs sunglasses!)

An artistic shot taken by Daddy. Evie loved playing by all the fountains and would share her water droplets with everyone.

Evie had some hands-on time with the art in the family section. In this room she got up and close with the mirrors while Daddy watches.
Evie also got to participate in her first installation art project by moving the tubes around to form a sculpture in the next room. She really had a blast playing with the black "noodles" to create her own masterpiece.

Speaking of masterpieces, Evie used nearly every crayon to create her own mask to take home. What a blast!

Air, Space and Bebe

The weekend after New Year's (Bebe's birthday), Bebe came down to Alexandria to take Evie to the Air and Space Museum in Dulles. But the night before Evie and Bebe's adventure, they celebrated Bebe's birthday. Evie is helping out BeBe blow out the candles.

The next day it was out to Chantilly!

Evie loves rocket ships!

Throughout the day, Evie was pointing out other planes and rockets that she wanted her picture taken with other than the Space Shuttle.

Here's a picture for Opa -- what a fine German flying machine!

Evie takes a secret picture in front of the stealth plane.

It's a biplane!

Finally, BeBe gets a picture with Evie!

If there is one thing Evie loves to do more than anything else it is running...

...far away...

...from adult supervision!

Backlog of Holiday Photos!

Hi all -- sorry we are so behind in updating the blog. Rather than doing several blogs, we did one long one. We just posted the pictures and hope to add more text soon.

Below pictures from the National Botanical Garden and its holiday toy train exhibit.

It is getting closer to Christmas in Alexandria and Mom and Evie can't wait!

The family took a trip to Yorktown to visit Evie Ruth middlenamesake's house, which has been beautifully renovated by Katrina's cousins. The tradition has been for the kids to hold candles while singing the German version of Silent Night.

Christmas Eve in Fairfax Station at Ba's and Opa's with Aunt Amy and Uncle Karl.

Looks like Santa made an early visit to Fairfax Station but couldn't fit in the chimney so he had to leave the presents outside.

Christmas morning in Alexandria!

Christmas afternoon in Spring Lake with BeBe, Popi, Uncle Dave, Aunt Casey, cousins Julianna and Stan. Unfortunately, we had to leave early due to the upcoming snow storm before we could see Uncle Wally, Aunt Karen and cousin Molly.

During the holidays, Evie takes a trip to the National Air and Space museum and checks out some toy rockets!

New Year Day is here and that means cleaning out the closet. Evie found a new best friend, the Caddyshack gopher!