Annapolis

Saturday afternoon was spent in Annapolis MD eating chocolate ice cream and meeting the local Midshipmen.

Annapolis is home to the Navy Academy and some really good dry cleaning. How do those sailors keep it all so white. It had the desired affect on my kid. He really wanted to get to know them and ask them ALL where they were from. (This guy was from LA.) Luckily this was before the chocolate icecream.

That mouth! Those lashes! All this and she loves her Daddy.

Me and my honey.

Mona-scary

The Franciscan Monastery in northeast DC is our newest favorite haunt. Marco called it Catholic Disneyland and Xanny said it was a "mona-scary". Actually it is fascinating. Built in 1899 it is a replica of the church of the tomb in Jerusalem and honors the great crusaders of yore. We put this on our free and fun list to visit again.

My kids in Jesus's tomb. Who knew it had secret golden doors of intricate design?

I liked her. She seems much more righteous than I am.

Marco and kidlettes in the Grotto. I liked this shot - it seems to capture every one's personality.

Frogboy goes modern

What do you do with a frog boy on a rainy day? We ran to the Market for russian wedding cookies and headed to the National Gallery to catch the Jasper John retro-spective. (Marco thinks I would let our kid run across a busy intersection all alone just to get a good picture. Ummm.)

Xanny LOVES Calder. He thinks he was a giant who was too lazy to wash his super huge dishes and just hung them up instead. You should see his attempts at modern art in his room.

In between the two National Gallery buildings are a group of little glass pyramids. After setting off not one but two alarms from bumping into priceless art it was nice to run free outside!

Art shot of the day.

Gravelly Point

Today was airplane Thursday. Gravelly Point is a park on the north end of Reagan National's runway. This is the second before the screeching airplane passes over us just before landing.

What you can't tell from this picture is just how LOUD this 747 is when you are 40 feet under it. This is one of our favorite cheap thrills of DC. It's better than any Imax movie.

This is Brandi who has been living with us for the last four months. She is leaving in a couple of day. Boo-Hoo! We will always remember living with Brandi and it will be lonely without her.

Don't be fooled by the innocent face. I had to include this because it is a prime example of the dominate Davis gene that is expressed in about 34 of the 36 Davis grandchildren.

This has a story. You'll remember several weeks ago we had lunch with the elephant from the circus. When we were there an AP wire photographer snapped this picture for some random newspaper. When he sent me the picture he followed up with a note asking if my finger really was like this or if it was an optical illusion. Once again I am famous for my finger.

Garden Home Evening

Time to whip our HUGE front yard into shape. Zina Boo has a moment with the marigolds

Xanny prefers gardening naked. I think 276 commuters drove past our house when he was "abo".

"Smart Dirt" face. (The truth is I have no idea just how much DC dirt made it into her mouth.)

This is our entire yard. Yeah, it is about as big as our king size bed. Finally a yard I can handle weeding. Think of this as a sort of before picture with the after soon to follow.

Isabella and New Castle

This is Isabella (Marcia's daughter in Jersey) all aglow the day of her baptism.

On the way home from Isabella's baptism we stopped in New Castle, DE. It is a lovely little Dutch colony handed over to William Penn in 1668 with a key a tuft of "soyle" and a pitcher of river water. Early contracts seem a little like witch craft. That would explain a lot of New England history.

Xanny the Angel in the New Castle crypt.

This one is for Katie-Bell. Xanny is waving hello from one New Castle to the other.

sunday at the arboretum

This is our sunday lunch in our "cabin in the woods" at the National Arboretum.

Baby Nina in the "kitchen" of her tree house.

Flaming azaleas of Earth-day delight.

Climbing the walls.

Zina at the Freer

This is Zina at the Freer. I just about hung her on the wall, signed her and gave her a title.

"There's no place like DC, there's no place like DC, there's no place like DC." We go NO where with out the Dorthy shoes.

The REAL reason for the season (springbreak) . . . COUSINS! This is my sister from Utah and her brood.

Tired train kids.

Whistler's Peacock Room

This is Whistlers relocated Peacock room. I believe this is reason we call it "Peacock blue". Other than the fact that real peacocks are often this color blue also. The room was moved from its original home in London in the 1920's. All the walls, ceiling included, are lined in leather and then painted. Originally the owner of the home wanted to leave them exposed leather but Whistler took the oppertunity to paint the entire thing when his patron was conveinently out of town. (He didn't really like the guy and depicts him here as the arrogant peacock on the right to the beautiful Whistler on the left.) Then he signed the room in several places to turn the whole room into a 3-D painting and threw a big party for himself. By the time his patron got back to London everyone just loved Whistler and the Peacock room and totally forgot about the guy who owned the house (myself included.)

Mister Who-Ever-He-Was had no choice but to leave the room the way it was even though it had a picture of him as a pompus peacock. But luckly he died soon after, never leaving him enough time to go to a good therapist who would have told him it was his room and he could paint it what ever color he damn well pleased. Thank goodness Dr. Phil wasn't born yet.

Painting in the Peacock Room. Notice balance between the blue, gold, pink and red. (That's for you, Erin Sanchez.)

This is an installation of silver ware and hot peppers call the "Forked Tongue." It was so pretty and the guard yelled at me when I took this picture. I live a wild life here in DC. (This one is for Cindy)

This is Marco's cardinal out his back window of the office at our little house. He has the best spring time view in DC.

Lunch with the circus elephants. 300 pounds of produce.

Sunday morning with Happy Feet.