In the interim

I know, these are not the camping pictures! I'm so sorry for those of you who are impatiently waiting for the update on our camping trip. We are desperately slow in getting that posted. So while you wait, here are some pictures and a recent video of our sweet Kathryn. (Camping is coming...soon.)

Home Again

We have successfully made it home from our weekend camping trip. There are plenty of news items, stories, and picutres to share. We'll try to get to them as soon as we can, but for now, here's a picture from right outside our campsite. Needless to say, it was gorgeous.

Visiting with Gram and Pops

We had a great weekend with Gram and Pops Luminati, who came out to spend a little time with us. Pops was extremely excited because he was able to give Kate her first taste of ice cream. She wasn't totally thrilled with it at first--it was cold on her little fingers! But she soon picked up the knack and was reaching her little mouth toward the cone. We spent a fun day out in Middleburg, which is a quaint old town not far from here. I must say, though, Mom and Dad really appreciated having Gram and Pops here. We got to go on a date, see a movie, sleep in, not change poopie diapers for a few days, and not have to clean up the dishes! Needless to say, it was hard to see them go. How we wish we lived closer! Thanks for coming to visit and we miss you!

Here we are in DQ right before the ice cream fun begins.

Sharing a great breakfast at a local bakery in Middleburg.

Finally getting a good picture of Pops with his granddaughter.

Gram doing one of the things Grandmas do best.

Way to go, Daddy!

This morning we got up at the crack of dawn and headed downtown for the Army 10 miler. Jon was the runner and Kate and I were the cheerleaders. (Surprise, surprise :)) It was a beautiful morning--not too cool, not too warm--and the atmosphere at the Pentagon was lively and excited. Thankfully, we had no trouble finding a place to park and we milled around with about 50,000 of our closest friends before the runners separated to find their starting place. We saw several people who had lost limbs (assumingly in combat) and several others who were wearing shirts commemorating a loved one who had fallen in battle. There was a group of parachuters and a flyby of Blackhawks, but the most surprising thing was a prayer that was offered before the start of the race. It was awesome.

(The tall pointy thing in the background is the Air Force Memorial, and this shot was taken from the front of the Pentagon as the Blackhawks flew over.)

Since it was really hard to see the starting line, Kate and I jumped on the Metro to meet Jon later on in the race. We settled in a spot along Independence Ave, just behind the Air and Space Museum (after a quick stop at Starbucks). Kate was such a trooper! We scanned the crowd for Daddy but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. My eyes got buggy trying to find him and not miss him. We thought we were out of luck when I heard Jon's voice and shot this as he raced past:

Wahoo!! Please don't ask me to duplicate that picture--I couldn't do it again in a thousand years. Here's a look up Independence Ave, toward the Capitol, just before Kate and I headed back to the finish line:

It's hard to see, but all those little colorful bumps in the distance are runners. They said about 26,000 people signed up to run today. Whew! We met Jon at the garment check (the finish line was incredibly packed and I probably would have lost myself trying to find Jon) and he was very happy with his time. He ran the 1o miles in a little less than 1 1/2 hrs. Jon received a really neat coin for finishing the race, and now has another bib to add to the collection of races run. We walked around for a bit, enjoying the hubub and after-race food, then headed back home. I think this final picture says it all about the success of the day. Great job, Daddy!

Dancing Queen

I caught Kate dancing to her own drummer the other day. It makes me laugh because there wasn't any music--she just started on her own. Enjoy!