Last Weekend

Last weekend, Paul, Joannie and me went to the Brew at the Zoo. Well, I was the designated driver while they got to sample all kinds of different beers from around the country. But, I got to go to the zoo! And I would never complain about that! It was a great start to birthday week!

I loved seeing all the elephants, and especially having Paul's camera to really zoom with! It seems like they were all much closer than they were...


...except for this guy. He was pretty close! I know giraffes are large, duh, but look at this next picture with the zookeeper and imagine how many of his heads it would take to make the giraffe's! A lot of perspective...

...and that tongue is just kind of disgusting.

There was a baby one, too!


More elephants... the zoo has much more to offer than just these animals, but the way the festival was set up you really only visited these certain areas. It was great for me, though, because I had not been to the zoo in several years and so hadn't seen the giraffes!
 
These macaws were cackling up a storm on our way in. Joan feels the same way about birds as I (USED TO!) feel about rabbits, so we had a great time teasing her. By the way, here's her take on the evening.


The next morning, Will graduated high school! Here are some great shots from the brunch at their house afterward. I seem to have an unfair number of pictures of Sims and Elle on my blog lately. I think that will change come September though!

 

Yard

And what would a blog update be without a post detailing everything that's been going on in the yard?


















The hydrangeas in the side yard are very happy. They seem to thrive on neglect.












These little guys visited us a few weeks ago as I was making breakfast early one morning. Those who know me well will be pleased to hear I ooh'd and aah'd over them rather than running away in fear and loathing. I'm maturing!













For our anniversary, Paul's parents had some new plantings established in the front. It's such an amazing change! There's now a weeping redbud, too, which is something I've always wanted. It's funny how you can barely see the windowboxes in these pictures, now they are enormous! This definitely warrants an update picture soon - so much more is blooming! Unfortunately, so are the weeds. It's already hard enough to bend over and stay down, but hopefully soon I can get some stuff done.






















Paul's new camera catches everything. We've really documented some hilarious action shots of the girls in the past several weeks. Here are some of the funnier ones.

Elle, or learning to be parents

In April, Jon and Amanda went to Washington, D.C. for a legal conference and quasi-babymoon. The Saturday they were gone, we watched Elle all day. We had a great time reading, playing at the park and visiting the food trucks. Since Paul's new camera and lenses had arrived, we got lots of great shots - a couple good ones are below.

March for Life

In January, we were blessed to go along with a group from Aquinas to the March for Life. The March drew several hundred thousand to our nation's Capitol to peacefully walk and pray for life.

We attended Mass the morning of the March at the Staples Center - and it was very full.

After Mass,  but before the March, our group gets together for a photo...

...and again, after the March. The March goes along the Mall and Constitution Avenue, ending at the Supreme Court. It was drizzling rain and very chilly, so we didn't go on for a Capitol tour as planned.
 
On the Subway on the way back. We were all very tired, but apparently I wasn't tired enough to stop barking at people. Nor was Paul tired enough to stop photographing me. Looks like Fr. Jacek was over it, though.
 

The next day we visited the Dominican House of Studies. It's a beautiful place, and this chapel was amazing!

A really cool part of the chapel was this statue, atop an ambo. For non-Catholics, an ambo is from a word that means "elevation", and in Mass there are usually three readings or so - at least an Old Testament, a Psalm, and the Gospel, and on Sundays or other feasts there's an Epistle, too. Anyway, most of the time the person reading or the priest will come out to an ambo so they are a little up above things and they have your attention. It's kind of like a pulpit, for lack of a better comparision. I think this one may be for a choirmaster since we sat in the choir stalls and it was right there, as opposed to being more toward the front.

What makes this one cool is the statue on top - it's Mary, but she's portrayed as "Our Lady of Expectation" - so she's pregnant, with the Word made flesh. Pretty cool, and since we had an inkling of our good news at that point, Paul was sure to get lots of pictures!


Across the street is the Basilica, which was stunning both inside and out. We got so many pictures, but what briefly follows gives you a scope of how large the interior is and how impressive the art.

One of the largest mosaics of Jesus in the world sits over the high altar, a portrayl of Him as the just judge. Beneath him, you see angels... I don't think they are the archangels, but probably more like the Seraphim even though they don't look like them and don't have enough wings.. But I'm not sure. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out this wikipedia article. Don't worry, it's all in the Bible, too, just all the references are there for ease of linking.
 
Another shot - you can see Jesus waaaay back there, so this gives you an idea of just how large the Basilica is. Various Saints adorn the walls and the many side altars.

We had some free time after leaving the Basilica, so we headed over to the free parking along the tidal basin. Here's a "postcard shot" of the Jefferson Memorial.

We only had about an hour and a half, and the kids all went off by themselves, so Paul and I were determined to make the most of it. We catapulted through the WWII Memorial and down the Mall to the National Gallery, which was closing in about 15 minutes. We found some treasures there, though - treasures that will be familiar to anyone who's received a Christmas Card from us in the past few years...

 

Raphael's Alba Madonna...

...and Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi's Adoration of the Magi.

We scooted out of there with time to spare, and in the sculpture garden found an ice skating rink! Who could pass that up?

We left DC the next day (Wednesday), but didn't get home until Thursday morning early due to a student with a medical emergency (everything ended up being fine!) Thursday was Sister Mary Sarah's inauguration as President of Aquinas, which was very exciting...

...and required more fascinators.

Playing Catch-up

Looks like it has been a while since we've posted any updates to the blog. I guess now's as good a time as any to get some pictures up of what's been going on since last October. Not a whole lot, but enough to merit a few posts at least. So, from around Christmas-ish:
Here's a great picture of the Cathedral Paul took the night of the Nursing Pinning.


Here's me, Joan and Maria showing off our haberdashery skills with homemade fascinators at the Aquinas Christmas Party.


Lana...


...and Bugs wanted to try on the fascinator, too.


Sims and John at their house a few days before Christmas. I love this picture!


Lana with her biggest fan!


Santa baby... at her Grandmother's

Beauvoir

We discovered in the last couple of years that Liza's great-great-great grandfather Thornton Tolliver Watkins fought in and was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. He survived for 45 years after the war, spending his later years in a soldiers' home in Biloxi. He died there and was buried in the Confederate cemetery in the back of the property. This home, known as Beauvoir, had also been the home of the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis.

Being right on the waterfront in Biloxi, it suffered substantial damage during Hurricane Katrina although its interior and main structure survived. We've been meaning to go down since we learned about this ancestor. We finally got a chance when visiting Liza's folks Labor Day weekend. Tropical Storm Lee was out in the Gulf.

You can see how the property is right on the water, only separated from the ocean by the beach and US 90.

at the historical marker

Beauvoir itself. The porches that surround the house were torn off during Katrina.

View from the porch. Davis lived in one of the two cottages on either side of Beauvoir before purchasing the house itself. Both of these, however, are replicas as they were destroyed by Katrina.

You can still see how the storm surge came through.

Another view from the porch. Here again you can see how close to the water Beauvoir is. The original gate was very ornate but was also destroyed. The pieces are being stored out back, so they'll probably reconstruct it.

Liza and Dianne at their grandfather's grave. T.T. Watkins of Co. I of the 6th Mississippi Infantry (the "Bloody 6th"). It should be noted that the cemetery is closed to the general public due to reconstruction, but if you're able to prove to Buford the security guard that you have a direct descendant buried in the cemetery, he'll let you bush-hog your way back there.

The Confederate version of the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. They're also building a new "Presidential Library" behind Beauvoir. It's quite the shrine for present-day Confederate loyalists.

We have a lot more to post! We're just getting the old stuff out of the way.