Got back to the hotel at about 9 p.m. - whew! On Monday, we got to sleep in a little bit but had to be ready to go to Fords Theatre at 11 a.m. We also toured the National Portrait Gallery and Madame Tussaud's where we ran into Barack and Michelle so we snapped a pic!! Afterwards, we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then did a boat cruise on the Potomac River - really cool!! On Tuesday, we visited our congressional representatives, toured the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, the National Museum of Natural History, the Vietnam and Lincoln Memorials. We also attended the Iwo Jima Sunset Parade - awesome!! On Wednesday, we checked out of our excellent hotel and visited the National Zoo (saw a Panda), and toured the C & ) Canal Barge in Georgetown. Then on to the Washington National Cathedral and the Arlington National Cemetery. The students attended an All States Farewell Party at the Hotel while the chaperones were treated to a dinner at a posh Georgetown Restaurant
- wow - I'm glad I didn't have to pick up that tab!! Including Kevin and I, there were 7 chaperones all together. With Kevin and I in the picture (left to right), were Bernie, Wendy (husband and wife), and the "cool" chaperone - Megan - just a youngster!!! There was also John - a cameraman - who was along to take pictures but he also chaperoned. And the gal in charge of it all - Ann Kipp. Ann was amazing and it was due to her and the excellent students that such a good time was had by all.Most of the time we had to dress up and look all clean cut but as you can see, we did "dress down" one day and here is a picture of the whole crew acting "silly" in front of the White House.
We boarded the bus at midnight and arrived back in Columbus by 8:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. It was a great experience and we would definitely volunteer to do it again!
When we returned home, there was no resting as I had to go purchase our niece, Mandy, a wedding shower gift. Deedee and I attended the shower which was held in Norwalk on June 19th. It was a lot of fun as the girls (Katie and Rachel) had chosen a camping theme due to Mandy's love of the outdoors. Deedee and I had fun :)
In July, we took the Motorhome to Clay's RV Park for the 4th of July weekend. Kevin and I drove there and then Kory and Cassie joined us the next day. We kayaked, did some hiking, ate s'mores, watched fireworks, sat by the fire and just had a great time. Kory and Cassie did some swimming while Kevin and Karen layed out and watched!! Lazy old folks!! We took the motorhome out a couple of weekends later and stayed at Cedar Point - Kory and Cassie came with us again and Deedee and Kyle joined us on Saturday. We all had a great time at Cedar Point. We fit in another wedding (an old student of Karen's and old girlfriend of Kory's) in July. Cassie then went to Las Vegas for the softball nationals with her team and her mom and when she returned she texted Kory and told him it was "quits". Kory is fine with it. Kevin had predicted it. But it just isn't right to do that through a text!!! So, in August, we (Kevin, Karen, Kyle, DeeDee and Kory minus Cassie) attended Mandy and Joe's wedding at Colleen and John's home. Everything looked beautiful. We thought it was going to be a rainout but just when the wedding was due to start the rain stopped and it didn't rain anymore that day :) The reception was held at the Milan Town Hall and it was very HOT!! But the food was good and it was good to see the family again.
Kory left for college last week on Saturday, August 15th. Kevin drove down, too, as Kory had some larger items to take down to his room. He had to go down early for football camp. He is a junior now - hard to believe - but is just a 2nd-year football player as he sat out last year due to their basketball coach wanting him to play but then "over-recruiting" freshmen so Kory was left out in the lurch. He is very happy with football and worked very hard all summer working out and gaining weight. He now weighs in at 215 pounds unless you look at Capital University's web site, it will say he weighs 205 - they don't want others to know that they have a 6'5" safety who weighs 215 - LOL!! We went to an inter-squad scrimmage last week. Here is one pic - can you tell which one Kory is??? He is the one getting ready to block the field goal attempt - we call this picture Air Time - HA!!
We will be going to another of his scrimmages tomorrow where Capital will play Malone College over in Akron, Ohio.
Karen went back to school today to help teach the staff some Web 2.0 tools (like blogging - LOL!!), Wiki Spaces, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Delicious, Technorati, using an LCD projector in the classroom, etc., etc.. I know you all feel sorry that she had to go back to work - HA!!
