Our preschool went on a field trip to Maymont Park. The kids had a ton of fun looking at and feeding the animals. They especially loved the very friendly goats. It was in the mid 80's so we all got hot and tired before we had seen all the animals. We rested under 
a tree and had sack lunches before getting back on the bus. These are the days I look forward to all year (with excitement and a little anxiety too).
Last Saturday was such a beautiful day! We went to a park by Cameron and Haley's and had a picnic on the grass. Haley made yummy chicken salad sandwiches (thanks Haley!)And since we were going to a park, Matt just had to have a kite to fly. And our store bought kite was not good enough. So he rushed and in 15 minutes we were out the door with a homemade kite. I think we have discovered that a
kite made in only 15 minutes does not fly as well as a kite made in an hour. This kite had bad luck written all over it. Within a few minutes of being in the air, it got caught in a tree. Matt couldn't bear the thought of no
t 
being able to fly it more so he decided to climb the tree. He climbed about 30 or 40 feet and was able to get the kite down with a stick. In the process of getting stuck and getting out, the kite got ripped so some repairs had to be made. About 20 minutes later the kite was flying high again but once again got stuck in another tree. This time it had to sacrifice its tail to be rescued
. So the guys got creative with trying to make a new tail - tying twigs, attaching a grocery bag, putting rocks in the grocery bag. All of these seemed a little scary to us girls. By the end we decided it was the white trash kite. We also met some really cute
boys that go to Cameron and Haley's church. They were playing soccer with their basketballs. So cute.
So I just started my photography class at the Visual Arts Center. There are only 8 people in the class so there is a lot of one-on-one question and answer time. My teacher seems really cool and she has a lot of experience. The first class she just reviewed what most of us should know from the beginner class (which I didn't take). I hope that I'll be able to keep up even though I didn't take it. She also told us about some famous photographers and showed us their work - very inspiring. I'm hoping this class will give me more experience and confidence in my own picture taking. This week she told us to capture the vernacular - the everyday. So I've been taking tons of pictures of our apartment and complex. Here is one of a tree by our leasing office. 
Matt and Cameron have been dreaming about making a really big kite ever since they made one in North Carolina. Last weekend they made their ten foot tall kite using painted bed sheets and pvc pipe. The kite was so big it took up almost the whole extra bedroom in our aparment. Yesterday they went out to fly it, and I went along for the pictorial documentation of course. First we went to a nearby p
ark. There was an open field that was perfect, so they started to set up. Then, all these soccer kids and families came, so the open field would not work. And the thought of having that kite hit a child was enough to convince us to break down the kite and move to another place. The
only other place we could think of was the church parking lot. They set it back up and got it up a few times. The last time it got up about 30 feet and started swerving back and forth like crazy and then all of a sudden made a nose dive onto the asphault parking lot. And...that was the last of the kite. One of the pvc pipes snapped and went right through the ma
terial. Matt and Cameron were so sad. All that work and they were only able to fly it for a few minutes. But they are going to try to repair the damage and try again.
I realized I didn't finish posting about Ann and Elise's trip. Sunday, Elise had a cough and didn't sleep well so Ann stayed home with her while Matt and I went to church. It was the 5th Sunday so the Young Women were took our Primary class for the last hour. Instead of going to the combined Relief Society/Priesthood lesson, we went home. The rest of the day we relaxed. It was raining so we didn't go anywhere. Monday, we all had lunch at the Dental School and Matt gave a tour of the Dental School. We decided to go to Mike's (a fabulous street vendor!) so Ann could try the Philly Cheesesteak. Later that afternoon I took the girls to the airport. It was SO fun having them come visit! Thanks Ann and Elise! 
s I want. I have done more googling and found out that this lens only works with the higher end SLRs. So I either have to deal with the manual focus, return it and get a $400 lens that will work with my camera and has autofocus, or ...upgrade to a better camera ;) [I don't think that last one would fly with Matt] But the thing about the canon camera is you can get the same lens for $30 less with an autofocus motor inside. Why did I have to go with the more expensive camera body?!? Now I have to deal with more expensive lenses and less choices on what I can do with my D40x. hummph.
Saturday we got up really early to drive to DC. Unfortunately, Elise was not able to get all the beauty sleep that she requires and we got to experience the "little - ogre." But once we got in the car she was sound asleep and then slept some more as we were walking around the museums and monuments. So we had the cute Elise back! DC was CrAzY! The annual Cherry Blossom festival is going on right now. And it was the kite festival too. We had to deal with huge crowds of people the whole day. And since it was windy and cold, people were inside all the museums too. But we made it. We decided to use the metro this time. Our first stop was Arlington Cemetery - JFK and the Changing of the Guard, which we didn't stay for since we had Elise.
