Touring the Mall

We also had to at least do a brief tour of the National Mall with Stan and Mary, so here are a few of those pictures. We had a great time and lucked out with great weather again. We stopped at a duck pond near the Lincoln Memorial, which turned out to be Ethan's highlight of the day. He loved feeding the duck Cheerios, though I am sure that this is frowned upon by the National Park Service.

Fort McHenry

As I mentioned in my last blog, Jay's parents came to visit to be here for the big graduation and we had a fabulous time. One of the days we went to Baltimore and toured Fort McHenry, which I learned was the location of a crucial battle during War of 1812. It was beautiful weather and the fort is actually a very scenic spot. Afterward we made our way to the inner harbor in Balitmore and had lunch and walked around the harbor. It was a great time and Jay and I were able to check yet another landmark off of our Washington DC area landmark list.

Jay's Graduation!

Yes, it's true. Jay has officially graduated from George Mason University with a Masters in International Policy and Commerce. Although he has actually been done with school since December, nothing really feels official until you spend way too much money on a long green gown you will never wear again and sit through a too-long graduation ceremony. So we had to do the official ceremony. Ethan had a great time. Papa and Nona were here, so he couldn't have been happier. And during the ceremony he would clap and lean over the railing and yell through the auditorium "JAY!! JAY!!" It was so cute. Here are a few of the pics from the blessed occasion!

Gymnastics

So I enrolled Ethan in a gymnastics class through the county rec center along with a friend of mine. This is her little girl, Jane, jumping on the trampoline with Ethan. They are great friends and love playing, hugging, throwing dirt at each other.... you know, all the regular stuff for 2 year olds. Gymnastics is great fun, except we really need to work on the tuck before the forward flip. Just kidding. Ethan basically does 10% of what he is supposed to be doing and 90% of running around wildly causing trouble. But we have a great time!

Born to be wild.....

Here are Ethan's new wheels. He thinks he is pretty cool riding it too. Just don't tell him that he isn't actually driving - mom is controlling it the whole time with the little push bar in the back. This was a great buy for all of you parents out there looking for a good first tricycle. The parent push bar controls the front wheel so I steer for him also, since he doesn't exactly get the concept yet.

Handsome Boy!

Ethan is so handsome! I just love these pictures. It is so hard to get him to smile for the camera - he is too busy with other things most of the time to even smile for one second. So I had to post a couple of pictures where I actually caught a smile!

Zoo

We went to the zoo last weekend - the weather was beautiful here until it started to rain so much this week that Jay and I began researching ark building. Luckily, we have had a break from the rain! But here are our pictures from the zoo. Ethan was so excited to get this close to the orangutan! It is so nice that the zoo is free here, so we go often.