Anna Grows

Anna, Aunt Mary, Cousin James & Bonnie Anna was able to spend the weekend of July 7 catching up with her family in New York.  As always, the trip was marked by lots of good food, including a barbecue at Uncle John & Aunt Yvonne's on Saturday, along with Aunt Loren, Cousin Rachel & Cousin Deborah, and a barbecue at Aunt Mary & Uncle Joe's on Sunday, along with Aunt Loren and Cousins Margaret & Ed.  (Unfortunately, the photographer must have been asleep as there does not appear to be any photos from these events). Anna was able to enjoy the nice weather on the water Sunday by kayaking with Aunt Mary & Cousin James followed by a swim at the beach.  It is really too bad there are no photos of the kayaking, particularly of Aunt Mary & Anna's Dad trying to paddle a 2-person kayak, which became a 3-person kayak when you added Anna. No member of this group will be seen in any Olympic kayaking event any time soon. In between, Anna enjoyed giving

July 4th was an extra special event this year.  In addition to celebrating our nation's independence, we also celebrated something even greater:  our inalienable right to electricity.  While electricity is not mentioned any where in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution , somewhere along the (power) line, we came to accept that fact that there would always be electricity.  On June 29, Mother Nature reminded Washington residents that is not the case. Thanks to a storm known as a derecho (straight-line winds as opposed to the clockwise winds of a tornado), the greater DC area was knocked out of power for several days.  The storm started in Ohio, where Grandma and Grandpa got hit first and were without power for 5 days. In the greater DC area, 1.4 million were without power as the mercury soared into the upper 90s.  It was definitely a reminder as to why everyone use to leave DC in the summer. Somehow, we escaped any storm damage and were a small island of po