June 2025 Updates

 The title of this blog has been "Anna Grows" for the past 18 years.  It started out as a way for Theresa to share photos and events with family members about Anna since everyone lives in different places.  It has turned out to be the equivalent of an electronic "baby book" (some of you will remember those) for Anna, including a detailed account of the pandemic weeks.  It may be time to re-evaluate how to manage the blog going forward as Anna can certainly write herself.  The past couple of months may be more of a theme of Theresa's retirement (or work sabbatical as she is calling it) from the Federal Government.  Stay tuned for future iterations (maybe Anna can write some posts - always popular with the family in the past).  Maybe Theresa needs her own blog.  Maybe the name of the blog should really be something else.  Who knows.  For today, here is what Anna, and her family, have been up to in June.

Metro to DC
Anna is taking a summer anatomy class at Northern Virginia Community College.  This is one of her prerequisites for her major and it is on a condensed timeframe, so it is rather intense (ask her about bones and muscles).  She just started a job at Caffe Amouri in Vienna.  This is the hub of coffee activity in Virginia (they also roast and sell their own beans).  Theresa was very excited to find out that Anna gets one free bag of coffee per month as part of her job perks.  Joe is still deciding whether he will divert from his morning Folgers coffee (Theresa is not so secretly hoping he sticks with his tried-and-true coffee).  

Anna and Theresa went into DC to check out the miliary display on the mall prior to the June 14 military parade.  You don't usually see tanks on the national mall.

Joe and Theresa spent a week at Virginia Beach the first week of June, leaving Anna in charge of the house and Benny.  They could not have asked for a better week with temperatures in the upper 70s and sunny skies.  They found a great little apartment right by the beach access point.  One of the unique features of Virginia Beach is all of the navy installations, which means you can sit on the beach and watch jet fighters flying over every hour.  You can also watch dolphins and there was a fantastic state park across the road.  If you venture to the boardwalks, there are multiple early evening concerts going on throughout the week.  All in all, a great trip.

Theresa spent a week in Ohio with her parents and nephew Aidyn.  One of the highlights of this trip was a visit to the county library for some genealogy research with the help of the local genealogy librarian.  This was a fun outing as she found census data and her grandfather's draft cards from WWI and WWII along with lots of family mysteries.  This will be an on-going project.  She and Aidyn tried out one of the many bike trails in Fort Wayne, Indiana one day.  They also volunteered at the local food pantry one morning.  They tried out a new local diner, which has a lot of potential if they can get some additional help (one cook and one waitress after announcing your opening in the local paper is not going to be enough).  


Theresa continues to try out new volunteer activities and adventures while on her work sabbatical, with Joe occasionally joining in.  These included:

  • Volunteering at Food for Others, a major food bank in Northern Virginia.  This has been educational on several fronts, including the vast distribution system, the clients, and the impacts of Federal policy and funding changes.
  • A free walking tour of Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna.  She also found they have lots of summer programming and volunteer opportunities.  Another wonderful place nearby!
  • Various projects for the Homeowners Association.
  • Paddleboarding at Fountainhead Park (Joe joined in for this).
  • Signing up to volunteer at Wolf Trap starting in July.  This also comes with free concert tickets depending on availability.  So far, Joe and Theresa have enjoyed several concerts, including:
    • Marine Band Summer kick-off (always a treat - the military bands are phenominal)
    • Taj Mahal & Keb Mo (these guys were amazing & in their 70s/80s - ask Joe about the "bump & grind" fiddler with them).
    • Hauser (a Croatian celloist that did both classical and rock - ask Joe about this show)
    • Wolf Trap
      Gregory Porter & Dianne Reeves - more fabulous vocalists

Benny is adjusting to the new flow of people in the house.  He is a bit confused about who is going to be in the house and when, but he is just happy to have someone to hang out with.  He has been battling a skin infection for the past couple of months which we cannot seem to get cleared up.  Hopefully this round of medicine will the do the trick.  In the meantime, he has some bald patches.

Happy summer!





Biking with Aidyn


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