VISIT WITH MY SISTER AND HER FAMILY

I recently took a real vacation, meaning I left the boys at home with grandma and grandpa and headed out east to visit my sister Raenie and her family in Winchester,VA. I had a fabulous time and was thrilled to be back out east as I haven't been since moving to Utah in 2000. It was so nice to see the unique architecture, green landscape, small hidden towns and the fireflies. I could have done without the humidity but we did have a reprieve the last couple of days I was there. Along with visiting Virginia I also was able to tour Washington,DC as well as Baltimore, MD. To start off I posted the pictures that you all truly want to see, Dallin and Kenzie. They are both active and doing well and as you can see from the pictures are so dang cute.































The first full day I was in Winchester Raenie was very gracious and extremely accommodating to drive me around the city and see all of the neat sites. These first few pictures are of some of the homes I thought were so cute and of which we don't see out here in the west.










Here is the reason that Raenie and her family are out east in the first place. Shenandoah University is where Charlie has been spending quite a lot of time over the past three years studying to be a Pharmacist.


Winchester is located in the Shenandoah valley famous for their apple blossoms. Throughout the city are these apple statues painted in different unique ways. Here are the four that Raenie and I could find on our drive around town.








This is the Handley High School in Winchester. Very charming looking for a high school. The Handley Judges play all of their home football games on saturday mornings as there is no stadium lighting to take away from the beauty of the grounds.




Here is a street in Old Winchester.


Here is Handley Library in Downtown Winchester.


This is the City Hall.














This is the WWII Memorial.










This is the Washington Monument.


Here is the White House.


This is a Smithsonian Building.


These are some flowers in front of the Smithsonian Building.


Here is our Nations Capital.


This is the Lincoln Memorial.










This is the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.






This is the Jefferson Memorial.






This is the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD.


Bridge crossing the harbor.


Dragon or Nessie paddle boats.




Old ships docked in the harbor.






Street homes in Little Italy.






Cute pics. in Little Italy.






Cafe Gia where Raenie and I ate an early dinner. It was such a cute little resturant. The atmosphere was so warm and friendly and the food was good especially the tortilini that Raenie ordered, extremely delicious.






This is the bakery where Raenie introduced me to the Italian dessert Canoli. The shell is kind of like a waffle cone rolled in a cylindar shape and filled with a sweet ricotta cheese mix with mini chocolate chips. It had a very unique taste and was very yummy. They do have a website and will deliver.


All in all my vacation was so good. It was nice to get away from the usual routiene but also good to be back home where I was truly missed.