End of the School Year Craziness

The end of the school year brings a rush of activity for the girls:  field trips and special parties at school, awards and concerts.  I think in the last week there was something going on every day for at least one of them.

Elise had her final concert of the year for Parkside Singers, performing at 5th grade graduation.

Both Elise and Anja had parties in class where awards were given out.

Elise received the Citizenship Award and
Musical Excellence for her class, as well as the
Laffy Taffy award.  This is Elise with
her teacher, Ms. Harper

Anja's teacher, Mr. Heil, handing out awards.

Anja and Mr. Heil, "the best teacher ever."

The Girl Scouts wrapped-up the year with a picnic and awards night.

Elise earned patches for her first year as a Junior.

Anja finished her second year as a Daisy and bridged to Brownies.

I am the co-leader of the Daisies, so I got to give Anja her patch.

Memorial Day Tradition

One of the big Memorial Day traditions in Fredericksburg is to visit the Fredericksburg National Battlefield and Cemetery.  We've done this for about three years, and it is an incredible experience to walk through the cemetery in the dark, with light from luminaries on the thousands of graves.  For the girls, this brings history alive, as they look at the graves and see where the soldiers are from, and the date they died.

Two luminaries and an
American flag mark each grave.

End of the Year Concerts

The end of the school year means school programs!  Elise's 4th grade music class performed a recorder concert and her school's choir has several performances this spring.

Waiting for the recorder concert to begin.

Elise and her friend hamming it up in between recorder songs.

Performing with Parkside Singers, the school chorus.

Another performance by Parkside Singers.

Our New Baby

Last weekend we adopted this beautiful girl and named her Scout.

After Dutch died, we knew we wanted to adopt a dog but decided to wait until Jason was done with the semester so he would be home to spend lots of time with the new dog and help it transition from the shelter to life in our home.  By the time May rolled around I was SO ready to bring a dog home!  I waited until the semester was over and not a minute longer:  while Jason was at commencement last Saturday, the girls and I were at the shelter, looking for the perfect dog.

The lovely little girl we brought home is a beagle mix, about 1 year old.  She has been in a shelter most of her life and was timid and scared of everything.  The first day at our house she pretty much spent under the kitchen table, watching every move we made and running away if we got too close.

Two very happy human girls and one very scared dog girl on
the way home from the shelter.

She is out from under the table here, but still
very scared of everything.

The morning after her adoption we gave her a bath and held
her for a long time on our laps, which she seemed to enjoy...

Twenty-four hours in our house and she was looking MUCH
more comfortable.

We were patient and loving, and have been delighted at how quickly she has come out of her shell.  She is sweet and energetic and we are all in love with her.  She still has a way to go in gaining confidence and feeling secure in her environment, and because she was always in a shelter she needs to learn some doggy manners and appropriate boundaries on interactions with humans, but so far she is doing really well.

More Engagement Pictures!

Our photographer, Fritzi, has sent along a couple more pictures.

Fritzi's idea, to be a little romantic.

Engagement Pictures!

When we first got engaged it seemed like our wedding was sooooo far away!  Now here we are, FIVE months out!  We recently took engagement photos and it was really fun.  We wanted to take pictures downtown in Fredericksburg and our photographer, Fritzi Newton, had a vision for what she wanted our photos to look like and made suggestions on what we should wear.  Me:  a dress that had an "old fashioned" feel to it.  Jason:  dress shirt and bow tie. Jason didn't own a bow tie, so we had to go shopping.  I am not a fan of bow ties, so was not super excited about that.  I have changed my mind about bow ties.  At least on Jason.  He looks so handsome!

The Rappahannock River is a great background, and Fritzi
caught a shot with a train going across the bridge.

Fritzi played with this one, and made the background look like
a painting.

After the river we headed to the train station.

We took a bunch of pictures at the train station,
and the pictures came out kind of telling a story,
like we were going on a trip.

Under the station platform, with some PhotoShop magic
from the photographer.

Fredericksburg has lots of old buildings, which make great backgrounds.

Yep, we had some fun!

We shot this inside an abandoned building that had no roof. As
our photographer was taking pictures, birds kept swooping
in and out and we were constantly distracted by them.
On this one, Jason looked away just as she snapped the
picture and I love it, it ended up looking playful and fun.

Can You Canoe?

One great feature of Fredericksburg is the Rappahannock River, which forms one boundary of the town.  Though it once was a significant river for trade, silt has dramatically decreased the depth of the river, so it is no longer deep enough for trade ships, but perfect for recreation like fishing, kayaking, and canoeing, and we have finally taken advantage of it.  One of Jason's students this semester is an employee of the Friends of the Rappahannock, an organization dedicated to the preservation of the river, and he organized a canoeing trip for students in that class.  One of the perks of being a significant other of the instructor is that I get to tag along.

River View

Being on the river, we got to see the back side of many buildings we'd only seen from the front (street) side.

Chatham is one of the historic homes in the Fredericksburg area,
and looks beautiful from the river.

This is an old electricity generating plant, and there
is talk of someone converting it into a restaurant.

Not only did we get to see this building from the back, we got to
go in under it...

Under the building, looking back out at the river.

Being on the river let us see Fredericksburg in a new way.

 River Life

We saw a tiny river snake, a couple of geese, and lots of turtles sunning themselves.

Walking through history

Fredericksburg is an incredibly historic city, from colonial times through the Civil War.  At the end of our canoe trip, we came out at the area where the Union Army built a pontoon bridge across the Rappahannock to engage the Confederates.  We then walked up the same way the Union soldiers did, through a narrow alley that felt like walking a gauntlet.  It made us realize how incredibly dangerous this invasion was.

After this trip, Jason and I decided we need to get a canoe :)