All of these photos are from a recent trip that Ahna and Ezra took to visit Nana and Papa in Wisconsin (at the same time that I was in DC). They also found some time to hook up with Dave, Gina, Zach, and Sam for a good reunion.

Double deuce on the loose. In more ways than one.

What do those two things have in common? Other than they strangely sound good together, little to nothing. However, the combination of take-out Japanese food and left-over flowers from Easter brings us to this posting. Ezra had his first experience with chop sticks, and while there were moments of hopeful brilliance, he mostly just poked at his food. We feel that there is much more to come in the Asian foods area…

Section 60 is the area in the Arlington National Cemetery where the soldiers that have died in/in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried (along with some previously buried there during the Vietnam War). I took a minute to stop by there and walk around, and while doing so captured these photos. While there (45 minutes total), we saw 4 different funerals happening. It struck me at how the reality of these wars has seemed to disappear into the later stages of the evening news or the back pages of the newspaper. When you take a minute and walk around a place like this, it leaps right out and grabs you with a violent thump. Sharing these are my little part in reminding us all about what is happening and what we need to be thankful for. Yet another view of what war actually looks like.

*as with all photos on this blog, if you keep clicking on the photo until it is the only thing in your browser, it is the best viewing quality

I am confused. All that I hear from our friends that have older kids is how expensive sports are: $50 here, $50 there, gear, tournaments, travel, etc, etc, etc. I don’t get it….Ezra’s first venture into sports cost us a whopping $15 (including gear, game fees, field fees, coaching fees, etc). Okay, so perhaps the coaching isn’t up to par, and the field is a little smaller than regulation size, and the gear is on the entry level side of the scale….but he doesn’t know the difference. Is it possible to keep this up through high school?

PS – the second photo is moderately interesting: the camera on the phone caught the ball in motion, thus elongating it.

The sun is out, new friends down the street have been made, and Saba and Savta are back in town. The special combination of these things lead to an unlikely result: new ways of getting around. Ezra’s new friends – Ben and his new big brother Jake – have been showing him the ropes behind the wheel of a John Deer Gator. And when we went to the airport yesterday to pick up my parents, they introduced him to a new way of getting around the airport (I wonder if that works on the smaller carry-on suitcases as well).

Now that we got that out of the way. On the heels of Ezra’s recent ‘I pooped’ revelations and his near-obsession with being in the bathroom when either of us are in there, we purchased Ezra his first training potty. He really enjoys sitting there like a big kid, although he has little idea about what to do…except that he oddly knows what to do with a piece of toilet paper when you hand it to him.