Highlights from the January to June

• A new Aldi opened, the closest one yet! Right across from Costco! I have come to really appreciate this store and the many wonderful deals to be had there. My parents were in town for the opening (way back in January) so my Mom and I went to the open house and had samples and got a free tote bag and ham coupon.

• Also while my parents were in town we went to the National Air and Space Museum part II in Virginia toward the Dulles airport. There were of course lots of planes, but the absolute coolest thing was the space shuttle. The museum got this shuttle while we've lived here; it was a big deal when it was flown in strapped to the back of a plane. I wish I had sought out a spot to see it fly in.

• Chris moved into a brand new building at school in January. Since Chris started his program he knew they would be moving when the building was finished, and so he kept a careful eye on the webcam showing its progress, and always informed me of the updates. 

• In April we went downtown to the National Science Expo, because we like since. Actually the real reason we went was to see the band They Might Be Giants perform, but the science expo was a nice bonus. There were two performances two hours apart, one for kids, and one for adults (but still child friendly.) After barely getting seats for the first show it was quite obvious that we would not be able to leave the seats if we wanted them for the second show and so we had to stay put and watch watch whatever was in between. And that is how we saw Bill Nye and Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, they both had hour long segments. Disappointingly I was actually not impressed by Bill Nye, but surprisingly I was very much entertained and impressed by Mike Rowe. They Might be Giants were as fun as we were expecting and we saw pretty much all the songs we wanted. We have become fans of their kids CD's, but the kids didn't think the performances were that great. Juliet slept through the first show and Jack slept through the second (it was a long day). Who's kids fall asleep during rock shows? Ours apparently. Unfortunately with phone problems we lost all pictures from the month of April, so there is no evidence of anything. But we did get a ton of swag, including these plush microbes! I've wanted these since my one of my roomates in college got some. And they were free! Made my day.

• In May we learned that Juliet is deathly afraid of peacocks. We went to a little farm and enjoyed looking at them, but then they made their loud peacock yell and it was a little overwhelming. Every time after if they would yell, even if she was not anywhere near them, she'd burst into tears. We had to leave pretty quickly.

• On a rare date into the city around prom season, after a failed attempt to get into the holocaust museum, we were at the Jefferson memorial and happened upon a large group of prom goers taking pictures at the memorial. It's a thing to do I guess.

• We went to six flags! Our dear friends have season passes and brought us with them on one of their bring a friend free days. (Did you know DC had a six flags? I didn't for the longest time.) The highlight for me was riding three roller coasters. I haven't been on one since before I was married. Two summers ago we were at Universal Studios and Sea World but I was pregnant and couldn't go on anything fun. Jack and even Juliet went on some kiddie rides and we had a lot of fun in the water too. Thanks Ribieras!