Bowman West

North to Virginia...
(High-five to whoever identifies the basis for that title.)

We made it! I'm sorry for making you wait so long for this post. After some crazy packing, driving, sight-seeing and finally unpacking we are somewhat settled into our new house in Virginia.

This is our new place (behind the tree). We're renting, so although there's a lot I would like to change and update it's calming to know that it's not my house and not my responsibility. No painting for me! There's also no yardwork for three years. Excellent.


















Charlie needed a nap when we first got into our house, so we stuck his pack 'n play among the boxes and he sacked out. Poor kid.
























Charlie was amazed by the geese poop on the side of the reflecting pool. So was I. 1) Birds in mass are disgusting. 2) Geese poop is the size of cat poop.

























Charlie tried to steal a flag from the Vietnam Memorial. He then proceeded to throw a fit and get carried off by his daddy. It's hard to find a time-out spot in the middle of DC. He ended up melting down and lying on a park bench. He looked like a sad little homeless toddler. It wasn't our most stellar parenting moment.

We sold Andy's truck in Lubbock instead of paying to move it, so we needed to buy something when we got here. I found a '99 Grand Jeep Cherokee Laredo on eBay and used a sniper program (shout out to Carolyn who told me about this!) to bid at the last minute. We ended up buying a great car worth $5k for $3k. Awesome! This is Andy's new car. He's pretty pumped. I'm his hero.





















Anyway, this place is beautiful and the people are really cool. The official car is either the Volvo wagon or any model of Subaru. There are so many Subaru's, in fact, that we no longer search for VW bugs but Subaru's instead. Everyone walks, runs, bikes, wears Birkenstock and tie-dyed shirts, etc. If I didn't drive here myself I'd swear we were in Colorado.
There are also many red brick buildings with huge white columns. If you ever visit and we try to give you directions like, "Then turn right at the red brick building with the huge white columns" you should know that we are intentionally trying to get you lost.

The campus of UVA is breathtaking, especially at night when there are literally thousands of fireflies hanging around.

Yesterday on a drive we found a mountain lake with a beach and lifeguards. I kept looking for the resort from Dirty Dancing but didn't find it. It definitely looked like it should be there.

Tonight after dinner we drove down the road a few miles to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, and Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of James Monroe. How great is that? It's literally just down the road. Crazy. Speaking of Monticello, President Bush will be attending the annual 4th of July naturalization ceremony there this year. That's kind of crazy, too.