2015 Year in Review

 January

Several days of snow and geese hanging out by the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria. Mik and Orchids exhibit at National Museum of Natural History and statue at National Museum of the American Indian.

February

Mik and I visited the National Building Museum to check out their current exhibits at the time, which included the building model exhibit called "HOT TO COLD: Around the World in 800 Feet."

Dad and I went to Mount Vernon on President's Day when the George Washington Birthday Parade in Alexandria was cancelled due to cold weather (Potomac was even frozen)

[Top Left] Mom and I checked out Capitol Hill Books to find some 1940s books for my collection. [Top Right] For Valentine's Day, I took Mik to the Newseum for his first time and he was impressed by the Berlin Wall pieces. [Bottom Left] Mik loves to nap on the Metro. [Bottom Right] I enjoyed see Rosanne Cash at the Fox in Tucson.

March

I took Mom to see the Oak Ridge Boys at The Birchmere, which has become our favorite concert venue because it's small and it's dinner and a show style.

[Top Left] We got our first Amazon Echo. Mik now also has one in his room. I love it for playing music, but the reason we both love them is that now makes controlling the Hue lights much easier, which we started putting in other places besides just Mik's room. [Top Right] Grumpy statue on our porch covered with snow. [Bottom Left] Dad took us on a private tour of the Capitol for the first time after he started working in Visitor Center. I laid on the ground to get this photo. [Bottom Right] Mom and I saw Angela Lansbury in The Blithe Spirit at National Theatre.

April

 

Mom, Dad, and I visited National Harbor on Easter mainly to check out the Peeps, but also because I had been wanting to ride the Capitol Wheel.

Mik and I saw Opening Day this year at National's Park and enjoyed trying out the new grilled cheese concession stand.

During Grandpa and Jeannie's visit, we went to the National Cherry Blossom Parade, National Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Udvar-Hazy Center.

We experienced some of the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's death events. Mik and I saw Lincoln's carriage at the National Museum of American History and the reenactment of Lincoln's last ride. Dad and I saw the beginning and end of the Lincoln Tribute event at Ford's Theater, which reenacted Lincoln getting shot and the updates throughout the night until the announcement of Lincoln's death in the morning.

May

Dad, Mik, and I spent a few days in Shenandoah National Park and also went to the Natural Bridge, Washington, and Museum of the Shenandoah Valley.

Mik and I went to Disneyland in May, since we were doing the D23 Expo this year and got Premier Passes and there's now a Hyatt Place close enough to walk from where we can use Mom's Hyatt points. Ended up also being there for the start of the 60th Anniversary celebration and did the 24-hour event from 6am, although we only lasted until about 2pm, but that's longer than Mik ever lasts in the parks even when we start at 8am.

June

I spent most of June at the cottage in Michigan.

Mik turned 21 and got to celebrate three times. First was with Dad, who took him out to dinner on his birthday. Mom took him out for lunch a few days later when she got back in town. Then when I got home from the cottage I made him a pina colada mug cake.

July

[Top Left] Dad and I watched the Capitol Fourth rehearsals, which included Alabama. [Top Right] Mom, Mik, and I watched the D.C. fireworks from the boat, where Mom and Dad now live. [Bottom Left] Mik got his own Amazon Echo. [Bottom Right] Dad and I went to the Star Wars Day game at Nationals Park.

August

Mik and I went to the D23 Expo. This time we managed to get Sorcerer tickets, which made a huge difference. The past two Expos we mainly did everything in a day and never tried to even do the presentations. This time we spent most of the entire four days there and did went to quite a few presentations. Mik's favorite parts were seeing George Lucas and Johnny Depp at the Disney Legend's ceremony and the Disney Interactive presentation. My favorite part was seeing Richard Sherman perform a song during the Disney Legend's ceremony.

September

 

Mom, Mik, and I spent Labor Day weekend in Illinois and Mom and I happened upon Norway, Illinois.

Mom and I went to the Brad Paisley concert at Jiffy Lube Live. I didn't like the venue, so we didn't actually stay to see him perform. However, we really did enjoy the radio fest before the concert that included Rainey Qualley and saw Mickey Guyton perform, who was the person I really went to the concert to see.

October

For my birthday, Mik, Mom, and I went to Nashville. We saw the Opry at the Ryman as well as the Grand Ole Opry House, where we also saw the Oak Ridge Boys for the Opry's 90th Birthday Bash Concert. Mik only went with the the Ryman show, but he loved Nashville for the food, Goo Goo Clusters, and the car museum.

I spent a week in Paris with my godmother. We climbed to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, which I have been wanting to do for years after only going to the first floor back in 1999. I also finally got to Disneyland Paris.

In Paris, I also found the same spot to take a photo as the only photo I could find of me from my first Paris trip in 1999.

Mik and I fit in one more Disneyland trip while we had Premier Passes this year since we had DVC points left for the year and wouldn't be able to do Disneyland again until at least next D23 Expo. Plus, Mickey's Halloween Party is way better at Disneyland than the Magic Kingdom, although Disneyland Paris does have the best Halloween decorations.

November

We took a day trip to see the last of the fall colors on Skyline Drive.

Dad and I put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving.

December

Dad and I decorated the boat for Christmas.

 

We went on a 4-day Bahamian Disney Cruise on the Disney Dream, so we've now been on all the Disney cruise ships.

Mik was hesitant to go see the National Tree after the state trees being all the same looking last year, but I convinced him to give it another try. He really enjoyed it now that it was back to the traditional style of having ornaments made by people from each state/territory.

2014 Year in Review

In January Dad, Mik, and I went to Walt Disney World. Dad ran the WDW Marathon and we enjoyed staying on the Club Level at Animal Kingdom Villas.

February marked one year in our house in Alabama. We still weren't unpacked, but we did get snow. Never did really unpack everything in Alabama. However, another move later and we are almost all unpacked in our new places (just a few boxes left in Mik's room and Mom's organizing her stuff at her place is just a forever ongoing project).

Mom, Mik, and I visited Walt Disney World for a quick weekend trip in March to get our DVC discounted vouchers for next year's Premier Passes and go to the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.

I spent a lot of the first half of the year at the lake house we rented, especially after Charter finally decided we weren't too far from a hook up to have internet in March. Did quite a bit of fishing, but only caught one fish, which was early on Easter and ended up being our Easter dinner.

In March/April we decided that it made more sense to switch from saving for a dream house on the lake to a condo in the DC area as it actually made sense as a place for us to live long term. In April we went to check out different areas and condos. We also went to Opening Day at Nationals Park. We did end up making an offer on a place, but they refused it because they did not want to make reasonable accommodations to the entry. Loved that unit, but it turned out for the better because we ended up in a community with much better amenities and I got my patio.

As soon as the 2014 Cubs schedule came out last year we decided we would see a game at Wrigley Field during the 100th Anniversary season when the Dbacks were in town and we choose the Wednesday game because that was Dad's off day, so he wouldn't have to take as many days off to go. Ended up being the actual 100th Anniversary date!

We all ended up back in Tucson in May and visited the Titan Missile Museum, which we had never gotten around to visiting in all the years we lived in Tucson.

At the end of May we closed on Mik's and my condo in Alexandria. In June Mom got a job relocation to Virginia and her and Dad found a condo to rent in the same complex as ours. The moving process took four months, but unlike still having at least a room full of boxes a year later from the AZ to AL move we have actually pretty much entirely finished unpacking (or at least Mik and I only have a few boxes left in Mik's room).

When checking out the local used bookstore when we first got our condo in Alexandria I found a 1940s Virginia Guidebook that Mom got me as a housewarming gift. After finding 1940s book on Tidewater Virginia I decided to start a 1940s book collection by finding books printed in the 1940s at local used bookstores. I'm using a bookcase we put in our dining room for the collection, which now includes several books I already had from the books I saved from my Grandma Kjos' library, a dictionary my Dad had that was originally my Grandpa Wasiak's, and seven other books I've found at various used bookstores in my travels this year.

I enjoyed some time at the cottage in Michigan with Grandpa, Jeannie, and Kirsten in June.

Also, in June Dad and I checked out the mini golf that was set up along the sidewalks in downtown Huntsville.

For Mom's birthday in July I got us tickets to see the Blake Shelton concert at Wrigley Field. She said it was the best concert she's ever been to. Mine, too, but I still don't officially like concerts. However, it was awesome see Neal McCoy perform. He's a true entertainer.

Dad and I went to Poland in August for the 70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. I enjoyed hearing the first hand stories from my Grandpa Wasiak as we visited the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the area he grew up in Old Town.

When we lived in Arizona we traditionally went to a Nats @ Dbacks game once a season. Now that we live a metro trip away from Nats Park we went to several games this season, but most importantly we started a new tradition of going to a Dbacks @ Nats game. Also, I got Mik to agree to be a Nats fan now that we live in the area. He's still a Dbacks fan, but he roots for the Nats, too, unless they're playing the Dbacks.

For my birthday in October we went on a Disney Cruise that included Mik and I finally going to Mexico (Cozumel) and a stop in Jamaica. Mom and Dad also did the Castaway Cay 5k. I also ended up with a fleet of Dumbos from collecting the popcorn buckets for my Dumbo lamp project and also Mom getting me a stuffed Dumbo, which Mik found quite snuggy.

For years I have been wanting to take Mik back to the top of the Washington Monument, but it kept being under renovations when we visited and then repair after the earthquake. It reopened around the time we moved to the area and in November we finally got tickets and did it. Mik couldn't enjoy the view as they did not have the periscope like when we took him in 2006, so he still has no idea what I have been trying to explain to him all these years because he doesn't remember it.

The weekend before Christmas Mom and I went to Nashville as she got us tickets to see the Opry at the Ryman as my Christmas present. When I heard about the Kelly Clarkson's Miracle on Broadway concert I got the tickets for that as her Christmas present (I told her not to get used to concert tickets as presents!). We also toured the Ryman, visited The Hermitage, got boots, and enjoyed music at a honky tonk.

Since moving to Alexandria Mik and I have enjoyed visiting the various museums, especially the temporary exhibits, in D.C. In December I took him to a variety of the holiday things including the Holidays at Union Station, Capitol Christmas Tree, National Christmas Tree, and our favorite Season's Greetings at the U.S. Botanic Garden. In December we also visited Walt Disney World mainly to pick up next year's annual passes, but also to enjoy the holidays at the parks.

Easter Sunrise Fishing

This morning I had Mom take me down to the boathouse to fish around 5:45 a.m. so I could try to catch a fish during the last hour of one of the excellent activity windows today.  I started with a black spinner and just fishing with the sunrise view listening to a rooster was good enough for me.

Around 6:30 a.m. I decided to switch to my last non-black spinner.  The second or third cast with it I ended up catching a bass.  I had not brought the basket down since I didn't really expect to catch anything as I have tried during the peak times five times over the past week.  Thus, I called Mom who initially thought I was just asking for her to come get me earlier than the 6:45 we had agreed on, but instead I needed her to bring the basket.

The bass is just barely the minimum 15 inches to keep, but we now have Easter dinner.

Got Water?: First Alabama Fishing Trip

 Got Water? Yes

Yesterday Dad and I took the boat out for the first time in Alabama.  Dad named the boat Got Water? back when we had it in Arizona.  Now that we live in Alabama we most definitely have water.  In particular, the main river around here (Tennessee) actually has water unlike the "rivers" of Tucson being dry 99% of the time.

It took us all morning to get the boat ready to take out, as we had to install the fish finder I bought for it.  We decided to take it out on Lake Guntersville for our first outing.

Got Fishing Gear? Not so much

When Dad went to get the fishing gear from the storage unit he could not find one of his tackle boxes.  A quick look in the house and shed also did not locate it and we do not remember seeing it since the move, so it is likely still in one of the boxes that have not been unpacked.  That tackle box had his reels, so his poles were useless, but we still had my pole and one of the extras we had gotten when my pole was missing (something was actually found in the move! Mine had been lost in the garage for years until we found it preparing for the move).

With two poles and one of Dad's tackle boxes we headed on the lake.  Once out on the lake we discovered we only had the ability to set up one of the poles (not mine, sadly) because we did not have anything to cut the line with.  If only, we had noticed that before we were out on the lake, as we could have taken the scissors from the truck.  Luckily, the one pole only had a swivel on it and Dad had one spinner.  It was not the recommended color for the lake, but at least we could attempt something.

We did not catch anything, but we enjoyed getting the boat out and the fish finder definitely works great with the main reason we wanted it was to know depth.  Dad even let me drive the boat on and off the trailer.  I totally stunk at getting it up to the dock for Dad to get on after we launched it, but I did get it onto the trailer on the first try.

This trip was certainly a good practice run for Thanksgiving.  Now we know we have to find that tackle box or what we need to get before we go.  Perhaps, it is also time to upgrade from my kiddie tackle box, which was in the one tackle box of Dad's we found.