DC Monuments the Todds' Eyes

First stop was the Jefferson Monument.  That place always amazing me - even when there are a lot of people in there it feels so quiet and reverent.  

None of us knew who this guy was....any guesses?

We took a ton of pictures of the outside of Jefferson Memorial.  We hit the cherry blossoms at full bloom so we were in that area a couple of times hence the photos.  So cool.

Korean War Memorial.  We were there just at dusk and seeing these faces etched in the stone was really moving.  (Confession:  Christopher had to tell me which one this was.  They did all start to run together - but I did remember that it was really powerful.)

Washington Monument with all the scaffolding around it.  Let me tell you that getting photos at dusk without a tripod is pretty tough.

Lincoln Memorial

The inside of the Lincoln Memorial is another place that always feels reverent no matter how many people are inside.

Vietnam War Memorial

WWII Memorial.  The fountains were off :(  It was still neat because there was a big group of veterans that had come to see it.  So appreciative of those men and so appreciative of the group that brought them.

I told you I had a lot of pictures of Jefferson Memorial.

I am not sure who took any of these.  Keith, Christopher and I were all taking pictures.  I do know that Christopher took this one because Keith and I were a little turned off by how huge the FDR Memorial was relative to the others.  Neither of took a single picture.  We saw others like the MLK Memorial, but we were either there too late to get a good picture or they just didn't turn out.  Regardless you get a little sense of how we saw the memorials.

Annual Memorial Day Shindig

My aunt and uncle starting hosing "the family" every year the Saturday before Memorial Day.  I don't really remember when it started, but I remember having a very baby in a car seat at the first one so I'm thinking maybe 11ish years.  Any way, Uncle D and Aunt Pat bought my grandparents home and land and the land that Aunt Flossie's house was on.  When I was a little girl, the woods between them seemed so vast.

This land is where I figured out I had my grandmother's love flowers and generally things outside.  I could easily digress into all kind of other stories, but I'll try to stick to Memorial Day.

We really look forward to this visit every year.  The families of my mom, her two sisters and her brother, the aforementioned Uncle D, all come and we get to hang out for a few hours.

There were 11 of us in my generation.  Our kids range in age to toddlers to the oldest one who is in college so you can imagine the chaos and general activity.  There are so many fun things to do....they have zip lines, a pond, slip n' slides, and lots of space for pick up baseball, softball and ultimate frisbee.

I personally enjoy watching the older kids on the homemade slip n' slides.  They can get a little more speed and are a little more creative.  Of course, I say that until the first time one of them gets hurt...

It's also a good time to hang out with Mother and Daddy...

...and to contemplate the heritage we have.  

We are so blessed.  I think my favorite part of the entire afternoon is when we all hand holds to pray before dinner.  Just seeing the group together and having a few minutes to reflect...it's just pretty cool.

Love this bunch!

If I had a dollar for every picture we had of this pose.  I could at least buy a nice dinner.

Just hangin' on the deck with the guys.

Waiting on the Smores.

My little ham.  Crowds bring at the best in him.

Dalton at sunset.

Most of the crew.  I think we had everyone except of the cutest little girls.  I pray these guys all know how blessed they are.

Revelations...and a Book Review (of sorts)

I realize a title like that can conjure up all kind of posts, but it's not nearly that interesting.  The first revelation is that I realize that once I miss a week or so of blogging, it's weeks  months before I get back on track.  I think that's some kind of character flaw.  I'm not sure what it is, but I'm sure it's there.  Of course, to you all that's no revelation.  You know once I'm off track I'm way off.

The other revelations really are self revelations that came from reading Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas.  It's pretty amazing.  It's also pretty convicting  You probably know the general story...Dietrich Bonhoeffer was...well, even after reading this remarkable biography I'm not sure how to describe him.  Metaxas calls him "Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" as part of the title.  All those are true, but they also seem so inadequate.

I hope you will read the book yourself so I'm not going to spoil a single word of it by telling you any of the story.  But I will tell you or at least attempt to tell you how it impacted me.  As Metaxas gives the setting in great detail, I am struck by how quickly the German society changed in horrific ways.  I kept wondering if it could happen again.  Could it happen somewhere else?  Certainly many roads crossed at the perfect point in history to create the vacuum that the Nazis filled, but the sheer evil of it does make one wonder what other world events could be construed.

The most striking thing, though, was how Dietrich Bonhoeffer responded.  Tracing his spiritual journey as it tracks against changes in his homeland was inspiring to say the least.  To say it is also convicting and piercing is scratching the surface.  If it did happen, how would I respond?  Would I do the right thing no matter what?  If I did, would I do it joyfully?

Definite book everyone should read.  At least you know that in my blogging hiatus, I was doing something productive.

Catch you next week.