Saturday Park Day

 We headed downstairs for breakfast. It was not very good.  At least it was free.  Prior to the pandemic they had served good breakfasts. Now it is one step up from a grab and go bag.

Our hotel 

We walked to Sharon and Michael's place. Nicole was still asleep.

Ella playing with fun magnetic building toys. 

Nathan liked them as well. Ella was very particular about which color tiles she allowed Nathan to use.

Nathan and Ella getting ready to go to the park. 

George,  Nathan, Ella, and Sharon on our way to the park.

Street Art

Linda

The park was a very nice park.  It is part of a school, but they do allow the public to use it on weekends.

Family photo George, Nathan,  Ella, Sharon, Pam, Jamie, and Linda.

Me (it was easier going up)

3 cousins: Sharon, Linda and Nathan 

Fun climbing 

Ella 

Nathan 

George and Pam

No winner

Linda,  Ella and Nathan heading back to the apartment. 

Ella and Linda waiting in line while we picked up lunch 

Michael and Nicole -she does exist 

We had a nice lunch 

We headed back to the hotel so that everyone could have a nap. ;-) Nathan and I had some iced sangria instead of a nap.  Later Linda and Jamie joined us.

Art at the hotel. We headed back to the apartment

Fun with stuffed animals 

We were entertaining Ella. 

Then we went out to the apartment courtyard area  with only 2 squirt guns. 

Nicole joined us briefly 

Foosball 

It is a very nice courtyard.  It looks well used.  It is a well designed area. 

We placed an Uber Eats order, so we could play while we waited for dinner.  We did not have to wear masks while outside. 

They have a good view of the Washington Monument.  Tomorrow people will go to the roof top to watch the fireworks.  This year they will only allow 40 people up there, so I do not think that we will be in that group.

We went back up to the apartment to wait for dinner.

Nicole

More fun with the stuffed animal.  Nathan had given this pink otter to Ella.  He bought it last weekend when he was at the beach.

Nicole is getting ready for bath time.

We had a very good dinner. Michael says that he never places an order because he knows that there will be enough left over for him.  My chair tipped over when I was reaching for something.  Some how my glasses got bent.  George struggled to fix them.  

We hung around until it was time for Ella to go to bed.   We stopped at the CVS Pharmacy to buy a glasses repair kit.  George was able to fix my glasses.  That was a relief.  

All this "playing" has worn us out.

To DC to visit family

George, Nathan and I headed off to DC for a family visit.  We took the MAX to the airport which worked out very well.  There was not a long line to go through security.  I had TSA Pre chk. Nathan had gotten there earlier so he was waiting for us. We were going to visit my niece and her husband and their 2 little ones.  We had not met Nicole yet.  Jamie (my younger brother) and Pam (his wife) had arrived earlier.  

This plane was a new plane but they have giving up with the individual TV for each seat.  Now they assume that you will use your computer.  I never could get my netbook to work to watch a movie.  There were a lot of movie choices.

   

Nice view of Mt Hood.

We were a little late leaving Portland and then we were also a little late pulling into our gate.  We got a Lyft to go to my niece's place.  They had ordered take-out Indian food.  It was all delicious.  Ella was still up but Nicole had gone to bed.  

Yippee!  We are in DC.

The front of the apartment.  They actually are in Arlington.

Michael and Ella

They are in the same building as when we visited last time but they are in a larger apartment.  It is very nice.

After dinner and relaxation we walked back to the hotel.  It is about 1/2 mile away.  We got checked in.  While we were relaxing I decided to go downstairs and get a glass of wine.  I asked for red wine.  It was on the counter but the person helping me was looking in their refrigerator.  Then she pulled out a martini glass.  Oh well.  

Linda was due to arrive at 10:30 pm from Michigan.  She is in grad school.  She is Jamie and Pam's younger daughter.  We will see her tomorrow too.
 

Sunday, April 4

 We hung out in the hotel in the morning.  Dorothy was sick with a cold and was sleeping.  Ed used the fitness center.  Madeline and Roman had their morning routine with Ivan. So, I had a chance to zoom church.  It is so weird, no matter how many times we do zoom church something always goes wrong.  Frustrating for the staff.  This time the music did not come through for half of the people.  It came through fine for me but when they did the slide show I could not see the pictures.   Anyway, I did manage to figure out how to do a screen shot.  I wanted to show how they put up the flowers that some of us had helped to paint.  

Slight digression

A few weeks ago, they came up with the idea of painting flowers since we cannot do the flowering of the cross like we usually do.  Several people painted rectangle of canvas blue and drew flowers on them. Poppies, Irises and Tulips on a blue background.  They needed 24 rectangles painted.  I volunteered to paint one.

 

               The 3 designs                                                                    My painting

More paintings

Partly assembled 

The background is the finished product of the flowers. Don was doing a goodbye blessing for Amanda. Today was her last day of work.  They even ended the service with a recording of the Halleluyah Chorus.  Loved it.  

Digression over.

We checked out of the hotel around noon and headed over to Madeline and Roman's place.  We hung out there.

George had his turn with Ivan.

Madeline was cooking the Easter dinner.  

We had a delicious dinner.  Salmon in coconut milk on buckwheat and broccoli beef on cous cous.  Both very tasty. 

We left around 3 pm

drive home - Mt Rainier

I think it was a fancy car party at the gas station

 and got home around 6 pm.  

I had time to go on a walk before dinner. I think that this is a weeping cherry.