We headed down to the city as soon as the weather was nice enough. We went to the Southside Pier and walked around the shops overlooking Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge.
We went down to Washington DC, appropriately, for Presidents Day Weekend. The city had just gotten unburied from a couple of big snowstorms and was beautiful blanketed in white. We saw the Lincoln Memorial and visited several of the Smithsonian museums. We enjoyed the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. We went to the National Gallery of Art for a few minutes but then decided--after Luke almost touched an old table on display and we got a dirty look from a docent --that we better come back when the kids were older.
We have some neighborhood deer that walk in and out our yard. Usually we only get 2-3 at a time, but on this particular morning there were about 5 of them.
We went down to Clemson in December for Matt's graduation. It was a tough Fall, with a new baby, a demanding day job and a dissertation to get done at night. But he made it and finally completed his PhD in November in time for graduation. It was fun to be back in Clemson and watch Matt walk across the stage and receive his diploma in all his finery. The second picture is him with his advisor Robin and then of course our family and then Grandma who was able to come with Grandpa for the occasion. As you can see, Fiona was tuckered out after the long ceremony (we all wished we could take a nap too).
On the way home we stopped to stay with some friends in Maryland and were caught in a huge snow storm. I think we got about 18 inches in one day, but luckily the roads were cleared for us to get home the next day.
Grandma and Grandpa Barnes came in September for Fiona's baby blessing. While there we took a trip to the Norwalk aquarium where I took this fabulous picture of an octopus, jellyfish and starfish.
We snuck over to the beach (lake) on Labor Day and the boys enjoyed some time in the water. They loved being out of the house since they'd been cooped up with me and a newborn.
We went with our playgroup to the Danbury Railway Museum. They got to some old locomotives, see lots of model trains, play with a great Thomas set and even take a short ride on a real train.
Sam was very glad to play his last soccer game. Though he was actually pretty skilled at it, he never could quite understand why the other kids kept taking his ball away.