March - Zach & Anna visit, & Rhode Island trip

In March we had Zach & Anna Folkerts from St Louis come and stay with us. Their mum Tammy was an exchange student with Steve's family for a year in 1984 & is close to Steve's family, so it was great to have them come and stay. We had a great time with them in Florida, so now we have had two holidays with them in 6 months!

We have been doing a lot of 3D puzzles, and Zach & Anna helped us put this one together (it's of the Haram in Mecca).

We have been waiting for ages to do the diet coke & mentos "experiment" (the diet coke formula is different in Australia, so isn't as affective) & having Zach & Anna here gave us the perfect opportunity. Zach & Anna joined in, as did all the other local kids.

Anna baked this bread. We've been baking bread every day since January (thanks to Alan Dearn teaching us how), as we find it really hard to get bread that isn't sweet (it seems that everything in America has either sugar or high fructose corn syrup added & we just aren't used to everything being sweet).

The absolute highlight of having Zach & Anna stay with us was that we were able to organise to go on a tour of the white house (usually very difficult for overseas people, but the Australian Embassy kindly organised tickets for us all because Steve was at the Naval Academy). It was a lot of fun to be in the rooms you see on TV. Because Hannah is in a wheelchair, she & Jacqui had to go behind the scenes with an "agent" to get to the lift to take them up to the next level - they were only 10m away from the president (all the agents in front of the door was a give away), and got to meet the President's butler (who was supposed to be travelling to Canberra a few days later & so was asking the girls about Canberra). We also went to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum and got to see the original Wright Brothers plane, and lots of space stuff too. We really enjoyed having Zach & Anna stay with us, & were glad that we could share their spring break holiday with them.

We drove up to Rhode Island for a Girl Scouts Leadership Conference, and on the way stopped at the town of Mystic to get Pizza. The movie Mystic Pizza was based on this pizza restaurant, and it really was amazing - a slice of heaven, just like their motto.

Hannah & Jacqui were delegates at the conference, attending all sorts of interesting workshops. Hannah went to some interfaith and Muslim workshops (where they got dress up in hijabs), and Jacqui went to a workshop on buying your own car, another on building your own car, and emergency rescue & recovery operations. Nikki was a key note speaker - talking about the difference between Guides in Australia & Girl Scouts in the US, as well as telling the leaders about the Millennium Development Goals and how they can be incorporated into Guide/Scout activities (focusing on the eradication of extreme poverty). The conference was a LOT of fun, and we got to meet a lot of very friendly passionate Girl Scouts (& their leaders).

At the Conference we met Gabriella, who was lovely and a REALLY impressive Girl Scout. She has every badge there is (including her Silver and Gold awards), as well as being on the Board of Directors for her State Girl Scout Association (something they should think about doing in Australia!). She & her mum stayed behind for over an hour after the conference to spend some time with us, which was nice as they had a 4 hour drive home (we had 8 hours to drive - we broke the trip up, staying in New Jersey).

US Girl Scout leaders can be men - this surprised us a lot, as it is against the Girl Guide constitution in Australia. These gentlemen were lovely, and had a deep passion for helping girls develop their potential through Girl Scouts. Male leaders are very much in the minority, and are mostly a part of a husband and wife team leading a troop (unit).


Whilst we were heading through New Jersey this time we took the opportunity to see where Steve was born - Passaic General Hospital (although it has changed names a number of times since then).

We also visited the house where Steve lived when he was first born. The house is on a reasonably busy street, and his Mum & Dad told us he used to sit on the porch in a swing and say "car" (his first word) as they drove by - this story makes a lot more sense to us now that we have seen the car and the road.

The occupants of the house were throwing out an old TV, and we wondered if it was the same TV they had when Steve lived there (it certainly looked old enough!).

This is the church next to the house, where Steve's Dad was the minister. The current minister came and talked to us whilst we were taking photo's, which was nice.

FEBRUARY - snow & the Wiggers visit

February was the month of snow, more snow, and a visit from our wonderful friends Mim, Scott & Alex Wiggers de Vries (who came all the way from Australia, only to be snowed in to our apartment for most of their stay). Steve & Nikki also celebrated their 20th Wedding Anniversary on the 1st of February with an overnight stay in Washington DC (the girls got to stay back in Annapolis).

Jacqui in the spa in Ohio, outside, whilst it was snowing

Before the Wiggers arrived in Annapolis, Jacqui headed off to New York to spend a few days with them (so she could get out of Annapolis before the big storm hit), on her way to Ohio for a homeschooling "convention" at an indoor water park. She went with a bunch of friends from New York, and met up with some friends from Chicago and had a great time. Because of the snow storms that continued in Annapolis, she was stuck in Ohio for an extra day (her flight home was canceled) but eventually got home - handling all the travel arrangements & delays in her stride.

Whilst Jacqui was in Ohio we had a really big dump of snow over a few days, totaling around 90cm. This winter we've had a total of 210cm of snow - Thredbo would have loved it!

Hannah in waist high snow

local kids snowboarding on the hill behind our house

after the snow was plowed, it had to go somewhere - into the parking spots

pretty (but scary) icicles hanging off the roof, right above the front door - but 4 stories up

Even though we were all snowed in, we had a fabulous time with the Wiggers staying with us - it felt just like being at home, and really raised up our spirits. They actually left New York a day early, as all buses and trains were about to be cancelled to Annapolis, and they didn't want to get stuck up in NY (although it sounded like they had a good time there) - so we got to have more time with them!

Steve, Hannah, Scott, Alex & Mim - all of us using our laptops (and when Jacqui got back from Ohio, there was one more).

The snow gave us lots of time to play games

Scott & Hannah (only the Aussies went outside in the blizzard - we had cabin fever, and wanted to explore)

Alex, Mim, Hannah, Nikki & Scott on our front stoop

When it stopped snowing we were able to venture out a bit more (although it took a few days until the roads were plowed enough to be safe to drive on). The best part about having 20 y.o.'s staying with us - they helped us dig out the car! (Thanks Scott & Alex)

Jacqui on the slippery dip

We finally got into DC for some sightseeing, and it was a "winter wonderland" - here you can see people walking on the ice on the reflecting pond (not very safe). All the rivers around our house were frozen over (which is impressive because they are mainly brackish (salt and fresh water) rivers).

This is what the local roads looked like after the big storm - not very safe to drive on. The highways were plowed first, and then the emergency snow routes (this is one of those). Because most of the snow was dumped on the weekend, the local authorities didn't plow fully until the Monday (so they didn't have to pay overtime - the financial crisis has hit here hard), making the roads unsafe to drive on (we found this out the hard way - the roads on base were properly plowed and salted so we assumed it was safe to go for a drive, only to discover this main road around the corner from our house - don't worry, we turned around and went home without any major drama's).