Summer's Over

It's been way too long since I've updated and now summer's gone.
When it began...
We spent two fabulous weeks in Spain, starting in Barcelona and F with Max, Chrissy, and Pat. Then rented a car and did a loop around Madrid, stopping in Zaragoza, Pamplona, Segovia, Avila, Toledo, Cuenca, Valencia, Benicarlo, Peñiscola, and back to Barcelona.
Some highlights include...

• the beach
• a cool park in Pamplona that had deer, sheep and a wide variety of birds
• horchata in Valencia
• little kids setting off fireworks on the beach in Peñiscola
  
• Sangria in Barcelona and Tarragona

After our Spanish adventure, we flew back to London, took a train to our town, and got stranded at a pub for 6 hours cause our ride was stuck in traffic. The next day, we flew again, this time to Virginia to see Mary! Our 10 days there included hanging out with Mary's friends, a visit to Bodies...the exhibition, a day in Annapolis, a day in Philadelphia, a day in Baltimore, and July 4th in D.C. on the mall in front of the Washington Monument.

The 4th was definitely eventful. There was a woman out-of-control who claimed her space on the grass by spreading trash in the middle of the family next to us. We and they politely asked her to move out of their area. Her response was not pleasant. Over a number of hours, this woman yelled at us and our neighbors, threw their blankets, threw her trash at them, and finally threw their fancy camera. That's when the cops came by foot, horse and motorcycle to tell her to leave or they'd put her in jail. Exciting stuff. Later, Chris and I got stranded in the science museum because of a tornado and thunderstorm threat. The entire mall was evacuated, even though it only ended up raining for ten minutes. Of course, it was the ten minutes that we were out of the museum, off the metro, and walking to find my sis and her friends. In the end, we were let back onto the mall and found a gorgeous spot in front of the Lincoln Monument to watch the most amazing show of fireworks.

Then, back to the OC and work, work, work. We cleaned out our storage unit, storage closet, and all the stuff from my childhood that was stored at my parents' house. After two garage sales and loads to the thrift store, we managed to fit all of our things into a shared storage shed in my parents' yard. Other than that, Chris spent a week in Hawaii, we went on a cruise, went to the beach, visited my grandparents, hung out with the families, ate lots of Mexican food, drew & dug for sand crabs with my niece Corey, and a load of other things I can't remember at the moment. The most exciting of all was when my nephew was born!! Henry Bussjaeger, son of my brother. Candace timed it perfectly so that he was born the night before we had to leave California. He is oh, so cute!

Now summer's over and school's begun.