Mt. Vernon

Okay - we spent one day at Mt. Vernon. Home of George and Martha Washington. It was actually smaller than I thought it would be. Although - back in the day, I am sure it was enormous. I loved walking through the gardens, and I am in LOVE with how they did their fruit trees. I really want to try that with one of our trees! (Look below for a photo) We paid an extra $5 to take the National Treasure tour. National Treasure 2 was filmed at Mt. Vernon (well, a little part). It was fun to go behind the scenes, and see things we wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise! Mt. Vernon was beautiful. It was probably one of my favorite days!

I LOVED this door. This is the door that the President and Nicolas Cage come out of on the movie.
This was on our tour. This is an old Ford Fire Truck that Henry Ford gave to the society that owns Mt. Vernon. Can you believe they keep it here? That's real whiskey aging in the barrells.
George and Martha's tombs. Interesting fact: George was Troy's height, and Martha was mine...funny, huh?

This is the basement. This was part of our tour. No one usually gets to see this, and I actually wasn't supposed to take a picture, but I didn't find out until after I took it. whoops.
George wanted a house that looked like it was made out of brick. But, it is not. This house is made out of wood, and they cut it into planks to look like brick, and painted it white, and threw fine sand on top of the paint.
View of the Potomac from the back porch. NICE, huh?


Check out those fruit trees! They have been pruned and attached to a support with a leather tie. I think if more people did this - they would enjoy fruit trees more! A lot easier to pick - that's for sure! I'm still trying to talk Troy into trying this with one of our fruit trees.

The gardens were gorgeous.

Seriously? Are you kidding me?

Okay - what do you think? I am Jake's room mother. This week is teacher appreciation week. I won't go into all the reasons why I dont' like this week, but it basically boils down to some parents go OUT OF CONTROL over this week. Anyways, you always decorate the teachers door for the week. This year's theme was "Movies". Jake's teacher had written down that her favorite movie was "Holiday Inn". Hmmm...having NEVER heard of that movie - I googled it, and this is what I found...
Hmmmmm...so, after thinking about it, I decided to do this... (sorry for the blurriness, this is my cell phone).

WAIT!!!!!!! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??????? Did you see THIS!?
Who did that? They covered up "Starring" that I had written in black sharpie and added all that crap...scribbled on it...added crappy scrapook paper...and made my crappy door even crappier! At least I figured the teacher would get her door - pretty sure nobody else would...but after all, it's TEACHER appreciation, right? I would LOVE to get to the bottom of this...SO mad...does someone out there want my job of room mom? If so, I'd HAPPILY give it up - but DON'T mess with my door!
**UPDATE** I emailed the teacher. She said someone did it yesterday, but she doesn't know who. She has asked around but nobody seems to know. I also talked to the PTA lady over Room Mom's and she doesn't know either...it's a mystery...

New York - Part II

After Yankee Stadium, we headed to our hotel to clean up. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt. Oh my goodness, was it the nicest room! It was big - so super nice. I LOVED it. I bid $120 for it on priceline.com, and got it! The rates are usually about $300 a night - so it was a great deal. (you all know how I love deals) So, after we were showerd and cleaned up, we decided to head to the temple and do initiatories. We hopped on the subway, and away we went. It was so easy to get there! It was really amazing how noisy it was outside, and then immediately stepping in the temple, it was silence. It was crazy! Troy and I were the only people doing work in the temple from 4-5 oclock that day. Crazy, huh? I guess it's slow. So - if you live in NY, or are visiting...go to the temple! Afterwards we grabbed a bit (yes, I mean bit) to eat, and headed to see Wicked at the Gershwin. A little bit about our meal: they have menus on the windows, so we decided to stop at this mexican place. It was about $14.00 for 2 tacos. You know how mexican places are, the plates are bigger than your head, and they add tons of rice and beans, not to mention the chips and salsa you get while you wait. Well, this was definitely not that kind of mexican. We paid $4 for chips and salsa, and we got two tiny tacos...you know - the quarter sized ones, and the only thing on it was meat. No salsa, tomatoes, lettuce...nothing. Needless to say, we were starving after eating. We decided we are not "fine diners". But, it was now time for Wicked. I was so excited. I saw it in Chicago 3 years ago, and we have the CD, which our family listens to often, but Troy hadn't seen it. It was defintely great! Troy enjoyed it, and I loved it just as much the second time! Since we had been all over, we just took around our small point and shoot (which explains the quality of the pictures) but I really wanted to take my camera, and try some nightshots at Time Square. We went to the hotel, changed, and headed back to Time Square. (It was probably 11:00 pm at this point). I tried my hand at a few photos, some turned out, some didn't. Since we were still hungry from dinner, Troy got a slice of pizza, and I go a NY Cheesecake. Troy ended up eating most of my cheesecake - but it sure was good! The next morning, we got up, went to watch the taping of the Today Show, and then headed home. I learned some tips and tricks about the Today Show, for any of you who may be headed tha way soon. (learned from a security guard)

1. They come outside to the Plaza at 8:00, 8:30, 9:00 and 9:30.
2. Meredith can not be on the air between 9 and 9:30. Apparently her contract states she can't be on 2 channels at the same time, and Millionaire is syndicated, and shows somewhere in the country at that time.
3. Matt's middle name is Todd. And, apparently if you call him by his middle name - he is more likely to come talk to you.

As you can see from the pictures, we were standing in the totally wrong place. Oh well, we got sweet pics - and it was fun just being there. Afterwards, we found this little diner and had the total opposite experience with food than the night before. Tons and tons of food. Troy couldn't even eat what I couldn't eat - that's how much food it was, and was $20 cheaper than the night before...So, we definitely learned a lot! Enjoy the pics! Sorry, they're so random...I just go camera crazy... I love the cool tiling in the subways.
We were sitting under this crazy green light waiting to go to our seats. I suck at "hold the camera and take a picture of yourselves".


This is my FAVORITE picture. I love it. (above)


They had this rack of postcards that I was in love with! If they weren't $5 a piece, I would have bought some! Next time I'll have to get up early and take pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge.



Waiting for our yummy breakfast at the diner.

I have never seen this brand of car before. It was parked in the same garage as our car, and I snapped a pic of it while we were waiting for the attendant to retrieve our car.


The two pics above were taken out of the car window. I drove around with the window down so I could take pics. This last pic is of Saks - on Fifth Avenue.

New York City - Part 1

Hmmmm... a part 1. We were only there for 24 hours - yet - there is more than one part...

We woke up really early Tuesday morning and drove to NYC. We had tickets to take a tour of the new Yankee Stadium at 12:30. We arrived in DC about 10 - with no major traffic. We drove around Yankee stadium for awhile looking for a parking spot. We found a great - free one, and got lunch and then went to the stadium. The new stadium is AWESOME! I really liked it. I'm pretty sentimental - and to see the old one (Yankee Stadium people are to refer to it as the "original stadium" not "old one") across the street - and all the history, made me a little sad - but the new one just makes so much more sense! From any part of the stadium - you can see the field. While you're waiting in line at concessions. If anyone has been to the old oops - original stadium - you know that you can't access the whole stadium from where you're sitting. If you were in the outfield bleachers - that's where you stayed. There was no walking around the stadium. The new one goes all the way around. They have still kept that same ads/banners in the new stadium in the same locations as the original - giving it the feel that you're still in Yankee Stadium.

Our tour started off in the museum. WOW! There was so much history there, and it has to be worth BILLIONS! Signed balls - uniforms from the very start of the Yankees. Photos - trophies - everything. We then went to Monument Park. It is located in the outfield of the park and has monuments of the players who have had their numbers retired or have been the great players!

Next stop: dugout. WOW! I LOVED this part. Seriously - you see the guys sitting there all the time - who would have thought I would get to sit there? So - Troy hates the Yankees. So - he just took pictures of me. So, sorry for all the pictures of me. I know - I look stellar. A 5 hour drive will do that to you.

Anyways, here are just a few of my millions of pictures from the stadium: Me and the Jeter bobblehead. I was laughing in this picture, cause I almost tipped it over. It was hollow and light....

Taken from the field





The two above pictures are photos of what is located at the concessions. I thought it was awesome that they disclosed calorie counts of stadium food...that can't be good. Also, they pulled some Yankee photos out of the archives and put them up above the concessions. Some of these have never been seen by the public. One of these pictures (it's hard to tell) is of a LONG time ago - when fans had to cross the playing field to get to their seats!


This last picture is my sentimental one. You can read the sign - but through the gates, you can see the original Yankee Stadium. All the great things that have happened there..sigh...only one thing to say...GO YANKEES!

Alive and well...

I am alive and well. Troy and I are currently in Virginia. I am shooting Abby and Logan's wedding. We did Bridals yesterday, and the wedding is next Saturday. Troy and I went to the Holocaust Museum today. It is very humbling and horrible. We also checked out the White House and saw Barack's Veggie Garden...pics to come...Tuesday morning we head to NYC to take a tour of Yankee Stadium (the new one) and see Wicked. Can't wait! Someone record the Today Show on Wednesday morning...we may try to go check that out!

Hoping my kids are doing well. Well, I'm really hoping the grandparents are all hanging in there!

Off to bed...it's getting late!

So tired...

I am so tired right now. We had a scare tonight. Kristin had a major asthma attack. It was MAJOR. Right after her baseball game tonight she came up to me crying. She told me she didn't know why she was crying, but that she just was. It made me smile inside a little, thinking that yep, she's a girl, she's my girl, and she's quite a bit "Korth". Well, she couldn't stop. Her breathing has been bad for a few days now - I have been giving her nebulizer treatments, and I was actually going to take her to the doc tomorrow morning (ironic, huh). Well, on the way to the car, I called the doctors office, praying that the staff would still be there. They were, and promised they would wait until I got there. I called Troy and had him meet me there. He had to work late and missed baseball, and I had all the kids. He beat me there, paid the co-pay, and then took the other kids home, while Kristin and I rushed in. They met me with a puls/ox machine (that is my word for it) and plugged her finger in. Her puls/ox kept going between 73 and 78!!!!!!!!! That poor sweet girl. She turned 5 on Monday. I have a big post of her birthday I will get on here. She has a little temper and girl stubborness in her - but she's the BEST sister to Haley. And just a sweet heart.
Example: A few weeks ago - Troy had taken the boys to the library, and Jake picked out the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear. (It basically says: Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see? I see a yellow duck looking at me. Then Yellow Duck, Yellow duck, what do you see? etc...) So - Kristin has been reading that book to Haley for about a week. They would sneak it to bed, and Kristin would read it to Haley. Well, Troy took the book back to the library about a week later. Haley BAWLED the whole way home. She was SO sad they took the book back (I might have to go buy it). Well, Kristin asked Haley, do you want me to tell you the story? So, Kristin recited the WHOLE book by memorization - getting every single part correct - to Haley, and Haley stopped crying. Tonight - as she was crying on my lap and I had the nebulizer held up to her nose, I asked her to tell me the Brown Bear story. She did perfectly. It also helped her stop crying. I am SO gonna buy that book tomorrow...