A summer visit to DC

Hi

We have just returned from our 3 week trip to DC. Allen Had 2 conferences and actually flew to LA for a week while we stayed in DC for the 3 weeks. It was great to see all our old friends. We began with a 2 night stay on our old street - Jane Way. John and Mary, our neighbours on Jane Way, kindly put us up and spoiled us for 2 days. It was the annual BBQ on the street so we managed to catch up with everyone from the street. We then moved to a hotel and had days out with Ceri, Owen, Kathryn, Nicholas, Christopher and Claire. Jacob remembered everyone, Abi was a bit hit and miss! Allen went off to LA and Ceri, me and the children went to Ceri's mum's, or Nana's, for 3 nights. Everyone had a brilliant time. The best bit for the children was the lake and sand. After that we stayed with Kathryn and co for 3 nights. We had a day at Burke Lake park and there's a photo of the troops on the train. After trips out and swimming we retreated for some rest at the next hotel. Allen flew back in and we visited the Air and Space museum out at Dulles. All of us thought it was good fun - there's a photo of me and the children by the Enterprise space shuttle.

We moved to another hotel - very nice as it was in a shopping centre and spent the last week meeting up with old friends in different locations around the area. The final photo is of Jacob, Owen and Abi as Superheroes. It was sad to say goodbye again to everyone but we did have a great holiday. Thank you to all who gave us beds on our trip, I hope to see you in Denver at some point!

Back to a very hot Denver - a record breaking spell of hot weather apparently. Jacob has his eye surgery tomorrow. I am worrying already. Will let you know how it goes. Allen's off to the UK in August for 10 days and again I'm not looking forward to that either!

Hope all's well

Rachael.