On our last day of vacation, (my sister-in-law) Bev told us about the "Dress like a Cow" promotion at Chick-Fil-A. You got free food if you dressed up. So everyone donned black spots and CFA gear, and all 3 of us ate until we were stuffed--for just $3! The cow was on hand for pictures that day, so here are all 9 cousins with the cow. We really had a nice vacation--with great weather, and not a drop of rain--that is, of course, right up until almost the exact moment we came back to Brevard County--then it started pouring! :) Thanks, everyone, for the great vacation!

We had lunch and a trip to the park with some old friends (thanks, Pateys!), and here's Hannah, CJ, and Josh playing in the park.

Here's CJ while we were waiting for our Monument tour. It really is a great view from here; you can see so much!

Here's more views from the top.



The Pentagon


The Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Monument


Here's the view from The Mall

Eric took his first trip to the top of the Washington Monument! I'm sure I've been before, but I didn't remember it, so this was the most exciting part of our day. The view is awesome! Here are a few of the pics from the top, at 490 feet.

During our Washington visit, our last stop was the Air and Space Museum. We hadn't been to that one for a long time, since we always went there as kids. Since it was our last stop, we were all pretty tired after walking straight from the Washington Monument. I had read that the Enterprise was back on display, and wanted CJ to see it, but when we got there, we couldn't find it anywhere! I had to do some serious looking...and had to ask 3 people... but finally found it--in the basement of the gift shop!! Anyway, the reaction from CJ when he first laid eyes on it made it all worth it. When he saw it, he stopped in his tracks and said, "Whoa!" It was really neat! For those of you old timers like us, if you remember, The Enterprise used to hang from the ceiling, but now they have it in this display case. It looks SO much bigger this way! It was really funny, though...I had to disappoint CJ because I told him that when he spent his money at the gift shop, he couldn't buy any space shuttle stuff! I told everyone else that I did NOT drive a thousand miles so he could buy a space monkey that we could get at home! :) But CJ made a wise choice, and got a pilot's hat to enjoy instead!







Here's a view of Apollo-Soyuz

We were able to go to Maryland to enjoy the holiday this year. We were invited to spend the day with the rest of the family at Beachmont Christian Camp--thanks, Bev! We had a cookout, a summer birthday celebration, and a pool party all in one day! We were even able to catch some fireworks to top off the evening!

David brought his bike to have a little fun on the 4th of July...everyone was enjoying it!

Alyssa was having some fun posing for the camera...she was also learning to jump in the deep end of the pool!

Here's some pics of CJ enjoying the pool...he has become quite the fish over the last few years!