Friends and Family

     This past week has been awesome. I've basically spend every minute with either my friends or my family. Over the weekend my family went up to stay in my grandparents cabin in the mountains, which was refreshing and peaceful and wonderful. Then on the 4th of July, my family participated in our yearly tradition of traversing the many footsteps of the Mile Long Yardsale (which is probably about three or four miles now-- it's gotten crazy). After I spent my cash there on post cards, DVDs, and other random stuff that I probably didn't actually need, I headed to MF's house to help her set up for her July 4th "dinner party". It was originally meant to be a cookout but then the rain chased it inside, but it was still really fun and I'm so glad I got to spend Independence Day with my really great friends. We even set off fireworks! (Legal ones). Then yesterday was GC's 18th birthday, so a bunch of us from church as well as MR went to Washington DC to see the Holocaust Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the National Zoo. It was fun, but SO SO HOT and honestly, I think I'm in love with the metro. I just love riding places and people watching. But the museums were cool too. So I've been having a really great week so far, with the one rather glaring exception that SE isn't here and I miss her like crazy. SE and I write letters back and forth, and this letter I've been writing her while she's away in Europe is probably the longest letter I've ever written her. It's a hot mess, but hey, what can you do when your friend is away and you're in different time zones and you have stuff to tell her? some things just don't translate well over texting and must be reserved for a letter or face to face conversation. That's advice for all of you.
     In other news...there is no other news. Hope you all had a great 4th of July! Here are some pictures from DC:

According to GC and MR, this little girl who survived the holocaust
looks like me. 

Some people are able to get beautiful pictures of the Washington
Monument. I, on the other hand, am able to get a picture of the
Washington Monument behind two fences, a barricade, and
between two cars and two trees. And thusly I will not become
a professional photographer. 

At first I was just trying to get a picture of the longest, steepest
escalator I have ever been on, but then I realized
I had the perfect angle to creep on MR and GC being
all "coupley" so I took advantage of it. This is only one in a series of about 5 pictures,
but I chose this one because even though you can't see my whole face,
I think my smize say it all. Lol. And look at GC's face. Priceless.

-VaughnDL