A Week In DC Day One

WARNING, although these are much better than I can do with a cell phone, the following photos are all cell pictures.  Not that I'm becoming a photography snob or anything,  Just sayin' . . .

We officially began our "girls trip" to Virginia/DC on Thursday, February 26th.  We arrived at the airport and boarded our SouthWest Airlines flight with little waiting  You can't tell in the photo below, but we had front row seats, thanks to Mary Jane being in a wheel chair and getting to board first.  Our flight did not have assigned seats, it was first come, first served, and since she got to board first with two helpers, they were able to save the first two rows of seats so we could sit together.  

It was a four hour flight that seemed to take forever!  But the flight attendants were delightful, quite laid back, and even willing to take our picture :)  Grandma really is having fun.  That's her, smiling :)

This picture was NOT taken by the flight attendant - thanks Jennifer!  She got in trouble for taking this because she got too close to the cockpit.  Remember, we were the first row!!

We finally arrived at the airport where Ellen was waiting to pick us up.  Mary (Paul's Mary) had flown from Las Vegas and had been waiting for two hours.  We thought OUR time was long!  This picture was Ellen's first glimpse of us.  I'm surprised she didn't turn and run!  We look a little overwhelming there.  

Our first stop was at Mary Jane's brother, Ed Hoyt's house.  She was going to spend some time with them (Ed Hoyt and his wife, Shirley) before joining us the next day.  She hadn't seen her brother for sixteen years!  Can you tell how excited she was to finally get to see them?  It was here that the agenda gauntlet was thrown down by Aunt Shirley and her daughter, Regina.  They had been given a copy of our agenda for the week and were laughing at the thought that we THOUGHT we were going to be able to accomplish everything on it.  So, we took the challenge right then and there.  We were DETERMINED to do everything last thing Ellen had scheduled for us or die trying!!

After a short visit with Aunt Shirley, we made a quick trip to Ellen's house to drop off our bags, and then we headed out for dinner.  We are at a place called Cava Grill.  It's a "build it yourself" place where you first choose to start with a salad, wrap, or rice bowl and then decide exactly what is going to go on it.  Most of the stuff I didn't recognize, so after a safe salad choice, I asked what combinations were most popular and got those.  It was VERY good!!

  And then we went grocery shopping at Ellen's favorite grocery store.  It had EVERYTHING!  There I am, standing and watching the well oiled Cozzen's girls machine work.  The way they move in, around, and with each other is fascinating to watch, and often I feel that if I stepped in to try and help, I would throw a wrench in this beautiful working dance that is happening.  So sometimes I stand back and watch it all happen: )  And then we were off to bed, because we had a schedule to keep, and we were starting early the next morning!!