My Heart Will Go On

I've only seen Celine perform in person once before.  It was in Oct. 2003.  I was living in Huntington Beach, CA and she announced that she was going to move to Vegas and have a residency there.  They created a theatre in Caesar's Palace specifically for her.  And she was HUGE.  My two roommates, Lisa and Tiffany, hopped online, grabbed some tickets and headed to Vegas for a weekend of Celine at Caesar's. It was awesome!

Fast forward 16 1/2 years...... and I see that she is coming on tour to Baltimore!  So, naturally, I bought two tickets the second they came on sale (about a year ago) and brought my hubby this time!

This is the very first time she has ever performed in Baltimore.  And I hope she felt the Baltimore love because it was completely sold out.

 I tried to keep track of everything she sang.  If my list is right, she sang 22 songs including all her big hits - It's All Coming Back to me Now, That's the Way it is, I'm Alive, If you ask me to, Power of Love (one of my very favorites - man can she belt it on this one!!), Beauty and the Beast, Love you More, All by Myself, The Prayer (another favorite), Because you Love Me and of course Titanic's theme song, My Heart Will Go On.

Such a treat to see her again after all these years and to hear one of the greatest voices of all times in person.

British Basketball

Okay, so actually this is American Basketball, but decided to combine two posts in one (scroll to the end) and thus, the name!

Anyway, Riley and Ella both completed their basketball seasons yesterday.  They both played for Green Hornets.  Riley played on a Select team and had a BLAST!  She had a great team and they ended up placing #2 overall.  Riley (#35) is so much fun to watch!  She's aggressive and competitive and seems to have such a good flow with her fellow teammates.  I love watching her play and love going to her games!

Riley scored 3 points yesterday including a free throw.  If memory serves, I think she has scored in nearly every game.  I loved basketball growing up, but neither Lacey or Tanner took to it, so it has been so much fun for me to watch Riley and Ella fall in love with the game!

My little Ella Bella Boo (front right).  She came out of nowhere and just caught fire this season!  She was the rebound queen and although I don't think she seemed to understand positioning very well (as was the case with her entire first grade team needless to say - ha!), wherever the ball was..... she was! And it paid off!  Yesterday, she scored 50% of their team's points (6 of the 12) and had a couple awesome breakaways.  Clearly, she is following in Riley's footsteps and I hope we have lots of Riley/Ella basketball in our future!

And then, after two basketball games and an indoor soccer game for Lacey, I raced off to "Thinking Day" for Girls Scouts/Brownies with Riley where I served as Chaperone.  We learned all about Great Britain and the United Kingdom.  Here we are enjoying Fish and Chips and Shepherd's Pie.

British Photo Booth.... and Riley's signature tongue!

#Troop 1131

In it to Win it!

At the end of last year, our hospital did a walking challenge.  I formed a team and recruited three of my friends/co-workers and formed a team called "In it to Win it."  And, after faithfully logging our steps over the next several weeks...... we won!  We were presented with personalized fleece jackets and a professional photographer came to take our picture at the hospital which was then posted in various media outlets throughout the hospital.  The woman on the left won the award for the most individual steps and then the other three people were the other three members of my team.  So fun to participate in such a fun contest and happy that our team was able to live up to its name 😊🏃

Mount Vernon

What better way to spend President's Day than at the home of the very first and one of the very finest?

My original thought was for the six of us to go together.  I've been to Mount Vernon countless times. I love it, mostly because I respect so much the person who lived and died there.  Dave shares my respect for George Washington, but he doesn't necessarily feel the need to go to Mount Vernon over and over again like I do 😉 So, he ended up staying home with Tanner (who had a hang out session with his friends lined up) and Ella (who has a rather short attention span for things like this) and I brought Lacey and Riley.  And since it was just the two of them, I told them they could each invite a friend.  So, by 8am on President's Day, we were off on our adventure!  

The first thing we did was to go to the Educational Center.

Mr. Washington at Valley Forge.

A re-creation of his church pew. 

Reading about his last Will and Testament in which he freed all the slaves at Mount Vernon. 

Seeing his teeth!

From there, we went to his Birthday Celebration on Bowling Green in front of his home.

We pulled into the parking lot at 9:05, just 5 minutes after it opened and immediately (before going to the Education Center) secured our tickets for the "Mansion Tour" and got tickets for 10:50am.

So, after the Birthday Celebration, we headed inside his home.

It's always cool to go inside his home, where so much (the floor, the vases, the mantle, etc) are still original.

The parlor where the Washingtons would entertain guests.  We were told that Mr. Washington was an excellent dancer.

His library/study where he did so much of his writing and communications.

Another view of the library.

The "Lafayette Room" where Lafayette stayed.

This is the room where Washington met countless times with fellow Founding Fathers.  Many important decisions were made and executed on behalf of our fledgling infant nation in this very room.

And this is his bedroom where he sadly passed away at the age of 67.  Much of the furnishings in this room are original.

All the kids agreed that their favorite part of the day was after we finished the house tour, we went to the "backyard" which overlooks the Potomac.  It was a beautiful day and the kids just ran around and rolled down the hill and went down to the water.  They could have stayed there all afternoon.  I felt bad having to pull them away.

From there, we went to George Washington's tomb; his final resting place.

"Within this Enclosure Rest the remains of George Washington"

His wife, Martha is inside as well, lying next to him.

And then we walked around his farm and looked at the animals of Mount Vernon before heading home.

It's such a neat experience to be able to live in an area with so much history and I love to take advantage of that opportunity whenever possible.

I am so grateful for the freedoms which we have and to be able to honor those who gave us that freedom, which we enjoy nearly 250 years later.