Holiday Weekend

(Sorry, meant to post this sooner and got distracted.)

Wow, has it really been a WEEK since I last posted on my blog?

Let's see... what's been going on?

First, I went on a whirlwind trip to Port Canaveral, Florida. I flew down Tuesday evening in order to go to my friend Steve's combined Change of Charge and Promotion ceremony. They held the ceremony in this really cool "ant hill" bunker (it looks like an ant hill with periscopes sticking out the top) from where they launched our first American astronauts into space.

Blunoz self portrait in front of the ant hill.

Honorary parking spots for each of the astronauts who launched from this pad.

One of Steve's boys looking out a periscope.

Periscope View: A line of other ant hill bunkers at other launch pads. In the distance, you can see the Space Shuttle Endeavor being fueled on the launch pad. (Click on image to enlarge)

This was the first time I've flown on JetBlue, and overall I was pretty pleased with their service. This is the first time I've ridden on a plane with your own personal TV screen in the back of every seat and XM satellite radio and DirectTV at your fingertips. THAT was pretty darn cool!

Then I had an AWESOME holiday weekend.

Friday morning, we went on a family bike ride around the trails here in Ashburn and worked on projects around the house.

Family bike ride on the Ashburn Trails
(ES is on the ride-along behind me)

Friday night, I went out with some friends to see Transformers 2 at the Udvar Hazy IMAX theater. It was pretty exciting, but I don't think it was as good as the first Transformers movie. The action was very jittery and you couldn't really tell what was going on until the fight was over and you saw who was left standing. There were several incongruities in the plot - jumping from A to B without any explanation of what happened between A and B. They also put in a few inappropriate elements that I didn't feel were necessary to the movie, didn't add anything to the movie, and will result in me not letting my boys watch the movie. The special effects and the IMAX screen were pretty cool, and I'm glad I had the time out with friends (many thanks to my wonderful wife! :-) ).

Saturday, I worked on some more projects around the house and got ready for several friends to come over for a 4th of July barbecue. I taught the boys how to shuck corn for the first time.


Their facial expressions in the picture sure don't make it look like they're having any fun, but they both volunteered to help, and they both seemed to enjoy the end result.

YB impressed with what he found.

YB took this picture of ES with our pot full of corn.

We had 10 adults and 7 kids over for our 4th of July barbecue. The kids each got to catch a fish in the stocked catch-and-release pond behind our house.


After dinner, the kids got to enjoy some fun with sparklers (thanks Woods!)

Of course, our boys had to turn it into a light-saber duel.

It was an absolutely beautiful evening Saturday evening. Even after all our guests left, I enjoyed just sitting on the deck for a little while enjoying the peace.

This isn't the best panorama shot (you can clearly see the seams between the three pictures), but I include it to give you a feel for the evening out on the deck (click on the image to enlarge).

Sunday we went to church and then my wonderful wife made those mole chicken tostadas for our church home group lunch.

Okay, so as I sit here and type about my weekend, it may not seem like we did a lot, but it was a fun weekend overall. There were a few games of Stratego and Nerf N-Strike on the Wii interspersed here and there, too.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you all had a good 4th of July weekend, too!