Plaid Moose, Chantilly, Virginia, United States

wmphimu Posted Jan 29, 2008, 3:11 am	Hi! I'm Plaid Moose! I've been sitting on my owner's desk since she was in college, and with all the talk of traveling from my friend Chocolate Moose, I decided I wanted to do some traveling too! I'm a little shy, so I'm going to travel with my owner. But I can't wait to start seeing the world (or at least the little part outside of my house!)
wmphimu Posted Jan 29, 2008, 3:16 am	What a weekend we had! It was my owner's dad's birthday, so we traveled to her sister's house in Pennsylvania to celebrate. First up was my first ever ride in the car! Here we are about to get on the highway... (can you see the signs for the Capital Beltway? We live just outside of Washington DC - so "outside the Beltway" for those of you who follow US politics!) Once we got to Pennsylvania we went to the Shrewsbury Amish Market. Here I am at the market... We walked around for a little bit and bought some treats for the rest of the weekend. Then it was on to my owner's sister's house for a birthday party! There were tons of animals for me to play with there. I really liked playing with them in the tree. Can you find me? Here I am! And, of course, there was cake! German chocolate...her dad's favorite!
wmphimu Posted Feb 21, 2008, 11:14 pm	I got to go to another party! This time the humans were getting together to watch the Super Bowl. My friend Fenway's favorite team, the New England Patriots, were playing, so I was pretty excited to go to the party! My owner, Mara, made her favorite dip, a 7-layer dip that she says is tradition to make for every Super Bowl. Not what a moose normally eats, but it was really yummy! Watching the game was fun too, even though the Patriots lost (sorry Fenway!!)
wmphimu Posted Feb 21, 2008, 11:17 pm	Something VERY exciting happened today! A box arrived from France! I know that Calixte is coming for a visit...maybe it's him! With a little help (moose don't have thumbs!), I got the box open... ...and Calixte was inside! I am so excited to show him around Fairfax. He wants to see road signs and traffic, and there are LOTS of both around here!
wmphimu Posted Mar 12, 2008, 7:34 pm	It was an exciting day today! We're expecting a visit from Resi...Calixte was so excited when the mail came! I helped him open the package (he's better with the scissors than I am!) It's Resi! After she gets settled in, I can't wait to show her around!
wmphimu Posted Mar 16, 2008, 4:54 pm	I have been having so much fun with our visitors, Calixte & Resi! Yesterday we decided to take a trip into Washington DC to show them some of the sites! First, we took the metro into DC. I checked the metro map to figure out our route... Then we got on the train! Because Mara lives in the suburbs, we had a long trip, and had to switch stations a couple of times. But finally we were crossing the Potomac River and into the city
wmphimu Posted Mar 16, 2008, 5:17 pm	Our first stop in Washington DC was for lunch! We went to Chinatown - here I am at the Chinatown arch! After lunch, we were ready to go to the museum! Our destination for the day was the National Portrait Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian. I explained to Calixte & Resi that lots of people think that the Smithsonian is one big museum, but it is actually LOTS of big museums! This one is all art. It also has a very beautiful atrium that has been in the paper a lot. So we stopped there first. We looked the gallery of portraits of American presidents. I liked this very famous one of George Washington And we all liked this sculpture of bears! The biggest excitement of the day was a very strange portrait of Stephen Colbert, a popular tv show host. We watch his show every night - he does a political satire show, and as a joke he tried to get the portrait of himself from his set put in the Smithsonian, and they hung it up here, at the entrance to the bathroom! The funniest thing was how many people were in line to get their picture taken with it! I waited too - so here I am with Stephen Colbert!
wmphimu Posted Mar 16, 2008, 5:20 pm	It was such a beautiful day, so after walking around the museum, we decided to walk around the Mall a little bit. I told Calixte and Resi that the Mall isn't a shopping mall - it's a big grassy area with monuments and Smithsonian Museums around it! The Washington Monument is at one end... And the Capital Building is at the other! We also walked through the garden at the Smithsonian Castle - the main building for the Smithsonian museum!
wmphimu Posted Mar 22, 2008, 10:40 pm	Everyone here is all excited for the NCAA basketball tournament (college basketball). They call it "March Madness," and everyone goes nuts for it! People fill out brackets to guess who will win, and there are lots of contests and games with it! So, Resi, Calixte, and I decided to play too! We filled out our bracket based on the mascots - we all like animals a lot (and don't know a lot about basketball) so it seemed like the way to go! We picked West Virginia University to beat Wisconsin in the final. West Virginia won their first two games...and here we are watching Wisconsin play this afternoon!
wmphimu Posted Mar 29, 2008, 11:44 pm	What a day! This weekend started the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Japan to the U.S. and is a huge festival every year when the trees bloom along the tidal basin. So we all went into DC today to see the trees and the Jefferson Memorial! Here I am in front of one of the beautiful trees: And here I am along the Tidal Basin with the Jefferson Memorial in the background!
wmphimu Posted Apr 21, 2008, 3:21 am	Hello! We have been having a lot of excitement the past two days! Yesterday, Bloem arrived - I had never met a tiger before, but this one is so friendly! Right after Bloem arrived we got ready to celebrate Passover. Last night we all traveled with Mara's family to her sister's house for a seder (but we forgot to take pictures!), and tonight we went to her parents' house. First, Bloem, Mister Snow, and I helped to set up for the seder. Here we are getting the seder plate ready: Next the three of us read from the Haggadah, where we learned about the Passover story & symbols: And of course we got to taste matzah too!
wmphimu Posted May 1, 2008, 7:22 pm	What an exciting week I am having! We have been worried about my friend Fenway. He left Canada almost two months ago, and hadn't made it to Costa Rica yet. BUT...guess who ended up back in  Canada this week? That's right, Fenway! He's coming home for awhile to recover from his misadventures - I can't wait to talk to him and hear about his trip around the world! THEN, a new Toy Voyager arrived! After we opened the package, I poked my head in to say hello! It's Summy! She was visiting Florida, and is now going to spend a few weeks with us! We were all excited to see her!
wmphimu Posted May 4, 2008, 9:00 pm	What a fun weekend we have had! Along with Bloem & Summy, I went to my very first baseball game! We went to see the Washington Nationals play the Pittsburgh Pirates at the brand new Nationals Stadium. I had a great time! The weather was beautiful, and I learned that I really like baseball! Here I am at our seats looking at the huge scoreboard: And here I am watching some of the game: Then, I helped Mara keep score... Look how much fun we're all having!!!
wmphimu Posted May 15, 2008, 8:00 pm	What a fun day we had yesterday! We all went to Baltimore to go see the Red Sox play the Orioles. We watch lots of baseball here - Mara LOVES the Boston Red Sox - so I was really excited to see them play in person! First, we had to drive there...here we are in the car as we entered Maryland (can you see the "Welcome to Maryland" sign on the right side of the highway?) Once we got to the park, we headed right to the field to watch the players warm up and take batting practice. Here we are close to the field, and with a new friend - the Baltimore Orioles security guard! We told him that we were toy voyagers - I hope he checks out our travel log and is happy to see his picture! The game was really fun. I enjoyed cheering for the Red Sox, and even filled out a ballot for the All-Star game!
wmphimu Posted May 15, 2008, 8:12 pm	After the game, we walked around Camden Yards (the stadium) a little bit so we could see the rest of the park. Just outside of the stadium are are giant numbers. I was confused about them until Mara told us that they are for the players who have had their numbers retired. We really liked the "8" which was Cal Ripken Jr.'s number. He is in the Hall of Fame, and Mara saw him play a lot (including getting to go to his last three games) Then I stopped to get my picture taken in front of the famous Warehouse. And on the way back to the car we took our picture with the statue of Johnny Unitas in front of the stadium where the Baltimore Ravens (a football team) play. What a GREAT trip!
wmphimu Posted Jun 3, 2008, 11:26 pm	What a weekend I had! I went with Mara up to Baltimore to see the Red Sox play again. It wasn't my first baseball game, but this one was really special - Saturday night we saw Manny Ramirez hit his 500th home run! Here I am before the game on Saturday... And here I am on Sunday (it's hard to see, but there are stats about the home run on the scoreboard behind me!)
wmphimu Posted Jun 3, 2008, 11:29 pm	It's been a big two days here - each day the mail has brought someone new! Yesterday we opened a package... ...and Snuggles popped out! And today when we looked in the mail... ...it was Shirley Sheep who arrived! I am so excited to be able to welcome them both! Hopefully we will get to go out this week and explore together!
wmphimu Posted Jun 7, 2008, 10:24 pm	What an amazing morning we had! Today was the National Race for the Cure, a huge 5K race to raise money for breast cancer research. There were 50,000 people (and four toy voyagers) that walked and ran in the race today! (and Mara says that there are usually more, but the crazy heat kept a lot of people at home) First, we had to get ready. I skipped the sunblock, but Snuggles helped me and Tipsy to pin our race numbers on... Then it was time for the race. It was hard to take pictures because of how many people were there and the weather (it was really hot, and the morning started really foggy), but here I am at the finish line! (the building in the background is the one of the Smithsonian museums - The National Museum of the American Indian) We were really proud of our race - here we all are on a bench afterwards... ...and here we are catching a moment of shade under a plant near the Smithsonian Castle! Of course, before we got back in the car, I stopped for a picture in front of the Smithsonian Castle!
wmphimu Posted Jun 12, 2008, 2:39 am	Oh, how I love when Toy Voyagers come to our house for a visit. So when Mara told us that a package arrived today, I was so excited! First, we tore off the tape... And then out popped Muumipeikko! But there was still noises in the traveling case... It's Mausi! But there was one more surprise... HitchaRideMo! Here we all are - I told them all how hot it has been here in Virginia - over 100 degrees each day - so we have been keeping cool inside in the air conditioning. But it is finally starting to cool off a bit, so we will go on an outing with everyone soon!
wmphimu Posted Jun 16, 2008, 6:20 pm	I had a fun day yesterday! It was Father's Day, so we went to Mara's parents' house to celebrate. First, I helped her dad with the grill (can you see me? It was very sunny...)... Then, I relaxed under the shade of the umbrella... While we were waiting for lunch to cook, we all played hide-and-go-seek in her parents' yard. Can you find me in my hiding place? And here we are afterwards relaxing on the front porch! After we celebrated Fathers Day, we went with Mara and her husband to play softball. They couldn't take pictures during the game (since they were playing!), but here I am at the field!
wmphimu Posted Jun 23, 2008, 2:59 am	I had such a fun weekend! I hopped into Mara's backpack with the other toy voyagers and we all went to a scrapbooking convention! Here I am at the entrance... We started with some shopping. Here I am with Muumipeikko looking around at all the booths to shop at! Then it was time to take some classes. Hitcharidemo and I looked at the class schedule and decided which ones we wanted to take. Here I am making a summer album: And here I am gluing the shapes we cut out onto a layout! What a fun weekend!
wmphimu Posted Jun 30, 2008, 6:43 pm	We had a busy weekend here! Even though it was really hot, we all went to the Nationals-Orioles game! I've been to a Nationals game and I've been to an Orioles game, so it was fun to go to a game and see them play each other! Here I am in our seats, watching the baseball game: And here I am in front of the scoreboard, which Mara said has one of the biggest HD screens in any stadium!
wmphimu Posted Jul 12, 2008, 1:46 am	Hello! I am SO excited! Mara & her husband are off on vacation for their anniversary, and they took us with them! We are going to Williamsburg, which is exciting in itself, but even more exciting considering that I used to live there! (back when Mara was in college at William & Mary, I lived on her desk!) So I'm going to get to show my new friends around! We started our trip by driving to Williamsburg. We tried to help navigate...good thing they knew where they were going! We spent the afternoon walking around Colonial Williamsburg - the colonial capital of Virginia, and where a lot of early US history took place. Here I am in front of the Governor's Palace: And here I am in front of the Capital building: Then we stopped for lunch...Mausi was so excited...The Cheese Shop! But I knew that it's known for having the best sandwiches in Williamsburg - Mara and I ate them all the time in college! We had a very yummy lunch! Then we walked around the campus of William & Mary. It's the second oldest college in the US. Here I am in front of the Wren Building - the oldest building in continuous use on a college campus in the US. It's where Thomas Jefferson studied...and Mara took classes in this building too! (sorry for the shadows...it was very sunny!) And here we all are at Crim Dell - one of the most romantic places on a college campus in the world! We finished up at Mara's sorority house - where both Mara & I lived in college!
wmphimu Posted Jul 12, 2008, 1:50 am	Once we were done sightseeing for the day, we went to check in at the hotel. Because they were celebrating, Mara & her husband stayed at Kingsmill, a nice resort with lots of really nice golf courses (pros play here!) on the James River. None of us play golf, but the resort is really nice! Here I am at the main resort building - you can see part of the golf course and the James River in the background! And here we are on the balcony of our room! After all that excitement, we were all ready to go to bed...all tucked in for a good night's sleep!
wmphimu Posted Jul 12, 2008, 2:04 am	What a FANTASTIC day! We all went today to Busch Gardens! It was a rainy day, so we didn't take a lot of pictures, but, as Mara said, a rainy day at an amusement park is still a lot of fun! Here I am at the entrance... Busch Gardens is divided up into countries from Europe, and each area is designed to look like that country. So here I am in front of Busch Gardens' version of Big Ben in London! After taking the picture, we had to decide what to do first, so we helped with the map again (still, a good thing that Mara knows her way around!) I didn't go on any of the rides (they were way too scary for a little Toy Voyager like me!), but here I am underneath one of the roller coasters - the Loch Ness Monster - which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year! And here I am on one of the bridges overlooking the river and rides - you can see three of the park's roller coasters in the background, as well as the river cruise ride!
wmphimu Posted Jul 12, 2008, 2:10 am	Our last day of vacation we spent in Yorktown - the site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. We started at the Victory Center, where there is a museum and a recreation of the Continental Army Encampment. Here I am listening to the artillery demonstration: Then we looked at the supply tent: And here is the tent where George Washington would have stayed and planned the attack: Finally, we drove to the National Park site (where the actual battle took place) - here we are on one of the cannons: I had a great trip, but I am glad to be going home (and glad to be getting some rest!)
wmphimu Posted Jul 23, 2008, 10:13 pm	Hi! Even though we can't find the pictures of us watching the All Star game (it was very late...Mara thinks she might have hit delete accidentally since we were up till 2 am!), we found a couple of other pictures of what we have been up to! It's been hot out, so we've been spending a lot of time inside. We've been playing cards... And Muumipeikko taught us about the Moomins (he kept telling us that he was a Moomin, but we didn't know what that meant!) We've also been reading a bunch of books. Mausi really likes this one - the mouse in it looks so much like him!
wmphimu Posted Jul 23, 2008, 10:23 pm	It was Mara's husband's birthday this week, so we decided to help out with the celebration! First, we needed to bake a cake. Of course, Muumipeikko is always being silly, and hid in the egg carton! Of course, it didn't take long for us to find him! Then I helped mix up the cake. After the cake baked, it was time to decorate it. Here I am putting the happy birthday candles in: And here we are with the finished cake! Don't you think we did a good job? Mara must have, because she let us come along to the restaurant for dinner. We went to a Japanese restaurant where they cook the dinner in front of you. I liked watching a lot - here I am with our chef!
wmphimu Posted Jul 26, 2008, 9:31 pm	What a fun night we had this week! We tagged along with Mara & her husband to a concert at Wolf Trap! Wolf Trap is a National Park - the only U.S. National Park for the Performing Arts. It's a very popular place here to see concerts/plays/etc. - it's an outdoor pavilion with a huge lawn behind it. Mara said that a lot of times they will sit on the lawn (since you can bring a picnic, and it's her favorite place to see a summer concert!). But since they were seeing a special performance by the National Symphony Orchestra as her birthday present to her husband, they decided to sit inside. It was hard to get a good picture of the entire thing, since I am such a small moose! But here I am at the top of the hill in front of the pavilion: And here I am at the side before we went inside! Can you see the trash cans at the very bottom? That should give you a good idea of how big the pavilion is! Here's a picture I found online of a good aerial shot of Wolf Trap: And here I am before the show started. (sorry it's so fuzzy...you can't use a flash inside!) We saw Eric Idle performing with the NSO his new show, "Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy".
wmphimu Posted Aug 14, 2008, 12:08 am	What fun I have been having! Everyone here is very excited about the Olympics. So I have been getting to watch the games, especially the swimming. Swimming is the biggest story here in the US, as Michael Phelps is attempting to win 8 gold medals! Mara says he's from Baltimore (which is pretty close to here - I've been there a couple of times for baseball games!), and everyone is glued to the tv set to watch his races live. Here I am with Muumipeikko watching him get ready to race... The most exciting race so far was the 4x100m relay where the US won at the very last second. Here we are watching it - you can see the swimmers cheering on their teammate and reacting to the win! And here I am with Muumipeikko enjoying the games!
wmphimu Posted Aug 18, 2008, 3:21 am	Well, it's been a little lonely here for the past few days with all of our summer visitors moving on to their next hosts. But yesterday a package arrived and Mara said I could open it. I pulled off the string... ...and out popped Fllama! I had never met a llama before, but Fllama is a very sweet one! He was excited to watch the Olympics with me, and we were all so excited to watch Michael Phelps set a record with his 8th gold medal!
wmphimu Posted Aug 21, 2008, 8:55 pm	Hello! Tuesday night I went with Mara and my new friend Fllama to the Red Sox game in Baltimore. I have been a couple of times already this summer, but it was Fllama's first time, so I was excited to go with him! After some excitement when we walked in (the Orioles celebrated their 50 millionth visitor to Camden Yards Tuesday...the 50 millionth fan was actually about 15 people back from us in line!), we watched some batting practice and looked at the markers on Eutaw Street. The markers show where players have hit home runs all the way out onto the street! Here we found one for David Ortiz, one of our favorite players on the Boston Red Sox: And here I am with Fllama watching the game!
wmphimu Posted Aug 25, 2008, 12:37 am	Would you believe that Friday night I went to my first ever rock concert? I have been to Wolf Trap before, but never to see a band. And I went with Fllama! It was my second trip to Wolf Trap this summer, but still just as fun! Here we are before we went to our seats: And here we are watching the band: We saw two bands - Great Big Sea (that's who is in the picture) and Eddie from Ohio. They were both FANTASTIC!
wmphimu Posted Aug 31, 2008, 2:06 am	What a busy week I've had! Not only did I help Mara run some errands, I went with her into Washington DC not once but twice! My first trip was a quick one - Mara went to meet an old friend for lunch, so not too much sightseeing, but we did get to ride on the metro! Here I am with Fllama at the station (you can see one of the trains behind us!): And here we are on the train checking out the metro map! After our metro trip, we had a yummy lunch outside at a cafe in Dupont Circle (one of the neighborhoods in DC). Fllama and I shared a sandwich - doesn't it look good? And on the metro ride home we switched trains in Alexandria, so I got to see the George Washington Masonic Temple!
wmphimu Posted Aug 31, 2008, 2:16 am	Today we took the second trip of the week to Washington DC. This time we went in to do some sightseeing. It's a holiday weekend here, and Mara and her husband wanted to see a special exhibit at the Smithsonian about Jim Henson. Since it's the weekend (so there's not as much traffic), we drove in this time. Here we are in the car - it's a sort of blurry picture, but the huge building behind us is the Pentagon! After we parked, we walked to The Mall. That's the area of Washington DC with the Smithsonian Museums and a lot of the monuments. Here we are on The Mall - that's the Washington Monument behind us! Further down, we stopped by this cool sculpture outside of the Air and Space Museum: Then we went to the National Museum of the American Indian. We couldn't take pictures inside, but here we are outside. Mara says it's the newest Smithsonian museum, and she thinks it's the prettiest! After that, I got to see the Capitol building! We couldn't take any pictures at the Jim Henson exhibit (but it was AMAZING!), but here we are outside of the Smithsonian Castle... ...and here we are INSIDE the castle!
wmphimu Posted Sep 7, 2008, 9:56 pm	Well, it has certainly been an exciting few days here! On Friday, a package arrived for Mara. Since it sounded like it was snoring, she let me and Fllama open it! It was Jimbo Elephant - the snoring was him taking a nap! Here we all are - it's fun to meet an elephant! Yesterday we all watched Tropical Storm Hanna from the dining room window. You might have seen Fairfax (where we live!) on the news - Fairfax got hit really hard by the storm, and the lake by Mara's house flooded. So the bottom part of her neighborhood was evacuated and her street was on the news! We're all ok - don't worry! - our house is nice and dry, and it was fun to watch all the rain with my new friends!
wmphimu Posted Sep 10, 2008, 3:44 am	After all the excitement of the tropical storm, we have been taking it easy here. But today, a package arrived. Mara let us open it... ...and out popped Ebba! What fun to have a new visitor!
wmphimu Posted Sep 11, 2008, 4:48 pm	Hello! Mara had a bunch of errands to run today, so we hopped in her bag and went along! First stop was the post office to say goodbye to Fllama and send him on his next adventure: Then we went to Target - it's a huge store, and since it's close to where we live, Mara goes a lot! After a few more stops, we were all hungry, so Mara took us out to lunch at Boston Market: Here I am eating my lunch - yummy!
wmphimu Posted Sep 14, 2008, 3:14 am	Hello! It was a beautiful day here today (it's been raining a LOT lately), so we all headed to Old Town Alexandria for the Festival of the Arts - a big arts fest in the streets of Old Town. Old Town is where George Washington grew up, and is not only a historic area but a really neat place with shops and restaurants. Here I am walking around the arts festival... There was lots of cool art, but the steel sculptures were our favorites. Of course, I liked the moose sculpture the best! While we were walking around, we took a break at the fountains in Old Town - look how beautiful it was out today! Afterwards, we walked down to the waterfront. Alexandria is near Washington DC on the Potomac River. Here I am in front of the Potomac: And here I am in front of the Torpedo Factory: It used to be used to make torpedoes (you could probably have figured that out!), but now it is an artist colony! What an amazing day!
wmphimu Posted Sep 28, 2008, 2:59 am	I have been busy playing host to my guests and showing them what life is like in Virginia. They have been seeing what our county is like, and I went with them a few times this week. On Wednesday, we went with Mara to Let's Dish. It's a meal preparation place - you go and you make a bunch of dinners for the month that go in the freezer. Here I am in front: And here I am helping out by making enchiladas! Today it was raining really hard, so we sat in the car while Mara's husband ran into the store to get stuff for her rabbits (can you tell how hard it was raining from the picture??) Thankfully, the rain stopped long enough for us to get some lunch. We went to a popular place called Noodles & Company where Mara and I shared Wisconsin Mac & Cheese (they are famous for it!) Yum-O!
wmphimu Posted Oct 1, 2008, 11:41 pm	Shana Tovah! That means Happy New Year in Hebrew! This week we celebrated Rosh Hashana - the Jewish New Year - and I helped! Here I am helping to set the table for a family dinner... And here we all are putting a cover on the round challah that Mara's family ate! And I celebrated the new year the traditional way - eating apples dipped in honey! Yum!
wmphimu Posted Oct 7, 2008, 6:46 pm	Hello! Over the weekend a new Toy Voyager arrived! I helped her out of her travel pouch... ...it's Pebbels! I had never met a tiger before! She is very nice - I am excited to show her around! She had her travel journal with her - it was really neat to get to see all the cool places she has been!
wmphimu Posted Oct 12, 2008, 2:13 am	What a beautiful day it was here today! It's nearly the middle of October, but it was sunny and 70 degrees out! So we headed into Fairfax City for the Fall Festival, a big fair with lots of arts & crafts, food, and activities for kids. Mara says that there are lots of fairs like this here in the fall - each town has one! But this is the first time I have gone with her! Here I am on one of the streets looking at the crafts booths: I also got to see some of the history of Fairfax. Here I am in front of the courthouse: It was built in 1800 - here is a plaque that explains the history: And here I am (still in front of the courthouse) on one of the Civil War cannons!
wmphimu Posted Oct 22, 2008, 8:30 pm	Hello! I have been having lots of fun with my new visitors. It is fall, and the weather is crisp and the leaves are changing. We have been playing outside on the pumpkins (everyone has pumpkins on their steps to decorate for fall and Halloween!) and in the leaves!
wmphimu Posted Nov 7, 2008, 10:07 pm	Happy Halloween! I helped to celebrate Halloween with our neighbors - look at the cool jack-o-lanterns that the kids next door carved!
wmphimu Posted Nov 7, 2008, 10:19 pm	What an exciting week here in the United States! Tuesday was election day! I've been following the race while I've been here in the U.S., so I was excited to get to go and vote! Mara and her husband went to vote in the morning - it was rainy, but there was great turnout (there was a line inside the school). We couldn't take pictures too close (or inside), but here we are before we went in! After I voted, they gave me a sticker to show off! Because this was such an important election, a lot of businesses had promotions if you came in with your "I voted" sticker. So after we voted, we went to Starbucks for our free cup of coffee! This also made Mara happy, since Starbucks is her favorite, and Starbucks has switched to their red holiday cups! That night, we went to her parents' house to watch the election returns. Here I am listening to Brian Williams (one of the NBC anchors) tell us about some of the states: And at 11 pm, they announced that Barack Obama had won the election! We were so excited! Mara let us stay up late with her to watch his speech! And the next morning we all read about the historic election in the paper! I'm so glad that I was able to be a part of it!
wmphimu Posted Nov 26, 2008, 11:23 pm	Hello! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States, so we're getting ready tonight. Mara goes to her cousin's house, and makes chocolate cookies (with TONS of powdered sugar!) every year to bring. Since she made 12 dozen, I helped with the baking! Here I am helping to roll the balls of chocolate dough in the powdered sugar... And here I am with some of the cookies I baked! I am excited for tomorrow - I'm sure it will be a lot of fun!
wmphimu Posted Nov 28, 2008, 11:08 pm	Happy Thanksgiving! It is Thanksgiving here in the United States, and I'm excited to share it with Pebbels - it's his first Thanksgiving! The day started with us watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It's a huge tradition here - everyone watches it! I liked all of the big balloons - it was a lot of fun! Then we went to Maryland to Mara's cousin's house for Thanksgiving dinner! We celebrated with lots of family and friends - here we are at the table before everyone sat down! Americans eat turkey and LOTS of side dishes for Thanksgiving - here I am eating turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and asparagus - now I see why Mara says that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday! After awhile, we had desserts - Pebbels and I checked them out beforehand...here we are with the cookies we helped to make! And look at how yummy these apple pies look! And the desserts tasted just as good as they looked!! What a great day!
wmphimu Posted Nov 28, 2008, 11:16 pm	After all the fun of Thanksgiving yesterday, today I got to experience another American tradition - Black Friday. Black Friday is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. Stores have HUGE sales and people try to get their holiday shopping done. Some of the malls opened at midnight, and most of the stores were open by 5 am for the early crowds! We didn't go quite so early, but we did go to a few places! Here we are in the car... The area of Fairfax where we were shopping is called Fair Lakes, and has tons and tons of stores. There was also a funky sculpture of a girl with her dog that Pebbels and I saw from the car Here I am in front of Michael's (a big craft store): And here I am at one of the other sections of the strip mall!
wmphimu Posted Dec 5, 2008, 11:44 pm	Everyone here is getting ready for Christmas. All of the stores are decorated, and there is Christmas music playing everywhere you go! This week I went to the mall with Mara. The decorations were really beautiful. The first one is a little dark (it was hard to take a picture where you could see me and the decorations!), but can you find Santa in the second picture? He's taking pictures with kids in the mall!!
wmphimu Posted Dec 11, 2008, 3:16 am	Even though it was a rainy day, I hopped in Mara's purse today with Pebbels and headed in to Washington DC with her! She was meeting a friend for lunch at Union Station - a huge train station that also has tons of fancy shops and restaurants! Here I am outside... Inside was all decorated for the holidays, including a huge tree and a cool model train! What a fun trip!
wmphimu Posted Dec 28, 2008, 10:24 pm	Thank goodness Fenway finally arrived back home - we left for a trip to California to celebrate Christmas just a few days after he got here! Here we are, ready to go... The flight was really smooth, and I liked being able to see all the snow on the mountains! While we were in California, we drove through Niles Canyon. Mara got really car sick, but I liked seeing the beautiful mountains with Fenway!
wmphimu Posted Dec 28, 2008, 10:29 pm	California is warmer than it is here at home, and they have different things than we do here in Virginia. Here I am in front of some palm trees... And I even found a cactus! And Mara's family says that no trip to California is complete without a trip to In-n-Out, a famous place to get hamburgers!
wmphimu Posted Dec 28, 2008, 10:36 pm	Since we were visiting to celebrate Christmas, Fenway and I found lots of cool Christmas decorations. Here we are with a perfectly-sized snowman on Christmas Eve... On Christmas Day, we went for a walk and found this house with TONS of decorations... We especially liked this light-up Yukon Cornelius (a character from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) The hotel had lots of pretty decorations too. Here I am on the staircase: And we liked this palm tree that was decorated for the holidays: And, of course, we had to take a picture under the Christmas tree!
wmphimu Posted Dec 29, 2008, 11:10 pm	We had a great trip to California, but I am happy to be home! Last night I helped to celebrate the last night of Chanukah by lighting the menorah. We lit two - one for Mara & her husband, and one for me and Fenway! Happy Chanukah!!
wmphimu Posted Jan 26, 2009, 2:01 am	Hello! It has been REALLY cold here in Virginia, but I have been keeping warm and keeping busy. The weathermen say that this is the coldest January we have had in decades - but still no snow! The biggest news was the Inauguration last week of President Obama! Even though we live close to Washington DC (about 16 miles away!) we decided it was too cold and too crowded - 2 million people were there! So we watched on tv - here I am watching President Obama being sworn in! And here I am with Fenway with the paper the next day! Other than the Inauguration, the other big news here is that Mara and her husband are getting new kitchen cabinets. Fenway and I helped to pick out the new cabinets - they went with our choice! I have also been doing some shopping (since it's too cold to play outside!). We like to go to Border's - a big bookstore with a cafe. It's a nice place to sit and have coffee and read a book! Speaking of coffee, I have been to Dunkin' Donuts as well! And today we went out to lunch - YUM!
wmphimu Posted Jan 30, 2009, 1:55 am	I had such a fun day today! It snowed here in Virginia - the first snow of the year! So Fenway and I went outside to help Mara shovel and to play in the snow! Here I am in front - we did a pretty good job shoveling the walkway...sort of! And here we are in the snow on the steps! It was cold but fun! And here we are in the snow covered tree! Can you find us?
wmphimu Posted Mar 3, 2009, 12:18 am	Hello! Mara feels bad that we haven't been updating my travel log recently, but we are having a good time! A couple of weeks ago Fridolin arrived. He is a very sweet cat, and we are having fun playing together. We all went together to a basketball game! Mara lives near George Mason University, and we went to go see a basketball game there. Fenway told everyone about how George Mason was in the Final Four (the NCAA basketball tournament) a couple of years ago - a HUGE deal for such a small school! The weather here has been strange - we have some warm days then some really cold days. But when we woke up today there was SNOW! Here I am in front of the house, looking at all of it! There was a LOT more than the last time it snowed - finally a real storm! After looking at it, I decided I wanted to play in it. So all of us jumped in on Mara's car! It was a lot fluffier than I thought it would be! But we had a great time!
wmphimu Posted Apr 5, 2009, 9:39 pm	We've been super busy lately, but we managed to take a few pictures last weekend. It was rainy, but that didn't stop us from running errands... On this trip we went to a grocery store! All of the rain makes the trees bloom - even in the rain they look beautiful!
wmphimu Posted Apr 27, 2009, 2:20 am	Hello! Fenway and I have been having a ton of fun with Fridolin, even if Mara has forgotten to help us post the pictures (she feels horrible about it!). A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Passover. It was Fridolin's first Passover, and Fenway's first home in a couple of years, so I was so excited to share the Passover seder with them both! First, I helped to set out the seder plate... And we put a haggadah (the prayer book) at each person's place Then we covered the matzah up until later in the seder During the seder we helped to say the blessings over the candles And at the end of the seder I enjoyed some matzah!
wmphimu Posted Apr 27, 2009, 2:31 am	Spring has definitely come to Northern Virginia, and everything is in bloom! Mara says I'm lucky that I don't have allergies - everyone is all sniffly! Here I am in front of one of the beautiful trees in Mara's neighborhood... I played in the grass with my friends... ...and even climbed one of the pretty trees! (can you find me? I'm
wmphimu Posted May 27, 2009, 5:45 pm	Hello! I just got back from an amazing vacation! Mara & her husband went to Mexico, and us Toy Voyagers hopped in her bag and came along!! We started out in the airport here in Virginia (Washington Dulles) - we liked looking at all the flags while we were waiting for our flight. Next, we had a quick stopover in Charlotte, North Carolina. I liked the old plane that was in our terminal! It's hard to tell from this picture, but here I am on the airplane over the Gulf of Mexico! Once we arrived, we marveled at the view from our balcony! What a great place to spend a vacation!!
wmphimu Posted May 27, 2009, 5:53 pm	We spent most of the vacation relaxing. The resort was so beautiful that we never left!! Look at all of the coconut trees! I really liked sitting on a lounge chair and watching the waves with my friends. The beach was so beautiful...here I am by my chair looking out over the Caribbean Ocean... And here I am on the sand! And, of course, we went to the beautiful pool too! What an amazing trip!
wmphimu Posted Jul 1, 2009, 1:21 am	What a fun week I have had! It started out with us going to see the Boston Red Sox play the Washington Nationals. Fenway is such a huge Red Sox fan, and it was his first time seeing them play in person! It's been really hot here, but all three nights were beautiful for baseball! And while I really enjoyed the games, my favorite part was the baseball cap recycling bins!!
wmphimu Posted Jul 1, 2009, 1:25 am	Baseball hasn't been the only fun thing around here lately. Friday and Saturday I went with Mara to the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Chantilly. It was a lot of fun, and I really liked helping to make scrapbook layouts! But even more exciting was today. A package arrived, and Mara let me and Plaid Moose open it. Inside was Pooky! He will be visiting for a few weeks! We are so excited to show him around!
wmphimu Posted Jul 3, 2009, 1:24 am	Not even a week after I got to see the Boston Red Sox play in Washington DC, I got to see them play again! This time we drove up to Baltimore to see them play the Baltimore Orioles! We had a lot of fun playing games in the car. Here we are on the Beltway...can you see the "Welcome to Maryland" sign in the background? I helped to keep score at the game... The game was SO good! The Red Sox came back from being down 5-1 in the ninth inning to win the game! We were all cheering SO loudly!
wmphimu Posted Jul 29, 2009, 11:44 pm	I had such a fun night Friday! We went to Wolf Trap to see The Wizard of Oz! I went to Wolf Trap last summer with Mara - it's a National Park - the only U.S. National Park for the Performing Arts. It's a very popular place here to see concerts/plays/etc. - it's an outdoor pavilion with a huge lawn behind it. Last year we sat inside...this time we sat on the lawn and had a picnic! We saw a special performance - The Wizard of Oz was on a huge screen and the National Symphony Orchestra accompanied the movie with the score! It was amazing! Here I am before the show started during our picnic... You can see the giant screen and the NSO is inside on the stage! Once it got dark, the movie started! I'm hard to see...you can see my antler though in the left corner of the screen! (and the NSO at the bottom!)
wmphimu Posted Aug 16, 2009, 1:39 am	It is definitely summer here in Virginia! The weather has been HOT (over 100 degrees!) and HUMID - pretty typical of August! Last weekend a new Toy Voyager arrived - Bally is a funny funny monkey, and we have been having a lot of fun! With it being so hot, we have been doing lots of INSIDE things - last weekend we went to the outlet mall...here I am outside!
wmphimu Posted Aug 31, 2009, 12:02 am	Mara and her husband have been working on re-doing their first floor for months now, and it looks like it's finally done! So we headed down to Ikea today to get a few pieces of furniture and look for some rugs to go on the new floor! (Ikea is a HUGE furniture store!) Here I am in front of Ikea... After we looked around for a bit, we took a quick break for lunch. Mara LOVES eating lunch at Ikea - they are a Swedish company, and they have a really yummy Swedish meatball lunch special! After lunch, we continued to shop. Here I am helping pick out our purchases in the warehouse... And here I am waiting with Mara to load our purchases into the car. You can see that the flags are flying at half-mast to honor Senator Kennedy who passed away this week.
wmphimu Posted Aug 31, 2009, 12:13 am	Hello! Oh, what a fabulous day we had today! It has been a long hot summer here in Virginia, but today was absolutely gorgeous! So we headed to Great Falls. Great Falls is on the Potomac River - it is a National Park on the Virginia side of the falls. (Mara says that there is a park on the Maryland side as well) It was amazing! Here I am at the first overlook over the falls... Can you see the people in the kayaks below? There were actually people kayaking over the falls! (we did NOT try that!!) We climbed out on the rocks to see the falls and the river... We walked along some of the trails as well...here I am on a part of the trail where the canal used to be: Then we did some more climbing! What a GREAT day!
wmphimu Posted Sep 5, 2009, 12:04 am	I had such a great day today! Mara was meeting a friend for lunch in Washington DC, and because the weather was so nice we came along and did some sightseeing! Here I am with Bally on the metro...it was his first trip! We had lunch next to Union Station. It was really beautiful, and I liked seeing all of the flags for each state!
wmphimu Posted Sep 5, 2009, 12:28 am	We decided to walk around the US Capitol building. I have seen it on tv, but it is amazing up close! Here I am by the Senate fountain on the way to the Capitol... The West side of the Capitol is the side that faces the Mall - it's the side you usually see on television (and these are the steps where the Inauguration was held!) The view from the steps of the Capitol is really beautiful - you can see the National Mall and the Washington Monument! We walked around the other side of the Capitol - the lawn was so beautiful! On the East side of the Capitol we were stopped by a Capitol police officer who wanted to know what a monkey was doing visiting Washington DC! We told him all about Toy Voyagers - he said he was going to look at my travel log - thank you for being so nice to us today!! After we looked at the outside of the Capitol, we decided to go inside and see the new visitors center. Because it wasn't very crowded, we were able to get tickets, and go on a tour! Here I am in the entrance to the Visitors Center: This is the Statue of Freedom - it was used to cast the bronze statue that is on the top of the Capitol dome. The best part of the tour was going inside of the Capitol rotunda! We also got to go to Statuary Hall - that's where President Obama had his luncheon on Inauguration Day!
wmphimu Posted Sep 5, 2009, 12:36 am	After we toured the US Capitol, we had a little bit more time, so we went across the street to the Library of Congress! Here I am outside of the building... Inside of the Library of Congress was amazing! This is the Jefferson Building, and it was really beautiful. And on the way back to the metro, I also got to see the Supreme Court!
wmphimu Posted Sep 23, 2009, 11:49 pm	Hooray! My good friend Chocolate Moose arrived home this weekend after years of traveling! He was just in time to join us for a Red Sox game in Baltimore. It wasn't my first time at a game, but the weather was practically perfect! And with the beautiful weather I was able to get a great picture in front of the Ravens stadium too!
wmphimu Posted Sep 26, 2009, 11:15 pm	Hello! It's a kind of yucky day here, but that didn't stop us from having a great time! Today was the National Book Festival, so we all jumped in Mara's purse and headed downtown to Washington DC! The Book Festival was SO crowded - I couldn't believe how many people were there! Because of the weather and the crowds, we only stayed for a little bit, but it was still a lot of fun! (in the second picture, you can see the Smithsonian Castle in the background!)
wmphimu Posted Sep 26, 2009, 11:24 pm	After walking around the Book Festival, we decided to visit a museum! We went to the National Gallery of Art, which is part of the Smithsonian! There are two buildings - one has classic art and one has more modern pieces. Here I am in the East Wing - it was designed by I.M. Pei! And behind me is the Alexander Calder mobile - it was really cool! In between the two buildings is a cool fountain that I.M. Pei designed - it is a fountain above ground and on the walkway underneath! In the West Wing I had a real treat - we saw Ginevra de' Benci - it's the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Western Hemisphere!
wmphimu Posted Sep 26, 2009, 11:31 pm	We finished up the day with a little sightseeing in the car (you can see that it was too wet outside to walk around any more - I didn't want to get my fur wet!). Here we are in the car...the building on the left is the Department of the Treasury... Then we saw the Washington Monument... And finally, we drove by the Pentagon!
wmphimu Posted Sep 30, 2009, 10:17 pm	I have had such a fun visit with Bally, but it's time for him to go home to North Carolina. He invited me and Chocolate Moose to go with him for a visit - Chocolate is going to go, but I wanted to stay home to welcome Nijntje who will be visiting soon. They gave me a hug goodbye - I will miss them tons, but I am excited to read about their new adventures!
wmphimu Posted Oct 9, 2009, 7:29 pm	Hello! A new Toy Voyager arrived this week - Nijntje! It is so exciting to have a new visitor, especially a rabbit! The weather is so beautiful here, so we've been having fun playing outside. The dogwood tree in the front yard is turning colors for fall, and is perfect for climbing. Can you find me in it?
wmphimu Posted Nov 1, 2009, 3:11 am	Happy Halloween! It's Halloween here in the United States, and I had a ton of fun celebrating! Yesterday, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins... Then, tonight, we carved our jack-o-lanterns! I helped to clean out the pumpkin... Then it was time to carve! Look at how great our jack-o-lantern looks! I helped get the candy ready to hand out to trick-or-treaters And when it got dark, we put the jack-o-lanterns outside on the steps with candles inside! What a fun night!!
wmphimu Posted Nov 23, 2009, 11:48 pm	Hello! It's not even Thanksgiving yet, and the mall is already decorated for Christmas! But...look at what we found at the mall!
wmphimu Posted Jan 3, 2010, 7:48 pm	Hello! Sorry that I haven't written in awhile...I've been very busy, and we keep forgetting to take pictures! But we remembered the camera yesterday - it is super cold here, so we decided to do something INSIDE! We went to National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It's part of the Smithsonian, and its a HUGE airplane hangar full of lots of cool planes. Because it's so big, they can put all of the things in there that don't fit in the museum on the mall! I really liked looking at all of the planes, but I especially liked seeing the Space Shuttle Enterprise! What a fun day!

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