Nemours Mansion and Gardens

Stephen and I traveled to Delaware to visit a house tour that we had read about. Over the years, Stephen and I have gone on many house tours, but I have to say this one was equal to the opulence that I have seen in France and England. When we got there, we learned that A.I. Dupont built the house for his second wife and based it on the designs at the palace of Versailles in France! We were not allowed to take photos in the house, but the pictures on the grounds that had french gardens and 5 different ponds with many, many statues.

Gingerbread Man!

Run


Run


As fast as you can


You can't catch me


I'm the Gingerbread man!!


In our story no fox was needed! LOL

Shanandoah (Skyline Drive)

Stephen and I had recently read about Skyline drive in Virgina. This is a beautiful drive along the Shandoha Valley that takes you up and down the majestic area. We packed our bags and headed out to see Kelly and Tim in Charlotsville and took them along with us. The pictures do not truly show the beauty that we saw. However, I gave it my best shot (smile).











Hi HONEY!!!

What a "Knight"

I know, I know. I dressed my dogs for Halloween. But, in my defense, it started as something that made me laugh REALLY hard. Last year (as seen in previous post), I put a pumpkin hat on Dublin and witch hat on Salem. This led me to create a card and send it to my family. I was never really into sending Christmas cards, but I did start sending Halloween cards. So this year, this was the design I had on the card. In our defense, I would not spend much money on dressing them up, so the "costume" you see was bought from the dollar tree. Stephen thought up the saying, and the castle behind them was from a picture of Gillette Castle that we had visited. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Gillette Castle

For a couple years now, Stephen and I have wanted to visit the CT Castle. Its official name is Gillette Castle. It was owned by a popular actor in the early 20's (Arthur Gillette. He was best know for working with Sir Author Conan Doyle and brought to life on stage the most popular image we think of when we think of Sherlock Holmes. The cap, cape, pipe, and the saying, "Elementary, my dear Watson" was all him. It was a surprisingly cozy and very beautifully situated home. He designed all the wood carved doors himself and, evidently, loved cats. Statues of them were everywhere! It was a great day and we then walked in the wooded park later.

(one of the MANY doors that Gillete designed)


One of the two Tiffany lamps he had installed in the house


(One of the displays of Gillette's personal cat statues)

The main room of the castle

Stephen at Woodrow Wilson's House (in Jan.)

I did not post this at the time and I was going though some old files and saw it again. So ia m am posting it now :), better late then never. In January Stephen and I decided to go to the home of president Woodrow Wilson. It was very interesting and to be honest, more informative then I thought it would be. The house is beautiful and was bigger then it looked. Woodrow Wilson and his family moved into there after he was president in about 1921. He lived there until he died about 3 years later. His wife lived their until she passed in the1960's, but 80-90% of the house's set up and furniture/ nick knacks are original and set up the same way it was when Wilson lived. Stephen and I were enjoying the tour when we walked into the Wilson's entertaining room. The room was not huge bit it was a nice size and included many items that he was given from other royalty and ambassadors of other country's. In the middle of this room was a Grand piano that the president played set up in front of a huge detailed tapestry given to the Wilson's from France. The tour guide talked about the different things we saw in the room, and then asked if anyone played the piano. Stephen (to my surprise ;P) raised his hand. Our guide asked him if he would like to play a piece on the presidents piano. Stephen walked forward, sat down and proceeded to play beautiful rendition of Silent Night. Several of the people started to sing along! I was to amazed to sing, but I did capture a picture instead! Here to the Memory!

Wedding Day!!!

THE WEDDING DAY!!!

Kelly had her pictures taken at Kim's house. It was perfect and there were so many great shots! She was beautiful and it was a wonderful day!












They got married in a small church that was where Rich went to school. It was very picturesque, but walking the hill in heels was murder :).