Highland, Maryland and Finland ...

Yep, all these lands were made for you and me... 

and 11 years ago this week, this happened on an Island.  Such fun memories. 

Next, we move on to Austenland and here, Elias is no longer a baby, but an actor in a production of Pride and Prejudice set in the land of the free in the 1920's.  It was really a fun production. 

Dad and I were watching Becca and Brady's kids for the first of the week, so we took them all to support their cousin.  Madi, Mack, Reagan, Nenna, Titan and Adi.

Here is Elias as the gardener, he is actually the first person on stage. 

And playing the gentleman.

partaking of the Orde oeuvres. 

This picture of him dancing is a little blurry but shows how fancy the dance moves he was making were. 

and here are some of us with him during intermission.

ta - ra - ra - boom - de - ay 

In junkingland the next morning at DI ... whoa. 

Then into the store to repaint this cupboard.  Previous owners did a pretty sloppy job the last time, but it's an old piece with character and is nice and roomy and I was lucky to get it for display in the first place.  Now that I've made this booth into a kind of a show place for the land of Tea Parties, I knew I needed to upgrade the display.  So, I painted the first two shelves on Monday, before the play.

At Becca and Brady's we had fun putting together a puzzle of the land of Utah, by Eric Dowdle. 

Tuesday evening we hooked up with the Moes at Applebee's before heading to ...

the Hale Center Theater to see How to Succeed in Business, Without Really Trying. It was a first time for us, and Dad absolutely loved it.  It was amazingly well done, their plays have felt like immersive Broadway shows lately, and I am sure they will do great at their new Theater in Pleasant Grove.  I'm just going to miss the immersive feel of the small theater. 

Abish helped the kids finish up the puzzle while we were at the play. 

I went in early to work on Wednesday so I could finish painting the cupboard. 

Here are some pictures of the rest of the booth,

I found this perfect little picture and repainted the frame with the same paint as I'd had used on the cupboard interior. 

These kids were so cute.  One of the dealers had had a pair of gloves go missing and asked these two to keep an eye out for the gloves while they shopped. (I know a bit unprofessional) and he had already noticed them and walked over and brought them to her.  She was so thrilled she let them choose a record as a reward.  I laughed when they took a Tiajuana Brass record. 

My friend Chuck went to England with another dealer to fill a container and found this wonderful bench table ....

If I had endless funds and room, I'd take it home ... I mean it is from England. 

Friday morning and we're off to Maryland ... we ran into Scott, who works with Becca and Brady at the airport. 

Joyce went along with us, and this young man, Talon, provided a wheelchair for her mile and a half trek to the gate. 

We met up with Scott Douglass, my nephew, first thing on Saturday.  My brother Doug has or used to have a similar sweater to this, and Scott was wearing a mask, and my brain said ... that's Doug.  So definitely a family resemblance. 

Scott showed us pictures of his sailboat and promised us a trip out on it when we come back in June.  The man shown here is his dad, Harry.  Julie and Harry have always stayed connected and have been on good terms.  In fact, they have been calling each other every night to assure each of the others continued existence.  That just made me laugh. 

He also showed us a picture of his daughter Sam. who is in Texas working on her pilot's license.  She graduates from flight school in mid-April.  What a great girl.  We're thinking of running down to Texas for her graduation, as it's the same week that 3 of our kids will be in Texas viewing the eclipse and we could see Scott again too. I hope we can work it out.

I laughed when Dad finished up everyone's hashbrowns at breakfast... just like in the old days. 

Then it was off to visit with Julie.  She appears to be comfortable, unless moved, and mostly slept.  Scott D. talked to the nurse and asked her to cut back on her meds so we could connect with her better the next day. 

Still beautiful. 

We took the rest of the day for some antiquing. Id found a cute little antiquing neighborhood online in a town called Kensington.  Now, of course, as an anglophile, I chose that one.  It's also near the DC Temple, and we never tire of driving along the beltway and seeing it arise. 

 I found this 1970's Finnish Coffee pot in a shop that specialized in Danish Modern ...  Yes, it's the same pattern of Arabia that Dad brought home from his mission in Finland. 

I just loved the look of these bound roots around the trees of the district. 

This artist had several works, I found charming. 

And this shop was just plain adorable. I found a nice leather-bound book named, The Brownings, and has both his and her works bound together ... how lovely is that?

Such a charming place.

This is the Kensington fire station.  I have never seen such a charming structure used like this before. 

Next, we met up with Scott and his Dad at this cute place, the Silver Cafe. 

Here is Scott with his Dad later at the care center when we went to see Julie again. Harry will be 98 this year. 

Scott shared a couple of pictures of his family, and I thought I'd save them here.  This is him with his family last Thanksgiving.  His Daughter Sam, then his son Antonio, his wife Patty and of course his Dad. 

While we were enjoying lovely weather, we heard of the awful weather to the west of us in Utah, but I think Texas weather really took the prize.

We went to church in Burke Virginia with the Erickson's with whom we served in Finland.  Afterwards we headed back to the care center, where we found Julie to be much more alert. 

Here I am with Julie.

Scott D pointed out that his Mom's tattoo on her wrist is actually morning glory.  All these years I thought it was a sprig of ivy.  Look how nice the color still is ... I love it. 

Ever the artist, Julie wanted a closer look at Scott Mari Mekko pattern tie. 

We left and headed back to Virginia where the Erickson's were feeding us dinner.  Joyce got to see the Capitol building as we drove through DC to accomplish this trip.  We also drove past the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and she checked those of her bucket list too.  We didn't realize she hadn't been to DC before, or we would have made the time to stop. 

I loved all the row house we saw, but these were the most fabulous. 

The Erickson's have this wonderful deck that juts out into the forest behind their home.  There were, so they told us, tiny frogs that make a loud cricket type chirp continuously.  It amazed me how quickly we could tune them out and visit but stop and enjoy them whenever we liked.   What a magical place. 

I loved Joyce Erickson's collection of dirt samples from all over the world.  She has the same amount again, but doesn't have matching bottle to put them in.  The one from the Antarctica has tiny fossils, since there is no dirt accessible there. 

They had pictures of their family displayed that showed each additional child as it was added to their family of 8 children.

Here we all are in a selfie.   Eric, Joyce, Joyce, Paula and Scott. 

I thought this was fun.  Eric told us a friend had found this facsimile from the Pearl of Great Price somewhere for sale in the middle east on parchment.  People are sooo enterprising. 

 Well, that took care of our week.  We're loving our time here, and a chance to get to know Scott D. better.  He is really an amazing man.