Falls Church, Virginia

What a great early-birthday weekend we've had with Day, Tom, Jackson, and Marcus!

On Saturday, we watched the Tennessee game that went into overtime. Day said, "I can't believe that's my mom yelling over a game!"  We had dinner on their beautiful new screened porch and Marcus made the grilled cheese sandwiches (his specialty) to go with the soup Day had made.

The Learys have three pretty new bathrooms
and a fantastic screened porch.
The boys have moved downstairs and Day and Tom
have moved upstairs--beautiful bedroom and new studio for Day. 

Marcus playing the sax on the new porch

Birthday lunch for Jackson, Day and me

Then Mike took us all out to dinner at a place the boys chose.  Jackson said, "Mike is so cool!  He knows everything about cars."

In three days, Jackson will be fifteen, and his number one interest right now is cars.  He's quiet and observant and loves to listen to people talking.  Marcus is eleven and he enjoys posting to his YouTube channel .  His hobbies at eleven are superheroes and comic books.

Yesterday we had a birthday brunch in Leesburg after walking around in Luckets looking at antiques.
Tom and the boys bought juggling pins and Mike bought silver dollars for the boys from a collector.

Day in one of our favorite antique shops in
Luckets--the hat room

Jackson and Tom practicing juggling in Luckets

Marcus with his new comic books

Day and her super-tall 15-year-old

Marcus enjoys antiques as much as the adults do,
especially old boxes

Last night before watching the debate and before taking Jackson to a party, Day and I opened birthday presents.  The Learys gave me a precious little robot girl, a reproduction of a rocket carnival ride, a traveling bag filled with goodies for the rest of our trip, and a cute print of two giraffes like one they have.   Day's 45th birthday present was a string of freshwater pearls, a blouse and two Texas T-shirts.

Our visit couldn't have been better!