Indoor soccer team

This is the amazing (and very winning!) Team Sanchez III from our winter indoor season.

Back row, L-R: Kevin, Charlie, Emily, Banji, me and Jason

Front row, L-R: Ben, Blaine, Emanuel and Andy

Christmas with Jason and Cary

Here we are in front of a giant Christmas tree at the Smith Anderson Holiday Party. It was held at the North Carolina Museum of History! After dinner we were even able to go and explore some of the exhibits.
I wanted to put a few pictures up of our decorations at home. Jason and I now have (almost) matching stockings and we tried to scatter vases of ornaments throughout the house to add a little Christmas cheer.
This is a view of our Christmas tree from our dining room. I put up some of my nutcrackers and hung the stars that my friend brought back for me from Estonia.
My sister and I made this wreath using ribbon and items from "nature" outside our house. We spraypainted pine cones, leaves and holly and glittered away!

Picture from Army/Navy Football Game

Charlottesville in the Fall

Jason and I had the opportunity to pop back up to Charlottesville recently to see some old friends and reminisce about our former home. We also got a chance to meet Grant (left) and Lilly (right), the newest addition to Danton and Allison's family. Here I am with the twins on the Lawn, in front of the famed Rotunda.
And here's a picture of the happy mom with her two 5 month old angels. Well, they're pretty close, anyhow! :-)

My First Brush with a Presidential Candidate

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Barack Obama speak at NCCU, so I showed up last Thursday for his address. The marching band kept the crowd's energy level high before Obama arrived.

I was actually in the second row of people standing (there were others seated behind us). Here's a shot from my camera without any zoom. This is really how close I was to him for the entire speech. What you can't see is all of the Secret Service people with binoculars and concealed weapons. I have a much greater appreciation for the security required for presidential candidates after watching "Bobby," the movie about RFK's assassination. I have included several close-up shots below that I took during the speech.


I actually did get to shake Barack's hand! Here he is working his way down the line.

Cary's Visit to the Land of Old People and Endless Sunshine

Turns out all of Florida isn't like this house we drove by. But it did make for a great shot as we got lost in the Everglades.

The whole reason for the trip was to visit my cousin Peter. We had a fantastic time catching up, exploring the Everglades, spending time with the dogs and visiting local parks.

Here is Jenna (person), Nala (dog on left), Peter (person) and Rowdy (dog on right).

Peter makes a new friend (thankfully, not still alive).

We rode around the Everglades in an air boat like this (which Peter insisted on calling a "fan boat"). Ours was a little bigger but tons of fun. We only sank down 1 inch into the water so we could go straight through most of the marshy areas.

From what I saw, the Everglades are chock-full of mangrove trees.

This was one of the marshy-ier parts we passed through. The water is only 1.5 feet deep in most of the Everglades.

Our guide caught some blue crabs in a trap and took them out to show us. I was amazed to see how truly blue they are!

This is another of my favorite shots from the Everglades.

Here is some native wildlife. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember whether it's a heron or an egret. Still so pretty!

Fun times at the State Fair

Jason and I had a fantastic time at the State Fair on Wednesday night. We played games, gorged ourselves on Wisconsin fried cheese and funnel cakes, and had the chance to see a BMX bike show and some races (pigs, goats and ducks). Yes, I'm serious about the ducks.

It was neat being at the Fair at night. The lights on the rides really added to the exciting environment. We'll definitely be back next year!

Here is the pig race I alluded to above. They were surprisingly fast and the announcer was really into the race. They even played a recording of the bugle call from the Kentucky Derby before they released the pigs out of their shoots. Each pig had on racing colors and numbers that coordinated with real NASCAR drivers (i.e., #24 was "Piggy Gordon").

Here's a goat striding out towards the finish line. The pigs and goats raced for cheese and I think the ducks raced just for the pure fun of it.

Turns out that two-legged animals can't run very quickly. I thought this was the funniest race of all!

Here I am with the "medal" I won for my pitiful performance at a remote control car racing game. I think they just gave out medals to the absolute worst drivers--they only other one in our race to receive one was a kid who couldn't have been more than 7 years old. That's okay, I'm always happy to win medals, even for ridiculous and embarrassing reasons!
Look ma, no hands! It was pretty crazy to see these guys doing their tricks and jumps on the bikes. It was definitely all real--actually, several of the guys busted pretty badly landing their jumps. The crew rushed out and thankfully, every rider was fine and (eventually) finished the show. But it sure was exciting to see in person!

Here's another move. This guy is swinging the bike around under his body and getting it back in place to be able to land the jump. Craziness!

Welcome, Owen Timothy!

Thanks to my super-flexible schedule, I was able to play hooky from law school and drive to Winston-Salem to be with Ali and Kyle right after Owen was born.
Here's little pumpkin Owen, snoozing away.

Owen has the roundest face and the chubbiest cheeks. He is such a sweetie and at least for a few days, had the nickname "Cheeri-O."

Here I am cuddling with Owen on his 2nd day in the "real world."

Recent trip to Washington, D.C.

Jason and I headed up to DC a few weekends ago to catch up with my sister, Martha. She had us on a tight schedule and we headed to the zoo immediately when we got there. I was worried we were going to spend our weekend getting lost (I have a bad track record in big cities) but Martha was an excellent tour guide and host!
Jason studies the map of the zoo to figure out how he can sneak over to the aquarium while the girls harass the Red Panda some more.

This is the famous panda baby (born in fall of 2005 at the DC Zoo). It was a really hot day and all the animals seemed pretty lethargic--us included!

We got pretty close to some elephants playing with their toys. Oddly enough, it reminded us of being on the set of Evan Almighty and seeing the elephants and giraffes crossing the street in front of us.

Here is Martha holding a gorilla in the palm of her hand. Did you know the official scientific name is "gorilla gorilla gorilla?" It's true!

Martha and I pretend we are "gorillas gorillas gorillas."

We are still unclear on what the T-Rex head was doing at the DC Zoo, but Jason's never one to pass up a picture of gratuitous prehistoric carnage.

The king of the jungle just wanted to nap.

I'd have to say the highlight of the trip was a Segway tour of DC ("Segs in the City"). We met up with Evan and learned how not to kill ourselves or others while navigating around popular tourist spots. It was so much fun and saved our walking legs so we could see more of the city later.

Martha has fallen in love with the Library of Congress. She was insistent that we go see it but something made her crack up when I tried to take her picture. Look how much fun Segways are!

Here's a picture of the Capitol. We drove our Segways all of the way around it and I snapped this shot before we took off again.

This is a view of the Mall from the Capitol building. You can see the Washington Monument in the distance.

After a lovely dinner in Georgetown, we hopped in Martha's car and drove around to see the monuments all lit up at night. This is the side of the National Cathedral . We went to a Sunday morning service there the next day. It is an amazing cathedral both by night and in the day. It is the 6th largest Gothic cathedral in the world and it seems unreal to have a cathedral like this in such a young country. This is the front of the National Cathedral, on a beautiful October morning.

The inside of the cathedral is so elegant and lofty and focuses your mind on the majesty and grandeur of God. I really appreciated the contrast of worshipping in the National Cathedral as compared to the church we've been visiting in Raleigh that meets in an old run-down gym at a community center in a poorer part of town. Each reveal different aspects to me of the same God: awesome yet personally-knowable and concerned about the "least of these." We weren't able to see the stained glass at night but the sun shone through on Sunday and revealed the richness of color and the detail of the artisanship.

This is a shot of Martha and me outside of her apartment. It was a fantastic weekend and great to see where she lives and how much she's loving DC!