Wendy

Hi Lingo Folks,

Hope you're doing well and thawing out from this cold winter. My kids have had three snow days . . . in Georgia! That is unheard of. It's just starting to warm up and our hydrangea bush is starting to bloom, so spring in on the way.

Our big news is we put our house up for sale and are planning on moving back West to be closer to our families, once it sells. We've been out here 13 years and we've been feeling the push to live much closer to family, so hopefully we'll see y'all more often! It works out well with my husband's job, since he works from home when he's not traveling. We're narrowing down our cities to Boise, Idaho Falls, or Salt Lake and are making it a matter of prayer. It's a big decision, but we're not thinking too much about it until our house sells, and with the crummy real estate market, it may take a while. Our kids are very excited to move, and it's a good time to do it while they're still young.

We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Philadelphia. Justin and our girls won a song cover contest with his favorite band called Good Old War, and the prize was to sing with the band at their concert in Philly on Saturday night. So we drove 14 hours on Friday, dropping off Benjamin with Ryan and Cheyney on the way (he loved it!). We stayed with Justin's aunt and uncle in Philly and Justin's brother and his family drove down from Vermont to see us. On Saturday afternoon, we toured Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Then they performed with the band at 11 pm, just minutes after our son threw up on Justin. It was a memorable night all around. The band members were really cool and it was awesome to meet them and jam with them. You can check out some of their music videos at: http://goodoldwar.com/video/

Justin and our girls sang "Coney Island"--very catchy. They have great music--influenced by Paul Simon.

On Sunday, we visited the sites in D.C. We saw the Washington Monument, the new WWII monument, Vietnam Memorial, and my favorite, the Lincoln Memorial. Then we did a speed tour through the American History Smithsonian, and then drove that evening to Ryan and Cheyney's in Raleigh to spend the night and pick up our boy.

It was a quick, fun trip and are so glad we did it. I was thinking of taking our kids on a week long trip to see the historical sites in DC, and I'm so glad we just spent an afternoon there--it was plenty of time for little kids. I'd love to go back to the Smithsonians without kids some day and spend a week seeing all the exhibits, but for now, 4 hours was perfect!

Congrats to Lucy on her adorable little Garrett. So very blonde and chubby! I can't believe Grandma Lindgren has a new grandson!!

Love,
Wendy