good food + fun travel + baby Ira = happiness (Sharon)

-Sharon Update-
Hello Family!

It feels like it's been ages since I've written.

* Ira makes us smile constantly. We took him to the pediatrician today for his check up, and he's now 22 inches long, and 11 lbs! That's up from the 20.5 inches, and 7 lbs 8 oz he was born at. Yep, he's chunking up nicely. The doc called him "alert" and "very sturdy." He's moving his head around really well, and sometimes isn't content unless he's standing on our laps with some help. AND he's starting to sleep longer stretches at night which is a pattern we're hoping continues.

* Food: Anthony and I have had fun cooking lately. I've made pesto, and palak paneer, and stuffed shells for the first time. And today I attempted and failed at my first sponge cake. It was a little mix up between the word egg 'yoke' and egg 'white.' Details details. Maybe next time. Anthony made some rocking gnocci from scratch the other day. Mmm.

* Movies: We still haven't cancelled our netflix "trial," and have seen some good flix lately. We're watching "A Room With a View" as I type. I think the whole Ellsworth side has seen and loves it, but we keep talking about how much the Quinns would love it, especialy you Valine.

* Williamsburg! We had a great week with the Quinns (Valine, Paul, and Mckay) in Virginia. I guess it was a couple of weeks ago now. We were able to spend time in Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown. We "touristed" like crazy by day, and feasted upon the Olympics by night. For those of you ever planning a trip there, I'd suggest a trip to Monticello, Jefferson's house. It gave Anthony and I lots of architectural ideas for our future estates. :) The snow gave Mom and Dad a break long enough to come down and meet us for Ira's baby blessing on Sunday. I felt incredibly blessed to have such a strong support of priesthood holders on both sides of the family. It was sweet to see Ira surrounded by such kind, loving, righteous men.

Alright, gotta go feed the little bambino. Blame any typos on my being distracted by the movie. Love you all!

Sharon

P.S. O.k., so Ant and I just got to the part in A Room With A View with nudity. It's really innocent and funny. But, it's definitely nudity. So....just wanted to throw in that warning and disclaimer. Actually now that I think about it, it reminds me of Quinn male bonding skinny dipping rituals I've heard tales of. :)

Williamsburg to Yorktown Battlefield

Williamsburg
I feel inclined to finish the account of our visit to Virginia and America's Historic Triangle. As mentioned in earlier posts we started with Jamestowne. Progressing through time our next visit was Williamsburg. This is a really fun place to visit because the whole city has been restored or preserved and they have people dressed and role playing as if they were from the time period right before the revolutionary war, the early 1770's. They have shops set up where artisans are creating products just as they would have back in the day. I guess it is pretty hard to get an apprenticeship there. I really enjoyed talking with them and learning about how they got their apprenticeships, how/why the were interested in devoting so much time to them. It takes several years to progress form an apprentice to a journeyman, to a master. They have great information on the time period and give perspective on what it was like living in the time. The highlight locations for me were: The Court House, The Governor's "Palace", Furniture shop(They had a harpsichord you could play), the tailor, and the coffee house (hot chocolate). We missed talking with some of the bigger names in town like Patrick Henry, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.

It was great being there this time of year. No lines to get in and out of shops and tours and no hot humid weather. The down side was we didn't get to see the gardens in full bloom.

Mckay playing the harpsichord.The Governors "Palace.
Leather wall paper in one of the rooms.

Yorktown Battlefield
Our last stop was the Yorktown battlefield. This is where the last major battle of the revolutionary war was fought. General George Washington and the French cornered General Cornwallis and a large British Army in Yorktown. The French Navy kept the British Navy from showing up to bail out General Cornwallis. 8,000 troops surrendered. The trenches that both sides made during the siege have been recreated and old artillery is still in place. Interesting to see. At the state 'Victory Park' there was a camp setup with role players in it. They showed us around a camp and fired one of the guns. It was informative. The trenches were the most amazing thing to me. To think that the 17,000 troops put them up in just days with the equipment they had boggles my mind.

You can see all our pictures from the week at our Williamsburg album.

Those interested in Ira pictures can see the Ira album.