August 2008

HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY TESSA!!!

Thursday August 14, 2008

Tessa was very concerned about celebrating her birthday without all her Idaho friends and cousins to have a big party as she has had for past birthdays. It is uncertain if she was more concerned about no big party or that she would not get as many presents... So this year the focus was on Quantity of presents and not the Quality of the presents. Luckily wonderful folks from Idaho sent lots of little gifts to her and with the gifts from mom, dad & sister - she was spoiled - as always.

Mommy took Tessa's birthday off from work and we had presents and home made breakfast on the patio. Then we got in the car and drove an hour and a half to Eaton, Pennsylvania to the Crayola Factory for the day. The Factory was heaven for Tessa and Dagny - tons of arts and crafts projects. We were there until they closed. Below is the world's largest Crayon. Then we went to Friendly's for dinner and ice cream. It was a great birthday - even without the big party.

West Point Military Academy is 14 miles from our house. The campus is immaculately groomed with amazing buildings and an incredible view of the Hudson River. Below is pieces of the chain that stretched across the Hudson River (just under the waterline) to keep the British Ships from sailing up the Hudson to New England during the Revolutionary War. There are thirteen of the original links at West Point commemorating the original thirteen colonies.

The West Point Museum is the largest Army and History of War museum in the United States. The beautiful museum building is pictured below.

Every Sunday in the summers the Army band performs outside a West Point. Their band is not made up of cadets. They are professional musicians that have Masters and Doctorates in music. We went to their last concert - Labor Day weekend. We brought our blanket and picnic dinner and sat on the lawn and enjoyed the concert. Every American should attend this show - it was so powerful! They started with Big Band music, then the full orchestra came out and played Broadway favorite. They finished the performance with patriotic songs, including the Overture of 1812 (with real cannon fire - of course) and Stars and Stripes Forever with the backdrop of fireworks over the Hudson. Definitely a night to remember!