We're Back... with Congratulations to Give

(Please find the links to more pictures in the post below.)

Michele and I spent the weekend (October 20 - 23) in the Washington DC area.

The morning before we left, we found out that Melissa and Steve had their baby boy! Jack Stephen was born on 10/20/2006 at 3:03 am. He weighed in at a MASSIVE 9 pounds, 4 ounces at 22 1/2 inches long. Melissa ran a fever during her 22 hour delivery, so there were a few issues, but everything seems to be better now, as Mom, Dad, and their newborn toddler are all at home in Brighton.

The first person in our house to find out that Melissa had her baby was Jen. Jen and Bret came into town late Thursday night so that we could all ride to the airport together fairly early on Friday.

So, why did the four of us decide to visit our nation's capitol? Well, that's where the second set of congratulations come in. Francesco and Tiffany tied the knot on Saturday, October 21. They had a beautiful wedding in a small chapel followed by an intimate lunch at one of the groom's family's restaurants. It was a great day and it really seemed to fit their personalities. After some people caught some quick naps (and Michele and I made it to Church) a few of us got together to watch the Tiger's game. We had some trouble finding a sports bar, and when we finally did, we were bummed by the Tiger's loss, and even more bummed by the crappy service we got at the bar.

Sunday found Bret, Jen, Michele, and I taking the Metro train into Washington DC to do the amount of sight-seeing that lesser people might take a week to do. We saw all of the following: The Air and Space Museum, The National Museum of Natural History, the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. We visited all of that even with taking some time out to grab lunch and watch part of the Lions game, and end the day at The ESPN Zone in time for the start of the Tiger's game. When the wives started to fall asleep in the booth, we decided to leave the restaurant in the 6th inning and made it back to the hotel in time to see the end of the game. Luckily, even on the underground train system, my Verizon phone kept a data connection and I was able to keep up with their win through the mobile version of MLB.com.

On Monday, we got up and drove into Arlington. We visited the Marine Corps War Memorial, and spent the rest of the morning in Arlington National Cemetery. In the early afternoon we headed back to Dulles to catch our flight back to Detroit.

It was a great, long weekend that we'll remember for the rest of our lives. The only thing that might have made it better is if we could have taken our son along with us. Jake still had some fluid in his ears, and we decided it was probably safer to leave him home than risk the flight along with being in a strange place in the event that he might need to go to a doctor. GnGT got to watch him Friday through Saturday and Meme and Papa got him Saturday night through our return on Monday. While you might think it's unfair that one set of grandparents got 2 nights while the other got 1, I think they'd disagree (probably not out loud though). Jake had a bit of trouble getting to sleep and did not keep to his usual bed time of approximately 6:30 pm. His bedtime, instead, swung from 9:30 to as late as 11:30. Other than that, it sounds like he did very well being apart from us. It was awesome to see the expression on his face as he saw us when we got back on Monday night.