Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Tuesday's agenda of sites to see included George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Holocaust Museum, Washington National Cathedral, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. Mrs. H. had mentioned in one of her emails that one of the parents was trying to arrange for a visit to a special place, and that turned out to be the Holocaust Museum. They replaced the visit to the National Air and Space Museum with a visit to the Holocaust Museum. Chase is getting to spend lots of time with the crew on this trip, something he definitely enjoys. Mama was excited about the black sheep she saw at Mount Vernon; their picture is below. Mama texted to Nanaw that: "After Mount Vernon, we did the Holocaust Museum. So sad. Then the National Cathedral, then mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The kids hung out in the lobby when they got back before dinner. They ate in the mall and Chase and I got Auntie Anne's pretzels, and Will got Mama a Stromboli from a pizza place. Their mall is crazy busy like ours used to be. After dinner we went to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. I didn't take any photos but I sent one from online. The Memorial is outside the building. On each bench is the name of someone who was on the plane or in the building working who died. So sad. After that, we came back to the hotel. The kids hung out in the lobby till 9:30, which is our curfew to go to their rooms. (We're on Eastern time.) Tomorrow we have to eat at 7:45 and leave at 8:15 for another busy day." Nanaw took Sylvester over to his house around noon because the cleaning lady came to Nanaw's house today. Nanaw managed to get all four cats downstairs, which is a miracle. Below, towards the end, is a picture of Sylvester in the Gascar chair and then one on his walk. Nanaw wasn't able to get Taylor in the cat stroller today so it was just Nanaw and Sly. He saw three other dogs and a runner so he had lots to bark at. 

Monday, March 23, 2026

Mama texted trip reports to Nanaw: "The phones are back with us again lol.  We had them until about 9. I think Chase got a nap earlier. I’m in front of Nick's dad, across from Michelle, and behind AJ and Will.  Our Will is diagonally across from me and Chase/Brady are 4 rows ahead.  We miss Becky; she’s up towards the front. I watched an episode of PD so far and read on the Kindle. We ate at Golden Corral. I don’t know what Chase ate because we didn’t sit together. I think the mall food court happens later?" Mama sent the picture below of what she called a delicious cookie that Lorelei's mother made. Mama took a bite out of it before she took a picture. Evidently, the teachers take the kids' phones away every once in a while so they don't have them all the time. Nanaw will have to ask Mama about that. They're going to have dinner in Arlington, Virginia, and that's where they're staying.  Mama reported that they passed by the CIA, which is very exciting. They ate at the mall in Arlington; Mama, Daddy and Chase all had orange chicken from Panda. After dinner, they went to the hotel where they're on the 5th floor. They played cards down in the lounge for a bit. Mama bought Chase a Shirley Temple, then they all went up to their room. DC is about 20 minutes away from where they're staying in Arlington. Mama said Father Brian is there; he may have been one of the people who flew there rather riding the bus. Mama says they start all the stuff tomorrow. Nanaw took Sylvester and Taylor for a walk this afternoon; Sylvester was on his leach and Taylor was in the cat stroller. Nanaw brought some of the guys over to her house to spend the week with her. 

Sunday, March 22, 2026

The first photo below is a selfie Chase sent to Nanaw yesterday. In the weekend hockey tournament, Mama texted that Chase's team tied their first game on Sunday. Then later, at the 1:15 game, Mama sent a picture of her and Chase in the penalty box; Mama was working in the penalty box and Chase got a penalty. But in the photo, they're both grinning so it must have been okay. The third photo is Chase on the ice. The team won the second Sunday game, which was Chase's last game with Affton, 3 to 0. Mama says Chase has played with them for four years, and they've made lots of friends. This tournament was Chase's last with Affton. Next, he starts playing with Columbia. At about 4:30. Mama and Chase brought Sylvester and Tyler and all of their paraphernalia over to Nanaw's house. Chase stayed to visit with Nanaw till 6. He played on his phone for a while, then he and Nanaw went into his room to play pencil hockey. They call it pencil hockey and sometimes pencils are involved. But it also involves hockey sticks, plastic knives, machetes, a hatchet, and lots of other random things Chase uses to hit plastic balls into the hockey net. What a character he is! When Nanaw took Chase home, Mama was in his room packing his clothes for the DC trip. They have to be up at school by 3:15 a.m., and they'll leave at 3:45 a.m. Hopefully, Mama will keep Nanaw up-to-date on their activities in DC.

Saturday, March 21, 2026

On Saturday morning, Mama texted Nanaw that Chase's hockey team won their Friday night game 6 to 0. Chase got an assist on one of the goals his team made, which was very exciting. Chase plays defense and doesn't get much time with goals so this was really special. Mama sent Nanaw a picture of Chase on the ice and of the scoring showing that Chase got the assist. Later in the day, Mama texted Nanaw just before the Saturday hockey game started about what Chase had done during the day. She and Chase went to Dollar General to buy snacks for the trip to DC. Later he did some baseball and then had some screen time. In the evening, Mama texted that the team lost their evening game 5 to 0, and it was awful. Everybody thought that the other team added some A level players to make their team better, which they're not supposed to do. She said parents were yelling, and it was not fun. Hopefully, that won't happen in tomorrow's game.

Friday, March 20, 2026

Chase was happy he didn’t have to study for anything before school on Friday morning. He made sure to take his Mount Vernon poster so he could turn it in when he went to history class. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told Nanaw he had good news about who he was sitting with on the bus ride to DC. He wanted Nanaw to guess but her guesses were wrong. Chase finally told Nanaw that he was riding with Brady. Brady is one of Chase’s best friends and always has been so Chase is really happy about this. For awhile after school, Chase and Nanaw spent time in Chase’s room. Chase played pencil hockey while Nanaw sat in the special rocking chair putting together the papers for her income taxes. Next, they went into the dining room where Chase played on the computer and Nanaw finished up with the taxes. Chase had a hockey game tonight in one of his final tournaments with Affton. He also has games tomorrow and Sunday. Mama told Nanaw that hockey Coach Dave and his wife were going to Rockbridge on Monday -- Coach Dave wanted to do some trout fishing. That’s a fun thing. Uncle Mike told Nanaw yesterday that he should have ridden along with Aunt Becky and her friends yesterday when they were going to Mansfield, Missouri, which is close to Rockbridge. He said he dould have gotten a day pass at Rockbridge to fish. But he didn't do it. 

Thursday, March 19, 2026

Chase and Nanaw studied for the science test again on Thursday morning. On the drive to school, Chase told Nanaw he thought he would do well on the test, maybe even get a 100. Nanaw said that if he got a good grade, she would take him to one of the big, fancy Schnuck's stores, and he could spend some of her $70 in rewards funds on whatever he wanted. Chase liked that idea. During the day, Uncle Mike and Nanaw went on an adventure to the Monroe Recycling Center, which also takes trash. Nanaw had lots of trash bags from stuff in the basement, and Uncle Mike brought along some things he wanted to get rid of. Uncle Mike and the man who works there threw everything but the metal things into a big trash truck. At one point, the man ground things up in the truck, which was interesting to watch. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she didn't ask about the science test because Chase says sometimes she asks too many questions. He finally volunteered that he might have gotten a 100 on the science test, or an A. Nanaw was happy about that. At Nanaw's house, he finished up his Washington DC poster on Mount Vernon to turn in tomorrow. He has an English test tomorrow on phrases, clauses and verbals, but told Nanaw that the English class has spent the past couple of days intensive studying for Friday's test, and that he didn't need to do any more studying. Nanaw said, okay, go play! And he did.

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

On Wednesday morning, Nanaw reminded Chase about turning in his vocabulary packet and going home with Brady after school. It was early dismissal today, and Nanaw had a church meeting and couldn't pick him up till 2:30. In the afternoon, as Nanaw was going to pick Chase up at Brady's house, she got a text from Chase saying that Debbie was taking Emma, Brady and Chase to Dairy Queen and that Nanaw should pick him up there. Debbie treated them all to ice cream, which gave her three happy kids. Back at Nanaw's house, Chase said he was going to work on his Washington, DC poster, and then they could study for Thursday's science test. Nanaw would have rather spent the whole time studying for the science test but Chase really wanted to work on his poster so they did. The students had to select one of the places or monuments they were going to visit in DC and make a poster about that monument. Chase selected George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. Chase did a really good job on the poster, and when it's completely finished, she'll take a picture of it for Days of Chase. He still has a white space on the poster, and he wants to include a picture or two of George Washington at Mount Vernon there. For the science test, there was a lot of material to study: the textbook and the review highpoints and study questions in the textbook; the multi-page packet covering chapter 5, and the notes Chase took in his notebook covering the material that would be on the test. He did a good job studying and planned to study again tonight. Then tomorrow morning before school, Chase and Nanaw would go through the material again. The second picture below is a time hop photo from Mama's Facebook page from seven years ago.