Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 At the gracious invitation of my brother Jaron and his family, Mark and I spent Christmas in Alabama. The more memorable parts of the trip were (of course) the nieces, and flight cancellations, with other highlights sprinkled along the way. As a warning, I took many pictures of Eliana, and not so many of Angela...because Angela is a fiercely independent and very active 2-year-old learning how unfair the world can be. The first thing to know about these cuties is that shoes--particularly ones that are too large for their little feet--are fascinating to them. Angela had a decided preference for her mother's high heels, whereas Eliana aimed mainly for her sisters' boots [except for that one time she wanted us to help her put on her mom's flip-flops, which really doesn't work when your entire body is only twice as big as the shoe itself]. Their shoes-of-choice meant that Eliana toddled with bowlegs, and Angela shuffled/clomped while trying to look as princessly as possible

I don't remember the number of hours, but whatever the quantity, my first date with Mark was long--we did lunch, then ice-skating, then ice cream. Obviously it went well enough that we both stuck around to get married less than a year later. Now that we're married, sans kids, I am not sure if a "marathon date" should technically be called a "day trip." Regardless of its title, the fact is we went somewhere else for half the day yesterday, and were suitably happy about it. The entire trip was planned around a single fact: we had a gift card for a fancy restaurant line. There is, actually, one of their restaurants in DC, but we weren't feeling sushi, so we chose their alternate cuisine at the restaurant in Alexandria. And of course, if we make the trip to Alexandria, we may as well do things in Alexandria that we couldn't otherwise enjoy in DC. So before dinner, Mark took me to Fort Ward where the volunteers with the National Park were giving a Christm