The Louisville Wilcoxes

Last weekend Dad and Jan (Dave's folks from Kentucky) made the 10-hour drive to meet their newest grandson. We had a great time hanging out with them, even though Meg was recovering from a cold and Dave was coming down with one. (Dad and Jan were great sports and took it slow for our sake.) As usual, I forgot to take our camera with me when we went out to do things, but we did get a couple of at-home shots...

Here's Dad and Matthew being sad together.


Here's Dad laughing as Jan and I try to pose him with Matthew.


The fruition of our bossing:


A cute, if somewhat blurry, shot of Dad, Jan and Meg.

(Isn't Jan a stylish lookin' grandma with her hip new glasses?)

Our one big day trip was a visit to the National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. Dave and I have been there several times and always enjoy it. It's a little bit unique as museums go; it's basically a HUGE (very nice) airplane hangar with a hundred or so airplanes inside. It also contains a real space shuttle (The Enterprise), a couple of flight simulator rides, and an IMAX theater.

We got to see one of the latest IMAX films (all except Dave, who removed a whining Meg from the theater about 15 minutes in), called "The Alps". The movie was very cool--lots of truly awesome, dizzying panoramas of the Swiss Alps. Seeing them in that setting put me in mind of God's mightiness--how great He must be who made those soaring heights just by speaking a word! And what a mystery it is that He placed within man this desire to subdue the earth and rule over it! How else to explain people like the movie's main character, a guy who wanted to climb one particularly terrible, very dangerous peak? (I won't say more or I'll have to include a spoiler warning,)

On a related note, this museum is one of my favorite places to see IMAX films, because at the beginning of each feature they do this amazing demonstration of the whole IMAX system--projector, sound system, etc. I know, I know, this is something that only the wife of a technical director would be interested in, right? No, really--it's so cool! My favorite part is when they show you where all of the speakers are located--mostly behind the massive screen, but also behind you, the audience, so that you get a serious surround-sound experience. Then they play this piece of music to show you how the system really works. It starts with just one speaker playing a simple melody line, then they add harmonies and rhythms one speaker at a time until you're literally enveloped by this lush, layered song!

Okay, enough rhapsodizing. Back to real life--and real life says that my baby is crying and my little girl is smelly.

We love you, Dad and Jan! Thanks for making the trip!