"Bethany, Meet NJ. NJ, Meet Bethany."

Imagine it: Five strange looking characters hanging around the Continental security checkpoint in Newark Airport. One young male was enjoying doughnut holes and a water bottle. A middle aged gentleman was explaining to his fellows why he had insisted upon carrying a luggage cart up the escalator. A middle aged woman stood with a cookbook and spiral notebook attempting to plan a menu. A young, almost 20ish female offered meal suggestions, and another young female sat on the floor reading The Assassins attempting to not eat any more doughnut holes. Such the security guards saw at 11:30 PM on the 15th of June, 2011. Why did the Carlsons, for such were the five characters, sit this way around the Continental secruity checkpoint in Newark Airport on the night of 15th of June, 2011?

They were expecting a visitor.
Yes, we have just had two amazingly brilliant two weeks with Bethany Hammermaster, one of the famous cousins living in Washington State. The two weeks consisted of running a garage sale, setting up a pool, and getting sick. Okay, that's not all of what the two weeks consisted of. Since a blow by blow retelling of the two weeks could be rather long and, especially for you all, a little painful, I'm simply going to pick a few of the highlights from her visit.
1. I loved introducing her to all of our friends out here. Our friends and our cousins have both had to listen to my rapturous rants about the other, and so I was delighted to finally have my two "worlds" meet.
2. We went into New York City twice during her visit, and during the first one, we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I already love the museum, but this time, my enjoyment was compounded with the fact that Bethany was wandering the rooms with me. The two of us stood in front of painting numerous times and said to one another, "Can you believe that it's really a painting? It looks like a picture!" ...and with the help of Julie and several security persons, we successfully found a Rembrandt.

















3. The second time we went into the City, Bethany, Julie, and I took on the metropolis by ourselves and tried to look like we knew what we were doing. Acting thus, we confidently walked onto the express Subway and laughed our heads off as our stops flew by. (For those of you who don't know: Express subways don't stop at each and every stop. They pick you up at one stop and whiz you to a far-away stop. If you want to stop at every station and get off at the station you were hoping too, Bethany, Julie, and I would suggest making sure you are getting onto the LOCAL subway.) We also confidently wandered a bit more than we normally do, but the entire trip was a success: We found Ground Zero, Trinity Church, Balto, and Alice in Wonderland (Another statue in Central Park). One highlight within this highlight was the fact that we discovered Alexander Hamilton's grave. Despite of what you might think of Hamilton, I consider him a genius, so was THRILLED to find his grave. And, throughout the day, most importantly, we created memories.

4. On one Thursday, Julie was going to take her friend, Becca, out for the morning. Bethany and I went along to spend time with Becca, and for something different, spent the morning at the mall.

5. Another highlight was learning how to waltz. I've had it explained to me several times, and Julie and I have tried to figure it out from closely watching waltzing in movies, but to no avail. Now Julie, Andrew, and I all know how.




Obviously, we made many more than five memories or had more than five highlights of our time together. But these are "a few of my favorite things."Even though Bethany left last Wednesday, the events have not ended over here.

Thursday was Julie's 20th birthday, and in celebration we went swimming with friends and attended the stupendous performance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey.

This weekend is filled with VBS prep, packing for Boy Scout camp (Andrew), packing for the Family Conference (Julie and me), and the other every day activities!