theparkerfamily.org

  • Photos: Christmas Decorations, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia


    Originally uploaded by evancparker.


    Originally uploaded by evancparker.

    Christmas in Williamsburg, and it’s time for the obligatory walk around the historic area (Colonial Williamsburg) looking at the Christmas decorations. For the first time since high school, though, we added the decidedly un-Colonial (but still spectacular) tree lighting on Christmas Eve.
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    Colonial Williamsburg Tree Lighting, Virginia

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    Christmas Decorations, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

  • Photos: Christmas Lights, Washington, DC


    Originally uploaded by evancparker.

    I have one empty weekend between Thanksgiving and New Years this holiday season, and I took the Saturday night to wander around the staples of Christmas in DC: the Capitol Christmas tree, the train display at the U.S. Botanical Garden and the ice skating rink in the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden.

    I am sure I should be out shopping, or home throwing a Christmas party, but it doesn’t look like either are going to happen this year. Perhaps it’s for the best.

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    Christmas Lights, Washington, DC

  • Wedding: What’s next?

    If you thought it was uncomfortable reading my posts about bridesmaids dresses, it gets worse: Flowers.

    I was practically a theatrical design major in undergrad, so I have a background in dresses and clothing (even if it is suppressed in the deep, dark, nether-regions of my brain that’s been reserved for NASCAR and Debbie Gibson appreciation up ’til now).

    When The Lady Sparkler was looking through Aria for bridesmaids dresses, she tripped on a series of flowers that she liked the look of. Fall colors (appropriate for that whole “October” thing) and very natural looking. No soccer-ball shaped bouquets that look like all the flowers have had the life squeezed out of them.

    The Lady Sparkler and I are both (for the most part) minimalists and traditionalist. Especially with nature, less is more, and simple is better that a veritable cacophony of color and organic matter.

  • Photos: National Museum of Natural History

    [Natural History Museum, Washington, DC]
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    National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC

  • Photos: Washington Monument

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    View from Washington Monument, Washington, DC

  • Photos: National Mall

    Day two of the Parker Brothers’ tour of DC.

    This time we stayed much closer to home, including my first trip to the top of the Washington Monument since it reopened earlier this decade, a quick “thaw” trip to the Natural History Museum, and a jog around the sites on the National Mall.

    Collin’s got a great eye, and you can check out his pictures of our tour on Flickr.

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    National Mall, Washington, DC

  • Photos: Great Falls National Park and Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

    Day one of the Parker Brothers’ photo tour of the greater metropolitan Washington, DC area.

    For Collin’s birthday in August, the family chipped in together and got him a gently used Canon 10d, and he has been taking at least one photograph a day ever since.

    We started our two day shooting event on Saturday by heading west, hitting Great Falls and a drive by of the North District of the Shenandoah National Park.

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    Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

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    Great Falls National Park, Virginia

  • Photos: D.C at Night, Washington, DC

    After practically a year of trying, my brother is in town for the weekend.

    He was originally supposed to come last March for the Washington DC Regional of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (for those of you paying attention, that was the tourny where hometown-heros George Mason knocked off Connecticut). My sister-in-law went into labor about a month early, and so he missed possibly the two best days of basketball in recent memory.

    After the first attempt didn’t work out so well, we tried to get together this fall for a couple of sporting events (a DC United and a Washingtion Nationals game) but he managed to herniate a disk in his back, and was on his butt for a couple of months.

    Finally, this weekend, with only weeks left before his Southwest ticket expired, we got him down here for a Wizards game and a couple of days of R&R.

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    D.C at Night, Washington, DC

  • Travel: CTSG Reunion, Las Vegas, Nevada

    I don’t have the time or the inclination or the mental fortitude to do my usual blog post per expedition this trip, so I have dumped everything into two batches of photos: the former contains the pictures I took while wandering the casinos, and the latter contains pictures of the CTSGers that showed up.

    On a personal note, I had a great time in Vegas … even ignoring the drunken debauchery. It’s nice to have post-employment validation that I worked with an exceptional group of people, and we had a pretty excellent run.

    Ah, closure.

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    CTSG Reunion, Las Vegas, Nevada

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    Inside the Casinos, Las Vegas, Nevada

  • Travel: South Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada

    There are a lot of things to call “strange” about this weekend.

    First of all, I haven’t pulled an all nighter since College. Second, I have never had any plans to go to Vegas (don’t gamble). Third, if I were to be in Vegas and were to have pulled an all-nighter, I absolutely would not get up the next morning at 9 am and wander around the south-end of the Las Vegas strip.

    Turns out I was wrong on all three counts.

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    South Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada