Baltimore, Maryland

We visited two of the historic ships in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor; The USS Constellation and the USS Torsk. Rod was visiting for the weekend. The USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy in Norfolk in 1854. The ship was in service for a century being retired in 1954. One of the ship’s first missions was to Malaga, Spain in July 1856 to protect American nationals in the area during a period of civil unrest.   USS Torsk (SS-423) is one of two Tench-class submarines still located inside the United States. In 1945, Torsk made two war patrols off Japan, sinking one cargo vessel and two coastal defense frigates. The latter of these, torpedoed on 14 August 1945, was the last enemy ship sunk by the United States Navy in World War II.

December 2017

Adios 2017.  What a year this was with Milton joining the party.  And a party it is.  The second half of December was spent in Wyoming celebrating the Jensen Christmas.  Milton had a pretty awesome first Christmas. We were fortunate to have a snowstorm come while we were there so Owen got the snow I was telling him he would see in Wyoming.   The first week of December Rod came to visit and we went to Baltimore and to see the DC Temple lights.

Much like his brother, Milton has developed a love of wires and strings.  He will scoot all the way across the room after a wire. He especially loves Owen's juice cup and will kick it into super speed to get across the room to the cup. He isn't sleeping super well, but he is getting teeth.  He now has seven teeth with four on the top and three on the bottom.  He is almost crawling and will do a bunny hop type of thing on his knees.  Mainly his mode of movement is a butterfly stroke type of scoot. It looks identical to what Owen would do as a baby.

Owen continues to do really well at school with his friends and teachers.  My biggest achievement for December was that Owen finally pooped in the toilet.  This masterpiece was accomplished while in Wyoming.  The best Christmas present for me from Owen.  He would only poop while in a diaper so I knew there would be some sort of breakthrough while in Wyoming when he is in underwear all day long.

Petersburg, Virginia

The siege of Petersburg lasted nine and a half months with a total of 70,000 casualties. This was the final decline of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.  From here General Ulysses S. Grant cut the supply lines to Petersburg that ensured the fall of Richmond on April 3, 1865.  It was just six days later that General Lee surrendered. Owen loved seeing all the cannons and Milton loved being able to get out on the grass. We also visited Grant’s Headquarters at City Point which had a very excellent overlook of the James River. 

Thanksgiving 2017

This year we were able to host Thanksgiving at our house.  A very exiting event for me in that this is the first time we have been able to host a sit down meal with family. After the 10+ years of going to Thanksgiving at Sara and Bob's farm it was great that they were able to come up. Every year the YMCA holds the Turkey Chase race on Thanksgiving morning.  When I was in high school I would volunteer in the mornings starting at 6 am handing out the race packets for that day.  This year we signed up Damon for the 10k which was around our neighborhood.  The race went up Pooks Hill Road and onto Linden.  Damon placed 45th overall out of 3087 and 6th out of 129 for his age division.  His overall time was 39:07 with a pace of 6:19. Not too shabby.

Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Maryland

The site was established to protect the home and property of Thomas Stone, one of the 56 signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. His home and estate were owned by the Stone family until 1936.

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, Pennsylvania

Hopewell Furnace was in operation from 1771-1883 as an iron plantation. The Federal Government acquired the property in 1935. The restored buildings include a blast furnace, the ironmaster's house and auxiliary structures including a blacksmith's shop, a company store and several worker's houses. The site's most prosperous time was during the 1820–1840 period with a brief boom in production during the American Civil War. In the mid-19th century, changes were made in iron making including a shift from charcoal to anthracite. This change rendered smaller furnaces like Hopewell obsolete. Owen liked seeing the huge water wheel and bellows.

Fort Washington, Maryland

Fort Washington is at the mouth of Piscataway Creek overlooking the Potomac River.  The river makes almost a complete right angle turn with Fort Washington being at that corner.  Directly to the north is Washington DC and to the West is Mount Vernon. Both are easily visible from the top of the Fort's battery. The first fort on the site was Fort Warburton which was built from 1809 to 1814.  During the War of 1812 it was destroyed and then the British were able to continue their movement to burn Washington in August of 1814.  The new fort built on the site became Fort Washington. At the time of the fort's completion, it was the only defense for the Nation’s Capital until the Civil War.  During the Civil War a circle of temporary forts was built around the city. It was used throughout all of the subsequent American wars. During World War II an attachment of the Women's Army Corps was stationed at the fort. Then in 1946 the fort and grounds was turned over to the National Park Service. I am happily teaching Owen the importance of national park passport stamp collecting.  Owen and Milton even have their own books. Owen loved seeing all of the cannons i.e. "boom"