President asked me the other day what has been a surprise. The traffic for one. But the other is how beautiful it is here in Maryland and in DC. I always thought of this area as another big city. Not true. Here are some photos from the various seasons. And while this is not exactly how the calendar year would list the seasons, it is the way Carole King would sing about it (does that show my age???).
Summer
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| Elders in the Southern part of the mission at sunrise. |
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| And this is why we lose power for days on end following high wind storms. |
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| Elder Moss, Elder Stoor, Elder Chapman and Elder Fisher seek shade in the high heat. With the high humidity, the shade doesn't even feel cool at times. |
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| Lots of rain in the summer means lots of flooding. Now you know why your missionaries shoes end up looking the way they do. |
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| Elder Watson following one of our close calls with hurricanes. |
Spring
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| Cherry blossoms and the Washington Monument. Very DC. |
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| Elder Anderson, Elder Farley, Elder Morris and Elder Winkler on a preparation day during cherry blossom time. |
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| Tulips at the temple. |
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| Elder Shurtleff, Elder Kinne, Elder Howard, Elder Hutchison and Elder Johnson by the azaleas in front of the mission home. |
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| More cherry trees. |
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| There are azaleas everywhere. |
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| Sister Porter demonstrates how changeable the spring weather can be. They wanted to take pictures of the cherry tree as it was coming into full bloom. |
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| Good thing they got the picture the day they did because this is what it looked like the following day. |
Winter
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| Winter makes car checks an interesting activity. |
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| We only get this much snow a couple of times a year. |
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| Sister Wankier and Sister Welch by a part of a tree we associate with winter. |
Fall
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| There are trees like this throughout the area. |
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| Here is the departing missionaries during a fall trip to Arlington. |
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| There were no fallen trees at our home after Hurricane Sandy - just leaves. |
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| More beautiful color. |
