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| Historian smiles as he spells "symmetrical" correctly and wins the Richmond Times-Dispatch Spelling Bee. |
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| Historian congratulates another speller at the Richmond Times-Dispatch Spelling Bee. |
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| Historian thanks God for allowing him to win the RTD Bee. |
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| Orientation for the National Spelling Bee is over and Historian has his "gear," including this Spellebrity messenger bag. |
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| Each speller was given a "Beekeeper." This autograph book has a full page dedicated to each of the 278 spellers, including the speller's photograph, interesting facts about the speller and a fill-in question. The kids enjoyed collecting autographs all week. |
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| Historian and Lori Anne, six-year-old spelling phenom, from Woodbridge, VA. |
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| There just happened to be fireworks at National Harbor our first night there. |
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| Amazed by the fireworks (yes, this is posed). |
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| Warning: This is what happens to your brain when you've studied too many spelling words. |
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| Exchanging autographs with Philemon, from Ghana. |
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| Historian ended up collecting 140 autographs. |
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| Hall of Champions at the National Spelling Bee. |
The day after our arrival in National Harbor was Memorial Day. All spellers were invited to a Memorial Day Picnic.
Historian, Steady Man and I went to the picnic while our moms took the girls to the American Girl Doll Store at Tyson's Corner.
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| Historian was such a good sport to enter the hula hoop contest. |
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| Watching Historian hula hoop for the first time in his life was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. |
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| Some of the spectators agreed. |
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| Legs spread wide (to keep the hula hoop up) and arms in the air (to keep from hitting the hoop). |
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| He didn't stand a chance of winning, but he totally won for style. |
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| Steady Man is also a good sport. |
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| He was almost as funny to watch as Historian. |
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| Snow cone at the Memorial Day Picnic. |
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| Soccer at the picnic. |
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| Watching the juggler. |
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| This was taken right after Historian was playing soccer in the 90-plus degree heat. |
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| Dancing at the picnic. |
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| I have said before that I fell in love with Steady Man on the dance floor. |
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| These guys know how to have fun. |
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| Historian sat with Nickan on the bus ride back to the hotel. They talked about favorite books, pi (this was a particularly long discussion), spelling words and their etymologies and on and on. These two enjoyed hanging out all week. |
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| In the atrium at the Gaylord National. |
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| The kids with the best grandmothers kids could ever want! |
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All the media attention was unexpected.
On Wednesday, after the computerized Round One, we headed to Georgetown Cupcakes (made famous on the show DC Cupcakes, Fridays on TLC).
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| They were delicious! |
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| After Georgetown Cupcakes, we went to Great Falls, VA. Here, you find an unexpectedly lively prospect of the Potomac River. |
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| Super Dad. |
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| Getting ready for the assembly the night before Rounds Two and Three. |
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| Scoring pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailey's autograph. He is a rock star at the Bee. To Dr. Bailey's right is Paige Kimble, the director of the National Spelling Bee. |
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| One of the many billboards in the Hall of Champions featured a photo of each 2012 speller. |
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| Historian's photo. |
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| Historian and Lori Anne are about to be called onstage for Round Two. Historian held Lori Anne's hand and escorted her to her seat. They are good buddies. |
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| Historian is in the back row, far left. |
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| Historian spelled "wejack" correctly. A wejack is a woodchuck. |
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| Two Jumbotrons flanked the sides of the stage and featured information about each speller as they took their turn. |
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| Lori Anne is on deck to spell. |
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| So proud of her. |
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| Our wonderful sponsor from the Richmond Times-Dispatch. |
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| Historian was interviewed for a segment on Comcast Sports Network. |
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| During the interview, Historian complained that Spell Check doesn't recognize every word in the dictionary, for example, "weltanschauung." The interviewer's reply: "Geshundheit." |
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| Round Three. |
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| Historian spelled "vorago" correctly. |
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| Lizard waiting for the announcement of the semifinalists. Sadly, Historian didn't qualify for the Semifinals. |
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| Butterfly hamming it up right in front of a very handsome speller named Michael. We were beyond excited to meet two NSB spellers who use wheelchairs! |
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| We liked this sandwich shop so much that we went twice! |
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| These photos are for our peeps, you know who you are. |
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| A sculpture, called The Rising, at National Harbor. |
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| ESPN commentators prepare for the Spelling Bee Finals. |
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The day after the Finals, the entire family (minus my mom, who chose rest to touring), along with many other spellers, went on a tour of D.C.
I have about 30 more photos I want to share, but Google has determined that I've reached my limit for the month. I'm hoping I can post the remaining photos in July. If you liked the hula hooping photos, you won't want to miss the snapshots of my family dancing the night away!
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