DC West Reunion

We went to Maryland and stayed in a hotel for a few days. Jennifer fed us on Sunday and Monday night.  We had great food all reunion. On the first day of the West Reunion we parked at Arlington Cemetery and walked over to the monuments.

We headed over the FDR first.  The famous Elanor is over there.  

Joshua and Dallin have both done projects on the WWII memorial so they were all excited to see it in person.

Evan was dancing with the duck.  It was so cute.

FDR posing with the dog.

WWII memorial posing by Texas.

WWII memorial posing by Idaho.

Martin Luther King Jr monument is really neat as well!

We made it to the Lincoln Memorial.  

Proof we were there.  It was so hot and sweaty.  lol

Great view and the kids did pretty good with all of that walking.

One night we had dinner at one Jonathan's house.  They set up a slip and slide.  We had snow cones and face painting.   

They also did laser tag.  My kids were in heaven!

Evan loved all of their toys!

We headed to Baltimore on the third day.

We went to the National Aquarium.  It was really neat.

I took three with me.  It was dark and crowded in there.  I was afraid of losing kids so we went ahead a little bit.

We caught the dolphin show.  It was super neat!

We checked our the sub.

 Proof we were all there.

This actually happened on the second day.  The kids were tired of walking so they opted to go on the bounce house.  

 The kids had a great time playing with their Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.

Later they went on paddle boats.  They enjoyed them!

The final day we did picnic in the park.  The kid had a blast.  It was sad leaving all the cousins, but we left with great memories.  

Happy Birthday Dallin!

We celebrated Dallin's birthday at Kira's house.  We got him a ice cream cake.  We ate pizza and donuts for breakfast.  We went to the zoo and Air and Space Museum.  It was a great day!

Dallin is a great athlete.  He has determination and competitiveness that is very admirable.  He is thoughtful and speaks his mind.  He can be shy and needs his breaks from crowds and people.  He always listens to his teachers in church and school.  He may complain about his chores but he will always do them and do them well.  We are so glad he is a member of our family.  We love you Dallin. Happy Birthday!

Visiting the Browns

We arrived 5 minutes before I told kira we would.  We had to wait for her to get home, so we played with her outside toys.  Aaron muscled his way up the slide.  I am amazed by his determination and strength.  

It was so nice to get out of the car and stretch our legs.

We finally got to meet Calvin.  He is so cute and even let me pick him up on first meeting.  ha ha

We got a tour of a battlefield.  It was hot, but we enjoyed the tour.

This wall is the original wall still standing for the Civl War.

My boys and their guns.  They are very interested in history especially the battles.

We had to stand in front of the cannon.  

We went to the zoo.  The kids had a great time looking at all of the animals.

The kids loved to take a break in the shade.

We got to see the pandas.  I have never seen the pandas so it was fun!

We rode the Metro to the Air and Space Museum.  

The kids love their airplanes.

They loved the Metro.  They thought it was pretty fun to be so far below ground.  We don't have basements here, where we live, so it was neat for them to go below.

We played some Uno, and ate lots of yummy food!

We checked things out at the National Mall.

Evan found a painted rock at church.  He was so proud of it.

All of us outside Church.

We did a rope climb.  It was so fun!

I loved watching my kids work together and overcome their fears.  Thanks Kira and family for such a fun time!

July Activities

Michael, the big boys, and I all did a 5k.  It turned out to be perfect weather.  We ran right after it rained.  Dallin passed me at the 2 mile mark.  I totally thought I had him beat.  He ended up placing third in his age category, which is 14 and under.  Impressive!  I will have to do some speed train.

On Monday night we went to Firewheel and watched the fireworks.

I just had to prove I was there too.  ha ha

The fireworks were fun, and the kids had a great time!

I tried to take a pic of my cute little boys and their 4th of July outfits, but Aaron doesn't like to sit still.

We had a bbq on the 4th.  Rylan has the best sad face.

Peter was brave and played with some frogs.

We did some slipping and sliding.  Uncle Dustin even got in on the action.