August 18 we traveled to our nations capital aka Aunt Eva’s house. My kids love going to see their cousins, my sister Eva has kids closest in age to mine. We are each others Yin and Yang, with her 3 sons and one daughter, my 4 daughters and 1 son they get lost in a world with one another and we pretty much have no interaction with them the entire time other than feeding them and making sure they shower occasionally. Cousins are a wonderful gift.
My sister’s oldest son is named Evan, but for some reason (Alyssa) the girls can’t wait to get there to call him Kevin. In return he calls Alyssa Melissa since she is obviously the reason for his misery. Tanner takes off into a world of Pokemon then entire time and Laura goes off into a world of make believe with my girls that I sometimes wonder if they will ever emerge from. At meal time I have to ask them to come out of character.
Hallie potty trained at my sisters house, I guess when you put 9 children in one townhouse, you get lots of “got to go potty” and she was the only one in diapers, well it ended on this trip. Why fight it, if the kid is begging to go, might as well play along. She has been in undies since we returned with most days a success.
We love living this close to so many opportunities to see new things. Unfortunately the week we went was record breaking heat. Yes I let my kids get into the fountains that I’m sure are look don’t touch in Washington D.C., with a heat index of 113 degrees, no one could blame me. The kids were awesome though, and we were able to see much of D.C., including an unofficial/unplanned tour of Georgetown during rush hour. I swear if I hear the GPS tell me one more time to make a legal u turn… got to love the roads, they turn all lanes to one way with no way to cross center islands when you need to make left hand turns.
One of my favorite places was Mt. Vernon. What a delightful little gem, we took a slavery tour that was an hour long, and the kids amazed and surprised me with their attention span. Learning more about George Washington was great. The kids of course loved the “necessary” (out house).
Next time we want to see Jamestown.
Grant was baptized and we were happy we could be a part of his day and proud of him.
MANASSAS BATTLE FIELDS: Eva’s house just about sits on the battle fields. History eeks out of everywhere.
MT. VERNON:
HIKING IN VIRGINIA:
WASHINGTON D.C.: You can see the heat on their faces
BEATING THE HEAT-LAKE IN MARYLAND:
GRANT’S BAPTISM
Good memories made, isn’t that what vacation is all about. Thank Eva and Rob for letting us hang with you, can’t wait until we get together again.