Washington Zoo

The next day, we headed to the D.C. Zoo, and had a great time!!!

 Ready for another hot day outside

 Kaden getting bit by a T-rex head

Shaylin getting totally eaten by that very hungry dino!

 

This Orangutan walked on this wire directly over our heads to end up in this enclosure so it could do a show for us.  Pretty crazy that it wasn't even in a cage, it could have gone anywhere in the zoo and hung out.

Nels and the kids watching the giraffes and elephants

 They had little spray areas to cool down, and the kids definitely took advantage of it!

I found a frog to kiss, cause everybody's got to kiss a frog :)

Washington D.C.

          We were so excited to be able to visit our nations capitol this year, even though it was hot (not as bad as I've heard it being, only in the 90's, but very humid). 

          We stayed with some friends in Manasses, VA, and drove to the capitol from there.  We had a great time, to great in the Natural History Museaum and ended up spending most of the day there.  The kids were in Heaven!  We saw dinosaurs, rocks, sea creatures, jewels, lava, Neanderthals, and much more!  What fun!!

The White House

Elise has always said she wants to be a police girl, so we got her to pose in front of the white house gaurd!

The Washington Monument

The Ohio sign in front of the World War II Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Haley caught in deep thought in front of the Vietnam Memorial

Shaylin being fed by the Neanderthal

Nicolas with all the rocks!  He was so excited!

The White House on our Way back to the car. Gorgeous!

 We realized we'd be heading home right in rush hour traffic, so we walked around a bit and found this gorgeous door, some people passed by and offered to take our picture, so we accepted.

 The next day, on our way to the zoo, we wanted to see the Pentagon, so here is a shot from the car as we drove by (yes, I was driving and taking pictures at the same time).

 We got a shot of the Capital Building from the car as well, since we weren't willing to make the walk to it after the museum.

We got stuck in a Falun Gong parade/Protest/Plea for help.  Pretty crazy, it was going through the lights, along with the flow of traffic, and was 10 blocks or more long!

Gettysburg

Well, we had the opportunity to do a bit of a history tour this summer. Our first stop was Gettysburg, and we thougoughly enjoyed seeing and understanding the things that went on there.

 The battlefield on Weatfield Drive (right across from the famous peach orchard)

The painting of the battlefield in the museaum's Cyclorama, done by a french artist a few years after the battle.  It was 42 feet tall, and 360 degrees around.  Pretty cool!

 One of the monuments out on the battlefield

 The kids and Nels sitting with Abe Lincoln in front of the museum

 Nicolas couldn't get over how cool everything was, especially these authenic cannon balls (he posed with a surprised face for almost every picture throughout our entire trip)

Shaylin, Brynlee and Sarah in the Gettysburg address room

Haley's pastime

Where's Haley you ask?? No one's seen her in three hours, where could she possibly be? Oh, there she is--she's reading. I had always wanted to be into reading like some of my friends were when I was growing up, but definitely never got there as a child. Haley, however, reads more than, not only every child I know, but every adult as well. During school she was reading a new book each afternoon. And not just little 100 page books, but over 300 pages, a lot of them, and she'd be done before dinner, bedtime at the latest. She's amazing!!!

Six months

Sarah is six months, infact, she's almost 7 months, and we are still loving every second! This month has brought quite a bit of fun for us all. At the beginning of the month, she started rolling all over around the floor, then she really got into eating food, and looks at us longingly during every meal. She has also started doing a very excited grunt that sounds like she's trying to show how excited but very tough she is, and has become so loud that I've had to leave 2 sacrament meetings due to her enthusiasm :) She also broke through her first two teeth this month! And the last and most fun thing (I think) is that she's starting to sit up. We had a friend come over to play for a few minutes, so we sat her up to say hi. I expected to have to hold her up, but she sat there for more than 5 minutes. She's gonna be a pro before we know it!!

 Very happy to be together

 Claire and Sarah

You can see one of her little teeth in this one!

Relaxation

I got the most pleasant surprise the other day.  I was sitting down nursing Sarah, and very ready to close my eyes for a little R&R, when Shaylin and Brynlee asked if they could give me a foot massage.  They had found some foot lotion, and wanted to practice with it, and I was in no way going to stop them, nor did I expect what I got.  It was not just a 2 second, have hearted little rubbing of my feet, but it was a 30 min. amazing foot rub!!  I was more than happy to stay all day in this chair!  What a treat!!!

I Never Expected #2

Ok, it’s July, and I feel it’s time to let you in on another of my, I never expected’s.

Life is good, my children are wonderful, but somehow when I began having children, I had this false assumption that things would remain clean.  

What everyone neglected to tell me was that they don’t. Our house would quickly be filled with inanimate objects that will be spread anywhere they get flung by anyone with the hands or the ability to do so. And they don’t find their home until someone decides it’s time to clear the floor. I know that sooner than later, the children will be gone and I'll be missing these messes, so I do accept this fact (most of the time). I did however capture a few of these crazy messes one morning before I cleaned up.

So, here are some pictures of these inanimate objects that seem to be completely happy in the middle of the floor, and almost seem to be asking for someone to step on them (especially the really sharp ones). 


We had a friend walk in on our apartment when we had just one child, and her toys were strewn everywhere. He commented, "We know who rules this house." Well, if anyone comes over and questions who rules this house, these pictures just might give you the answer!  So...

I never expected that I wouldn’t see the floors (or any other surface in my house) for many, many years. 

 Shaylin and Brynlee’s room before and after:

Haley and Elise’s room before and after: 

 

The office before and after: 

 

 Nicolas and Kaden's room before and after:

 

The basement before and after: