DC

We spent a week driving to DC and visiting my sister Jenny, her husband Greg, and their 5 month old little girl Anna. This is a LOOONG post with LOTS of pictures...I tried to keep it concise...didn't exactly succeed :)  But I didn't want to do lots of smaller posts, so this is what you get.  And I didn't name everyone in the pictures...just guess who is who ;)

So here are the highlights of the trip....

Packing up the car with the cartop carrier, getting loaded up, and taking off.  Z was out by 8, but the little boys weren't asleep until after 9.  That should have been a warning for me.  

rying to get the kids to bed the first night in the hotel.  We didn't bring packnplays since Jenny had some we could borrow, so we set a sheet on the ground, turned off the lights, and brought the (not sleeping) little boys in. Z climbed into the bed with us, while we put the little boys on the sheet. And they laughed. And talked. And walked around with blankets on their heads. And banged on the desk. And pulled my hair. And hit our faces. And laughed. And talked. The banging, though, that was what finally made us get up...we didn't want to wake up the neighbors (at 330 in the morning, by this point).  So Nate and I left Z sleeping by himself in the middle of the kingsize bed while we laid down on the floor and attempted to hold the little boys down to make them sleep. They settled down a bit, but then someone would make a noise..."Uh? Dada? Ma? Boo?"...and the other two heads would pop up and start repeating it, then giggle.  L was the worst...he giggled like a lunatic and it was like wrestling a pig to hold him down.  It took over 2 hours for them to finally fall asleep. 

Having a picnic breakfast on the floor in the hotel under the desk in the "kingsize business room". 

Stopping at a rest stop on the way there to eat lunch. The boys loved it and we had a fun hour break.

Enjoying the fireworks set off by Jenny and Greg's neighbor.

Playing at a park in their neighborhood in the 100 degree weather. It was unbelievably hot there all week.

Swimming in 2 different neighborhood pools with all the boys. 

A totally random woman (with no kids) talking to us in the baby pool who says "What the hell?", and Z repeating it over and over, louder and louder until I finally stop him because he is too loud (didn't want to call attention to the language and make him use it more, and there were no other kids in the pool). 

Driving into DC and going to the Natural History museum. Z loved it! We saw reptiles, bugs, dinosaurs, ocean stuff, and mammals. Life can't get any better for Z. The little boys were great too. They sat in their wagon and didn't complain at all, until the very end. We ate lunch there and then headed home. I wanted to do more, but know that we will be back a lot, so we can see all kinds of cool stuff as the boys get bigger.  And yes, this is the ONLY picture I took then. It was crowded and I wanted to enjoy it with the boys. 

The little boys being intrigued by Anna, and her being less than intrigued with them! 

Greg's awesome cooking...fajitas, pork chops, waffles, hamburgers....and eating ice cream! 

Z singing to, bouncing, and being extra sweet to cousin Anna.  She loved him. 

Sleeping all 6 of us in a room for 5 of the 7 nights we were gone.  Their house is a cape, and upstairs was super hot (since it was over 100 about every day we were there), so we brought the little boys into the bedroom with Nate, me, and Z. They actually slept really well. 

Z getting Transformers as a handmedown from Jenny's neighbor. She has fabulous neighbors...the oldest daughter helped me with the little boys when we were at the pool, and the middle son cleaned out his room and let Z play with some of his toys, then offered them to Z to keep. What a gift!

Playing Wii with Z after the little boys went to bed. He loved it! We played baseball, golf, boxing, and jousting. Nate and I kind of had fun too :)

Jenny and I sorting thru 2 FULL shoeboxes and 2 envelopes of old childhood pictures and sorting them out.  We are going to have them all scanned and put into digital format, then get shutterfly books made of them.  We laughed so hard we cried at old "unfortunate" pictures of ourselves, awwed over how cute we were as little kids, and tried to find the resemblances between us and our kids. 

Z and Nate going to see Toy Story 3 and eating lunch at Burger King.  It cost $18 for the 2 of them for a matinee...ridiculous!  They had a great time, though, and Z loved the movie.  And he wore the BK crown for several days afterwards. 

Just having a fun time hanging out with Jenny.  I didn't get to spend much time with Anna (too many of my own kids running amuk) but we had fun with what we had.

Watching Nate in his element do some work on their house while we were there. He added a banister to the top stairs, a door to the basement, fixed a few toilets, added a fan, and maybe a few other things. The bummer was that we ran out of time so left a mess and a few finishing touches for Greg and Jenny to do, which Nate HATED to do, but we had to get on the road!

Trucking my kids in their wagon, Z holding my hand, Jenny with her stroller, and her friend with a cart and her little girl through Target so Jenny could buy Z a souvenir (we also needed milk and a few groceries for the road).  Z picked a box of Legos.  Go figure!  Good old Aunt Jenny!
 

Trying to keep my sanity.  It was a bit crazy with all my kids, I'm not going to lie.  Traveling with 4 kids just means I am "on" 24/7.  I had to keep an eye on all 3 of them, making sure they were not into stuff, even though Jenny and Greg had their house as childproofed as they could have.  My 3 can do a lot of damage quickly!  Regardless, we had a fun time just hanging out at their house...they had a kiddie pool and a fun basement stocked with toys we brought and toys that a kind friend of hers (the one we met in Target) lent us for the week.

Watching the boys get very good on the stairs.  They had a deck off the back of the house with stairs, then the basement stairs (with no door at the top and no gate at the bottom) and the stairs to the second floor with no gate.  Luckily the boys were pretty good at stairs before we got there, but they got much better by the time we left, and I have pretty much stopped worrying about them on stairs (I will still keep my gates up, though!).  

 

Spending time with family.  We hadn't seen Greg since last summer, and I was the only one who had met Anna, so we had a good time just hanging out. 

Listening to our kids giggle, scream, talk, cry, and jabber in the car.  They stole blankets and cups and food and books and cars from each other, but then talked and laughed together too.  The little boys also watched their first movie (normally we don't have the TV on while they are awake.)  They were ok with Baby Einstein.  :)  It was kind of hard to listen to them sleep...they weren't exactly comfy in their chairs, so would moan or whimper every once in awhile, and Z grinds his teeth SO badly, it was horrifying to hear!  He slept pretty well too, and passed out on the way home with his (our) twizzlers, his BK crown on, his new transformers, and his neck pillow.  Pretty cute. 

Imagining the cheering coming from the hotel we stopped at on the way home, after our kids barely slept, and instead laughed from the time we got in (1 am) until after 3 am, then cried and whined nonstop from 7 am on.  It wasn't as much fun on the tail end as it was on the front end of vacation.  :)

Stopping in to see Nate's aunt Jane and uncle Bruce for lunch on the way home.  We ate pizza and played in their basement and had a good time catching up.
 
N throwing up all over the carseat while I was driving with Jane and Nate wasn't in the car, so I could do nothing but watch in the mirror helplessly (I think the pizza didn't sit well).  Then arriving at the museum, parking on the street, and having to clean up N with wipes.  And having no clean clothes (all in the cartop carrier), so putting him in pj's in the middle of the day. 

Visiting the Louisville Slugger museum with Bruce and Jane.  They wanted to take us down to the museum to see the huge bat, and Jane insisted on buying the boys shirts and Z something. He refused a shirt because he wanted a small lunchbox...a black one. Forget the Cardinals WHITE lunchbox, he chose the BLACK Mets one.

Watching everyone run around happy when we got home (Nate and me included)!

All in all, a great trip.  We probably won't head out there again for 2 years (we have Florida to see my grandparents on the calendar for next summer), but we are willing to make plans to travel with all the kiddos again.  So that has to be good, right?