Day tripping

On the Fourth of July weekend, we took a day trip to Waco, which we'd never stopped in before. It wasn't supposed to rain, which was good because we've had bad luck driving on I-35 in the rain before...and then the rain to the west dropped south right before we were getting to the 35 merge, and we ended up white-knuckling it into town after all.  We switched up our plans to go to the Dr Pepper museum first, instead of in the afternoon, and tried the Cameron Park Zoo after lunch when it was a bit drier. We seem to be making a habit of visiting zoos in southern cities in the middle of July...makes for a seriously sweaty afternoon, but we still had fun. In the middle we popped by the Magnolia silos (and promptly popped back to our car, since that place was insanely busy), and had lunch at Twisted Root (which fortunately had some couches for the kids to wait out the long lines on before they got their hamburgers). Everyone had a nice time on our family road trip!

Washington trip, part 2

Didn't mean for the second part of this post to be so delayed!  Below are a few more pictures from our Washington trip in March.  Our home base for the week was the apartment in Cleveland Park, but we covered a lot of the metro area (and beyond).  At the beginning of the week we drove to up past Hagerstown for Noni's birthday.  Lots of extended family were there and it was the boys' first time at one of those big Ecuadorian parties that are so much fun (with so much good food) for everyone.

Trying out some of the yummy food.

When Nachi broke out the accordion, Malcolm said "This is weird, Mom."  But he later told me the music and dancing were his favorite part of the party :)

Another trip was to the zoo, naturally.  It was a very pleasant day to walk around since most of the snow had melted and it was nice and sunny.  Joseph and Michael liked the panda, and we all liked seeing the monkeys and playing at some of the exhibits.

One thing we took advantage of was the free museums!  We did a Capitol tour one morning - a first for me and Mike, even though I worked across the street from the Capitol for several years and Mike used to work downtown too.  It was legitimately new, though, since the Visitor Center opened right after we moved.  This was fun but not quite as engaging as the other museums for the kids - and I was worried about the parking meter expiring so we had to cut the trip a bit short.  Speaking of parking, though, it wasn't nearly as much of a problem as I'd feared during the week.  Amazingly (since I wouldn't usually expect the local government to make something actually easy for people), DC lets you use a parking app to pay the meters, so you don't have to worry about finding $4 in change every time you park.  We downloaded the app, paid online, and used the app each time we were driving downtown.  It wasn't too hard to find spaces off the Mall with just a little circling, too.  That certainly helped ease some of the stress of traveling with small children...

Thanks to Senator Cruz's office

Cool skeletons at the Museum of Natural History

A little blurry, but more cool fossils

Giant elephant

Our favorite was the Air and Space Museum.  This time we got to visit the main museum on the Mall, and also the satellite museum campus (Udvar-Hazy) in Reston, by Dulles Airport.  It was our first time at that museum, and it was so cool.  I don't if the boys could fully appreciate it (although they did like the space shuttle and seeing so many planes), but Mike and I really loved it.  I had a huge grin on my face seeing the SR-71 Blackbird -- seriously, I don't know why it was so amazing, but it really was.  So were the Tomcat, the Concorde, and the space shuttle.  Go America.

Cool exhibits on flight

Malcolm would be a heavy kid on Jupiter

Apollo lunar module

Picture of the moon

Joseph is done for the morning

Blackbird.  Amazing.

Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.

Mike and the boys in front of Discovery

Mom and the boys

Along with all our sight-seeing, our family enjoyed getting to spend lots of time with Grandma and Noni, go to Mass at the National Shrine, and visit some old friends and cousins on both sides of Mike's family. I also got to have lunch with one new friend from National Review.  It was funny taking the Metro down for a lunch on Capitol Hill - felt like something from another lifetime because my working life here is quite a bit different :)

Lunch with Grandma and Noni at Cactus Cantina = the best!

We are very thankful to have had such a wonderful trip and can't wait to go back someday!

Washington trip, part 1

For Spring Break this year we were very excited to take a family trip to Washington, DC for Noni's 80th birthday.  Mike and his mom arranged it to surprise Noni.  This was our first trip to DC in several years, and Joseph's first time there.  The boys were really excited about going.  Mike and I were happy to be flying direct from Love Field on Southwest, now that the Wright Amendment has finally, finally expired!  The newly updated airport was great.  It even had a playroom for kids - genius.

Donuts for breakfast...ready to go!

Kids' play area in the main terminal

Since the flight was about two weeks before Joseph's second birthday, we got him on the plane without a ticket.  Fortunately the kids are small enough that we could fit four to the row for a little while, so he didn't have to sit on my lap the whole time.  We stocked the diaper bag with snacks, coloring books, and calculators/little toys, and Mike brought the tablet and headphones so we could pull that out when needed, too - and everything mercifully went great!  We were able to fly directly into DCA, where we rented a car for the week.  Mike did a great job remembering how to navigate the bizarrely-unmarked exits to the Memorial Bridge and get us onto Rock Creek Parkway ... and it was crazy how familiar the drive back to Cleveland Park felt.

Watching Curious George and Brother Francis

Noni was so surprised to see everyone at the apartment.  She was very happy :)  Grandma thoughtfully got the boys a twisty track toy with a little fire truck and police car to play with, so they were happily occupied with that during some of our time there over the week.  Noni and Grandma ensured the boys had plenty to eat right from the beginning, of course.  Noni was happy everyone ate the rice and lentils that are one of her specialties.  I'm pretty sure I ate several helpings, too...  It was special to see how quickly Noni connected with the boys again right away.  The first afternoon, I dozed on the couch at nap time while the big boys were supposed to be resting in Noni's room (Joseph was napping in the other room).  Instead of sleeping, I heard Michael and Malcolm telling Noni all about their school, and things in Texas, and all sorts of other things, and they were all making each other laugh.

Noni with three of her great-grandchildren

It was a little surreal to come into the apartment this time.  I was reflecting on the fact that when I first drove out to meet Mike in 2003, I could hardly have imagined coming back there twelve years later, with us having been married for eight years now and having three kids!  We are certainly blessed.

Road trip, part 1

A few weeks ago we loaded up the car for our first multi-day road trip in several years, and the first since we have had the minivan and three children!  I was a little nervous about how the boys would do with such a long drive, but I'm pleased that our planning worked out pretty well - a big bag of snacks to be deployed at strategic times, books to read, maps to check out (or just to fold and unfold multiple times), movies to watch, and occasional stops at those saviors of families with children-who-really-need-an-outlet: McDonalds and Chick-fil-A's with playgrounds.  One of our stops involved letting the kids run around on a grassy strip next to the restaurant, but the playgrounds were pretty great.

Destination: Chicago

On the way there and the way back, Mike suggested doing a long day the first day so we'd have shorter drives on the second day, and that plan worked great.  We also were able to stay at a hotel during the week that had a kitchen with fridge, sink, dishwasher and table - so we could pack the kids' lunches for our days out and keep good snacks on hand - and a closed-off bedroom so the kids could sleep on the sofa bed / couch / pack-and-play in one room and we could have our own light and TV in the other room.  It worked out wonderfully.

Hanging out at the hotel

Malcolm loved the Chicago hotel, although we had to stop him from being worried a few times when he said, "We don't live in our house anymore."

One of our fun outings was going to the Lincoln Park Zoo downtown and meeting Uncle Ryan for lunch.

But most of the trip, of course, involved visiting with family.  More on all that to come in part 2!

Spring break

The boys' preschool had a full week of Spring Break a few weeks ago, so Dad planned a full slate of activities for them to make it a fun time.  One morning was the playground, another was breakfast at Elizabeth's house, and the other three were special trips out.  Michael and Malcolm couldn't wait to tell me about their days every day when I got home!

Day 1: Zoo

Day 2: Mini-golf!

Day 3: Bowling