Vacation Time

cousin girls

Jeremy, Lauren and girls

Our little family

Our lovely (humid) Nations Capital

Our trip to the Museum of Natural History

Our day at the National Zoo

George Washington's home Mount Vernon

Happy family

Abbey loves her Uncle Jeremy.

Abbey prefers this family

Cousin girls

She loves me.



Walking around Mt. Vernon

Jeremy, Lauren, Madeleine and Katherine came to visit us this past week. It was a blast. The girls played so well together and we adults enjoyed eachothers company when we weren't chasing after the wee-ones. We went downtown, did some sight seeing, ate some great food, saw old friends, had an adults only dinner at a fabulous restaurant and had a family cookout.
Jackson Bryce IS the best baby ever. He only cried when he was hungry or tired the whole week. Most of the time we forgot that he was even around. He is the best.
This trip helped us all to realize that we really need to live closer to family.
By the end of the week Lauren finally realized why, even though I have lived here my entire life, we never go into the city. TOO MANY PEOPLE!!

July 4th celebration!

Yesterday was THE parade. The downtown Fairfax 4th of July parade. The parade was a source of serious debate in our ward. Some wanted to walk in the parade, some folks didn't. Some folks wanted handcarts, pioneer dancing and songs, some didn't. Some folks wanted missionaries, some didn't. Some wanted pioneer clothing, some folks didn't. Did we really want to perpetuate the stereotypes of Mormons that already exist? How did we want to portray ourselves to the locals? Needless to say the parade was a hot topic.
Thankfully the parade didn't go as originally planned thanks to some well given advice (thanks babe). Some old folks wore pioneer garb, some folks pulled handcarts, we had the local missionaries and then we had the "rest". Just us normal folks walking and pushing strollers with our 10 kids. We were all the stereotypes personified. As we walked along I looked over to my friend Marti and said "what do you think they are thinking?" she was wondering the same thing. There were ward families who weren't brave enough to "come out of the closet" so they watched from the sidelines and overheard some interesting comments such as "Keep rolling those carts on to Utah" or the ever popular "The West is THAT way". It was interesting to say the least.

Abbey was the star of the parade. She rode in the handcarts with her friends and walked with Daddy almost the entire mile. The crowd loved when she would vigorously wave her flag and march to the band that was in front of us. Then she spotted her boyfriend whom she hadn't seen in a week in the crowd. She took off running into the crowd, faster than lightning. Then she did it. She planted a big wet kiss right on his face. Ben turned to his Dad and said "Abbey gives wet kisses". Toddler love.

Oh and our dear sweet Jack slept in the stroller almost the whole time, we never heard a peep from him.

After the parade our kids slept for hours from the long morning and Joseph went with the guys to see Transformers. We then had 16 adults, 16 kids and 4 babies over to our house for some food and fun. It was awesome!! The kids had a blast, we ate, talked, lit sparklers and ate some more. Then Joseph cleaned the entire house. It was a great day!

5 months old (a little late)

Happy 5 months big guy. Jackson is such a sweet and funny guy. On his 5 month birthday he received 3 wonderful gifts. 2 infected ears and pink eye!! Delightful *rolls eyes* Jack can now roll both ways, giggle, screeeeeeech, sleep anywhere, sleep all night and drool really well. He is finally growing some hair that is very very blonde. Maybe he will need a haircut before he goes to school.

We love you buddy.