Baptism

Sabrina got baptized this month. Yogurl's parents and my mom were all able to come to be with us. It was a nice baptism even though there were some hiccups. She got to wear the baptism dress that her mom wore when she was baptized. We are so happy that she made the decision to get baptized. She is such a wonderful girl.

First Day of School

Even though it is still hot in Dallas, summer break is over and school is back in. Of course, if you had to wait for it not to feel like summer, kids wouldn't go back to school until October.

A big breakfast for their first day of school. 

Sabrina is now in third grade (she got the teacher she wanted) and Clark is in Kindergarten (he got a teacher we didn't know, but she seems very good). Eliza isn't going to school, but she wanted to be in the picture. 

Clark in front of his shared locker on his first day. They are all growing up so fast! 

Bonus picture of some bubble bath fun.

Birthdays!

This might seem unfair to lump my three beauties' birthdays into one post, but their birthdays are pretty close together and I am way behind on posts. Yogurl and Sabrina both had their birthdays right near the end of our time in DC (Sabrina's was the last day in fact) so they might have gotten slightly simplified parties. But that doesn't mean we love and celebrate them any less!

My lovely wife's 29th birthday. I won't tell you how many 29th birthdays she has now had, but it is very few. 

Her cake was made by a bakery in Arlington that we really enjoyed. The cake was delicious. We went out to eat that night and while we were gone, poor Sabrina got sick to her stomach. We came home pretty quickly after that, but the babysitter was totally on top of it. She got a good tip that night. 

Sabrina turned 8! Her cake was made by a friend we knew in Charlottesville who now lives in Arlington. It was spectacular, as we knew it would be. Since we were leaving soon we had to eat a whole bunch of it two days in a row. What a shame. 

Yummy!

Eight years old in our house means ears pierced! Sabrina has been so good about keeping them clean and rotating them and whatever else you are supposed to do. My little girl is growing up so fast! 

Speaking of growing up fast, Eliza turned 2 this month! We had a fun day and I think she really enjoyed herself. We had been so busy with getting back to Dallas and getting ready for Sabrina's baptism and family coming to visit that we were worried her birthday would get a little forgotten. I think we managed to pull it off pretty well, though. Above, you can see that we took a little trip to the children's aquarium where she got to pet stingrays and have them suck a shrimp right out of her hand. What fun! 

Enjoying some lemon cake with lemon curd in between layers and whipped cream frosting. Very tasty! 

Happy Birthday Eliza! 

Trip Home from DC

  We had been planning on driving home along the Atlantic Coast, but we decided that we wanted to get home a little more quickly. Plus beach visits when you are hotel hopping isn't so easy - packing wet and sandy clothes and towels around with you. We still did some fun stuff along our way home, though. Our first stop was Luray Caverns in Virginia. It was really amazing.

This picture above doesn't do justice to how amazing this area was in real life. There is a puddle there which perfectly reflects the stalactites above. It is so confusing to look at it and convince yourself that those stalactites aren't really there. It was pretty trippy.

While we were driving there was a huge line of cars waiting to get to some event, which turned out to be some sort of big show at a Dukes of Hazzard Museum! Look at all those General Lees! Oh wait, we have to rename them now. Look at all those General McClellans! That sounds like a good name for a much, much slower vehicle.

We stopped at the gift shop for Natural Bridge, but the weather was turning bad so we decided not to walk around outside and look at it. Plus time was not in our favor that day.

We didn't stop anywhere special the second day except at church in a small town in Tennessee. The ward was kind and inviting, but their accents made me think the bishop was saying something inappropriate for church. Yogurl made fun of me for being a  west-coastal elite.

Our third day we got to Hot Springs, Arkansas fairly early and decided to spend the night there. We had a lot of fun, since we really like Hot Springs. The kids just had to get their fortunes told by Zoltar again.

We went to a nature center that had a bunch of beautiful gardens and a fun Koi pond where we got to feed the eager fish. 

We also got to go up the tower in Hot Springs that we didn't go up last time we were there. The view was really amazing from up there.

Overall it was a very good trip back. The major hiccup was getting to the hotel in West Memphis and after checking in, finding out that they had no cribs or pack and plays despite their website saying that they did. So then we had to go find a new place. That turned out to be a really unfun experience overall, but all's well that ends well and the hotel we did end up in was very nice.

Last of DC Summer

Things have been really busy the last two months, so I am going to catch up fast. I have no interest in putting these pictures in the right order, so just enjoy how they are.

The kids at the National Geographic Museum. 

Eliza "suited up" for a dive. 

This is the moon window at the National Cathedral, which is a big Episcopalian church whose bell tower is the highest spot in DC. This moon window actually has a piece of moon rock in it that was brought back by an astronaut who had gone to school at the cathedral's private school. 

These were some amazing animal and bug dress up costumes at a nature center in Arlington. 

The nature center, where we saw bullfrogs, snakes, and other stuff. 

This is a very large statute of Teddy Roosevelt. There is an island named after him in the Potomac River which has some very nice kid friendly trails. The memorial also has some awesome T.R. quotes about various things. 

National Cathedral again. 

Lincoln Memorial. The day we went and saw this we also saw a huge group of quads riding around all willy nilly throughout the national mall area.

We got a visit from Oma for a few days in July and the kids really enjoyed showing her around DC. I think they are at the National Gardens here. 

This was the go to park across the street from our apartment. In this picture we are playing and having fun while Oma and Yogurl went to Arlington Cemetery to pay their respects.

DC temple.

We visited the Lego store in the nearby mall occasionally. DC gets pretty hot and humid so going to the nearby mall seemed a good idea, but since it is so snooty, it doesn't have kids play areas. Unless you count the Lego store!

Just the kids walking around in a creek. This might not seem exceptional to most, but in Dallas we have no natural beauty, so the kids really enjoyed these opportunities.

We tried going to a 4th of July parade nearby and it wasn't quite what we were hoping for. Mostly just people in the neighborhood walking around in the heat waving flags. No floats, no candy being thrown. Just heat and kids who had been expecting candy.

Yummy red, white and blue 4th of July breakfast at least!

Eating freeze dried ice cream from Air and Space Museum.

So while we were there, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival was going on and the focus was circus arts. So we got to see circus performances for free!

 

The Air and Space Museum with a model of the USS Enterprise. I think. Nerds may correct me if I am wrong.

National Zoo.

Well we had a great time in DC and we got to do lots of stuff because so much is free there! OR at least it is payed for by all tax-paying Americans, so thank you all for subsidizing our summer adventures!