Yippee, my camera is working again

I got a new phone a few months ago, but two days after I got it Julia used it as a teether and broke the camera with water damage. For some reason last night the camera started working again. So our day from my phone...

We headed into Washington D.C. today with no real plan besides seeing whatever was close to where we parked. We ended up going to the National Archives to see the Magna Carter, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and whatever other smaller documents they had on display. Robert said the line was the shortest he had ever seen it, probably because of the two rallies that were also going on in D.C. a few blocks away while we were there. Everyone who came for the rally was at the rally, and everyone else but us was scared away by the crowds. Since we got there after it started though there were really not a lot of people around. There were no pictures allowed in the Archives, so this was outside when we ate lunch and Julia got to run around.

Then we went to the National Gallery of Art. We will definitely be going back here sometime because the place is huge and with Julia we only got to see a small portion of it. We tried to visit the National Gallery's Scuplture Garden across the street but by that time Julia was ready for a nap, so we called it quits and headed back across the river to home.

After Julia's nap, some dinner, and playtime it was time to get ready for bed. For some reason Julia decided to line her bath toys up along the edge of the tub today. And that's it. I put her to bed half an hour ago and she is still up there screaming for me to come get her from her crib. This past week she has decided she doesn't want to sleep in her crib anymore and will only sleep with me in my bed. It's driving me nuts because I don't get any quality sleep with her rolling all over the place. I'm hoping she'll grow out of it soon because I don't know what else to do! Either let her scream for hours, or give in or let her sleep in our bed and neither are very good options.

The City of Brotherly Love

Last weekend we went up to Philadelphia to visit Robert's brother Kevin and his wife Ellen. Since we will be going back for Thanksgiving we decided to do some of the lesser traveled tourist spots this time and save the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall for November.Friday the Dodger's just happened to be in town (yeah right, they were the whole reason we chose this weekend) so we went to a Phillies vs. Dodgers game. We stopped at a little hole in the wall pub by Kevin and Ellen's house and had their famous Schmitter Sandwich. It was delicious, kind of like an animal style cheesesteak. Then we headed to the game where the Phillies came from six down to win it in the bottom of the ninth. Great game for Phillies fans, horrible for Dodgers fans. Robert said it was the worst game he'd ever been to. I really didn't care either way (shh, don't tell Robert, although I was sad for Robert) but I liked the stadium for Julia's sake because they had a playground for her to play on and the usher gave her a mini toy Phanatic and a certificate that said "My First Phillies Game."

Saturday was the Philly road less traveled day. We went to the Academy of Natural Sciences Museum (saw lots of dead stuffed animals and lots of live butterflies), Ben Franklin Museum (Don't bother trying to find the Underground Railroad Museum like we did, because apparently it no longer exists) U.S. Mint, and the Edgar Allen Poe House. We also tried Jim's Philly cheesesteaks because everyone says they are the best in Philly. I'd have a Schmitter over this any day(maybe I'm just not appreciative of the Philly cheesesteak in general though). We finished the day off by visiting the Rocky statue (originally made for one of the movies and then donated to the city) and the Rocky steps where Julia showed off her climbing endurance by climbing all the way to the top. Apparently, Rocky is a big deal in Philly.

Here's the fast version of Julia climbing the steps. Brace yourselves, it's quick.



Saturday after Kevin and Robert got back from their bike ride down to the Rocky steps and back we drove out to Valley Forge and then on to Amish country. Amish country is kind of a funny tourist destination because there's not much to do besides eat good Amish food at a buffet (which we did), shop for homemade items like quilts (did that too, but without buying a quilt, just some jam) and drive around looking for Amish people in their buggies (yes, we even did that). Ellen said it reminded her of Yellowstone only instead of shouting "look there's one!" and pointing at a buffalo, you shout "look there's one!" and point at an Amish person. It must be odd to have people driving past your house and gawking at you mowing your lawn, but then, maybe if it's all you know it's just another part of life.

Thunderstorm

One of the biggest adjustments we have had to make moving to Virginia has been the weather. It is hot and humid here with lots of thunderstorms, and from what I hear this year has been particularly bad. A couple weeks ago, the day after we came home from Utah, (I'm kind of slow about posting this) Julia and I were in the basement when a good thunderstorm came through. The power went out but that's not the first time that has happened this summer so I thought nothing of it until we got into the car to go grocery shopping and saw this across the parking lot:
Whoa, that was the first indication that this storm was worse that the usual. Then I started driving and the street was blocked by a huge fallen tree going across the entire road. So I turned around and went another way, only to be stopped by another large tree blocking the street. Driving through Fairlington (our neighborhood) was what I would image it would be like driving down the street after a hurricane with trees down all over the place.In all there were about 40-50 trees knocked down in Fairlington and two weeks later they are still not all cleaned up. Amazingly I saw no cars that were completely crushed, just a few with dents and probably a lot of scratched up cars. Oh, and after we got out of the neighborhood streets and onto a main street I took a look at the backed up traffic and turned around. I decided the grocery store could wait one more day.

This website has some more pictures of Fairlington trees down.

The Kiddos

The last day we were in Utah my cousins Steven and Katrina and their families came over to my parents house and had dinner with us. It was nice to see Katrina one more time before she leaves for Japan for three years. We're going to miss her and her family!

We tried to get a picture of all the our kids together and after some of this:
and some of this:this was the best we could come up with.

Park City

While we were in Utah we split our time between my family and Robert's family. Robert's family was staying at his mom's cousin's cabin in Park City, the same place we stayed at for Christmas. After the funeral we headed back up there the for the weekend. We had a lot of fun enjoying the outdoors and beautiful vistas.On Saturday the boys all went mountain biking up at The Canyons. The have a couple ski lifts running in the summer so they all rode up the lifts with their bikes and got to enjoy an all downhill ride! The girls decided to head up there as well and go hiking while the "grandmas" (Wendy isn't a grandma but she is sort of Julia's honorary grandma) watched the kids. On our hike we meet some cute mountain bikers and got a good view of the PC valley. Later we took the boy's lift tickets and rode the lift up and back down.Sunday we set up the sprinkler for Julia and Tyler to play with. Julia was a hoot to watch. She's had a lot of practice running through water from all the spray parks out here in Arlington, so she had no problem running straight in, squealing with delight, even though the water must have bee pretty cold.

15 Month Olds- Eli and Julia

Last week we got back from an unexpected summer trip to Utah for Robert's grandfather's funeral. While I sort through all our pictures I thought I'd post some pictures of Eli and Julia. Eli is the son of Robert's cousin Jeremy and Julia and Eli are only two weeks apart. We stopped for a visit this trip and the kids had fun chasing each other. Unfortunately it's hard to get a good picture of two fifteen month olds.Either one of them is not looking, or one is moving and making the picture blury, or both.So I'm including a video as well because pictures just don't quite capture the rambunctious nature of this age. The first part is Julia calling a picture of a cucumber a banana, I just thought it was cute. Then it goes on to show Julia and Eli.