A jam packed week with Isaak's mom and niece!!

Isaak's mom Samantha and our niece Cristina came to D.C. last Tuesday for a little vacation and some quality time before we head out to Africa in a bit. We haven't seen them in over six years so we were super duper excited to get to reconnect.

(Cristina, Grandma Samantha, and Sydaleigh- D.C. Cherry Blossom's 2012)

The girls have never met their cousin Cristina before and Sam hasn't seen Syd since she was 2 weeks old....but you would.have.never.known.it! Everyone hit it off right away!! They picked up as if they had known each other their whole lives. All the girls played beautifully and became instant best buddies. The girls connected with Grandma right away and were thrilled to spend time with her. We had such a fantastic time. But we were all definitely pooped by the end of the week. We did a lot of walking. Because we went everywhere......

Their first day here, Wednesday, we hit the ground running and went downtown with the intentions of meeting up with Isaak and doing some sightseeing. An hour after we left....we finally made it downtown to Isaak. And, we live all of three miles from downtown D.C.. Needless to say, I got us all lost. A lot lost. In ghetto-ville Anacostia. That's the wrong side of the river to get lost in let me tell ya. And when I finally made it over the river the right way...it took about thirty minutes to find a stinkin' parking space. Oh wait. We never did find a parking space. We had to hunt down Holly's go-to parking garage instead.

Street parking in this town is not for the second guesser. Lesson learned.

 Cherry blossom love.

Then on Thursday Jordan and Becca drove into town for the anniversary weekend and spent the day and night with us too! So, we mosied back downtown to do some more sightseein' with them. But, this time we decided to take the metro. I wasn't entirely convinced I wouldn't get us lost driving again.

And I'm so glad we did! The metro is easy peasy from where we are. It's a mile down the road. Easy parking. Easy everything really. That's my kind of transportation.

We stopped to see the cherry blossoms again. We visited the WWII Memorial where the girls took the liberty of putting their feet in the fountain pool. It was a really hot day, and it didn't occur to them that it might be perceived as disrespectful. So, I just let them do it.

Me and Jordan took a picture in front of the Michigan memorial in honor of our Grandpa Howell who served as a seabee in WWII. He's still alive and kickin' at almost 90 years old. And we love that he was one of the men that helped pave the way, literally, for people's freedom around the world.

 Freedom.....it's a beautiful thing.

Down the way a little at the Vietnam Memorial, Isaak briefly chatted and shook hands with Sammy Davis, medal of honor recipient, whom he heard speak while living in Texas. He just happened to be there at the same time as us. How cool is that?! And there was a camera crew there as well filming Davis as he played a song on his harmonica and saluted his fallen brothers in arms. That was an amazing and deeply moving thirty seconds we were honored to witness.

Moving along, we paid a visit to Lincoln's Memorial.....

One of my favorite places here. This is a beast of a building.

Thursday night while me and Becca were out staying up all night watching Hunger Games, everyone else went bowling. The kids whipped the grown ups pretty good I hear!

 Friday we recovered at home and played ourselves silly.

Jordan and Becca jammin' out on Just Dance to "I whip my hair back.and.forth, I whip my hair back.and.forth, I whip my hair back.and.forth, I whip my hair back.and.forth........I whip my hair back.and.forth, I whip my hair back.and.forth, I whip my hair back.and.forth,"......that song will live on in my brain forever I think.

Saturday Sam and Isaak went to visit the Holocaust Museum while I stayed back with the girls and Liz brought over Gracie and Clare!! WHOO HOO!!!! The girl's couldn't wait to see each other again!

It's been roughly ten months since Liz and Todd moved from Nebraska to Virginia and the girls are still just as best friends now as they were then. And this is a great lesson for them about military life. It's hard when friends move. But it doesn't mean you're not friends with them anymore. You're just friends from far away now. And when you see each other again, you'll pick up right where you left off. And they did. And it was joyous. And all the kiddos got along beautifully and had a grand time.

Sunday we played hooky from church and went back downtown to cram in more sites. We visited the Botanical Gardens. Absolutely amazing. And that is coming from a person who is not a plant gal in any way whatsoever.

Uh hem. I couldn't resist. :~)

And most surprisingly is that the girls had a ball. They loved exploring in here. There was a children's garden and a balcony of sorts that reminded them of the rain forest at the Henry Doorly Zoo in NE.

They had some pretty freaky plants there, I gotta admit. This one looked like it came straight out of a Freddie Kugar movie. Very menacing. But beautiful in its own scary kinda way.

We then made a short walk to the Native American Museum.

Again, great children's area.

And then we headed home and stayed there! Whew! The girls were ready to just stay put and play and not walk anywhere for a while.

We jammed in a lot during their visit. The girls played tea party, Barbies, Polly's and American Girl doll for hours on end. We played night time hide and go seek. Watched movies, went for walks, played at the playgrounds. We grilled out, talked and reminisced for hours and hours and hours. It was a fantastic week. We loved getting to reconnect with them after so many years and the Lord just blessed our time together in such an abundant way. We are truly thankful!