A week with Uncle Bobby and Aunt Lisa.

We have been some lucky people lately. Normally we get to see family once a year. That's it. But since we moved to DC we have gotten to see so much family, and we absolutely love it! And for the last eight days we got to spend our time with Uncle Bobby and Aunt Lisa. The flew up from S. Florida to see us before we head to Africa and we are so thankful they did. We had a blast! And those were some eight days well spent!!

Their first day here we hit the ground running. They had been up since like 4am, traveling, going on very little sleep, so we decided to hop on the metro and go explore downtown. Who needs sleep right?!

We took the train to Chinatown and explored down there for a bit.

We then walked to the National Building Museum which was having a very impressive Lego display.

I'm like, whoa. That is some seriously impressive Lego workmanship. :~)

 We're hard core into Lego's.

The next day we headed back downtown again to visit the National History Museum, not to be confused with the Natural History Museum, which we also stopped at.

We saw the First Ladies inaugural gowns, the original Dumbo ride (Disney shout out-Whoo!!), the girls got acquainted with a bunch a 1920's-1960's toys including the Etch a Sketch, Mr. Potato Head, the yo-yo, and the View Master. And then we drew super hero's on the walls. Umm, any museum that lets kids play with Potato Heads and color on the walls is my kind of museum!

Some days we just hung out at home and played. Watched videos and looked at pictures.

We got our silly on.....

trying on Aunt Lisa's glasses.

passing the time in the car taking pictures of themselves making silly faces.

We built a fort....

We baked a cake.

We went to the park....

Where the girls peer pressured each of us to try and climb up the inside of that beast of a curly slide. Because, ya know, it's so easy for them. I am proud to say however, that after an embarrassing number of attempts we all managed to literally CLAW our way up that slide. Score one for the adults!

 Whoa, that was so painful.

We watched movies. We played Catan! But I lost....both times (on purpose of course :~) ) Uncle Bobby made us some kind of Peruvian popcorn. Super yummy.

 

We managed to sneak out Friday night for some grown up time and somehow convinced Uncle Bobby to go see Hunger Games. Wha what?!?!? Oh.yes.we.did!! And.....du du duuuunnnnn......he totally loved it! Because it's the best movie ever of course!!! Three times in the theater baby!! WHOO! *MC Hammer dance, breakin' it down*

Anyways, after seeing H.G.'s we headed over to U-Street to partake of the iconic Ben's Chili Bowl.

Isaak was super thrilled to be standing there having his picture taken. He's so "Washington" now. It just grates at him to look like a tourist! Ha ha! Oh, I have no such qualms. I could have stood there all night and not felt the least bit uncool. :~)

Whoo hoo!! Ben's Chili Bowl!!

I feel a great sense of national pride for having eaten there now. :~)

After our late night snack we went down into the underground to hop on the train...except we missed it by 10 seconds! And that late at night....the trains don't come around as frequently. So, we had to hang out for ten minutes to wait for the next one. Yeah.....okay. So here's the deal. Me and Aunt Lisa should probably not be allowed in public. Especially late at night. When we're a wee bit tired. Because everything just tends to be way way funnier when you're tired. Take, for instance, Roxanne behind us.

There she is again...oh so conveniently positioned in our photo. Poor Roxanne. I look at her now, and think....meh, not so bad. But at the time....we just simply could not control ourselves. People watching really is the greatest past time ever. Sometimes, I just look around, and think, "really? really? why???" Such was the case with Roxanne. We named her that. When she descended the escalator in her massive ten inch heels and spike studded leggings....the inner laughing beasts inside were unleashed! I mean, spike.studded leggings?! For real girl?! You look like a nice lady, you should not be wearing those! No one should. E-VER!

 

Oooohh, could.not.stop.laughing!! Especially since Aunt Lisa kept busting out,"ROOOOOOXANNE!!" I don't like to laugh at the expense of other people. But, it was spike studded leggings. It could not be helped! That's just wrong.

And then there was the whole bit about the dust specs on my camera being spirit ghosts. Tears almost ran down my legs! Oh, my sides were achin' pretty bad. Ah, good times. Good times. I love our family. And I love to laugh. It's just good for the soul.

The next day we visited the Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center by Dulles airport. Way cooler than the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall. The girls had a blast. We made paper napkin parachutes, balloon rockets, ran up and down the massive ramps, Sydaleigh and Isaak took a flight simulator ride and twisted and turned and shot down planes,

 

We looked at planes, and planes, and some more planes.

And then the girls tried their hands at being pilots in a plane they could climb in.
 
When Marvelly got bored she started walking around with her shirt in her mouth.

Isaak and Uncle Bobby never got bored. We were there for 4.5 hours and I think we rushed them through it!

hmmm, apparently these are cool. I'm not even sure what I'm looking at. Looks like a bunch of metal to me. I'm sure it does something significant, but I couldn't tell you what. They could though. And they did. That's when I just smile and nod my head pretending that I understand. It was a good time, but these two were just in a whole other dimension of happy. It was funny.

We had an incredible time with them. So many memories. So grateful for their love and investment in our lives. Our eight days went by too fast. Much too fast. But I think we may have convinced them to come visit us in Africa. We'll see...fingers crossed. :~) Oh, God is so good to bless us with such amazing family! Until next time!