Washington DC Weekend

We rented a van and even though the kids and I were just getting over strep we headed to DC. Our first stop was the DC temple. Isn't is beautiful? The kids enjoyed the visitors center and chatting with the sister missionaries.

We were so lucky to have a warm weekend! There is snow on the ground, but the weather was great!

Valentines day morning, we visited the Washington Monument. Andrew and Tim with the White House in the background.

The best place was the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The kids LOVED it! And did you know ALL the museums in DC are free????


To Matthew, our 7 year old, this real giant squid was the coolest thing ever!
Levi had this look on his face the entire time! He loved seeing the animals! Here he just discovered a giraffe.
We had a great little trip. Something I didn't plan on: sooooooooooooooooooo much walking. Also, we took the METRO and that was an extremely new experience for Tim and I, being from the West. But the kids were really obedient, didn't get lost, and it was actually fun (looking back on it!)

This was hilarious and I had to share!!

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

PITTSBURGH, PA

OK! I am finally getting around to posting. Here is a summary of what we have been up to in Pittsburgh!!

After traveling for 9 hours, the boys and I arrived in Pittsburgh, where Tim picked us up. The boys were super good and the only problem was when our plane landed, all 4 boys were asleep! And, the stroller wasn't waiting for me on the gangway, so all 4 boys were crying and tired as I was trying to herd them (while carrying the car seats and carry-on) down the aisle of the plane. That was hilarious. So, Tim met us and brought us to the extended stay hotel which was to be our home for the next 3 months! The manager of the hotel upgraded our room for free to this awesome 2 bedroom suite.


Christmas was so much fun. We were just glad to be together as a family! Here is a picture of our Christmas Eve "feast". It's hard to cook in a hotel, even when the kitchen is furnished, because they have the bare minimums. We are eating my family's traditional dinner of Clam Chowder. The boys had their first taste of egg nog and loved it.


Andrew lost his 1st tooth on Christmas Eve! So we had the Tooth Fairy and Santa at our house that night!Our family tradition is to act out the Nativity in Luke 2, so here is the cast below.
Mary and the baby.
Isaac our "angel".
The wiseman and the shepherd.
The boys in their Christmas p.j.'s. They all wanted "feet" pajamas, even Matthew, so luckily we found some in size 8!
Christmas morning! Santa brought our presents to the lobby tree and one of the hotel staff took a family picture of us.
Our White Christmas
Our hotel is right across from PNC park where the Pittsburgh Pirates (baseball team) play.

Pittsburgh has over 1200 bridges, and here we are on one of them.
My cute 4 boys at an outside skating rink.
Andrew lost his 2nd tooth a few days after Christmas. My boys are so brave and pull their teeth out on their own. I was always too freaked out to do that and waited until it fell out while eating applesauce or something like that. It is fun to have a house full of boys.
Isaac and Levi being funny while I'm trying to put the pull out bed away.
One of the best things about living in a big city are all the things they have available for kids to do. We bought a pass to the Children's museum (less than a mile from our hotel) where they have 4 floors of fun things to do. Here the boys all built rockets and launched them through rings.
Really the only downer of the trip was that my boys got Strep for 2 weeks. They got it from my cousin who we went to visit in Columbus, OH, just 3 hours away. We spent a week with them and it was so much fun, but we brought back strep. We had to take them in for antibiotics because their fevers were so high, and they just felt awful. Here they are playing play dough since we were homebound.
The best part of living in a hotel is that whenever the place gets a little dirty, the boys and I just leave to go do something fun and when we get back, the place is clean!! Also, I have been able to read a lot. I read all 8 of the Anne of Green Gables series (which I really enjoyed and have wanted to do for some time) and the book Wild Swans by Juan Chang (very different than the Anne series but also very interesting, about growing up in communist China).

We have some great pics from a weekend trip to Washington DC, but that will have to be another time!!!

October/November update

My cute boys ready for trick or treating on Halloween! Tim was Clark Kent - he really is my Superman!
My awesome Grandparents were here visiting!!! It was so cool because both Tim and I were able to go trick or treating with the boys while my Grandparents passed out candy. And they were so much fun to hang out with and chat with. Last time my Grandma was here she helped me paint my house. This time, I helped her make a digital scrapbook! It was so fun and she picked up on it so quickly!! We used www.mixbook.com, just in case you were wondering.
Here was our "Spooky Dessert" I made for us on Halloween. (Ok, this was actual Halloween. Our neighborhood, being in Utah and 90% Mormon, celebrated Halloween on Saturday night. So we had our "Spooky Dinner" on Sunday, real Halloween.) Isaac was really disgusted and freaked out that I would serve dirt and weeds for dessert! Really, it was ice cream, with crumbled cookies on top. The "weeds" were chives. :) It was a fun night!
Allyson and Shari, please don't hate me for posting this picture! These two ladies are such amazing friends, neighbors and running buddies! At first we were walking buddies, but Allyson found an app on her iTouch that got us running a 5k! The app was called "From Couch Potato to 5k" just FYI. We ran our 5k on November 6th. It was so much fun and Tim was a great cheerleader! This was also the last day that Tim was in Utah! He was offered a temporary job move to Pittsburgh, PA for 4 months and he left that night.
My awesome cheerleaders!

Thanksgiving is a time for family, and boy did Tim and I get a LOT of family time in! Tim flew back into town for a 4-day whirlwind weekend! We drove up to Provo to be with my family, pictured below. It was so great to see everyone and loved being together! My parents also spoiled my kids with all of my little brother Tyler's toys that he has grown out of. My kids were on cloud 9!
Then we drove to Kanab on Friday to be with Tim's family for his parent's 50th wedding anniversary! Tim is #9 out of 11 kids, so there are a lot of us. It's like "Where's Waldo" in this picture! But it was a lot of fun again and great to see everybody.
Tim left Sunday morning to fly back to PA. :( Here the boys and I are raking the front yard leaves. It was such a nice day and I wanted to get it done before we left for Pittsburgh (we joined Tim on December 17th). The boys had so much fun raking leaves! They were such great helpers. In the days before we left for Pittsburgh, my boys did up to 9 chores each day (before and after school!!) I'm amazed at how they were just able to step up and CHEERFULLY help me get ready for our trip, since I had no husband to help out. Kids are much more capable than we think they are. Matthew even did things like vacuum out the car! (Muahahaha! Now I know what he can really do!)
Check out Levi's face. I LOVE this little guy and all his hearty laughs and giggles!

That's all for now. I will post Christmas and Pittsburgh in the future, but the kids need me. :)