Beautiful Day

The rain has stopped and the sun is shining!  The girls and I ventured out and found a neighborhood playground and they had a blast.  Ella must have told me 20 times, "Mommy, I had fun on our walk and at the playground."  I guess they needed to get out!

Lucy and Ella requested this picture...they received a package from Grandma and Grandpa and were thrilled!  They asked me to take a picture to "say thank you" and "show off what we got."  Mail Call may become a regular post...

Rainy Day

This week has been rainy, but it's been great to have some low-key days in the apartment.  The girls have been busy with art projects, doll fashion shows, puzzles, and tea parties.  Here they are doing some Color Wonder (love it!), excited to have received mail from Kristi, Dan, and Chloe (thanks, guys!).

Lucy and Ella are very proud of the "countdown trees" they made to help keep track of when our visitors are coming.  When all the stems have flowers, Oma and Opa are coming!  When the tree has all its leaves, Grandma and Grandpa are coming!

First Trip into DC

We took our first trip into DC on Sunday to do some exploring.  We took the subway, which Ella calls the "tub-a-way," and found it to be much easier than we expected, considering we had both girls, a stroller, diaper bag, and camera to handle.  

Our first stop was the US Navy Memorial, where there were lots of fountains and plenty of space to run around.

Lucy and Ella are standing in front of the National Archives building, where we were hoping to go.  Once we saw the VERY long line, we decided to try again a different day...

We walked through the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden...again, fountains and space to run.  It was hilarious to get Lucy and Ella's interpretation of the sculptures.  Lucy thought the army of headless children was "so beautiful."  After we made our way through the garden, we found ourselves on the National Mall!

The first thing we saw was the carousel...never mind the stunning views of the Washington Monument and the US Capitol.  A ride was in order!

Our next stop was the National Museum of Natural History.  We only saw a fraction of it, but the girls really enjoyed it.

The best part was the Discovery Room, which was filled with lots of hands-on experiences for kids.

The last stop of the day was the Old Post Office Pavilion for lunch.  We had hoped to ride the glass elevator to the top of the clock tower to see the view, but that just didn't happen...we were spent.  Ella fell asleep in the stroller before we even got to the Metro--it was time to get home for naps.

Our Apartment

We are very happy with our apartment...we have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, laundry, and lots of windows!  The location is perfect--we are very close to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Greg goes for his class everyday, and the Metro, shopping, and restaurants are within walking distance.  Lucy and Ella are excited about our home away from home and have started making decorations to beautify it.  

Ready to go!

Here we are...all ready to start our trip to Washington, D.C.  The girls were so excited to leave--Lucy kept saying, "I really wanna get out the door!" as we were packing up the last few things.  We left on Wednesday evening and had a smooth drive through Chicago--no traffic--and made it to South Bend, IN in time for bed.  Thursday we drove all day and stopped for the night in Monroeville, PA.  The girls were excited for swimming and eating out for dinner...we were excited to be out of the car!  After a great night's sleep, we got back in the car and finished the drive.  We made it to Silver Spring, MD (where we are living) by 5:00pm.  Greg and I would like to thank the countless shows and movies, Aquadoodle pages, MagnaDoodle boards, Strawberry Shortcake books and coloring books, Chex mix, Cheerios, and fruit snacks that made this trip possible.  We truly could not have done it without you.