DC Day 3

This really should be called "Virginia, Day 3" because we didn't technically get into the City on this day.  Rather, we opted to do something easy-ish that all the kids would love.  Turns out there is this amazing park very close to Sara's house.  I can't remember the name of it for the life of me - but it's this huge area, complete with a pond/lake for fishing (and maybe boating, I'm not sure), picnic areas, playground areas, a lunch stand, a carousel, and a kiddie train.

So we packed a picnic lunch, once again loaded our vans (minus Ashton - he had to return to a training camp he was at - boo) and headed out.  The kids all had a wonderful time, indeed.  Room to play and run on the playground, a ride the carousel, and of course the super cool train, and a picnic lunch.  What could be better than that?

Sara and I have done our part to keep the Hein family lineage going strong ... James, Tori : Anna, Calista:
Jordan, Jack, Tessa
Seven Cousins

Sweet Tessa

Jack and Calista

Getting ready to roll!

Arguably Jack's favorite part of the entire vacation.

The train ride had cool little buildings (to scale) along the route.

And a sweet (little and again, to scale) water tower.

Calista and Jack - and one tired looking mommy.

Jordan

Sara and Tessa

Tori and Anna - these two hit it off so well and became good friends right from the start.

James-ey love.

In the afternoon, while the two littlest ones napped (Jack and Tessa - Sara's two-year old) the older kids and the mamas headed out to her community pool.  I'm so glad we invested in the expense and time of swimming lessons.  I was able to let Anna and James loose in the very large shallow end of the pool to splash and play and swim without fear of them drowning.  Awesome.  And so very relaxing to just sit on the steps of the cool pool with Sara - continuing our non-stop conversation about parenting, family, church, school ... everything good friends and cousins can possibly talk about.

When we returned late that afternoon, Sara turned on the sprinklers and we let the kids run and play until they were properly coated in grass cuttings and water.  Summer fun.

We ended the night with a girls night out - can you believe it?  Deonne agreed to watch the kids (with some help from Sara's sister-in-law - hey, he had seven to tend to) so that Sara and I could go out.  She'd won tickets to an advance screening of The Help from a local radio station.  The viewing was at a swanky downtown DC movie theatre.  So she and I gussied up in our best Matilda Jane duds (she's as much of a MJ addict as I am) and we headed into town.  We even took the train into the City - and boy, did I feel cool.

Unfortunately, said local radio station gave away too many tickets (like 200 too many tickets) so even though we had tickets in hand and were there well before it was scheduled to begin - we didn't get in.  Boo. But never fear - we had a lovely dinner out - just the two of us.  Drinking a few cocktails, enjoying a yummy dinner that didn't come from a paper bag and there was no sippy cup or coloring page in sight.

Heaven.

We arrived home pretty late for this ole'girl - to find that Jack was burning up with fever.  AWESOME.  More to come on that story on Day 4.