Catching up from August 5-17 - grab a cup of coffee - it's a large posting!

After quite a busy weekend we had a quiet Monday and Tuesday. The only thing we did on Monday was drive my cousin's husband, David, who had been living with us since May, to Union Station in D.C. Tuesday, we had another relatively quiet day except for running a few errands in the car after lunch. David did take these cute photos of our goofy girl on Tuesday night - she is in a cute outfit from her Auntie Amy.

On Wednesday we had a wonderful trip down to our friend Joanne's farm in Rixeyville, VA. The timing worked out well as Indigo took her morning nap on the ride down and woke up just as we arrived. How wonderful it was to be out in the glorious Virginia countryside. Robyne, the twins and baby Alexandria had also come out. We hung out at the farm with Joanne and her son Miles. The kids all had a blast swimming in the kiddie pool and we took a short walk down to the stables to visit the horses. We left around 2ish to avoid the traffic and Indigo fell asleep on the trip back to D.C. We drove to our friend Patricia's house and spent the evening playing with Tricie, Anna Kate and Louisa and had dinner together before Indigo and I headed home to see Daddy and for her to go to bed.

On Thursday we went to visit Mrs. Miller around lunch time. David drove there to meet us from work so we could all visit. Mrs. Miller has been our neighbor for the past 3 years that we have lived here. She is almost 87 and has just moved to a smaller residence where there is assistance available if she needs it. She has been so excited to see Indigo and we had a lovely visit with her. Indigo was very quickly comfortable cruising around her apartment and Mrs. Miller was so delighted by her. On Thursday night Indigo stayed home with Daddy while I popped out to Let's Dish to prepare meals to have for our guests who were going to be arriving over the weekend. I got 8 meals made in an hour and David had put Indigo to bed by the time I got home.

On Friday I did work around the house getting ready for the guests. Indigo and I went to Costco where she was an angel and she really enjoyed trying all the sample foods they were offering. We made a quick stop at Target and headed home. On Friday evening we had plans to have dinner with friends Scott and Sarah who had just had new baby Quinn. We were meeting Scott to pick up dinner and then going back to their place. We were running late because David had been caught up at work and then Indigo threw up in the car on our way to meet him - we think it was just car sickness from having had a milk bottle to close to traveling in the car. Anyway, David went in to meet Scott while I cleaned up Indigo on the sidewalk! Thank heaven for baby wipes! Fortunately we had extra clothing and because she had thrown up in the car once before (her second day in the States) I knew how to get the car seat cover off to clean it with the wipes and we were soon on our way. We had a lovely evening catching up with Scott and Sarah - they were married last July and in the time since their wedding I think they said 14 people who were at the wedding are either pregnant or now have babies - what was in that water?

On Saturday we were up early cleaning and preparing for our friends who were coming to stay with us. Jennelle, her husband Craig and their 4 year old son Ean and their 15 month old daughter were visiting us from Oconomawac, Wisconsin and they drove here. They arrived in the early evening on Saturday and it was so great to see them! We had dinner at home together and got the kids settled and off to bed and enjoyed visiting together.
On Sunday we planned some D.C. sight seeing and in the morning we headed into the city. We first saw the Vietnam wall, then the Lincoln memorial and then the Korean. After that we drove over to the Roosevelt monument which is one of our favorites and the kids loved because of the fountains everywhere. We walked part of the tidal basin to see the Jefferson in the distance and then we went over to Arlington National Cemetary. We walked up to the tomb of the unknown soldier to see the changing of the guard ceremony and then passed Kennedy's grave on our way back down.

We got home just before 4 and shortly after that the Tills arrived for some lake fun. Mary and Terry had their sons Alex and Adam and we all hit the lake where we were also joined by the Hamilton family. The kids had a blast being in the lake and folks enjoyed the kayaks as well. After a few hours we went back to the house with the Tills and all had a great dinner - David bar-b-qued really well. It was really fun and all the kids were super good and Indigo loved having all of them to play with.

On Monday, David went to work and the Benson family and I had a quiet morning and then we packed a picnic lunch and took the kids down to the beach and they swam and played and then we had lunch down at the beach and bought all the kids back for a nap. On Monday night we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Cactus Cantina. Everyone enjoyed that thoroughly and Indigo seemed to enjoy the food too. So far, knock on wood, she is very good when we take her out to restaurants. We really hope that continues.

On Tuesday Indigo and I spent the whole day at the zoo with the Benson family. We all had a great time and saw a lot of the zoo and a lot of animals. We had packed lunch and took a nice break for lunch and then back to seeing more critters. Indigo's favorite animal sightings were in the small mammal house and were the giant elephant shrew (a tiny animal) and the meercats. This is because they were right at eye level for her and were moving around a lot so they really caught her attention. Perhaps she'll notice the cheetahs if they catch a bird in front of her? Hmmmm. It was so fun at the zoo and all the kids were so good. Ean loved the mist that they have along the pathways in the summer. Animals featured in photos are one of the new Grevy's Zebras, a maned wolf and a two-toed sloth which was way cool - it was moving (not very sloth like).

On Wednesday I took the Bensons to the metro and they went into the city to see a couple of the museums - Natural History and the Air & Space. I went to the grocery store with Indigo and was working on getting the house ready for my parents who were arriving later. Around 1ish we had a visit from our friend Tiffany and her daughter Brittany. They bought Indigo the most adorable little denim dress that she looked so cute in. Indigo was kind of fussy when they first arrived, okay, truth be told, she screamed bloody murder! I think she possibly had some gas pain. I gave her a bath to soothe her and then she got much more outgoing and they saw her typcial fun and cheery personality. Later I picked up the Bensons from the Metro and shortly after that my parents arrived. Although it was already around 5ish we hit the beach for the kids to get some good play time and Indigo enjoyed playing with granny in the water with her buckets. After we got back to the house we ordered in Thai food which we all devoured - Indigo included. Her favorite is the wide rice noodles and she ate a lot of a chicken rice dish.

As was typical by this point, after the kids were in bed (and the grandparents) Jennelle, Craig, David and I stayed up late chatting and laughing.

On Thursday, my dad, aka, granddad drove us to the Metro as Craig had booked a tour of the capitol via their Wisconsin congressman. We had to be there by 9:15 a.m. so to get the three kids fed and out the house by 8 a.m. to catch the metro was no mean feat! Indigo did great on her first metro ride and we all really enjoyed the capitol tour. Kaylee and Indigo wore matching dresses that day and they enjoyed running around the floor underneath the capitol rotunda! After the capitol it was drizzling but we took a quick walk past the outside of the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. Since the weather was poor after we caught the metro home and Dad picked us up we had lunch at the house and hung out there. However, the weather cleared up well enough later for us to hit the beach and lake one more time before the Benson's departure on Friday morning - it was a lot of fun. On Thursday night David grilled one of my Let's Dish marinated flank steaks and some chicken and we had salad, roasted red skin potatoes, and some veggies - all the kids ate super well. We had our final late night until about 12:30 a.m. Shortly after going to bed we had a thunderstorm which woke Indigo up and freaked Egan out so David coped with Egan and I stayed with Indigo, she has been making up multiple times in the night.

Sadly, on Friday morning, the Bensons left for their return drive to Wisconsin. We had a wonderful time with them and we can't wait for them to return again. It was a nice day though for Indigo to spend more time with her grandparents. After two days of them being here she was really getting much more comfortable with them and enjoyed riding her horse with granddaddy. Later on Friday we took her to the playground at the local park and she rode the swing with both grandparents and granny helped her down the slide. She mostly enjoyed running around on the grass though. She also met a great big drooling black and tan coonhound that she was completely unafraid of and petted. We went to the soccer field and granddad had a few goes at getting his kite up but the wind was just not strong enough. He got it up a little bit and it seemed like it would be a go but then the wind dropped again. While at the park Indigo was giving granddad kisses and feeding him her cheerios - major steps. When we got back from the park she wanted to kiss granny and granddad over and over again. After David came home from work Dad took us out to a local favorite restaurant to have a last hoorah before their trip to South Africa in less than two weeks and to celebrate Indigo's arrival - it was their first time out at a restaurant with her. She was really good and very cute - not that we have a bias or anything. She took a liking to my mashed sweet potatoes so she ate most of those. When we left the restaurant granddad took her out of her highchair and carried her out of the restaurant. He looked so happy and proud to be carrying her that I thought he would burst with pride and that I would have a break down crying. It looked like he just wanted everyone in the whole restaurant to see him carrying his granddaughter. It was a lovely day together and we were very sad that they were going to be leaving on Saturday. Finally, Egan looked so cute with his orangatun that we just had to include a photo of him. Both dogs were just so great all week with all the children.