Dave, Stacey, Summer, Aidan and Asher

One of my very favorite vacations ever, was not technically a vacation for us.  Ben's brother and his family came to see us in October and we took a few days off and toured with them and hung out.  We did so many things and had so much fun.

It amazes me that these kids don't get to see each other very often, yet within hours of being together they are the best of friends.

Playing Pokemon games and having tea parties in the Tippy Top.

 After arriving here in Richmond we hung out on Saturday evening and a little on Sunday before Dave and Stacey headed up to Washington DC.  We rented a house up there for a few days so we could tour DC.  Ben and Dave's cousin Lancing and his family also met us there from NYC.  We stayed in Richmond until Monday afternoon for a doctor's appointment to get Nate's cast off.  On Monday evening we met them at the rental house and had dinner and messed around.

This pic was taken as a panoramic on an iPhone.  Ben and Dave took turns holding the camera while the other one jumped in the screen.  Pretty cool!  The only give-away is that Asher has three arms.

 The next day we got to tour the White House.  (Thanks to Dave and Stacey for getting us tickets.)  It was pretty neat to see things that we had seen before in TV shows.  I only wished we could have seen more of the White House.

Exiting the back of the White House.

 We had lunch from one of the carts while we sat by the Boy Scouts of America Monument.  He kids had a blast playing together in an empty fountain.

A little freedom after being very patient during the tour of the White House.

We met up with Lancing and Sarah after the lunch.  That afternoon we also had a tour of the US Capitol.  We thought we would have plenty of time to tour along the way, but it was a long walk with a lot of little legs.

The big trek up Capitol Hill.

My first time to the US Capitol.

Kids waiting in line for our tour to start.

They each got their own headset for the tour.  Awesome!

My favorite!  Carved by Gutzon Borglum who was born in St. Charles, Idaho (a few miles away from our Bear Lake property).  He also carved Mount Rushmore.

The walk back down Capitol Hill to the car.

 I think the kids would have had tons of fun if we had just left them back at the house.  They invented all sorts of games and it was hard to pull them away.  But we had lot of fun seeing all of the stuff in DC too.  The next day we headed the Udvar-Hazy Center (a Smithsonian Museum) at Dulles International Airport.  I can't believe we have never been there before.  It was amazing!

Ben took the bigger kids on the tour while I hung out with the littles.

  I think that my favorite part of the museum was watching Sarah. They had the Space Shuttle Discovery there (which had actually been in space!) and it looked so cool.  Sarah was taken with it and decided that she wanted to draw it.  She took her time perfecting it. 

She would back up and look and assess.

Then she would walk up and draw some more.  And repeat.

Viola!

The finished product.

There was also the Blackbird.  It is in the new Transformers movie -- pretty neat!

We loved it.  It definitely won't be our last time there.

It was really great to get all of these kids together.  It was fun to "meet" Lansing and Sarah and their kids.  After a few fun filled days in DC we headed back home.

All of the cousins sitting in age order.

On Saturday Dave, Stacey and Co. headed to Monticello.  We were held up by soccer and planned to meet up with them later in the afternoon to go apple picking.  They ended up having so much fun that they stayed at Monticello the whole day.  No worries, we picked enough apples for EVERYONE!

Carter Mountain Apples

Walking through the orchard.

Apple picker with an apple picker.

It was a beautiful day to be up in the mountains.

"DELICIOUS!"

We met the others at a restaurant for dinner and then headed back home.  Luckily Stacey is a brilliant pie maker.  She whipped up a beautiful and scrumptious dessert.

Homemade Fresh Apple Pie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was so fun to spend time with all of them.  We played lots of games, did a lot of visiting and even had an Avengers/super heroes marathon after the kids went to sleep.  I am so grateful to their family for coming to see us.

Summer, Nate and I had lunch with Michael at his school.

The kids just hanging together.