Halloween and Virginia

So I wasn't as good at blogging as I had hoped to be, but alas, here is another month of fun packed into one post. We had a great time running the 5k race. We didn't really get to run much to train for it since Tim had to go out of town so much, but we did ok and it was great weather. My mom watched the kids while we ran and then we enjoyed our traditional Silver Grille breakfast! We also made it the night before for the Homecoming parade. Shyler loved it and we also had fun at the bonfire and firework show. Something I thing they always do but was a first for us.

Soon it was Halloween and we had fun carving pumpkins! Adam tried to get in the guts, but it was too weird for him and Shyler prefered to sit back and watch. She was excited to be Sleeping Beauty and she was a pro at the trunk or treats. She was also very polite and said Happy Halloween, trick or treat and thank you. When it came time for the real deal she wasn't so sure about it. She even asked to go home... until she saw the 4 neighbor girls that are about 8-12 years old and she wanted to go with them, then she had a blast!!!!

Then we went on our trip to Virginia!!! We could have done some of our planning a little better but in the end it worked out that we went straight to DC and got a hotel for Wed night. We had left our house at 4 and Tim and Shyler were able to skip their connection and just stay in DC. I was on a flight into the other DC airport and got on a shuttle and we meet tim and Shyler at the hotel. That night the kids tried swimming in the pool and we drove in (our hotel was in Arlington) to see everything all lit up. Adam crashed in the car and had one of his best nights sleeping... ever! Then we woke up to the forecasted day of gloom and rain and went for it anyways!

Our hotel shuttled us to a metro station that we rode into town...

...and we walked through the rain to the monuments up close. Don't worry we were nice parents and bought the $11 umbrella so each kid had one and stayed dry. Not so much Tim and I. This is the back of the Lincoln memorial looking over the Potomac river towards Arlington... it doesn't even begin to show how much fun we had walking through the rain.

Tim and Shyler look so tiny! I knew it was big but it's still so crazy to see in person!

THe Washington Monument. We were also able to see the Vietnam and WWII memorials. We walked to Washington Monument, but it was too wet to get the camera out. Like most of that day. Sad.

The Smithsonians are so cool. We really didn't get to see all of them but we spent 3 hours inside the American History museum! We were sick of being wet and they had an really cool place for the kids both of them loved the spark lab! We also went inside the Air and Space museum which made Tim happy. Shyler however insisted that all of the rocket ships were airplanes, only mickey mouse has a rocket ship she said. (I think from one of the episodes she had seen, he goes in one)

The white house! Shyler was so excited to get to see this. Leading up to it she would see it or the Capital and say she was going to see it and she was so happy! Well she had fallen asleep for like 5 minutes but we woke her up so she could see it! We think she really liked the white house because we said that that is where the president is and she thought we said presents so she thought there were lots of different presents inside!!!

After our long day in DC and long trek back to the hotel to get the car we made the 2 hour drive to Richmond. We are so glad we didn't try to take a day trip up to see DC that would have been a real adventure!

Turns out I didn't get many of the pictures of Adam and Augustine, but these two little guys are only 5 weeks apart! It was fun to watch them play together, but I'm sure Andrea wasn't excited that Adam was showing him how to get in the kitchen cupboards and drawers and the dishwasher and how to climb upstairs. I have such a little trouble maker!

On Sat we went to Maymont to walk around. It is this really pretty place with gardens and Animals and the original "mansion" from the 1800's. Shlyer had fun seeing the animals including the bald eagle, the black bear and the buffalo scratching himself with a stick! That was funny. They also had farm animals too!

Tim and Shyler walking around the Japenese garden, there's Luke looking around too

As we were leaving we had fun trying to do a family picture. Of course it's hard with 2 small children, but it was too hard to pass up the beautiful scenery of the fall leaves!

We didn't do much other sightseeing, but it was exhausting enough trying to tote the two of them around when we did. They were great sports and we are so glad we got to go and spend so much time with our friends and celebrate Andrea's birthday with her! Oh I almost forgot about the yummy cupcakes she got! I had a delicious pumpkin one and Tim got a yummy chocolate chip one. They were from one of those cool cupcakeries!

Happy Birthday Andrea and thank you so much for having us and feeding us and letting us stay with you!