Friday, we all (without Poppa) visited Cub Run, an indoor swimming pool/recreation center in Chantilly, VA, about 30 minutes from Grandma's house. It has a kids area that includes a zero-depth entrance with various sprays, and a slide with just about two feet of water for the little kids, a deeper area to play in - around 4 feet - with a lazy river and whirlpool for the middle kids, and two water slides (one of which travels outside the building) for the bigger kids. It also has a lap pool and a hot tub for the biggest kids (i.e., the adults.) This was the first year I actually got to sit in the hot tub since Tony was there to help take care of the kids. Mom had come with us, but when we were getting dressed in the locker room, she had discovered that she had only brought the top half of her swimsuit, tee-hee. So while we got started, she used her best friend, the GPS, to find the nearest KMart to invest in a complete suit so she could join us. After swimming for a couple hours, the kids were a nice shade of blue and we decided it was time for lunch. We had packed our lunch and, after showering everyone, ate upstairs overlooking the swimming area before heading back home for naps. I don't have any pics from this trip because when I got my camera out, it kept asking me to reformat the card. Well, this would've deleted all my pictures from our AL trip, so I let it go. Fortunately, my tech-savvy husband was able to rescue my pictures off the card, though I think the card is dead, and we're holding out little hope for the camera.
On Saturday, July 4, we began the day by participating in the Bike Parade in my p
arents' neighborhood. We decorated the bikes and Florence's stroller and headed up to the top of the hill where everyone was gathering. There were lots of kids with varieties of decoration: streamers, flags, balloons, etc. After the quick "parade" where the kids rode (or were pulled in wagons or pushed in strollers) down a predetermined 
path, everyone gathered in the backyard of one of the neighbors for fruit, cake, jello, even monkeybread, much of it tinted or arranged in red, white, and blue colors. They had a swingset/slide and a trampoline in case the kids had any energy left after bike riding the hills. They also had crafts and treats for the kids to bring home. All in all, the kids had a great time, even though they didn't really know any of the other kids. 
It's amazing to see how kids know no strangers in other kids. After that, Tony, Poppa, Charlie and Alex all headed into DC for a Nationals Baseball game. This was Alex's first live game, though Charlie has been before to see the Diamondbacks. They did head home after the game, against all the traffic heading into town for the fireworks. That evening, because it gets dark so late, the older kids watched the DC fireworks show on tv. It's sad, I know, but it was High-Def on a big widescreen, so it could've been worse, I suppose. 
Sunday, I headed down, with my sister Susannah, to see John Rocco (and John Gilbert and Lisa). They were in the hospital still in Charlottesville, and this was before any of his surgeries. He was beautiful and John and Lisa were obviously so proud.
While I was gone, Tony and Grandma took the kids to Chinatown, the Building Museum and the Portrait Gallery in DC. They ate lunch at a nice restraunt in Chinatown. At the Building Museum, they spent some time in the Discovery Zone, one of our favorite "play areas" that has collections of bricks, legos, tinkertoys, all for building your own creations. I think this was Tony's first time visiting there after hearing about it for years. 
There, Tony discovered that Pokemon is the international language of children after Charlie bonded with a brother and sister over a character named "Zabadus". After that, they had a quick trip through
the Portrait Gallery before Florence had had enough of being in the stroller and encouraged everyone to go home. She did very well up until the last minute and I heard wonderful stories of the antics and songs sung in the car to keep her awake (if not happy) in the car on the way home. That Monday, we travelled to the Natural History Museum. Grandma kept
Florence so that we could take our time without having to worry about her schedule. (She must've had a different baby, because she kept talking about how good and well-behaved she was). There was a new Ocean's exhibit that we wanted to see. They also had labeled some of the exhibits so you could find them from the "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" movie. I've always been fascinated by the ocean, which is confusing since I hate going into the water... It was a beautiful exhibit, though going with young children, I didn't get to read as much about everything as I would've liked as they kept running ahead. And the most fascinating part, a live saltwater tank, was so crowded by people trying to see the colorful fish, that it was hard to get close enough. The kids also enjoyed the bug exhibit, they were fascinated by the working 
beehive that had a tunnel that led to the outside. You could see the bees hovering right outside the window, waiting to take their turn to get into the tunnel. Charlie's favorite exhibit was a special exhibition on the study of bones. They had many skeletons to look at as well as plaques that explained how they decided someone might have died based on what they read in their bones. Lucy and I found some broken arms to look at to see what her broken arm might've looked like. And of course, what visit is complete with a visit to the dinosaur hall or standing in line to glimpse the Hope Diamond. Grandma had driven us down into the city, but we took the subway back home, so this was another treat for the kids - riding the metro at the beginning of rush hour...woohoo!
Florence so that we could take our time without having to worry about her schedule. (She must've had a different baby, because she kept talking about how good and well-behaved she was). There was a new Ocean's exhibit that we wanted to see. They also had labeled some of the exhibits so you could find them from the "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" movie. I've always been fascinated by the ocean, which is confusing since I hate going into the water... It was a beautiful exhibit, though going with young children, I didn't get to read as much about everything as I would've liked as they kept running ahead. And the most fascinating part, a live saltwater tank, was so crowded by people trying to see the colorful fish, that it was hard to get close enough. The kids also enjoyed the bug exhibit, they were fascinated by the working 
beehive that had a tunnel that led to the outside. You could see the bees hovering right outside the window, waiting to take their turn to get into the tunnel. Charlie's favorite exhibit was a special exhibition on the study of bones. They had many skeletons to look at as well as plaques that explained how they decided someone might have died based on what they read in their bones. Lucy and I found some broken arms to look at to see what her broken arm might've looked like. And of course, what visit is complete with a visit to the dinosaur hall or standing in line to glimpse the Hope Diamond. Grandma had driven us down into the city, but we took the subway back home, so this was another treat for the kids - riding the metro at the beginning of rush hour...woohoo!
Tuesday morning, before Tony left, mom took him and the three older kids on the bike trail into Vienna. Florence and I dropped them off near her house (back around near Meadowlark Gardens) and they biked into Vienna. Florence and I drove in, parked at the Vienna Inn where we would have lunch, and walked around the area while we waited for them. There was a small museum (which we didn't go into) that had a lovely "park" area. No playground so to speak, unless you count the numerous pebble size rocks from the rock path that were perfect for throwing, or the little slab steps that were perfect for marchi
ng up and down, or the concrete stage area that was ripe for a little dancing. It happened to bump into the bike path, so we were able to meet the kids when they finally showed up. At that point, we had a most fabulous lunch (it always tastes better when you've "worked" for it, doesn't it) at a quirky place. They're supposedly known for their chili dogs, but no one was brave enough to try this out. But they did have the most incredible onion rings - almost as good as the wedding bands from Johnny Rays in Alabama. The kids enjoyed it, even Florence was pretty good for it. After lunch, grandma and I took the younger kids home while Tony and Charlie raced back on the bike path. It was cute to see them smack-talking each other in the resteraunt about who was going to win. As it turned out, Charlie officially won the race as Tony got stuck behind a group of bikers right at the finish line...so he says. Before Tony had to leave on Tuesday afternoon to go back to work, he was able to help Poppa get his new computer set up and connected to all the printers, and fortunately didn't run into the problem of the blue screen of death as he did last year. With him gone, that left me and the kids at Grandmas for the remainder of the month. We were sad to see him go, but we were glad he got to spend as much time with us as he did.
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