Virginia Is For Family

Months and months ago we ventured out to visit our east coast residing family members.  The flight was long and the weather was humid, but we had a wonderful time introducing Tate and Ainsley to many family members they had never met.  

Matt's awesome Aunt Mary was kind enough to host a brunch so that we could all gather together the morning after we got there.  We ate, chatted, laughed, watched Tate and Ainsley run around for miles in her backyard, and just enjoyed being together.

At one point our conversation took place on the floor so we could be close to the baby action.

Ainsley warmed right up to Uncle Howard and found herself a new special friend.

 Ainsley was a huge fan of the sprinkler...

Tate was not!

If I didn't know better I would think these two were in control of the water.

Tate warmed up and was back to his usual sunny self...it helped to have such a sweet and  pretty girl playing with him all afternoon.

Tate and Ranger became best buds.

 Diaper time in the great outdoors...it doesn't get much better!

It was so fun to be with everyone!

Two generations of boy/girl twins.

Thank you to everyone for getting together with us and a special thanks goes out to Mary and Amanda for all of their work in putting it all together! 

The next day (Labor Day) ended up being the most hot and humid day that we were there.  We got together for some family pictures and despite the heat and mildly cranky babies, we ended up with some cute shots.

Tate and Ainsley also got to experience their first carousel and train rides.

Good times were had!

We also got to see a Jessie, Harrison, and Uncle Barry when we went to visit Matt's grandma later that afternoon.  It was neat for me to feel like I got to know them a little bit better and Tate and Ainsley can never have too many people to love and adore them!

We thought the Natural History Museum would be a great place to take our animal loving kiddos...

and we were mostly right.  They loved it when they were awake!

(They loved sitting on this little step and made a game out of walking backward to it until they were forced to sit down.)

The Butterfly Pavillion was a big hit!

And, of course Matt had to join the line to hold all of the disgusting interesting critters.

Our evening ended with dinner and stories with Grandma and Grandpa.

The National Harbor is a new addition to the area since our last visit so one morning we headed off to explore the newness.

These were taken at singing/story time that was going on.  Unfortunately, for some reason unbeknownst to us, everything was in French (thus the confused looks on the faces of Ainsley and Casper) so we didn't stay a super long time.

We did a lot of walking and exploring that day and by lunch...

we were all pretty tuckered out.  The National Harbor was such a cool place!

Our friend Kara and her daughter, Hailey, joined us at the zoo on a different day.  Another hot and humid day made for some pretty epic tears from a few of these little ones, but all in all I think they had a great time! Tate and Ainsley especially loved the lions and monkeys...or orangutans as we were not so kindly informed is their proper name and thus is the name that should be taught to one-year olds everywhere. That's a story for another day. Suffice it to say that Ainsley sleeps with her stuffed monkey every night and his name is...you guessed it, Monkey. 

We spent one day in Old Town Alexandria where, for some reason, I didn't take many pictures.  I do love it down there, and had a great time looking at all of the old houses from colonial days.

A large part of our last full day in Virginia was spent at Matt's grandma's home.  Tate and Ainsley had a great time playing with all of the puppies.  To this day when Tate picks up a stick he says, "For a puppy!"

Tate loved "walking"...

and being "walked" by Amanda.

We sure love Grandma Bylund!

We were also lucky enough to get to spend some time with Matt's old roommates and friends from college while watching the Virginia Tech game.

That evening Kara and Drew and little Hailey joined us for dinner.  

Phew! It was quite a week!  Tate and Ainsley loved getting to know and play with their cousin Casper, Aunt Aly, Uncle Patrick, grandma, grandpa, and all of our other extended family members.  A giant "thank you" to Aly, Patrick, and Casper for opening their home and  being our event planners for the week!  We had a wonderful time!

Worn out on the way home!