Brian’s sister, Missy, and her family live in the suburbs of DC. We thought it would be fun to go out and visit them and see some of the sights! Grandma Dora and Grandpa Fred came with! What a fun weekend!

We flew out on Friday morning, April 15. We landed early afternoon and after quite the run around at the car rental place, we headed over to the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum where we met up with Missy and her kids, Brandon and Ellie. We wandered around for a few hours checking out awesome airplanes, the space shuttle Discovery, and went up into the observation tower to check out the view. Many very cool sights in this museum!

Discovery!

Retired Concorde

Cue Top Gun music!

awesome!

view of Dulles airport from the observation tower.

Cool sculpture outside

On Saturday, we went to the National Zoo! So many great animals to see!

Panda!

Elephant! Loved the crossed feet

silly sea lions

the kids watching the sea lions swim. They were so fun!

bear

beautiful lion

Orangutan being given lunch. It was fun watching him sort what he wanted to eat!

On the walk back to the train station from the Zoo, Dora took a nasty fall on an incredibly uneven sidewalk. She ended up with a broken wrist and mild concussion. Here’s the culprit:

She slipped right off that huge uneven spot!

The unevenness was as tall as Brian’s foot!

Sunday we checked out a bunch of the monuments! We took advantage of the DC Circulator bus which goes between monuments and we were able to walk/ride as much as we wanted. So many cool monuments to see!

Visiting the Washington Monument

Allison saw some people doing this, so she wanted to give it a try!

I couldn’t resist!

Jefferson Memorial

Inside Jefferson Memorial

FDR Memorial

Joe, Brandon, Allison, and Adam checking out FDR Memorial

Lincoln Memorial from Washington Monument

In front of Lincoln Memorial

There was a band playing on the steps of Lincoln Memorial

Inside Lincoln Memorial

View of Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Awesome!

Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial

White House. We didn’t see the Pres

DC War Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

World War 2 Memorial

Smithsonian Castle

Garden outside Smithsonian Castle

Sunday evening we got to see Brian’s uncle, Dan, and his family that live a couple hours from Missy. They drove down for a cookout and chatting. We also saw Fred’s brother and his wife.

We had such a nice weekend seeing so many wonderful people and sights! The kids were great travelers and had a blast!

Allison and Ellie at the Air & Space Museum

Allison & Brandon at the monuments

Kids’ pizza party on the deck

Allison, Brandon, & Adam at the World War 2 Memorial

Out for Mexican food our first night in town!

Cousins Ellie, Allison, Adam, & Brandon

Brian with his sister, Missy, and his mom with her broken wing. 🙁

In early March, Brian and I took a parents only trip to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic! We had never been before but we felt like trying a new spot! We stayed 5 nights at an adults only all-inclusive resort called Barcelo Bavaro Beach. The beach was beautiful! We had an awesome ocean front room. The food was decent. We spent our days lounging on the beach or at the pool. Most days it was the pool as it was ridiculously windy the last few days. It was so nice to get away for a little bit and just enjoy each other’s company without worrying about kids, work, life. Thank you so much to the grandparents for taking care of kids! They had so much fun!

Great view from our room

Beautiful beach!

I love the Caribbean

We went horseback riding on the beach one morning

How we usually spend our time. Me in the sunshine, Brian in the shade!

Hanging out at the pool

Our final dinner date

I worked a few days during Adam’s Spring Break. But on one of my days off, I took Adam and Allison to the Mall of America to visit Sea Life Adventures, a few rides at Nickelodeon Universe, then lunch at Rainforest Cafe! Sea Life was pretty cool. I hadn’t been before. We had a blast watching the stingrays and Adam even fed a few. The rides were fun, and lunch was yummy!

Touching stingrays as they swim by

Adam feeding the stingrays

Shark!

On the carousel

On the Dora ride

Ready for lunch!

Then on Thursday, we moseyed on down to Cedar Rapids to hang out and visit friends! Brian worked Thursday afternoon and I took the kids swimming. That evening we went to Tyler and Katherine’s place for dinner. The have horses! The kids (and I!) loved this! We got to give them treats and help feed them their dinner!

First dip in the pool!

Such sweeties

They loved this!

Friday, Brian worked and I took the kids swimming in the morning then out for lunch. We had friends Steve and Melissa and their 2 kids come visit from Waterloo. Brian picked us up some pizza for dinner, then we went swimming. That night, the fire alarm went off at 2:30 AM!! The kids slept through it. If we started seeing smoke or firefighters, we would evacuate. It only lasted a few minutes though.

Getting ready for bed

During the fire alarm!

Saturday, friends Tim & Erica and their 4 kids came swimming at the hotel. In the afternoon/evening we went to their house to play outside and have dinner. Adam spiked a fever of 102.2!

Sunday morning we wanted to hit the road. Adam started throwing up, so we figured the sooner we get home, the better. However, our vehicle had different ideas. We went to start it after eating breakfast and the battery was dead! So thankful for AAA! We made it home eventually and Adam was feeling better by supper time.

All in all, a pretty good Spring Break!

In November, Adam turned 8! He celebrated with a family dinner at Red Lobster. Then he had a party with his friends at AirMaxx!

I decorated his room for his birthday

Adam is 8!

Adam’s birthday breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and cinnamon rolls

Ready to go to Red Lobster for Adam’s birthday. Allison had to wear a dress for the occasion

Singing Happy Birthday

Christmas was low key, but nice. We spent Christmas Eve in Hutchinson and we hosted some family and friends at our house on Christmas Day. The kids were so thrilled with what Santa brought and had a great time seeing friends and family.

The kids had fun decorating the tree

Our crazy tall (10 feet!), fat tree with 1800 LED lights! It was awesome!

We always visit Grandpa Gary on Christmas Eve and put out some lights for him

Homemade goodies for Santa!

Santa came! They were so excited! Adam got Pokemon cards and Allison got a shopping cart

Opening gifts Christmas morning

Allison (Elsa) playing with her new kitchen on Christmas morning

Adam, Allison, Emma, & Linus on Christmas. We waited too long to try for a pic. They weren’t interested!

Allyson and I! Her baby girl is due in June!

We spent New Year’s Eve at home and it was so nice. We had a fun dinner that included cheese fondue and chocolate fondue for dessert. We let Adam stay up with us to ring in the New Year! We played Rummikub until midnight. 🙂

Cheese fondue!

Rummikub with the boys

Brian had a birthday on the 2nd. He decided on an ice cream cake from Cold Stone. It was amazing! He picked out all the flavors and decided what to write on it! 🙂

That says “Happy Birthday” in Spanish!

On Valentine’s Day, we decided to do a family date night to check out the Ice Castles here in Eden Prairie. We had never been. It was pretty cool!!

Family date night at the Ice Castles!

Found Olaf at the Ice Castles!

Allison turned 3 in February. She was fully potty trained before her birthday and it has been awesome being a diaper free house!

I made the cake!

Family photo at Allison’s party

We gave Allison a Jeep! Luckily it was a beautiful 60+ degree day the day of her party so she was able to try it out!

It was a pretty wimpy winter in the weather department, so the boys didn’t get in much ice fishing. However, they started taking snowboarding lessons and both really like it! I’m impressed with how well they are both doing!

My snowboarding dudes

Adam is impressive!

Easter was another delicious feast at Dora & Fred’s. And there were bunny cakes!!

Dyeing eggs!

Egg hunt at home Easter morning

Bunny was able to get up pretty high!

Kiddos with their loot

Another egg hunt at Gransma’s!

Bunny cakes!!! Carrot with cream cheese frosting on the left and white on the right