4th of July and Swimming!

Oh well....I know these are a little late but I am slowly catching up on all my photos and blog posts.

The 4th of July has to be one of my favorite holidays. I have always been very patriotic and love celebrating the wonderful nation I live in. 

I swear Emily had a flag shirt, but she got her breakfast all over her before I could take photos and so I had to change her shirt! Err! And, Anna, well she was sleeping and I was not going to wake her.

Also, this was the first day I put the big girl's hair in pony-tails. I cannot believe that their hair is long enough to do it finally. They look like such big girls. Natalee was already pulling hers out though and since I had put hair spray in it, it looked like a hot mess. Oh well.

In the afternoon, my best friend Kim, her hubby Roger, their niece Kayla and I took the triplets to our community pool. The girls had a blast and so did I. It was nice having extra hands and catching up with Kim. It was just way too hot to take Anna, and Emily, so Tim happily stayed back with them in the air conditioning, while watching sports center.

Needless to say, it was an early night to bed! Maybe fireworks next year? Maybe.

Every day since we went swimming, Claire especially asks me to "swimming in water, pool, Mommy!" and constantly brings me her bathing suit. My goal is to take the big girls at least once per week and now I know I can handle it alone, so hopefully this goal becomes a reality.

Day Trip to DC!

On Thursday my close friend Shannon and I loaded up all our kiddos (my biggest girls and her son, William) and headed to DC for the day to go to the Natural History Museum! I can't count the number of times I have been there but of course this was the girls first time! I know there will be many hours spent exploring DC in our future! I love all that it has to offer!

Even though it was really hot and humid, we tried to find the closet parking spot as we could...but  I totally forgot that my Ford Expedition will not fit in normal parking garages so that made finding parking a little harder, but finally we did fins a spot a few blocks from the museum. 

Let's just say the walk was a little father than we thought and by the time we arrived after pushing two double strollers, we were soaked in sweat! We waited in line to get in and finally made our way to the bathrooms!

We first went to the mammals and then to the ocean area and finally the dinosaurs. The kids loved looking at all the stuff and as long as we were moving, they were happy.

It's really nice that the exhibits are easily seen for kids in strollers, unlike our zoo!

Natalee and William enjoyed their time together! He was wooing her from the start! He is quite the ladies man!

Sharing his snacks with her...

Trying to hold her hand...

And he finally went in for the kiss....good thing Daddy wasn't there!

Around lunchtime we let the kids out to stretch and run around...the loved being free!

We took some more photos and quickly ran around the exhibits...the kids were getting tired and so were we!

At around 1:00pm we finally decided that we were ready to leave and made our way back to the car in the sweltering heat! Boy, was it hot!!!!

We took some photos of the kids on the mall....as you can tell, they were so tired and no one was protesting!

And flip them the other way...

Everyone fell asleep as I drove home and it was nice and quiet! Once we got home it was like the girls had a second wind and were more giggly and funny than I have ever seen them! We took some video...Claire had tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard!

All and all it was a really fun day spent with some great friends! I hope there will be many more trips like this for our families!