A Happy 4th of July Weekend!

We were so blessed to spend the weekend of the 4th in Washington DC with my big brother John, his wife (my sister :) Marie... and wonderful Anna and Joshua. Uncle John arranged for the Metro ride that the kids were so hoping for :)

And sight seeing...

Aren't they wonderful? And guess what... see that big ol Capital building behind them? Yep well my brother's been workin there.

But this week he's movin on. Just gonna do a little teaching at West Point...

Yep. I'm braggin about him. That's right, you heard me :)

We visited the botanical gardens

And while Sam had minimal interest in the beautiful flowers...

he had...

an absolute

BLAST.

These two are the best of friends. It's so sweet to see them together!

And of course this sweet boy is something else :)

Aunt Marie is such a sweet blessing who really digs in and loves on this little family.. and wow do we love her back :)

And Uncle John... well... apparently being glued to his side... and helping push the stroller just wasn't enough. Someone needed to hold his hand as well!

I don't think he quite realizes how good he is at loving people himself... but he sure is :) I love my family!

Sam and Anna decided to "be" the Liberty Bell...

And we enjoyed lunch at Union Station.

Saturday ended with a crazy and fun game of putt-putt...

and peek-a-boo

Because I needed to be back for work Monday morning we were sad to leave on Sunday afternoon and were so thankful for our time together!

The kids took a nice long nap in the car and we pulled into the drive just in time to take showers and head back out for fireworks :)

We set off a few of our own although I was terrified the whole time because I wasn't quite sure of the fire-work-setting-off rules.... :) But we sure did have fun!

THIS apparently is a "J" for July and a 4 :)

THIS is one very sweet little face :)

Another sweet face/J4 combination :)

A staged act for the camera pretending to be Star Wars characters (of course...)

And a WONDERFUL evening with friends.

We are so thankful for family, and for freedom, and for the One who gave us both!