Fourth of July

Where to start? Our fourth of July was the cat's meow. We had lots of visitors: Nana and Papa Wayne, NeNe and Papa, Britt and Greg, Mal.....so we went on some major adventures. Disclaimer: lots of pictures to follow.

First we trekked back to Mount Vernon. We had come to Mount Vernon right when we moved out here to Virginia and loved it. This time the trees were green and much more beautiful, and there was also a lot more people. Eliza and Esther's favorite part was playing with sticks in the dirt. Good times.
It was really cool to be able to spend part of the fourth of July weekend at George Washington's house. Very humbling. Here are the girls by one of the huge trees on the front lawn area.
I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked, so there aren't too many of this adventure. It was super hot, and everyone got pretty tuckered out. We came home right after lunch, and all the men (minus Erik) had to pass out while the women went grocery shopping.

That night after dinner Esther provided the evening's entertainment. Esther LOVES to play this game. Basically, Erik holds her way up in the sky and she free falls it into a huge face plant. Quite honestly, it scares the poo out of me. I just keep imagining her biting her tongue or maiming herself in some other way. But I can't stress enough how happy she gets doing a huge face plant straight into the pillow. I don't know how she does it. Her face is the first thing that hits the pillow every time. Here she is waving from way up high:

The release:

(I had to zoom in for my Mom's reaction on this one - ha!)

Face plant impact!

Sunday we had a pretty low-key day with a Cajun boil and some killer cupcakes, and I took Eliza to see her first fireworks show that night. Yum - homemade cream cheese frosting.We only had to walk about 1329384 miles to get there, but it was totally worth it. A combination of pure glee and a little bit of terror can really wear a girl out!

On Monday, Eliza and I got to go on a special adventure with all the "grown-ups" into DC. We ate at Old Ebbitt's Grill, which is a restaurant that has been around since 1856 and according to it's history "it was a favorite of Presidents Grant, Cleveland, Harding and Theodore Roosevelt and is still a popular meeting spot for political insiders." After lunch, we walked another 12324 miles to the Air and Space Smithsonian to see a little family history - an exhibit devoted to Otto Lilienthal, one of the pioneers of modern flight. The walk would have actually been nice if it weren't 1000 degrees.

Eliza wanted her picture taken by "Mary Poppins."

I actually really enjoyed the museum for the short time that we were there, much more so than the Natural History Smithsonian that we went to last time we were in DC. The planes were really cool to see, and it's amazing to see how much money the government has spent trying to make us believe that we have actually been to the moon. (Ha! Sort of.)

The rest of the week was pretty low-key, just hanging out at home with some little adventures here and there. We saw Toy Story 3 (and cried just a little), NeNe taught me how to knit (at least my first lesson - I still have a long ways to go) and how to make her infamous ice cream cake roll (Erik's favorite). It went by way too quickly. Thanks for coming everybody!!!