The Leishmans Come To D.C.

Today officially ended the great family visits for the summer. I'm sure everyone was excited to get back home, but I do have to admit that I'm really going to miss everybody.

This was the first time my dad and brother were able to meet Lincoln. They both were a huge hit.

Although I'm sure my brother could have done with out the huge diaper explosion right before we were supposed to walk out the door for church. Sorry again Uncle Patch!

We had a great time visiting all the local sights, as well as just hanging out around the house.

Unfortunately we didn't get any closer to having Logan get over his trepidation of swimming. Even after all the pep talks from my mom.

This was still pretty much the reaction we got from Logan when trying to get him to swim.

(My mom wants me to note that she is not pushing Logan in, she is merely encouraging him.)

Unfortunately for this little boy, I think he will be going through withdrawal symptoms for awhile. I'm not sure how long I will be able to keep answering the question, "Where did Mimi, Papa, and Uncle Patch go?" Lucky for him we just booked some plane tickets to go to Oregon for Christmas.

Just to give you a heads up this is going to be a very long post, so for those of you not in attendance at these activities you might want to skip this post.

The trip started out with Jeff, my brother, dad, and mom heading into D.C. and going to the Restoring Honor Rally. Jeff didn't sleep the night before and headed into D.C. at 2:00 in the morning to save a spot for everyone. I thought he was crazy, but he loved every minute of it.

They had a great time. Some of the highlights that I heard about were:

1. They loved how friendly everyone was. (This is a rarity in our neck of the woods.)

2. The speakers were fantastic.

3. They loved the focus that was placed on all the service men and women.

4. There was a strong spirit and strength that was present that day.

5. They enjoyed being around people that had the same view of our founding fathers and hope of what direction the country should go.

They were all amazed at the amount of people that were there.

Another day we went to Arlington National Cemetery. I must say this is one of my favorite places to go. Even though it is very close to the hustle-and-bustle of downtown D.C., this is a very quiet and peaceful place.

This was a regular occurrence while my brother was staying with us. Do you notice Logan in this picture? If we wanted to know where Logan was all we had to do was find Uncle Patch. My poor brother probably felt like he was being mauled.

We were able to see the tomb of the unknown soldier.

We also got there right on time to see the changing of the guard.

It was so hot out that day, but these brave men are out there twenty-four, seven, every day of the year. I think back to those terrible winter days we had, and these extremely hot and humid days over the summer months. It really puts things into perspective.

After visiting Arlington we went to a restaurant (Matchbox) that Jeff has been raving about. The make their pizzas in a brick oven, but one of the best things about the restaurant was when they brought the kids pizza dough to play with. It was like having play dough at our table. Logan loved it!

We finally had to take Bella's away, because she kept trying to eat it.

My parents had both said they really wanted to visit Gettysburg while they were here. So we took the short one hour drive to Pennsylvania and got started on our driving tour.

Before we headed out we went to the visitors center and bought some great Cd's that talked you through the driving tour. Great idea mom! I wanted to try and get some pictures of Lincoln with the statue of Lincoln. This was the best shot we came up with.

Lincoln playing dress up.

During one of our tours we found out that one of the youngest boys to fight in the civil war was a 9 year old. Isn't that sad! Seeing Logan with this pretend gun, I can't imagine what those young boys went through. I also found out that more men/boys lost their lives in the civil war, than World War I and II combined.

We had to take two cars, because we couldn't all fit in one. Logan decided to go with Papa, and Uncle Patch. Which means my mom and I had Bella and Lincoln. Bella did really well for the most part, but at one point I let her out of the car so she could play in the dirt. I sure love this little girl! She loves dresses and princess, but is also a super tom-boy.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love her curls!

The next few pictures are of the landscape that we saw while on our drive.

There were lots of these rock walls all along the trail.

After our drive we headed into the town of Gettysburg and found this great restuarant. We decided to eat outside so the kids could stretch their legs.

On the way out my dad pointed out the side of this building. All of those white dots are bullet holes from the war. They painted them so you can see them better.

It was such a hot humid day in August, we were definitely ready to get home and enjoy some cool popsicles and air conditioning. Can you imagine how hot all those soliders must had been in their wool uniforms while they were fighting the first part of July?

We sure are lucky and blessed!

Lincoln was pooped too. He has been sleeping through the night for over a week now. He goes to bed around 11:00 or 12:00 and wakes up between 8:00 and 9:00.

Another fun outing we did with my brother was go to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD.

We saw the dolphin show, and were very impressed with it.

This was the expression that Bella had throughout most of the show. They gave the dolphin a ball to play with and she kept telling the dolphin, "I catch it!" She wanted to let the dolphin know she was ready to play.

Logan decided to sit with his Uncle Patch in the splash zone. Luckily they didn't get too wet.

After the dolphin show we headed over to watch a Dora movie in 4-D. At one point in the movie a monkey peels a banana and the chairs start to spray out a mist of fragrance that smells like banana. It was crazy. Everytime I looked at Logan he was laughing hystericaly.

It was great having my brother with us, becuase we were able to get lots of family pictures.

These next few pictures are some of my favorites. Do you see the crocadile swimming in the water?

Now can you see the crocadile's eye right above the water?

Nemo!

There are no strollers allowed in the aquarium, which we didn't know about. Luckily they let you borrow carriers. We opted for a Kelty pack. Jeff has been wanting one for years now, but I wasn't sure if Bella would like it. After this outing Jeff is sold! He and Bella both loved it.

This is one of my favoirte pictures of the day!

We have started a tradition of taking people out to a resturant their last night. Patch decided on a Thai food resturant. We called our favorite babysitter, and had a great night out.

Thanks guys for coming. We loved having you, and can't wait for your next visit. :)