Cabin John is another Regional Park in a forested area with play structures amongst soaring trees. To Nicolas' delight this park had a train ride, too, just like the one we went to in Wheaton. Toot-toot!
It's really fun to be surrounded by so much natural beauty. The boys will go from making mud soup with a stick...to running, climbing, and sliding on a play structure...and then back into nature again.
And I am mindful of my Creator as they play, praising Him for the works of His hand.
As I've mentioned before, we're surrounded by a large national park called Rock Creek Park. At the end of our street is one of many trails leading into the park so we sometimes walk (or scoot) down there in the evening.
Just a short way down the trail...
...is a playground that the boys have named "The Bus Park" because of the School Bus play structure that's there. Can you guess what song they like to sing when they're on the bus?
On this particular evening, things were pretty soggy from an earlier rain and the boys quickly found a way to get as messy as they possibly could. (check out the mud on Riley's legs). There was no point in trying to stop them. They squealed with delight as they splish-splashed through the mud over and over again.
On a different day, we explored another area of the park by going on a Nature Walk. We collected things along the way that we liked (leaves, sticks, rocks, etc) and looked for creatures and critters. It was really, really fun and to my surprise, even Riley did not complain about walking. They were happy to let their imaginations run wild.
But seriously, Jonah, does every stick have to turn into a gun for shooting bad guys? This one seemed particularly well suited for the job with its handle and all.
You know that sign you see when you get on Highway 50 in Sacramento that says: Ocean City, MD 3073 miles? Well, guess where we went on Sunday?
Ocean City, MD!
The three-hour drive made for a nice little road trip.
All three of the boys loved splashing in the water and running from the big waves. Jonah didn't eat his lunch until about 3:30 because he was too excited and wouldn't get out of the water!
We finally coaxed everyone out of the water with the promise of a ride at the Boardwalk. They all chose this one.
We even got to see Dora and Spongebob as we walked down the Boardwalk back to our car.
And as we left Ocean City, guess what sign we saw at the start of Hwy 50?
Last week we made two treks into downtown. On Friday night, we picked Steve up from work, had dinner at a restaurant inside Union Station, and then headed over to the Jefferson Monument. It was a beautiful night for walking around the Tidal Basin. I forgot my camera, so no pictures. ):
On Saturday, we headed back in on the metro and did a second round at the American History Museum. One nice thing about free museums is that you can go more than once and see things at your own pace! This time around, we hit the second and third floors and saw just about everything we wanted to see. (I, however, did not get to see the First Ladies exhibit because Cranky Pants #1 and Cranky Pants #2 were needing to get home for naps and somehow I didn't think the rest of my crew cared too much about fancy dresses. Oh well.).
Mason and Grant's family (neighbors across the street) left on Monday for a five-week trip to Texas to visit their relatives. They are coming home on the very same day that we leave to go back to Sacramento so we will likely never see them again.
The two weeks we had with them were such a blessing and we were very sad to see them go! Jonah and Mason have the same energetic, outgoing personalities so their play time was always filled with imagination and gusto. They formed quite a little friendship in a very short time.
Now that Mason is gone, I am back to looking for ways to keep Jonah busy in the afternoon while his brothers are napping. So, it's time for some reader participation! Any ideas of relatively quiet activities that he (or we) can do at home in the afternoons? Please send them my way! I'll compile a list and pull it out when we need an idea (and we'll think of you).
Jonah, Nicolas, and Riley started their swim lessons this week at the YMCA. They are doing great and learning all kinds of new skills in the water.
The lessons are everyday from 10:00-10:30 a.m. for two weeks so they are keeping us busy! They've come at a perfect time since we were hit with a heat wave this week. After lessons in the indoor pool, we head out to the outdoor poor for an hour or two of splashing before having a picnic on the playground and then heading home for naps.
In the evenings, we've been laying low, having some good, old-fashioned fun around the house.
