August 16

This past weekend my Mom was in town (on her way from Cairo to her home in Florida). We enjoyed her visit so much. It was a little crazy though. On the day she arrived, my brother had an unpleasant medical procedure - which resulted with his being diagnosed with interstitial cystitis. But he was very uncomfortable and wasn't supposed to be alone for 24 hours so he hung out at my place. Plus Mom was fighting jet lag AND struggling with allergies. In the meantime, my father-in-law came up from North Carolina so we also visited with him and my sister-in-law and my nephew.

What a crazy weekend!

Yesterday we drove my Mom to Reagan National Airport to catch her flight to Florida. We dropped her off around 8:40 am and then I wanted to kill some time before getting back on 66, because the traffic going back towards home had looked nasty.

First we pulled in to Gravelly Point and watched planes landing and taking off. The kids loved it...well...Kiersten was not 100% sold. You'll notice she would plug her ears as the planes went over us. It *was* quite loud.









Next we pulled off to explore Roosevelt Island. We walked to the memorial and then wandered around on the trails.









While walking around I realized I was WAY overdressed. It had been cool the last couple of days so I'd been wearing jeans. We left the house early enough that I didn't realize the cold snap had ended. I was still wearing jeans. By 9:30 am I was dying.







I also realized that I have a completely irrational fear related to the kids. When we were walking on the bridge between the island and the parking lot, if Kardynn would get too close to the side, I would seriously start almost hyper ventilating. I worried that she'd slip through the cracks...or best case scenario, simply lose a shoe. I kept trying to rationalize it away but if she started to get close, I would literally get dizzy. I had to go grab her away from the side and encourage her back towards the middle of the bridge. I was not quite as loopy about the older kids (the older they are the less it seemed to bother me - as you can see from the above picture of Oskar). But yeah, if Kardynn got too close to the edge, I would get woozy.

But back to the day's adventures, I wanted to run by Tysons Corner and take care of a few errands. I had a pair of Hanna Anderrson PJs that had had a seam come out. HA was awesome and they gave me a full credit for those PJs two years later. (Unfortunately I got a really good deal when I bought them. *hmph*)

Then I went by Pottery Barn Kids with a towel that I bought around the same time. The one seam has completely ripped out and it's all fraying along that side. The lady said, "normal wear and tear". Uh...then never mind buying towels from PBK in the future because the only other towel that has ever done this to me was a cheap-o towel that I bought at WalMart and that one was fine for like ten years before it happened. What a bummer because usually I think Pottery Barn has good customer service. I'm not sure what I thought they should do but if they think it's normal for a towel's side to completely unravel after two years, that's a problem. Our final stop was at Teavana to sample the fares (now that I'm a tea fanatic). The kids tried the iced herbal tea and liked it. I'll have to make some at home.

I had promised the kids that if they were good at the mall, we'd go to a playground. So we left Tysons and headed for Clemyjontri Park.

























The kids had a blast but now I was really DYING in my blue jeans. I mean, look at THEIR faces and imagine what mine looked like.





They really, really wanted to go on the carousel and of course I'd left my wallet in the car so we went back to get money, bought tokens and enjoyed a ride on the carousel before leaving.









Then we played a quick game of Follow-the-Leader...and headed home. *whew*





When we got home I assembled a doll house for Kardynn.





And as if I hadn't already had enough time outside, then I mowed the grass.