Family Shenanigans

A few weekends back we went down to PA to visit the fam while Ammon was home. It worked out well since Darin had a conference then and tickets out of DC were cheaper than up here. So we took him down to DC and then spent a few days with my family before going back down to DC to grab him. 

After the kids and I dropped him off on a Thursday morning, we drove to the Hagerstown Discovery Station which was on our way back to PA (and free thanks to our Science Center membership!) Here's a few pics from our visit:

 This girl was just the cutest with all these tools. I could watch her play all day long.

 Shae was SO excited that they had so much stuff that he has learned about in the Magic Tree House books (Dinosaurs, Civil War, Titanic, the Moon).

We met up with Philip and the boys he watches on Friday and went to Colonel Denning State Park. We went here once a few years back too and just love it. It is such a beautiful park and the water and sand is just right for the kids. It was FULL of tadpoles when we were there which was crazy. Shae was a bit hesitant to get in because he didn't want to step on them, which was hard to not do since they were everywhere! We also found a few salamanders and snakes!

 Proud of my sand castle that no one wanted to help me build.

On Saturday we headed back down to DC since Darin's flight would be coming in that evening. My parents and Ammon went down too so that we could all go to the National Zoo together before picking him up.

Deep thoughts about the clementines.

 A few of our McNiven friends went with us and Belén really attached herself to a few of the boys.

 Watching the armadillos. They were so fast and so fun to watch run around!

 These guys were putting on a show as well.

 Checkin' out the crocodile with grandma.

 Down by the sea lions there was a fun area that would spew out water every 2 minutes that the kids could get their feet wet in. 

After the zoo my parents took the kids back home while I waited at the airport for Darin's 8 o'clock flight to come. We reunited and caught up over a late night date of Cafe Rio in Fredrick...the real reason we had him fly out of Dulles :).