Williamsburg and a little Yorktowne

We rented a minivan for the weekend and headed to Williamsburg, the original Capitol of Virginia. It was neat because you had to pay to get into the city and then you can walk around to all the shops and stuff. The people there were in character as if it were 1774, wearing all the clothes they would have and were totally in character. They had reenactments going on, acting out scenes as they would have been back then. It was very entertaining and we learned a ton! Some highlights were the old Capitol, Governor's palace, saddle shop (the boys loved that one), and all the horses and carriages. We then drove to Yorktowne Battlefield, which was the last battle place of the Revolutionary War. We were only there for about an hour but it was so pretty and it was cool to see all the canon's...another hit with the boys!

Visitors!

Tyson's brother, Devin, and his wife Kaydee are here visiting us right now! They got in Tuesday night and are here til tomorrow. We've had so much fun with them and have got to do some awesome things! Here's what we've been up to:

Mount Vernon: George Washington's home and planation
Lexi and the goats

George and Martha Washington's tombs

We got to go on a tour of the Capitol. Gina and I went awhile ago and did the regular tour that anyone can do. To do this tour we had to get permission from our representative (Kaydee did it, so it was through the Utah Senate). Our poor tour guide...we came walking in with 4 adults and 5 kids! He was great though and we got to see way more than we did the first time. This picture is us standing on a star in the center of all of DC...so they say "the center of the universe."

This was at the top of the Washington Monument. From here we could see 40 miles away...including the DC temple!

Kaydee and Dev enjoying some DC hot dogs!

We got to go do a temple session Thursday night! Thanks so much Gina for watching the kids!!!

Good times!

When it's not too hot, it's always fun to go to the park. We found this one the other day and as always, the kids had a blast.

Yesterday we went to the National Building Museum. It was the best place to go with kids! This place is all about the building and architecture of D.C., but they have a little play area for kids called the Building Zone, where the kids can build things out of blocks, legos, etc. We spent pretty much all of our time in there and will need to go back to actually see the museum stuff.

Zach, Lexi, Abby - the builders!

Fun

To end our trip in WA we headed to the water park in Moses Lake so the cousins could play one more time before we had to leave. We all had a fun afternoon getting wet. We miss EVERYONE already!

Maren and Lexi getting wet in the spray area!

Grandma and the girls

Twin Lakes

Every year my family takes a trip to Twin Lakes. It never gets old and is so much fun! This year was pretty eventful. Wednesday the wind started to pick up and by the late afternoon the wind was blowing so hard that it knocked some trees down, along with some powerlines. So we were without power most of the time. Our trip to Twin Lakes is the closest we ever get to real camping...we stay in cabins and we have flushing toilets, ovens, tv, etc. So having power out was a big deal. Luckily we had taken our motor home, so that saved a lot of the food and water. The kids had a blast! Jace was in heaven with all the dirt, rocks, and sticks! Lexi had a hard time getting in the water because it was so cold, but once she did she didn't want to get out! Because the power was out, we couldn't watch our movies at night, and actually had to talk to each other haha. We had some good laughs at the nights wore on! We missed Tyson but glad we could all be together!

4th of July!

Ok, so the 4th of July in D.C. is crazy! But tons of fun! We got up and went to the parade, and thanks to Gina got an awesome seat! We then headed over to stake out our spot for the fireworks. We got a spot right in between the Washington monument and the reflecting pool (they light the fireworks off on both sides of the reflecting pool). While we waited for the fireworks we got rained on 3 times! Luckily we had brought a little umbrella (which was better than nothing) and Madsen's brough their big umbrella. Jace loved the rain and didn't care at all if he was getting wet. The fireworks were awesome and the kids loved them! My camera batteries died so I had to steal this picture from the internet.