DC exploring and Easter with Schiebels

The hardest part of moving frequently is definitely leaving friends behind. The Schiebels would definitely rank up among the hardest. We have seen them briefly a couple of times in San Diego when they were on vacation with her family, but this was the first time that we got to hang out with each other, and really the first time they have been able to spend time with our kids. We spent countless hours with the triplets after they were born, but sadly, they barely knew us anymore, so it was so fun to get reacquainted and see their almost 8-year-old personalities! And things with Karrie and Al...felt like we had hung out a week ago. The sign of a good friend, no awkwardness, just immediate good conversation and laughter.

It was fun to see the kids play together too. They are obviously very different ages, but overall they did a great job playing and having fun together. Rowan and Jordan went to Grant's desk to do some drawing the first night they were there.

 We then went to Cafe Rio for dinner (of course!) and came home and dyed eggs for Easter. It was the triplets first time dyeing eggs and they had so much fun. (Sorry Karrie, they might request it next year ;)

 Saturday morning we headed off on an adventure. They had never been to DC so we figured it was a must since they made the trip up even though ultimately we were all they cared about up here :) 

First metro ride!

 They were showing off their gymnastics skills on our empty train!

 Our first stop was the Museum of Natural History. This is one of my kids' favorites and Jordan's only request. It was so cute to see his excitement. He took Karrie's phone and took a picture of every single animal he saw in the museum. It's so fun to visit places with people who are super excited about it. And Rowan couldn't wait to see the dinosaurs again.

 We headed over to We The Pizza for lunch and then walked along the mall just hanging out and having fun talking and running around.

 We didn't walk over to the tidal basin for all the cherry blossoms, but there were lots of pretty blooms along the mall still!

 There was a kite festival going on near the Washington monument. We had seen some info on it so packed our kite to participate. It was actually the perfect little break to sit and rest our legs from all the walking we had done that day. We had a few kite fights (getting tangled with other lines), but came out successful.

 Allie was so cute with Dylan. She LOVED him. Rowan really liked Allie and always wanted to sit by her, and Allie really liked Dylan, so the 3 of them spent a lot of time near each other ;)

That night we just hung out at home and then got to do some Easter basket assembling together which was so much more fun together! I seriously had such a great time just hanging out and talking with Karrie (and Al and Grant!)
 
 Easter morning the kids all woke up with anticipation. They were all very excited to check out their easter baskets. The triplets lined up downstairs, we lined up upstairs and then we all met on the middle level where the bunny had lined up their baskets. 

 I was super excited how well Dylan's basket turned out. I had to have friends from Okinawa buy and ship the materials for me to make it...but it turned out exactly how I wanted. I love it!

 We then ate homemade cinnamon rolls, watched a session of conference and then had an egg hunt in the yard. Karrie had the great idea that each kid was assigned a different color that they got to find, so each kid had 10 eggs to find and wasn't allowed to take any that weren't their color. This helped in the age and ability discrepancy of the kids hunting and added to the fun. Such a good idea!

 Madi had to work hard for this egg!

 And the best part...seeing what kind of treats were in the eggs!

 We had a delicious dinner of ham, cornflake potatoes, rolls, carrots and deviled eggs and then had our chocolate chip cookie brownies with ganache on top that we used to make for dessert when we'd hang out in Lexington. Brought back lots of good memories!