DC Trip - Day One

I keep putting off posting anything about this trip because it's a little overwhelming to me. And I'm not too happy about how my pictures turned out. (I couldn't figure out how to turn my flash off and it bleached out many a picture.) But it was such a fun trip and we truly fell in love with all the greenery of the East. This was one of the first trips our family has taken by ourselves, and the first time the boys ever rode on and airplane.

Boy oh boy were we rushing to get there. We got to the airport in okay time, but didn't realize that economy parking would be so darn crowded! We drove around for a half hour or so looking for a parking spot. Once we found one, we had to lug the boys, the stroller, the car seats, and 6 suitcases, a diaper bag, and more to the shuttle, which arrived right after we parked. It was crazy! Wes had to take two trips and he ran to catch the bus.

We decided on the way that it was a must to have a Skycap help us. Once we got there, our flight was so close to leaving that he couldn't check us in! We ran as fast as we could with all our stuff and all the security checks. Our big suitcase was 8 pounds overweight as well, so we had to shift a few things around.

We barely made it! We got to the gate and it was like the movies. The people at the gate knew who we were and got us right on the plane. Phew! Now we could stop and catch a breath!

Our flight left on time and went off without a hitch. I don't remember for certain, but I think we arrived in DC twenty minutes early as well.

The real lifesaver of the flight was these handy little TVs on the back of each seat. Between

cartoons and the DVDs we brought, we were set, and the boys stayed occupied the entire time. I was absolutely stunned. I wish they were this good at church.....

When I see happy faces like this of travelling families I never believe them. Now I do, because lucky for us, this is how it really was. I'm excited to travel more often now that I know we can survive it!

After our flight, and for the rest of the week, we had the blessing and wonder of driving through this:

We were in awe of the pure beauty of Maryland and Virginia. I could never get used to all the green. It was absolutely breathtaking!
Ashley's parents (my new sis-in-law) invited us over for pizza that night, so off we went to their house straight from the airport. Another plus was that the rental car place had extra vans, so they upgraded us for free. Boy oh boy did that extra space some in ever so handy! Plus, the boys slept pretty darn well in there. It was so comfy and roomy.
I wish I'd gotten some pictures of the Archibalds' house. It is beautiful. But it was hard to photograph because of all the surrounding trees. It had a big, long driveway we went down to get there. That was so nice because once we got out of the car we were far away from the street. Such a nice way to ease a tired, travelling mommy's mind.
The trees there were equally breathtaking. I think I drove Margaret (Ashley's mom) crazy with all my questions of what plants and trees were called and what they planted and what was existing and so on and so forth. The picture below was a tree she couldn't name, but I loved it. The tree behind it is a huge magnolia tree.

The boys thought they'd died and gone to heaven. The weather was perfect, they got pizza for dinner, and they had unlimited space (4+acres) to just run around in. And run they did. They ran and ran and ran. They collected sticks, ran, jumped on the trampoline, ran, played ball, ran, hunted for bugs, ran, rolled in the grass, and ran. They loved it. It was so fun to be out of town and have nothing to do but just play with and enjoy them. Man oh man did they ever sleep good that night!
I love the looks of pure joy they had on their faces. Their eyes, their whole faces just lit up and stayed lit. The whole time. It was heavenly.

We had such a fun night. It was really fun to finally meet Ashley's family. I was so happy with the way that day turned out. I was prepared for the worst and we were blessed with such a great start to our vacation. Stay tuned for the rest of our trip!