Summer Tour Stop 16 - Dulles Town Center, VA

Our plan for the second to last weekend in the States was to travel to Wheldon, NC to eat at a favorite restaurant and go shop with Grammy and Grandad and stay overnight in a hotel 2 nights.  The forecast called for thunderstorms for the weekend, so we decided not to go.  Instead, we stayed at Grammy and Grandad's and went to Chuck E. Cheese with Max, Mary Kate and Cole!  The kids had a great time - Megan and Mary Kate together, Cole and Jack together, Max with his parents and Kylie with Me!  Grammy and Grandad enjoyed watching all the kiddos play games and have fun...and choose out their amazing prizes (like plastic bracelets, sweet tarts, nerds and plastic spiders)!  

Max looks so stately up on the horse!

Megan and MK

Kylie and Max

Cole and Jack

Kylie shared her nerds with Max - he loved them!

Me and Grandad

Me and Grammy

The Big Kids

A pic of me and Bugga

Meggie and Mary Kate

And my kiddos the next night at dinner!

Summer Tour Stop 15 - Ashburn, VA

 Megan and Jack having fun at Party City!

 Snuggling with Grammy on a bench

 First day of VBS at Cornerstone!  They had a super great week!  Megan was in Mary Kate's class with Aunt Heather as her teacher, Jack had Stone (Heather's sister Tasha's son) and Kylie had Porter (Tasha's middle son), so everyone had a buddy!  While they weren't all thrilled to go there before it started -BUT they all loved it and had a great time the whole week there!  We even got to go to the closing ceremonies at the end of the week with Grammy and Grandad!  They learned a ton about Creation and Jesus and great worship songs!

We went tubing at Watermelon Park in Berryville with everyone pictured!!!  It was great - only $10/person and we had a blast!  Max had fun just swimming alongside the tubes in his life jacket and we all had fun getting in and out of the tubes while lazily floating down the river!  We would love to go back anytime!

 Jack saved up his money from his last birthday and Christmas to purchase some legos in the States this summer.  We had him wait until we had down time at Grammy's - so he purchased these two sets and wiped out almost all of his money - but was sooooo happy with them!  The best part (I think)?  After building them here, he has to take them apart so he can put them in a ziploc bag to fly to Kuwait with - which means he can build them again!

 We went to the closing ceremony for the kids VBS!  This is Megan and Jack dancing and singing to Unglued :)

 And Kylie

 And the dancers up front!  They were great!!!

Summer Tour Stop 14 - Baltimore, MD

The kids stayed with Mom Mom and Pappy while I was with Clover Valley - and Mom Mom took these pictures!  They had a great weekend - enjoyed playing and hanging out and special times - and toured Fort McHenry Saturday morning!  Here are some pics of their time there!!!

 Jack standing in front of a cannon

 Megan standing in front of a ship

 Kylie

 Kiddos and Pappy standing on the front tier - those were the cannons which destroyed the British Battleships that came in on the bay

(narration courtesy of Megan)

 

 Walking along the path by all the cannons

 Posing in front of one of the dorms

 Mom Mom and Pappy in a dorm window

 The Flag

 Jack thought it was the biggest bowling ball in the world - so he was honoring it...

weird.

 One of the workers there - she was practicing her skills and teaching them about the rebel pirates and which places were won and which places were not won.  Really interesting.

 Kylie lost her 2nd tooth without any drama!!!

Mom Mom gave her a chocolate milk in a small plastic container and she went to take a sip and knocked the tooth almost out of her mouth!  She just pulled it out after that - which is a relief since she was hysterical about losing her first one!

 Kylie, Pappy and Jack at Chick-fil-a for dinner

 Megan and Mom Mom at Chick-fil-a

 They did a talent show that night and everyone either did a talent or showed something important to them - Jack showed off his "Master Spy Car" he built with legos.

 Kylie read "The Best Teacher Ever" with a little help from Megan!  Apparently it took her around 10 minutes to read the whole book...much to the chagrin of Pappy and the kiddos!

Megan goofed around on the ukelele with Kylie dancing - Megan's talent was that she read a funny book and recited verses she knew!  They had a great weekend with Mom Mom and Pappy!!!

Summer Tour Stop 13 - Frederick, MD

I got a chance to meet up with my roommates from college - also known as Clover Valley - for the weekend!  Mom Mom and Pappy kept the kids and we stayed at in Frederick, MD at Andrea's parent's home!  It was all four of us - Heather and Suz drove up from Richmond and Andrea and her little 6 month old Anna (they drove up with their whole family and Dave took the big kids to play with cousins in New Jersey)!  We had a great weekend hanging out, catching up with each other and enjoying our time together!  Friday night we enjoyed some sangria and mad libs, Saturday we drove to Leesburg to go to the Lucketts Antique shops and Leesburg Outlets, then went back to Frederick and went out to dinner (Anna slept at home with a babysitter during dinner) and Sunday we decided to hang out and do our own church service - complete with worship songs, reading through Colossians, sharing prayer requests and praying for each other!  It was a great time to get away and enjoy being with these amazing ladies!  

 Anna - she was soooo good the whole weekend (she might have partied in the middle of the night with her Momma, but she was always super great during the day)!

 Photo of the 5 of us at Restoration Hardware :)

And after dinner!

Summer Tour Stop 12 - Dulles, VA

 On Dan's last day with us in the States, we drove the kids over to Mom Mom and Pappy's, where they were going to stay for the weekend, while I drove Dan back to fly out of Dulles and then I headed to Maryland with a reunion weekend with my roommates from college!  

We found out that there is a Cracker Barrel in Frederick, MD and stopped on the way to Baltimore for lunch!  We ran into a friend from Kuwait while we were there - coincidentally the ONLY person we've run into randomly out and about - either from the States, Bangkok or Kuwait!  It cracked us up!  

 Dan joking and trying to pull Kylie's 2nd wiggly tooth out!  She didn't want it out yet - but it was almost ready!

 Family Picture before Daddy leaves

 Hugging Daddy Goodbye!

You can just see Kylie on the left of him.

And saying goodbye to him at the airport!

Summer Tour Stop 11 - Leesburg, VA

Summer Tour Stop 11 was in Leesburg, VA for the annual Fourth of July parade in downtown historic Leesburg!  This year we brought Grandad as well as had Brian, Sarah, Max, Ina and John follow us there!  We had a perfect spot to watch the parade - right on the corner of the Courthouse - and the parade is the perfect length of time - about an hour - so it's just right!  We had a great time watching the Fife and Drum Corp, seeing the fun cars and firetrucks and waving our flags! 

 

 Our Patriotic Family

 Brian, Sarah, Max, Ina and John

 Me and Grandad

 Dan, Grandad and Brian

 Me and my Tweeter

 Cousins!

 Fife and Drum Corps

Max and his Daddy

 

Drums

 

 View from our spot of the parade!  And Leesburg!

Megan took Max to the front of the crowd to watch!