Good Good Times

Last weekend Jason and his family arrived in Northern VA. The elders at our church had asked him a few months ago to hold a weekend meeting for us and of course he told them yes. At first he was just going to come up by himself but instead the whole crew came and I can't tell you how happy I was that we were all going to be able to spend this time together. They got in Wednesday night and we started our tour Thursday morning. The entire weekend we were suppose to get rain so we thought we should do all the outside things on Thursday since it was not raining. We thought the best place to start would be the White House. Of course the day we pick to go with my brother and his family there is a protest in front of the White House and people are getting arrested.


So, the protest consisted of people over the age 60 dressed in orange jumpsuits yelling "Justice Delayed is Justice Denied". They were protesting about Guantanamo Bay. Um, yeah all I can say is why and who cares.



These were the protesters on the other side of the street that were not getting arrested. Notice the nice black bags they have over there heads.

Nice family shot in front of the Guantanamo Bay protest.

After the protest we headed out for some lunch then we went to the Washington Monument.

The kiddos had so much fun being together.

We then headed down to the WWII Memorial. This is one of my favs and I think Jason and Amberly really liked this one.


The kids had fun playing in the water and running all over the place. After the WWII memorial we headed to the Lincoln memorial and then to the Vietnam memorial. We saw everything outside in DC that we could possibly see. I don't know how far we walked but we were all dead by the time we got home.

Friday morning we got up and went to Arlington Cemetery. Who knew that you could get yelled at by one of the guards at the changing of the guards ceremony. After Arlington we went to the Thomas Jefferson memorial then headed home. We were all so tired and Jason had to get ready for the meeting at church. Saturday we headed back downtown to the Holocaust museum. Note to self: must have timed ticket to do tour. We did not get to see the main exhibit at the museum because we did not get a ticket. Moving on, we headed to the Air and Space museum. The kids were sorta interested but were tired and so we headed home. All in all I think they got to see everything they wanted to see. I think Sarah was disappointed in not seeing the ruby slippers or the hope diamond but they all seemed to have a great time.


We tried to get Jacob in the picture but he had other plans. The kids had so much fun being together. They all played so good together and really had a good time. It was so great for us all to be together. I think we all made great memories that I know I will cherish forever.

Jason did such a great job with his lessons at church. You can listen to them on our website. Check them out: www.annandalechurch.org.

More Easter Fun

Last Saturday Mary Raines, Tucker, and his friend Allison came over to dye eggs for Easter. Tucker was so excited! Jacob would have been in this picture but he was on the floor having a tantrum. You think I'm joking but I'm not.


Let's get started.


All of the kids did very good with their eggs.


Sunday after we had lunch we got ready for our Easter egg hunt. Everybody looks ready to go.

Um yeah he would rather go for a ride in the wagon.

Brooks would rather play in the play set.



They all had more fun on the swing set. Oh well, we had a great day with the kids

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a fun Easter. We started our morning off with seeing what the Easter bunny had left for the kids. They both got some pretty neat stuff. We went to church and then Beau and Kasey and the kids came over for lunch.


Tucker was more excited about Easter than his brother.


How cute are these little Hinelys?


Ok, they all are really cute!


Fam Jam!

The Dad's with the hooligans.

My little man!

Cherry Blossoms

Yesterday was Tucker's actually birthday so we went and had pancakes for breakfast then headed downtown to see the cherry blossoms. Here are some of my favorite pics from the day.

Happy Birthday Tucker

Today is Tucker's 4th birthday! It is so hard to believe that he was born 4 years ago. We had Tucker's birthday party on Friday and have been celebrating all weekend. We had lots of friends from church and from our neighborhood come over for the day.

We started the party off with hot dogs and chips.

Look who showed up just for Tucker! All I can say is if you ask them, they will come.

Johnny got to start the engine and turn on the lights!

The fireman said that a lot of woman drive the trucks. I have a had time driving my SUV!


Tucker was really excited that a firetruck full of fireman came to his party but he was more interested in the moon bounce.

The kids were more into the moon bounce than the firetruck. I think the adults had more fun hanging out in the fire truck

Tucker had to get into costume before eating his Spider man cake.

Pinata time!!

Sea World

This is the park that I have been looking forward to since we started planning this trip. I love Sea World more than any other place we have ever been. I went when I was a kid but had never back until now. It was a perfect day and it wasn't extremely crowded. We got to the park around 11 or so and the Shamu show was about to start. We had to practically run to the stadium to get a seat.


This was the end of the show. Tucker was amazed by the whales.


After we did the Shamu show we got to go to a dolphin show. It was really neat. They had a dolphin and bird show which was a lot of fun.

This was probably the best part of the day for me. We got to go to a dolphin lagoon and feed and pet the dolphins. I love dolphins so this was so much fun for me.

Johnny was showing Tucker how to throw the fish into the dolphins mouth. Tucker was a little afraid at first but ended up really enjoying it.

After we fed the dolphins we got to underneath the lagoon and see the dolphins underwater. This was really neat to watch.

This was the best part of the day for Johnny. He loves penguins and could have stayed here all day. We actually stayed in this exhibit the longest.


This was the best part of the day for Tucker. He was actually tall enough to ride the Shamu roller coaster. This little guy has no fear.

Animal Kingdom

The next day we went to Animal Kingdom. Papa John had never been to Animal Kingdom so he came up and spent the day with us. It was really nice to have an extra hand to help with the kiddos. My kids love going to the zoo so this was so exciting for them.


Papa John was very excited to be with the kiddos!


The best part of Animal Kingdom is that we got to on a safari. It was so neat. It really felt like we were in the Africa looking at all the different kinds of animals. We got to see all kinds of wild animals.

The kids favorite animal was the giraffe. We don't have giraffes at our zoo so this was a real treat for all us.

Here the kids are digging for dinosaur bones. They loved this.

Jacob wasn't so sure but he did have fun playing in the rocks.

Here we are standing in front of Mt. Everest. Jacob was taking his afternoon nap.