Washington, D.C.

2009-04-22

Our check in went smoothly and we ended up leaving twenty minutes early. The plane was two seats on either side of the aisle, which was perfect for Lori to enjoy the views and Ian to have the aisle. We both passed the time working on the airline magazine Sudoku puzzles that luckily were not already filled in. Before we knew it, we were landing in Dulles, picked up our luggage and met Megan, john Michael and Noah. We had a short ride back to their house where we got the chance to get our first good look at Noah and his beautiful blue eyes. He was very relaxed and unlike his brother did not seem as fussy at that age. John had gotten home from work a few minutes before we arrived. He had told us he had a surprise planned for us that night and we found out that we were going to a minor league baseball game; the Nations vs. another local team. It was to be Ian’s first baseball game. The weather had turned cooler, so we all bundled up and piled into the minivan. As it was the middle of the week and had cooled off, the game was not very crowded, which was perfect for John Michael to have enough room to run around. We had dinner at the game; hamburgers, hot dogs, burritos and popcorn. John Michael managed to get a few balls from people that caught them. It got pretty cold and none of us were prepared, so we decided to leave towards in the end of the fifth inning. When we got home, we helped to put the boys to bed and caught up with Megan and John over some ice cream.

He also started a new game of letting go of the balloons, saying uh oh and then asking Ian to pick him up to get them.

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2009-04-23

Lori and Ian woke up to the sound of John Michael’s feet running in the lounge as they were in the room below. It was going to be a busy day, so they got up, had breakfast and helped with the boys. John had to work that day, so he left around 10 am and was hopefully going to be home later that evening. We left shortly after him and drove out to the outlet malls, which were becoming Ian’s favourite place to shop. As Megan had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon and the boys had a limited amount of patience, we quickly made our rounds. We both got birthday presents from Nannie, Lori’s mom’s mom and Megan picked up a few things. We were running a bit late, so we went straight to the doctor’s office. John Michael fell asleep on the way, so we stayed in the car with him while Megan went in for the appointment with Noah. Lori quickly fell asleep too and an hour later, she and John Michael woke up. At first, we were able to entertain him with various games in the car, but when he said the M word (Mama), we decided to take him into the doctor’s office. We called Megan and found out that Noah had to have some tests run, so she was in the lab, but there was a kid’s playroom in the doctor’s office, so we went there to wait. Luckily, John Michael was easily entertained by all the toys. It was getting close to 5 pm and the office was going to close, Lori went over to the lab to help Megan. As we had arrived at the doctor’s at 2 pm, the appointment was taking quiet awhile and the lab had not given Megan any special treatment as she had the baby. The lab had trouble getting the blood sample and he had spent almost 15 minutes screaming during the first attempt. Megan fed him and when Lori arrived, they were trying for the second time. After five terrible minutes of Noah screaming his lungs out, they were able to get the final sample. Megan and Noah were exhausted, so we stopped by Five Guys to pick up a really late lunch/dinner and then went home to eat. John Michael amazingly still had tons of energy, so we spent some time playing with him while Noah slept.  John arrived home as we were putting John Michael to sleep followed by Noah and then us.

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2009-04-24

John Michael’s 2nd birthday celebration started over breakfast around 9 am. Megan had cinnamon rolls and sausage, which he gobbled up while watching some morning Disney shows. We got the boys dressed and Nannie arrived. We visited with her for a bit and then it was time to get a few things done, John cut the lawn, Ian watched John Michael while Noah was sleeping and Megan and Lori went to the store to pick up supplies for the birthday celebration that night. Megan got John Michael a few balloons from the store and he was so excited when she arrived home with them. His favourite movie is “Cars” and one of the balloons had a car on it, so he was saying car and blue (the colour of the other ballons) for awhile. He also started a new game of letting go of the balloons, saying uh oh and then asking Ian to pick him up to get them. Ian thought this was fun the first few times, but then realized what had been started. Megan had baked a vanilla cake the night before in the shape of Lighten McQueen, the main car in “Cars, and she started making the icing for the cake when we got home. Lori thought that the cake looked pretty complicated, so she offered to help. Soon Lori’s hands were covered in black icing, while Megan managed to keep all her red icing in the container. The cake took several hours to make, but we had a good time and it turned out much better than either of us expected when we first started. While we were working on that, ian and Nannie were catching up and watching the boys and John got started with the hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Soon Anige, Megan’s friend from university, arrived with her two and a half year old twins, Alyssa and Isabelle. We had seen them when we were in DC in December visiting, but this time Angie looked much bigger as she was expecting her third daughter in a few weeks. Daniel, her husband, arrived shortly after her and we all sat down to dinner, which was a challenging feat given all the kids. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal and it was nice to visit with everyone. We cleaned up and John Michael opened his gifts. He seemed much more interested in opening things than he had been at Christmas. It is amazing to see how much the kids change even over such a short period of time. John Michael got some great new things, but his favourite was clearly a Lighten McQueen car that Angie and Daniel for him. He would shake the toy and it would make a noise and then he put it on the ground and it would drive off. The kids played with it together for awhile. Soon after, we had cake. John Michael was a little too interested in his new car to take notice of the cake, but we managed to get a few cute photos.  After cake and the kids playing a little more, Angie, Daniel, Alyssa and Isabelle went home. John cleaned up, while we worked on getting the boys to sleep. We were all exhausted and went to sleep shortly. Lori’s allergies had started to act up and she was not feeling great either.

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2009-04-25

We were up at 8 am the next morning as Nannie wanted to leave to go home at 9 am. We had a quick breakfast and then said our goodbyes. Lori’s allergies still were not great. John left around 10 am and we were hoping to see him again that night. We left shortly after him for Stephanie, Sergio and Mila’s house to celebrate Mila’s 2nd birthday. Lori had met Stephanie her first year of university and they were roommates their last year. We arrived before the party started and we able to catch up with Stephanie briefly. She told us that she and Sergio were expecting their second baby in November. We were so excited for them. The rest of the guests arrived shortly after us and we started the juggling act of looking after John Michael, helping Megan with Noah and trying to visit with Gabby and her boyfriend, Greg. Lori had also met Gabby at university and we had visited her in New York in December. We had a great time catching up with everyone and had some delicious fajitas that Sergio cooked; he’s quite the chef.  Stephanie made a cupcake birthday cake for Mila and we all sang Happy Birthday. Some friends of Sergio’s played some music for the kids and they had a bubble machine set up for the kids to play with. John Michael had a great time chasing the bubbles around. Around two, most of the guests left and we were able to visit with Stephanie a little before we left. We were all pretty tired again and decided to just have leftovers for dinner. John called to tell us that his captain had left the event he was running and he had to take over, so he was not going to be home until close to 2 am. We stayed up late catching up with Megan.

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2009-04-26

Megan, John and the boys were up early for church and then John went back for another day at work. Lori’s allergies were felling better this morning, so we decided to go to the park with Angie, Daniel, Alyssa and Isabelle. The park we went to had a train and a carousel. We were not sure how John Michael would react to either. He was really quiet for the whole train ride, but seemed to enjoy it and really enjoyed the up and down motion on the carrousel horse. We went back to the cars and picked up our picnic supplies, found a shady spot and had lunch. John Michael and the girls were soon chasing after a ball with Ian and Daniel. We packed up and went to the playground. It was another unusually hot day, so Lori and Noah went to wait for them inside a building nearby. Soon, the kids were tired out, so we packed up and headed home. Ian and John Michael watched “Cars” together in the afternoon and then Ian cooked steaks with the meat Nannie had given us for dinner. After dinner, we went on a walk around the neighborhood to a playground where Ian threw the ball to John Michael and Lori went down the slides with him. John made it home in time to say good night to John Michael. Soon Megan and John were falling asleep downstairs after the long last few days, so we all went to sleep.

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2009-04-27

As most of our days in D.C. had been pretty busy, we decided to spend our last day there at the house. We had breakfast, John left for work and we got the boys dressed. It was going to be another hot day, so we went for the neighborhood walk before lunch. John Michael had pretty rosy checks by the time we finished. We had lunch and both boys went down for their afternoon naps.  Lori and Megan went to the store to get some supplies for dinner that night. Ian started making crab cakes with the crab meat that Nannie had left for us. Lori finished packing up and soon the boys were awake and we were having dinner. We cleaned up and then Megan and the boys took us to the airport. We said our goodbyes and then had a long wait at the airport as our flight was delayed by 2.5 hours due to bad thunderstorms in Houston. Luckily, we had packed some brownie cake that Megan had made and enjoyed that while we were waiting. Lori finished her book, “Chasing Harry Winston”, while Ian continued to read “Twilight” on the plane. To continue reading the travel journal in order, continue to the Houston travel journal.