Off to the beach!

We finally made it to the beach! It was fun to watch the girls have their first experience at the ocean. We went to Cape Henlopen Beach in Delaware and we had a great time. The waves were a little big the day we were there so Charity didn't like being too close to the water but she loved digging in the sand. Lydia and Rachel liked playing in the smaller waves. They got a little too close to a couple larger waves and quickly learned they didn't like the taste of seawater. They also really enjoyed having Kenny bury them in the sand.

We also stopped at Assateague National Seashore (a barrier island) in Maryland. We saw, among other things, some wild horses there but had to leave early because of Tropical Storm Hanna moving in. On that note, we received 5.89 inches of rain yesterday at our house! To put that into perspective, Utah's average annual precipitation is just under 12 inches. Anyway, we had a great trip!

Rachel enjoying being buried

Lydia immersed in the sand

Charity

I thought this was a funny scene with
wild horses in a parking lot

Ready for Church

Well, we haven't blogged for over a month and are now trying to catch up, so the next three posts are all new today.

On Sunday we had a few minutes after everyone was ready to go to church before we needed to leave so we took some pictures of the kids in their cute dresses. The reason we are posting these pictures isn't necessarily because of their cute dresses, but because we actually got a picture of each child smiling!

Charity

Lydia

Rachel

From walking to running

Charity does not stop moving all day long. She has gotten pretty good at her little waddle-run now and gets around faster than you would think.

Sisterly love

The girls have become quite affectionate with each other and we think it's just great. Charity LOVES to give hugs to everyone, but especially the twins. She'll go back and forth between the two giving hugs each time. Rachel and Lydia are still best friends and enjoy holding hands, sitting next to each other, and of course the occasional fighting.

So much to see!

We are just having a blast seeing all that we can during our time here in the Washington D.C. area. We just hope we'll eventually get to everything on our ever growing list! Here are a few highlights of some of our recent outings.

This is the U.S. Air Force Memorial. It was just
dedicated in 2006 and is located near the Pentagon.

Lydia and Rachel showing their patriotic spirit
at the Air Force Memorial

The National Cathedral

One view from inside the cathedral. It's a
non-denominational cathedral and is used
for many things, including funerals of some of
our past presidents.

Here Lydia and Rachel are driving a firetruck at
Clemyjontri Park. This is an amazing park with all kinds
of playground equipment. There is also a carousel that
is free on weekdays.

Lydia riding the carousel

Rachel on her zebra

Even Charity loved the carousel. This was by far the kids
favorite thing. I think we rode on it six or seven times!

Stars and Stripes Forever

We had a great Fourth of July! It's really neat to see the fireworks in the nation's capital. We decided not to fight the crowds directly on the mall. Instead we watched the fireworks from across the Potomac River. It was great...we had an awesome view, no crowds, and we were home by 10:00!

Here we are waiting for the fireworks to begin

All three of the girls preferred the camp
chairs over the blankets on the ground

A spectacular reminder of how blessed
we are to live in the United States

Look Mom, no hands!

Charity is now walking! She's actually been at it for a few weeks now. She can walk quite a bit but sometimes gets impatient and gets back down on all fours since she's a fast crawler. Here's a short clip that shows just a few steps before she decides to crawl. She does walk longer than this, we just haven't caught it on video yet.