Cousins!

We were fortunate to have some fun visitors this past weekend.  Matt, Clairon and their 5 kiddos came down from CT to hang with us for a few days.  Needless to say, my kids were giddy to have their cousins come and insisted that I come and scoop them up from school as soon as our guests arrived.  They're at 3 different schools, but I decided to be a nice mommy and go ahead and get them.  I'm going to have to break them of that expectation, though, when their cousins move a couple of hours closer and hopefully visit more often.
Here Maggie and Tessa are getting reacquainted.

First on the agenda was ice skating.  We went to an outdoor ice skating rink in Reston, where the rink was a bit small, but still pretty fun. Sam was very mad because he was sidelined.  Joe swore off balance sports long ago, so he was in charge of chasing after him.  He would yell at his Mommy every time she passed on the rink.

 Below are some pictures of the fun:

Abel, Laz, Clairon, Maggie, Dorian

 Josh

 Maggie ice dancing.

Abel 

 Gabriel

Here's Dan wiping out, but on this one he has a smile.  Earlier in the evening he crashed (no one saw it) and hit his right cheekbone pretty hard.  He said his head hurt, but then kept skating.  Unfortunately on the way home he felt nauseated and his head was killing him.  We knew some of the signs and were afraid he got a concussion (we'd been through it two years before with him).  

 
Here's some of the group getting ready to leave for home.


Once we got home with Dan he was miserable.  But it was late and he was talking normally, so we didn't think we needed to take him to the doctor (plus Matt, who is a doctor, checked his eyes and overall health and thought he was probably okay).  He slept all night, but the next day threw up a bunch.  We were thinking that it might be a coincidence that he got a virus, but from internet research it seems he might have been pre-concussive.  Either way, he wasn't too happy to be missing out on the fun.

Maggie and Gabe were relentlessly loving Arctic the hamster the whole weekend.  I'm happy to say he's still alive and in one piece.

 Saturday we went to the National Zoo.  We saw elephants, seals, a white and gray wolf...

...pandas, red pandas,

 ...and donuts!  "Aunt" Dorie (Aunt to Clairon's family, but not ours.  That doesn't matter to my kids who call her aunt anyway.) brought two and a half boxes of donuts to the zoo!  You should have seen the feeding frenzy.  It rivaled that of the carnivores nearby.  Every family needs an Aunt Dorie.

 People kept walking by and wondering where they could get some Dunkin.

 This picture makes me laugh!  Open wide!

 Near the elephants was an "elephant walking path" that showed how the elephants' gait was different than other four legged animals.  Everyone had to follow the path.

 Sam's face is pure glee.  He was watching the otters in this photo and just kept cackling and laughing.  I must admit that they were funny and playful.  Sam screamed and cried when we left.

 One of the otters doing a loop-de-loop.

 Cousin movie night.  We watched Brave (much to the disappointment of Aaron, who thinks himself too old for such shows).

Tessa is such a little gem.  So sweet and happy.

Sunday dinner:

 What a good girl eating her green beans!  Sam, take notes!

 And more pictures of the kids torturing, I mean, loving Arctic.  Poor Laz - he always seemed to be waiting for his turn but seldom getting it.

Thanks for coming for a visit Clairon and Matt!
We're thrilled that they're moving within less than a 3 hour drive from us.  And Sally, while all of our combined kids were pretty well behaved (actually, Sam was a stinker to poor Tessa), having 10 kids in the house was quite a circus.  We don't know how you did it!!!