Road Trip!

Last month we took a road trip to visit Mike’s brother and his family in Virginia.  We had a great time, and the kids were surprisingly good on the drive.  Ben just talked on the phone, and Carter and Samantha rocked out to Justin Bieber.  Alright, that was just for the first five minutes or so.  But we had enough snacks and videos to keep them happy  from screaming the whole way there.  The weather was so nice while we were there!  We were able to play outside almost every day (which was a novel concept for these Wisconsinites). Still, with the big mouth.  One of the highlights of the trip was visiting with an old friend.   Mike and Cameron have been good friends since high school.  We actually had our wedding reception at his house.  Anyway, Cameron is in DC training for his new position with the State Department in Kenya.  We haven’t seen him in a long time and haven’t ever really gotten to know his wife, Jaclyn.  It was so good to visit with them.  I’m glad we caught up with them before they shipped out to Africa.  I was so impressed with how willing Jaclyn was to have her picture taken – she had her baby a couple of weeks after we saw them.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing them again soon (safari anyone?  Yes please!)!And of course, being so close to DC, we had to go and show the kids the sights.  We didn’t have as much time as I thought we would, and I didn’t get to see the cherry blossoms, but we did hit most of the major sights. 

The cousins joined us.  Aren’t they super cute?  Most people have a hard time believing that they are siblings, let alone twins.  Of all the sights, this is the one that Carter kept coming back to.   He’s a Chaplin though, I would expect nothing less.  Samantha wasn’t feeling well, and she and Ben fell asleep in the stroller, but I swear they were there. Carter dreaming of the day that he lives in the White House.  And Mike wins father of the year award here.  Check him out with one on his back, two in the stroller, and my purse.  What a man!  And you know it’s a good day when they end up like this.  This, by the way, is a classic Forster sleeping shot.  She looks just like my Dad (ok, and me) when he falls asleep sitting up.   I’m excited to go back when the kids are older and understand more about what a special place DC is. 

We also celebrated Samantha’s birthday out there, but that's another post. Overall, we had a great time visiting with Jon and Christine.  Now it’s their turn to come out here!