Cole's DC Adventure

Our house is awfully quiet this afternoon with no boisterous singing of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or "I Have a Different Kind of Sunshine." We had an absolutely wonderful week with Shaanti, Adam, and Cole. I always love when our families come to visit, but there is something really special about having our siblings and their own little families come stay at our house. It is fun to be grown-ups together with the same people with whom we spent so much time being kids. They say you can't pick your family, but of all the friends in the world, I would pick my sisters and brothers any day. Plus it is especially delightful to see time repeat itself a bit, as Cole learns the same songs that Shaanti and I sang as youngsters.

We had a crazy fun week. It was Adam's first trip to Washington, DC, so they spent a couple of days visiting the White House, touring the Smithonians, and climbing to the top of the Washington Monument. Then Friday I took the day off work and we packed up a picnic and went to the zoo so that Cole could see the pandas and the elephants.

All this touristing was great fun, but the highlight of the week--and the one thing Shaanti wanted to do while they were here--was Friday night at the Korean barbeque. We ended up trying a new restaurant, as we discovered when we pulled up that our old place is tragically now a Chinese restaurant. I say tragically, but in reality it turns about we've been eating at the wrong Korean restaurant for years. Il Mee is definitely the place for Korean in Northern Virginia! All of us, even Cole, ate until we were happily sick to our stomaches. Ahhh... (Btw, I love the above picture of Shaanti and I at Il Mee, because as soon as the picture clicked, we both deposited the uneaten tofu right back in our bowls with matching looks of disgust.)

Saturday morning we went downtown to Eastern Market and came away with some tasty peaches and cherries. And we spent the afternoon at the pool, where Cole and Uncle Jason practiced blowing bubbles in the water for hours on end.

Other highlights of the week include:

• Finally getting a taste of those famous blueberry pancakes (and french toast!) at Eastern Market...after a loooong wait in line;


• Eating peach cobbler every night until it was gone;


• Teaching Cole to sing the Batman song;
  
• Watching "Five Mile Creek" with Shaanti--flash back to Sunday nights in the Johnson house during high school--much to the chagrin of our husbands;


• Reading "Pedro the Brave" and other books with Cole every night.

As I've been anxiously looking forward to this week for months and months, I'm a bit sad now that it is actually over. But in just one week, I'm headed to Idaho and, as my parents will be out of town, I get to stay with Shaanti, Adam, and Cole this time. AND meet Baby Troy, whom Cole has assured me is both "so teeny" and "so cute." Plus, Shaanti and Adam should find out this week whether it will be nephew number three in December. I think it's safe to say that nephews are pretty nice to have around!