Lucy and I spent last week out at my brother Andrew’s home in Reston, Virginia, hanging out and getting to know his three girls better: Sophie (5), Elanor (almost 4), and Charlotte (1) along with my awesome sister-in-law, Michelle. Note I did not bring a fancy camera along, all these shots were taken with either my phone or my point-and-shoot camera. The girls hit it off right away and within the hour began the first of many many book sharing sessions. We attended a fun Music and Movement class with Elanor and went to the library. No trip to the East Coast is complete without a visit to Rita’s. It’s one of my favorite things…ever.
The Jensons live right near the Udvar-Hazy Center so we took a little mini trip over to see a lot of flying vehicles:
On MLK day we all drove out to Winchester, VA to visit their excellent Children’s Museum:
The local mall has this incredible play area based on an airport. The girls had a great time running around:
We had a great week of bonding and playing. Thank you so much to Andrew, Michelle, Sophie, Elanor and Charlotte for hosting us, we love you!
Band of Characters 
Aren’t cousins the best? Looks like everyone had a wonderful time. Hope you were far enough south to miss all that nasty weather.
We had so much fun, thanks for coming and spending time with us. It was so fun seeing you in a parent role and I just want to let you know that you are doing a fantastic job. Come back and play another time and bring the boys next time.
One on one time is as important as family time. Becky, though I have never met you. I have thought from the start you are being a awesome mom for two “little people”who were too young to really know how very much they lost. When they are older and start asking the hard questions. I hope that you are still part of thier lives and will be able and willing to keep Margarets memory alive for them. I have a friend here in town who went through much the same thing as Ben. The little people of that family are in High School now. They will both tell you without a doubt that the lady they have called mom since they were real small( she started out as just a friend of thier dads willing to help out) is the lady who keep them above water and helped to shape thier lives when they were too young to know any better. They say that growing up their moms momory was never put on a shelf, but never the center of things either. That they could always go ask her and she would see tha thier dad filled them in.They say they know the good and the bad about thier mom. I guess you could say they grew up having two moms. Iknow they called this friend of their dads mom long before they ever married. Ihave ha huge bad habet of rambling. I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your lives with me, who is a stranger. And I think your both doing awesome at being parents.
It looks like a great week in a lot of familiar places! So glad you had the time to spend with one another. Those Virginia cousins are wonderful. 🙂