Sandy Point.

It's that time of the year again, flip flops and t-shirts...and most importantly, time spent outside and not in our cave hibernating!

Thank goodness for seasons!

Before the pool opened, we joined some of the neighbor kids and Brielle and Braden played in their sprinkler. I wish I would have taken pictures of them, they were having so much fun.

Braden, found a rolliepollie and couldn't get enough of it. I love the joys they find in the simple things...Poor rolliepollie, though, it was dropped so many times!

******

One Saturday morning in May, I woke up with a craving for ocean. Ocean smell, sand, ocean breeze. I told Scott about it and as if our brains had been communicating, he said he had been thinking the same thing! I seriously think that sometimes telepathy is real! It happens to Scott and I often...He was more along the lines of boogie boarding in the ocean, though...:)

But I figured if we both were thinking about the ocean, we had better do something about it!

So, I started looking online for the closest beach to us. I packed our lunches, changed everyone into their bathing suits and headed out the door.

And hour and a half later, this is where we ended up. Sandy Point State Park, along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Not quite the ocean with white sand I had envisioned, but it was good enough.

It was such a beautiful day, not too hot.

The kids had a blast.

and I couldn't get enough of watching my family have fun.

They played and played...

...and played...they could spend hours and hours gathering shells and rocks and playing in the water.

We are so happy to have my brother back for a month and a half! It's always so fun to spend time with him and have him here. He is heading to China next and then Ethiopia! He is taking full advantage of being able to study abroad while doing his Master's in Global Public Health. It's fun to talk to him about his travels and the things he is learning and I love the perspective he brings. We miss him when he's gone, but he's doing what he loves.

We spent some relaxing times at the Chesapeake Bay.

A lot of these photos were taken by Kem. He's so good at seeing things I don't see through the viewfinder. Kem challenged me to use the manual focus on my 50mm. lens.

It was fun playing around with that lens.

I love how focused Mr. Braden gets when he's in the middle of a task. He reminds me of his father!:)

Have I mentioned how much I love these children? How can one love someone this much?

I love their innocence and how much they love to play!

ha ha! and I LOVE their facial expressions!!!!:)

Camping with Daddy.

Scott had his share of camping in the month of May. The weekend after our family camping adventure to Sky Meadows, Scott and Brielle had a Daddy-Daughter camp-out with our Church's ward. Brielle had been looking forward to it for weeks and was counting down the days until the big day, when she and her daddy would go camping together, just the two of them.

Scott recounted a few episodes of drama during their outing but overall they spent some special moments together.

They took our little Canon powershot and these are some of the shots they came back with.

They had a great turn out and Brielle got to play with some of her little friends from Church. They ate hot dogs, had smores and enjoyed having fun outside.

The following weekend, our ward had a Father-son camp-out. Braden was ecstatic!!!!! He LOVES camping! Scott says that they had SO MUCH FUN! He is such a good little helper and helped Scott put up their tent.

They came back smelling like camp fire! I guess Braden LOVED hanging around the fire and throwing sticks in it.

Scott is such a good daddy to these two kiddos and loves spending quality time with them. I hope there are many more camp-outs like these with them. I love the excitement they feel at the thought of spending some one-on-one time with Scott. They both felt so special.

Scott came home saying that he couldn't have another hot dog in a long, long time!

3 weeks in a row of camping!

I am a Mother.

At age 25, I became a mother of a beautiful little girl. My life hasn't been the same since. Shortly, after I became a mother for the second time...to a loving little boy...and my life changed even more. Brielle and Braden made my dream of becoming a mother come true.

They both love me unconditionally, even when I make mistakes and I'm clueless about raising children. They have taught me how deeply I am capable of loving another human being. I wake up every morning with the sole purpose of serving them, loving them, rearing them and teaching them the good things of this life.

Sometimes, I fail...but sometimes I succeed...and those are the days that I hold on to.

It is the little special moments that I share with them, that make motherhood such a wonderful experience.

Like the other day, when Braden told me out of the blue,

"I am thankful for you, mommy."

Those moments fill my heart with joy.

This year, my sweet kiddos and husband made Mother's Day so special for me. Each of the kids class had a Mother's Day Tea and they sang the cutest songs and we had yummy treats.

They also gave me the cutest little presents and drawings.

There's something so special about a handmade present, especially when it's from your kids.

On Sunday, we had a little family photo session, before Church.

Thanks Bets for taking these!

Once upon a time, it was just me and this man!

My two precious kiddos. I know every mother is biased when it comes to her children...

but seriously, aren't these two so cute?!!!

My boys.

My first-born, who will be going to kindergarden in the fall. We went to orientation the other day! She's going to the 'big' school!!!

I love this picture, even Braden, he seems like he's picking his nose but I LOVE it!

I love these people. They are my life.

I'm so grateful to them for loving me the way I am.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Betsy Lou.

My dear friend, Betsy, came to visit us the first week of May. Betsy and I met at BYU-Idaho back when in 2001 (I think?) we were roommates and have been friends ever since. She is such a good, righteous woman. You always feel good being around Betsy. She is laid-back and easy going and I love that about her.

I loved that she was able to come and see my life here in Virginia...and of course visit D.C.

Bets was a history major at BYU-Idaho so I think she enjoyed D.C.

We saw as a much as we could during that week. We went to the National Museum of American History. We hadn't been there in a while with the kids and Brielle kept telling me to take a picture of her in front of 'everything'...in her own words..."so I won't forget it mom!"

She loved the First Ladies' gown exhibit and wanted to take a picture in front of every single one of them!:)

I have been dying to see Julia Child's kitchen for a while now...I appreciated the simplicity of her kitchen and yet she created such amazing meals in that kitchen!

On our way out, Betsy spotted C-3PO from Star Wars. My kids have never watched Star Wars but somehow know the names to a lot of the characters! They both starred at C-3PO for a while!

After the museum, we headed to the Jefferson Memorial. Braden was obviously very excited!:)

We admired the Jefferson Memorial and then headed to the FDR Memorial.

As always,the FDR is so beautiful and the weather could NOT have been any more perfect that whole week for Bets! We had sunny skies and perfect temperatures that whole week.

Like Betsy said, you just can't do Washington D.C justice with pictures...you can try, but everything is much more magnificent, much more grand when you see it with your own human eyes.

By then, the kiddos were tired and ready to call it a day...so we all started acting silly!:)

Somehow, through all the silliness, we made it back to the car and made our way back home!

The next day, we picked up the kiddos from preschool and headed for another day of adventure in D.C. We went to the Archives Building and saw some very cool documents and things I hadn't seen before. It was all so interesting.

...and I think this was the first time my kids had ever see a telephone, like one with a cord and handset. It made me realize that they are growing up in a totally different era.

We had lunch at the Sculpture Garden.

Then headed to the National Museum of Natural Science.

Again, Brielle was so funny, and wanted me to take a picture of EVERYTHING...so that she won't forget it! and while Brielle was LOVING the precious jewel exhibit, Braden was hating being in the room with "all these girl stuff!"...until I told him that those precious jewels come from volcanoes...and then he thought it was so cool!

When he saw that meteor he HAD to take a picture with it! I love his little fake smile!:)

On our way home, we made a quick stop in front of the White House. It was too bad that they had the closer view of the White House blocked off, so we couldn't get any closer! I think they always block it when they have stuff going on on the White House lawn...anyway, at least we got somewhat close to it!

On Friday, we had tickets to go on a tour of the Capitol Building. I was so excited because this was also my first time inside the Capitol. We decided to take the metro this time, instead of driving.

The Capitol Building was just breath-taking.

They show you a 13-minute video of the history and what happens inside this place before the actual tour. It made me feel so patriotic and proud of living in this country. They go through some of the important laws and bills that they have been able to pass throughout history...big things like the right for women to vote, etc. It was just very inspiring.

You can get the idea through pictures, but it is much more magnificent in person.

The Rotunda is simply exquisite. I think you'd have to spend a long time in there, to really appreciate the beauty of it all.

The Statuary Hall was beautiful too.

I had to make my kiddos stand in front of the Idaho statue, since they are both Idahoans.

Bets headed out early on Monday, to the Holocaust Museum and we met up with her later that day, to finish walking through the rest of the monuments.

I totally let my kids break the rules while we were are the WWII Memorial! I know...what a terrible thing to do...you're not supposed to wade...but what the heck! I guess, technically they didn't 'walk' on it...they just splashed and stuck their feet in the water...It was hot and they have so much fun doing splashing the water and sticking their little feet in it.

They find so much joy in the simple things...

They were in heaven! Look at that face!:)

I couldn't believe when Tuesday came around and it was time to take Betsy Lou to the airport! I had so much fun spending time with such a wonderful friend.

Thanks for coming to spend time with me Bets! I loved every second!:)