saturday outing part 1: oatlands

A few Saturdays ago we ventured out near Leesburg, Virginia, to explore Oatlands Historic House and Gardens. The surrounding countryside was gorgeous as always. We didn't tour the house (because I'd rather pull my teeth out than attempt a house tour with kids) but the outside was impressive. We had a picnic on the grounds and then spent a few hours exploring the gardens. The weather was perfect (no humidity) and the kids loved running around. As with so many places like this, we had it nearly to ourselves.

utah: city creek and temple square

We spent our last day in Utah checking out the new City Creek Center downtown and walking around Temple Square.

We were so glad that Micaela and her kids met us downtown. The kids had fun running around together and especially loved playing in the fountains at City Creek.

Lunch in the food court. Chick-fil-A for the kids, Red Iguana for the adults. Yum.

We took a tour of the Conference Center. I love the views from the roof.

(The building Ben and I lived in after we got married...the tall brown one in the center. We loved the views from our balcony and being able to walk everywhere downtown.)

With all the vegetation growing, you can't even tell you're on the roof of a building.

The apartment building in the Avenues I lived in when I met Ben. I'm kind of surprised it's still standing. Mine was the one with the open window. The girls weren't that excited about our nostalgia tour.

We went to one of our favorite spots for dinner...Ruth's Diner. It's in a beautiful location in the canyon and the patio dining is so pleasant. Plus, the food is yummy.

After dinner we were able to hang out with Ben's friend Spencer and his family again. The kids had so much fun playing together until late at night.

We survived our flight home the next day, with the usual mix of delays and other problems. We were happy we got to take three different trips in the past few months to visit family, but we're relieved to be done flying for a bit. Flying with small children just might be more painful than giving birth to them. And nearly as expensive. But it's always worth it.