Natural History Museum

This museum was Talan's pick. He is super into dinosaurs right now so when he heard we could see some dinosaurs it is all he could talk about. The triceratops is his favorite.

This really is one of our more favorite museums because, being a family of all boys, they have a bug museum for kids full of things I do not like. On this particular day we got there only to see a huge gathering of people. I became nosy as to what everyone was looking at until I realized it was tarantula feeding time. Here's to not sleeping for a week.

Usually they have a small table set up with a few insect experts. Madagascar hissing cockroaches, caterpillars, and a grasshopper were being offered to any child who wanted to hold one. Gross.

This is a big deal for Ashton. He is not a fan of actually touching insects, but he really wants to. He stood at the table for a good 10 minutes before deciding to reach out his hand.

Talan was far less fearless. I actually feared for the caterpillar. It's amazing how different Ashton and Talan are. Much unlike Ashton Tal loves bugs. He will catch them, squish them, put them in water. It doesn't matter what it is, he wants to bother it. Just the other day we were at the park and Talan tried to make friends with some sort of flying insect with a stinger. The bug did not want to be friends and before flying away stung Tal's finger. It did not stop him from his bug attraction.

We decided, since it's been a little hot, and super busy, to take Ashton out at night to see the monuments. They are always a lot prettier when lit up. It was also fun to be with just Ashton while the other boys slept in the stroller.

I didn't really realize until I uploaded pictures on the computer that I didn't take any pictures of the monuments. Oops. But, I know you'd rather look at us anyway!

Welcome to our mode of transportation. I miss Chappie.

Although, it hasn't been horrible to walk a lot this summer. Without Chappie joining us on our summer adventure we have been taking the train a lot, and walking a lot, but sometimes we have to ride the bus to get places like Target which we all know I can not live without. We meet tons of really........interesting.......people on the bus, but it makes for an entertaining time.

Here we all are waiting for the bus to pick us back up after visiting Target. Target is a twice a month venture.

Ashton was at a fun age when Talan was a baby and I didn't really think anything would be different with Syphr, but he is way more fun. He's such a good big brother, and wants to be really hands on except when a diaper change is coming. He loves being able to have more freedom and responsibility with Syphr, as in holding him unsupervised, or watching him while I let go downstairs to let Brad in after he gets off work.

He has recently learned some different ways to hold baby Syphr. Syphr is also a fan.

A couple weeks ago we visited the zoo. I really love the DC zoo. Its free, they have a wide assortment of animals, and there are misters set up throughout the zoo. There is only one problem....when you get to the zoo everyone is excited to see all the animals, and the kids are running like crazy. Then you get to the end of the zoo and turn around to start walking back only to realize you've been walking on a down slope for the first half of the day when everyone has tons of energy. Now it is late afternoon and 99 degrees and you're walking uphill pushing 50 pounds of kid in the stroller and trying to motivate the 8 year old to press forth when all you want to do is just lay down under one of the misters until the next day. Not very fun. But, we love the zoo so I guess we will just end up with great leg muscles!

We didn't take many pictures. Our family is having 3rd child syndrome. The camera rarely gets used anymore it seems.

One thing we love about the zoo in the summer is the indoor exhibits. Its nice to get out of the heat for a bit. Brad and I are trying to come out of heat induced exhaustion while the kids look around.
Talan discovered panda statues do not have boogers. Love having boys.

I love this kid! We stopped on one of our walks to get some ice cream since Tal was sleeping. (he can't go out for ice cream because of his allergy) I turned around to find Ashton with ice cream dripping down his hands. He didn't care, he didn't even ask for a napkin, he just kept eating away, and when he was done he licked his hands. I love that.

Also, check out his cool white shades which he requested we take him to American Eagle to buy. He picked them out and paid for them himself. Stud-muffin!

Air and Space

The first place Ashton requested to go was the Air and Space Museum so we loaded up the family and left to check out some super cool airplanes.

Syphr rode in the moby and slept most of the time.

I thought we would be safe as both boys are wearing bright colors and the museum was full of tourist groups. Just our luck one group was assigned to wear orange shirts, and another group wore green shirts. They blended right in.

Good choice Ashton!

In attempts to see and photograph something other than Talan in his underwear I asked him to please put on some shorts. I should have been more clear about my request because my 35 pound almost 3 year old went into the closet and put on his 1 month old brothers shorts.

He came out of the closet thinking he was looking like hot stuff. I fear the shorts may never shrink back down to Syphr size.

It is too hot here to have so much hair. Especially when we are walking everywhere. Welcome to our contest.

The rules are simple: be the person with the longest hair at the end of summer. The winner gets some sort of prize, which I will come up with later.

Of course Brad can't participate in the contest because of the Army's strict hair policies, and Syphr and I have to be the judges.

Talan was so excited he wanted to go first.

Goodbye chicken hair.

Hello Talan's very round head we did not know he possessed.

Ashton's turn.

Let the contest begin.

Brad is very brave to allow clippers being operated by Talan on his head.

Ashton insisted we make everyone's own hair piles.

And here are 3 of my 4 favorite guys modeling their new cuts.

Syphr turned ONE MONTH OLD!

I was a little concerned when I realized I already had an over-dramatic 8 year old and a hyper-sensitive 2 year old that Syphr would end up being hyper-active. So far he's gained the new title - mellow.

He has his moments where he just fusses, and is a little particular when it comes to how he wants to be held and the quantity of kisses allowed per day, but he's such a great baby. And getting so big! He put himself on a feeding schedule the day he was born and does not stray from it. It makes life for the rest of us so much easier.
I love that all the loose skin Syphr was born with is now slowly filling with fat. He's also sprouting chin after chin it seems.

Syphr has also finally decided he wants to be a thumb sucker. I suspected since he was born he was going to be a thumb sucker. He was always searching for his thumb, and while he's still not able to find it himself, he can hold it in his mouth without help. It still takes some intense prying trying to get that little appendage loose from his little fist and into his mouth. He sure loves that thing though.

BRATS is back

We had a bit of a roadblock in the blogging world. The memory card reader failed to come along for our summer adventure which has made it impossible to upload any pictures....very sad. You may thank Alamo car rental, 102 degree weather, the Dodge Charger in the parking garage, and Target for bringing BRATS back into the blog world. I started blogging out entire month of June, but could never complete it because as it turns out, 3 kids don't let you get much of anything done, so hopefully with short posts here and there I'll be done blogging about June before July is over also.

We arrived safely in Virginia at the beginning of June after a very long 14 hour trip. The actual flight only takes about 210 minutes, but in attempts to save several hundred dollars I opted to go for tickets with a layover. Not only a layover, but also a night time flight. The kids will sleep, right??

I also had this bright idea that we would all take carry on bags since airlines are charging for checked luggage. What I didn't think about was us having to transport all those bags when we had the layover.

I was also completely wrong when I assumed the kids would sleep. Ashton was happy to play his DS non stop and we didn't hear a peep from him, but Tal didn't so much sleep. He screamed more than anything else. Those poor other people on the flight. Not fun at all! Syphr slept, ate, and caused several people to feel the need to stop and have a conversation with us about Syphr, or the fact we have 3 boys.

Regardless, the boys looked so cute strolling through the airport with their own bags which I'm so grateful they were excited to pull themselves most of the time.

Right now we are all crammed into a one bedroom apartment. Yes, five people in a one bedroom apartment. It hasn't been as bad as I thought, although some days when Brad is on his 14 hour shift I want to pull my hair out, but it could be much worse, and we would rather be here all together than not. Brad just so happens to have a couch and a love seat which is perfect since we have one couch sized boy and one love seat sized boy at bedtime. Talan always falls off his bed, but I think he does that at home too: