Dinosaur Park with friends

This weekend I'm on my own with the kiddos - Evan headed to Richmond for two nights of political events yesterday, and since I was traveling earlier this week (I also spent two nights away, but for work) it was nice to have the time solo with the kids! They've been really fantastic for me - some fussiness from Henry last night at bedtime (no real surprise there), but for the past 24+ hours we've had a great time. They've been very helpful, mostly listened, and (best of all) have been eating their food! This isn't really an issue with Natalie, but to have Henry reliably eat 4 meals for me, with a minimum of pushing on my part, has been really wonderful and made the weekend that much better!

As much as we've been having fun, I wasn't exactly looking forward to spending the whole day playing in the house today, so I wanted to find something to do. My friend Lydia let me know that her and her husband were taking their kids to the dinosaur park in Ashburn, and that sounded like a great way to spend a couple of hours! My friends Jen and Justin met us there with their kids as well - Natalie, Carson, and Alie all know each other from dance class and had a blast playing together. I mostly spent my time following Henry around, as he needs a bit more supervision in that sort of environment!

After playing briefly on the fire truck

 

Henry and I headed down to the creeks behind the park to look at the water. Gorgeous, right?

Henry did go in the water very briefly; after about 2 seconds (just enough to get his feet wet and a bit muddy), he decided he was done. When Natalie joined us, however, she and Alie spent quite a while wandering in and out of the stream.

 

I then got two FANTASTIC shots of Henry playing on the playground equipment

 

(I've posted other black and white edits of the kids playing on my photography page; I do love this effect!)

I didn't only take photos of Henry - here are Natalie and Alie playing together

And Carson and her brother looking adorable.