Aunt Jill came to visit

Jill came to visit for for 9 days and we had a lot of fun. She was originally going to stay November 11th-18th but I talked her into staying a few extra days so she left on the 20th instead. Ja was gone in San Francisco so I greatly appreciated having Jill here for a few days while he was gone. Jill first visited Stacie in Colorado then came here because she leaves for her mission to Chihuahua Mexico January 8th and wanted to visit us all before leaving.

Jill had been to Virginia twice but only for a few days so we didn't have time to do much. We had lots of things to do this visit and we were not bored at all!

She came in on Monday evening. That night Macy took a long time to fall asleep because she was excited to have Aunt Jill with us. Every morning for the entire length of Jill's trip Macy would come wake me up and ask, "When is Aunt Jill going to wake up?" I'd let Jill sleep a little longer then at an acceptable hour we would walk out to the living room and Macy would ask again when Jill would wake up. Jill said she always woke up to Macy asking when she would wake up. Also, any time Macy would see Jill she would ask me, "Where's Aunt Jill?" Macy loved being around Jill to say the least!

Tuesday morning Macy had preschool. After preschool and Anna's nap we headed over to Rebounderz- the indoor trampoline place in Sterling. Macy had never been there before and still is timid on the trampoline. She doesn't like having another person other than her size on with her. We found out the rules at Rebounderz say you can't jump on the same trampoline square as someone else so it worked perfectly for Macy's preference. She was a little timid and shy at first and didn't want to jump right away. Jill picked her up and showed Macy around and jumped while holding her for a minute then Macy was fine jumping alone. Jill even had Macy doing "circle jumps" as they called them (180 degree jumps). They also played catch with some balls. Macy hardly jumped higher than 5 inches the whole time but she had a big grin the entire time. She was having a blast. Anna really wanted to get on too but I didn't think she could so I tried distracting her with pushing buttons on the arcade games.

Macy and Jill are equally silly

As soon as we got home Macy was asking to go to the trampoline place again. We were going to wait a week since they had a good deal on Tuesdays. 

Wednesday morning we headed to downtown DC to go to the building museum. My phone directions had us go a really crazy way and I made a few wrong turns to we got there later than we wanted. The museum was not crowded at all so that didn't matter. I dropped off Jill and Macy which ended up being a good thing because Anna and I had to drive around for almost 40 minutes to find a parking spot.

The building museum has two exhibits for kids. One is called "Play work build" and it's full of blue blocks. Some are little and can be built on this lit up table.

Other blocks are huge and made to be built into forts and things. The cool thing is you can also build them into the walls.

The other exhibit is one we've went to a long time ago and it's called "The building zone." This has big lego type blocks to build with, smaller magnetic blocks, puzzles, puppets, and a little house to play in. The girls loved both exhibits. I guess I should say Jill like them too.

The best part happened when I left to get the car. Jill watched Anna pick up a small rectangular block and carry it over to a display case. Anna pushed it right up to the case, stepped onto it, peered into the case and said, "Woww!" Then she carried the block to another case and did the same thing. I wish I could have seen it! Jill said the employee there said, "You should take a picture of that. That's the cutest thing I've ever seen!" Jill said no one else was doing that so it was all Anna's idea!

We rushed home, put Anna down for a nap, then drove to my hair cut appointment. We still had time before Anna woke up so we indulged in some Nielsen's frozen custard. It was delicious as always.

That night Jill, Macy, and I went to the mall to find Jill some sister missionary clothes and some clothes for me too. Macy was great and was very entertained by a bouncy ball Jill got for her at Old Navy. It was the best 25 cents ever spent. Macy played with it the whole time I friend on clothes at New York & Co.


Thursday Macy had preschool again. Jill and I decided to take the metro down to Ben's Chili Bowl in DC. That was the one place Jill remembered going from her previous visits. I decided to take the metro after the previous day's trouble of finding parking. It was a terrible decision because I was late picking up Macy from preschool and I had a nervous stomachache the whole trip. Not something you want while eating a half smoke chili dog. It was quite the adventure though and Jill enjoyed riding the metro. It was her first time on a metro so at least that was fun.

That afternoon we hung out at home and painted. Anna painted with water. Jill would paint the outline of something and Macy would color it in.

Ja had to pick up a new Elder that would be serving in our ward. Jill tagged along and saw her first missionary transfer. She said it was crazy seeing all those missionaries together. They were so happy to be all together and running around to visit with each other.

That evening Jill and I went to the DC temple together. Since Jill has only been endowed a month it was obviously my first time going with her. It was a fun time and nice to spend time in the temple with my sister.


Every night that week Macy went to bed easily because she was so exhausted from our days. The girls also slept in most mornings which meant we could have nice relaxing mornings.

On Friday we headed over to Target to find Jill some winter clothes for her mission. She found some great sweaters, scarf, and hat.

I originally planned to teach a new member lesson to a newly baptized member Friday night. I was excited to have Jill come teach with me. Unfortunately the woman cancelled on me so we had an open friday night. We decided to head to Baltimore to the famous aquarium there. They have half price tickets Friday nights. We braved through some horrendous traffic and made it there by 5:30. It took us nearly 2 hours when it should only be 45 minutes! We still had plenty of time at the aquarium though.

They had a dolphin show that was fun and we sat in the "splash zone" although I'm the only one who really got wet. The whole show Macy kept asking me when we were going to get wet. When the dolphins did splash us she hid her head behind me so she wouldn't get wet.

For some reason, Macy was very excited to see the jellyfish. She begged and begged us to see them. 

There is a section called Black fin reef that has a lot of sharks, sting rays, and other types of fish. It was very neat and I was amazed by the amount of sharks the aquarium had.

We accidentally parked far away from the aquarium but the night was on the warmer side so it wasn't a bad walk. We walked to a Five Guys for dinner then had a very quick drive home.

Ja had three magic shows and a baptism on Saturday so us girls were on our own for a large part of the day. Ja, Trevor, and Greg played on a rec basketball team for the past few months and made it to the championship game. They lost that, but celebrated with smoked pork sandwiches on saturday and invited the team and family members to go. We ate Trevor's mouth-watering smoked pork for lunch.

Anna riding the horse at Trevor's

After dinner we headed to the mall again for one last look for Jill's mission attire. She really needed skirts and we found a great one at L.L. Bean for only $40. I had to take a picture of her because she looked so much like a sister missionary!

We enjoyed church on Sunday. Macy gave her first primary talk! The topic for the month was "I thank God in all things." I let her choose all the things she was thankful for. She listed her mouth, eyes, ears, nose, Anna, and friends. She said why she was thankful for those things and held up pictures. I am so proud of her because she went up there like a champ! She wasn't nervous or shy at all. I ended up teaching the new member lesson Sunday, without Jill. Ja left for San Francisco that afternoon also so Jill stayed home with Anna. We enjoyed a dinner at Trevor and Heather's that night.

Macy had preschool again Monday the 18th. I was telling Jill about homemade spaghetti so I decided to make some so Jill could experience the flavor of fresh homemade pasta.

Macy dressed herself for school.

Silly pasta makers

Macy had ballet that day. I dropped her off and Jill and I rushed to the post office. She had to mail clothes home because her suitcase was too heavy.

Jill had one more full day with us, Tuesday. She had only one more thing she wanted to do- see the White House. It was pretty cold that day because of the wind but we bundled up and walked out in the cold. We got a great parking spot by the White House so the day started off well!

Macy was not one for pictures that day

the sun was really bright

Macy was worried about her hat blowing off in the wind

I wanted to take Jill over to Good Stuff Eatery for lunch so we headed over there and scored another great parking spot!

Anna took a nap in the car on our way over to Rebounderz. Macy literally asked to go there every day  for the last week. We decided to send Jill off with a bang! Macy wasn't as thrilled to jump this time and really wanted me to go. We already paid for her and Jill to jump so I wasn't going to pay for me too. Besides, someone had to stay with Anna. Anna really wanted to go on the trampoline this time and I was having a harder time keeping her off. I found out that as long as the child walks they can jump and under 2 years jump free! I quickly signed a waiver for Anna so Jill could take her on. We couldn't stop laughing about Anna's helmet. 

She never complained about it and seemed to accept the fact that she had to wear it if she wanted to jump.  Anna would walk a few steps then fall down. She had a great 10 minutes of "jump" time!

Macy really wanted to play the arcade games but I didn't have any tokens. She then said she just wanted to push the buttons so we did that for a little bit after jumping.


The next day, Wednesday, Jill had to go home. I wish she could have stayed longer but she'd been gone from home for 2 1/2 weeks and wanted to get back. Hopefully one day we'll have a guest bedroom (or least bed) for our guests so they can be more comfortable.

We took Macy to preschool then it was off to the airport to say farewell. We will see Jill again before her mission but it was still sad to say goodbye. When I picked Macy up for preschool she of course asked for aunt Jill. She had a look of genuine sadness when I told her Jill was on an airplane going home. We loved our time with Aunt Jill!!