Washington, D.C.

With the help of my dad while he was here, we planned and executed a trip to DC to see my sister. She was supposed to have her little baby girl when we got there, but she's still waiting. My mom flew out to help with the new one and we were just a big Sorensen family gathering. We hauled Melissa (my sister) out to the zoo in 95 degree weather along with all three of my girls and Mel's little boy, Van, hoping to induce labor. Three hours of walking in the heat and pushing strollers up a hill and we got nothing. If the zoo hadn't have been free we would have asked for our money back.

So all of the animals were doing exactly what the rest of us should have been doing - taking a siesta in the shade. At least we could see the lions.

This vulture was the only animal Katie got to really see in action.

There's Katie checking out the meerkats. She had fun running around and talking about the animals.

Here's Katie and Van trying to share the car. Katie kept yelling at Van to get out, "it's Katie's turn Van." I wish I would have got more pictures while we were there. Katie and Van did a good job of playing together (as good as almost 2 year olds can), we played in the plastic pool in their yard, played at the park, went for a walk, I was just excited to spend time with some of my family. Jeremy couldn't come because he can't take vacation in July. I wish we could have had Ann, her kids, and Jeremy (my brother) there as well. But you take what you can get. It's hard seeing family only a few times a year, but the good part about living apart is when you do see each other you're staying in the same house (provides for plenty of conversation) and set the whole time aside to do stuff together.

Doing anything with these girls has a similar theme. Packing and getting ready to go anywhere - from the grocery store to the trip to DC (10 hours, by the way) - is enough to make me want to cry and question why am I even going anywhere. But I'm always glad I went after we get there. Thank goodness I had someone to make the drive with. We crossed through 10 states each way: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The way there went a lot smoother than the way home. The girls were probably just a little tired of so much craziness for them, but we had one of Kate's diapers explode from too much pee, and both of the girls had poop plastered up their backs at our first stop at 8:30 in the morning just past Philadelphia. And they all grew more tired of the drive as we went on. It's one of those times when you're grateful for the bigger city traffic because as long as there's not congestion to slow you down, everyone's going at least 20 miles over the speed limit and you can pretend you're a race-car driver as you're just praying they all decide to take a nap now.