Temple Time & Burke Lake Park

Yesterday Nate and I were able to go and do a session for our first time in the Washington D.C. Temple.   Man, what a beautiful temple!  By far the largest temple I've ever been in before.  So large that there were numerous times we were concerned that we were lost or heading in the wrong direction, only to find a temple worker waiting around the next bend in the hallway to direct us.  Regardless of our "waywardness" in the temple itself, it was certainly great to be there to get away from the calamity of life.  To get a refreshed perspective on what's important and feel the love of our Heavenly Father... Mission accomplished! As the spirit at the temple yesterday was overflowing. We Olsen's felt greatly refreshed and more at peace with the happenings of life after leaving the temple.  We are recommitting to get one of us to the temple monthly, even if it means we do so separately.

So where do we head to after this wonderful temple experience?! To pick up the Calamity Twins from our dear friends, the Finnegan's.  Then after a quick lunch and nap time at home, we headed outdoors to "spend" some little people energy (i.e. wear out these Olsen Irish twins!).  What better place to use up some energy than at a new, never experienced before park?!  Some girlfriends from playgroup told me about Burke Lake Park in Burke, Virginia.  Highlights of the park being: a carousel, a train, an ultimate Frisbee course, and a mini-golf course!  After a 25 minute car-ride, these girls were stoked to get out and play...uh, kind of?!

Lauren refused to nap at home when Olivia did,
so she napped on the car ride over. Popsicle stick and all.

Olivia is less than impressed on the car ride.

We bought tickets for the train and carousel as soon as we got there, but apparently we just weren't moving fast enough for these girls.  Olivia picked no less than 15 different seats/train carts to sit in while waiting for the train to leave the station.  She was moving around so much, that she caused Nate and Lauren to lose their seats to oncoming passengers and all four of us ended jammed into a cart meant for two.  Poor Nate's knees took the brunt of Olivia's wild ways. :/

Olivia is searching for her next cart to explore, while Lauren and Daddy say "cheeeeeeese"!

Olivia disembarking the train cart, first of fifty or so times



Olivia found her next cart...for about 10 seconds

Not even Lauren could tame this crazy girl...
Olivia's middle name "Wild" couldn't fit her
any better than right now!

The content passengers before they got seat-jacked while trying to corral Olivia.

After the train ride, we headed directly to the carousel to wait in line.  It appeared that they weren't operating the train/carousel simultaneously, so if we didn't get on this go-round, it might take about 20 minutes until we got another chance. 

What great little girls waiting in line for their turns

Nate rode the carousel with the girls, both of which seemed to enjoy their rides.  Lauren was a bit more hands-in-the-air, whooping out loud impressed.  While sweet Olivia maintained two hands on the pole, binkie firmly in mouth, smiling and swinging her feet.

 


This picture makes them look like they're streaking by at a
high speed, when in fact my iPhone camera just must have
that slow of a shutter speed.

Here you see Olivia trying to go back for seconds. Not a chance with a dad that has a wingspan like that!

After the carousel ride we went to the playground located about 30 yards west of the carousel.  Not a huge play area, but it didn't seem to matter as there were kids-galore.  Lauren and Olivia were captivated by people/kid watching at first, but then they got down and dirty (figuratively and literally) with the mulch/slides/monkey bars.  These two are hilarious in their love for the monkey bars.  They obviously can't do them on their own, but they love it when you hold the bottom of their feet and keep them elevated enough to go from bar-to-bar.  They have the hand work to be good monkeys; however, their wingspan and height need to improve...by about 5-7 years! ;0P

Notice the stick Olivia is clutching.  She went into the forest and
found it herself...then proceeded to walk the play area with it. 
I'm sure she made more than one parent nervous with it, this parent included.

After about 40 minutes in the playground area Lauren was wondering off, looking for some food because she "want breakfast mom!"  Breakfast is what Lauren calls every meal, so we knew she was now hungry for dinner.  Lucky for us, this great park was located only 3.5 miles from Café Rio, where we were able to partake in some delicious sweet pork salads, homemade tortillas, and queso.  Yumm-O!  What a day!