The cousins reunite!

Well, it wasn't just Valerie who came to visit us this long weekend -- Daniella and Darryl came too -- but, really, the visit was all about watching Valerie (Duckie) and Rachel together, which was beyond adorable. Between chasing each other around the house, shrieking with laughter and hugging and kissing each other, they were a sight to watch.

They all got to our house on Sunday around 11 a.m. for brunch. Drew thought about adding an extra leaf to our table, but I persuaded him not to because, we figured, the girls would sit down for about five minutes to eat, then get up and run and play again. I was almost right -- they informed us they'd have breakfast later, then just as Darryl, Drew, Daniella and I were really in a good conversation, the girls announced they wanted breakfast and stayed to eat for about 15 minutes. They played outside on the swingset for a while, then came back in and took all the toys from Rachel's playroom and brought them to Rachel's room. At one point they amused themselves by throwing all the stuffed animals and dolls from the top of the stairwell down the stairs and yelling as they did it.

So, this lasted a couple of hours until we all decided we really needed to get out of the house. It was a yucky day outside, so Drew found something called the Playseum in Bethesda, and off we went. It turned out to be a fantastic place for kids -- rooms and rooms of dress-up clothes, a pretend grocery store, a library area for reading, a pet room(!) with bunnies and birds, a "salon" where you could get your nails painted for $1 and mix up bath lotion for $3, etc. We will definitely be back there with Rachel when the weather is crappy and we don't feel like going to a museum one weekend. Admission was definitely worth the $7 per person. Valerie dressed up as one princess, Rachel as Snow White, and they had great fun with the wigs. They didn't even ask to get their nails painted (I was prepared to pay if they'd wanted to). All in all, a great way to spend two hours.

Then we went to dinner in Shirlington, near Darryl and Daniella's hotel, which turned out to have a terrific town center with a variety of restaurants including a great bakery (another place we will definitely revisit), an indie movie theater and a regular theater. We went to a restaurant that turned out to be so-so ("I want noodles!" Rachel said, so, really what choice do you have?) and then got frozen yogurt for dessert. Poor Valerie's tummy started hurting so we cut the evening short and agreed to go to "Super Park" today.

Turned out that was a good call. "Super Park" is Clemyjontri Park, a Fairfax County park rated one of the best parks in the country. The land was donated buy a guy who named it after his kids, and it was simply one of the most incredible parks I've ever been to...it had a carousel, a racetrack, lots and lots of climbing structures to play on, swings, a picnic area, walking trails, shade pavilions. We plan to take Mom and Dad there when they come visit, and we'll bring a picnic when we go again, probably when the weather gets crisper and more fall-like (it was so nice and sunny today, at least 70 degrees, a welcome refuge from the deluge of rain we've been having) and we'll bring a lunch with hot chocolate and sandwiches.

We stayed there for about four hours, and then it was time for Darryl/Daniella/Valerie to head back to their friends' house for dinner (they came to Arlington to visit Steve, the best man at Darryl's wedding, and to see us, of course). We agreed the visit was a little too short, so we're hoping they can spend more time with us the next time they're in town when hopefully all the museums in DC will be OPEN FOR BUSINESS and we can go back to our original plan of taking them into the District. Although I must say, we ended up having a terrific time anyway. Take THAT, government shutdown!

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Rachel's priceless quote from this weekend, as she sat next to Valerie at the restaurant Sunday night:

"Valerie, I need to have good table manners," she said. "And YOU, my dear, need to eat!"