Arcadia Friends Are The Best!

My posts are all out of order but now that we're in Orlando, I feel this sense of urgency to blog everything before I forget it.  I am having huge DC withdrawals since we got to Orlando on Saturday night.  I miss everything from our row home to the Hill, our new friends, our beautiful new Church building, walking everywhere, the museums, the parks, the playgrounds, the adventures without a car or a phone....  just everything.  I told Andy I don't think I've ever missed a place that we've left so much as I have with DC, but I think it's because without a car and three kids, I really was forced to go outside of my comfort zone and explore and do a lot, and also be really proactive about making friends, getting phone numbers, etc.  It's really uncharacteristic of me to just go and be so adventurous, I'm more of a homebody, but DC changed that about me.

One of the reasons we were able to make life in DC without a car work was having a rental a few times to stock up (when we arrived, when we went to NY, when we went to Philly) and having generous friends who helped shuttle us around for a Costco run or pick up stuff for us.  One of those friends was my sweet high school buddy Nancy from Arcadia who I actually knew since childhood through our families.  Here's a photo I had my dad dig up knowing I'd see Nancy.  I'm on the left and she's on the right.  I actually have no clue who the kids in the middle are anymore... oops.

It was fun to meet up with Nancy for a Costco run one weekend, we brought our littles and I definitely loaded up.

Then, a few weeks later, we met up at the Zoo on Good Friday with her oldest and her.

It was the second time I braved the metro alone with three kids, but the first time I took it all the way to the Zoo and walked there from Cleveland Park (a little DC trick insiders and locals know since it's a downhill stroll, albeit it tiny bit further in my opinion) and then home via the Woodley Park/Zoo exit.  That particular day, I decided to stroll through Union Station while the littles napped and it was just me and Jordan.  We shopped a bit, and then finally made our way home.  Exhausted and spent and two hours later, I let the kids watch TV until Andy came home.  And that was our first zoo adventure while out in DC (we'd go two more times later with family).

One thing I found funny was Nancy made a comment about how ugly the pandas were in real life.  Jordan, young but impressionable, could not forget this comment and would go on to repeat it to everyone in our family everytime we talked about going to see the pandas at the zoo.  "Well, they're not really pretty in real life," he'd tell everyone.  "Yeah, they're pretty ugly."  He'd say here or there.  HA!  Reminds me how kids really do hear everything.