Going to see the new cousin!

It finally happened! Megan's son, Samuel Wolfgang P, was born at 4 AM Friday morning. Shane and I saddled up to meet his new cousin.

But first, a turtle.

Carrie rescued a turtle on her way home from the barn.

We hung around to say 'good-bye' and got to say 'hello.'

We hopped in the car and drove to Jama's after releasing Mr. Turtle in our backyard. We managed to meet Jama on her way to the beauty parlor and pick up a key. Then we hung around to meet John.

Shane literally hung.

John pulled up after Shane spent half an hour monkeying around. He'd brought a bouncy ball in his car that we all played around with. Eventually, Shane's curiosity overcame him and he wanted to check out some of the storm drains (Which had good safety measures by my standards).

Traffic was better than usual for Northern Virginia. People must have been out of town for the weekend of the 4th. It was pre-rush hour as Shane and I scooted down 50 into Arlington. We found a jumble of cousins when we reached Megan's!

Kathleen and her crew had stopped in on their way to Maine. They wanted to see the new cousin, too!

The boys all crammed onto a single couch cushion to look at a game while I explored the house.

It had a lot of character. The ceiling was low and it made me feel tall.

There were plenty of toys to keep the kids busy.

Megan and Big B have a ton of memorabilia from their travels and assignments. There was a picture of Big B shaking the hands of President Obama and the Dali Lama, a matryoshka from Russia, etc.

There were some pins Big B had collected or traded for, as well.

This one was from an exciting tour of duty. There was a crashed helicopter rescue. I won't say any more since it's not my tale.

The one problem with the house: Parking. It was literally right off the main road. The driveway came up out of nowhere. Pop warned me to count houses, thankfully. I thought it would be harder to get into and out of since it's on the main road, but it turned out to be fine.

Final verdict: Neat house with character.

Shane and I drove Nana to Wendy's and the hospital.

Nana was going to trade out with Big B. He was going to go home to sleep and she'd take the night shift (Big B's a big guy and it was a small chair).

It was our opportunity to meet the baby! I warned Shane, "NO TOUCH!" He's on day 5 of antibiotics and shouldn't be a problem, but new babies and germs don't mix.

Not that Megan ever seems to worry about anything.

The birth was a little scary. Sammy (or Wolfie?) got stuck. The doctor broke his collar bone pulling.

Baby's are incredible, though. No treatment needed. It was expected he'd recover in no time.

I handed Shane my phone to let the adults talk....right after I took a picture with Nana and her new grandbaby.

We were on a clock to enjoy time with Stu and crew. They planned to leave and drive through the night. Kathleen was attempting a late-day nap to help when we took Nana to the hospital (We partly went to help keep the house quiet).

Kathleen was up from her nap when we got back to Megan's.

The backyard was much larger than I expected from how close the house was to the road.

I'd assumed that everyone was packed in, but the back lots were surprisingly expansive.

The boys ran around thick as thieves and it was easy-mode parenting. I stayed where I could hear them (most of the time), but was otherwise un-involved. The boys got to be boys.

We said goodbye to Ka, Stu, and crew around 7 PM. They were off to visit another friend on their way out of town.

Cole's anti-climbing, so Shane restrained himself a little bit. With Cole gone, the climb was on. B wanted to get in on the action, so Shane gave him 'lessons.'

For the record, Big B and I watched out of the window. Neither of us stopped it. Shane didn't boost B up anywhere, so he didn't break my big rule ("If you can get there, you deserve to be there. Whatever happens is on you.").

Shane couldn't stand to be left on the ground. He climbed under and around B to get back up into the branches!

I think it was around 8:15 or 8:30 PM when we left. I thought that I'd put Shane to bed and read a book or read the rules for a game. Instead, I stayed up late talking to Jama!

My eyes were closing on their own accord by the time Jama went up to Ed's! Shane was already long asleep in the bed, so I slept in the recliner for the night (the same one I bonded with when I slept in it for a month long, long ago!).