The Last Day in DC

I know, enough already.  But, I post most of my pictures to my blog because if our computer ever crashed at least I would have some pictures left of our life!  Yes, I know, I need to back up our pictures on to some type of external drive.  I have no idea what I just said but somebody, hubby I think, told me I needed to do that.

Anyway, guess what these are pictures of?  Our next and last stops were many of the monuments.

The monument was closed because of the earthquake they had had in DC.  Which was kind of OK by me.  That thing is old.  And very tall.  I am not sure we would have made it up there.  Although I am sure the view is beautiful.  I have been told another great view of DC is from the Tower in the Old Post Office.  And it is open and the wait is not as long.  I didn't find out that tidbit of information until after we left.  On our way back to our Metro stop we actually walked past the Old Post Office.   Next time.

While we were all gazing up at the Washington Monument, EG decided to chase geese.  

Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Memorial.

Capitol from the Washington Memorial.  It was an overcast, foggy day but it did make for some pretty cool pictures, I think.

Such an amazing war memorial.  It sparked a lot of interesting conversation with the kids.  Especially NG.

Washington Memorial from the Vietnam Memorial.

Daddy and his girls.

Daddy and all the kids.  We had talked about the importance of being respectful and solemn while viewing the monument.  That some people were there to see the name of a loved one on the wall.  NG said after the picture was taken she wasn't sure if she should smile in the picture given the background and what the memorial stood for.  (Such a deep thinker.)

Up, up we go.  We had a good, hard, grasp of EG.  The marble stairs scared me to death.

Reflecting pool and monument from the Lincoln Memorial.  They had drained the reflecting pool to put a more ecofriendly cleaner in the water.  Unfortunately it needed to be tweaked a little bit because the water around the edges was quite green.

By this time, EG had fallen at least once.  She was tired of walking.  I am pretty sure she could not have cared less if we ever saw another museum or monument.  But, we still had the White House to see.  She literally sat down on the pathway to the White House and refused to go any further.  As you can see from her face, she was not throwing a tantrum.  She was just done!  We cajoled her into getting up and lett her know we were very close to going back to the hotel.  She did get up and finish the journey.

The White House.

The Washington Monument from the White House (last picture of the Washington Monument, I promise.)

EG spent much of our viewing time trying to get through the bars.  Needless to say we were scared to death we would be on the nightly news watching video clips of our spunky 3 year old turning cartwheels on the White House front lawn while the FBI, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines just tried to catch up with her!

Awe . . . aren't we cute!?!  Still smiling (well I am smiling - hubby doesn't smile in many pictures) after many, many walking miles.

This picture about sums up our trip to DC.  Just plain wore out.  EG promptly fell asleep on the Metro ride back to the hotel.  We could have stayed in DC another day, another week.  But, we were tired.  We had been gone from home for over a week and still had a long drive ahead of us.  We had another trip planned mid-October to go camping and daddy felt it best for us to start back home.  I had really wanted to stay a day longer but it was time to get back home.

It was only a day drive, a long day, but a day nonetheless.  I told myself, when the kids get a little older, when EG is at an age where she can understand a little better what DC is all about, we will go back.  I think it is a place you can travel to many, many times and still see something new, learn something new, do something new.  So until then . . . . 

So . . . .

More pictures later.  This is what has been going on lately.  In approximately the last 30 days we have been to Pennsylvania, Washington D.C and tent camping in the North Georgia Mountains (those pictures to come!)   We have an truly awesome life!

I will have a post or two on some of the things we have been doing while we were home.

Boop started basketball and we have been hit or miss with practises and games.

Boop gets his two lower teeth pulled this morning.  The new ones are coming in and the baby teeth are unwilling to budge.

EG has a mild case of pneumonia which we found out Friday night at urgent care.  We were there to get her ear checked out because she was in a lot of pain.  They went ahead and treated her for both the ear infection and the pneumonia.  She is much better today.

Hubby has worked 49 hours in the last three days.  We all missed him.  Boop couldn't wait for him to get home last night.

We are having our annual fall festival on Wednesday.  Should be a fabulous crowd.

Our dryer broke three days ago.  I have been hanging all of our clothes on a line hubby hung up.  It slows down the process a little bit but I have LOVED it.  So much so hubby is putting up a permanent clothes line.

Our washer has to be manually put into the rinse cycle and the spin cycle.  Laundry has been very challenging the last few weeks.

I think that about sums it up for now.  Now on to the holidays and posting more pictures . . .

Day Two, Part Four

This was another high light of our trip, the American History Museum.  This was another museum just filled with so many exhibits and information and displays.  It is probably the museum the kids could most identify with because it had more things they could relate to.  Music, movies, presidents etc.  I hate to say it but by the time we got here we were tired and we still had monuments to see.  I am certain we missed a lot from here.  But, I keep telling myself, someday we will go back.

The outside of the museum.

Hubby's favorite exhibit.  Archie Bunker's chair.

A camera used to film the bombing of the Twin Towers.  Strange to me that it is in a museum.  It seems like yesterday.

A highlight.  Dorothy's shoes.  A must see.

One of the first computers.  It was crazy to me to see how far technology has come in such a short period of time.  There were things in this part of the museum that I remember from when I was in high school like a Walkman!

Dumbo.  EG has never been to Disney.  Might need to do something about that.

The Scarecrow.

The hall of the First Ladies dresses was a huge hit with the big girls.  I can't tell you how long they spent in there looking at all the displays and taking pictures of all the dresses.  Unfortunately, the pictures did not come out very well.  I just included the pictures of dresses I liked or ones that came out OK.

Most dresses I don't remember who they belong to.  I wish there would have been like a pamphlet or something we could have taken with us.

I am pretty sure this is Nancy Regan's dress.  She was so tiny.

Michele Obama's dress.

One of the things I enjoyed was the place settings and dinnerware from many of the presidents.  It was neat to see how things have changed over time.  From much more everyday to elegant.  I took a picture of this because NG is reading a book about Abigail Adams.  She was a really neat lady!

Martha Washington's dinnerware.  Very simple, everyday, nothing fancy.  I think you could tell the personality of the Presidents by the plates.  One set had wildlife on it.  Kind of cracked me up.  The newer ones had the Presidential seal on them.

My personal favorite.

Again, one of the reasons I love museums is the opportunity to see original articles from history.  It blows my mind, it is so hard for me to comprehend that George Washington, the man we are reading about right now, our first President of the United States, sat in this chair!  Amazing . . . .

Day Two, Part Two

Ugh.  This is my third attempt to post these pictures.  There are so many pictures I keep getting my self confused.  So, here we go again.  So sorry if you have received this numerous times!

This is a Titanaboa.  It is the largest snake every discovered.  The kids just read an article about it in National Geographic so it was neat to see watch the video and see the display.

Tiniest skeleton.  Pocket mouse.  Cute.

Skeleton of a manatee.  One of Ellie's favorite animals.

What is a trip to a museum without seeing a real mummy?

Natural habitat of a lot of different insects.

Another random Washington Monument picture.  Taken out of the window of the museum.

Feeding the tarantula.

The tarantula.

Probably one of the Smithsonian's most well known exhibits.

Rexie!

A display of some massive insect.  Yuck!

Fossilized tree trunk.  Pretty cool looking.

In the middle of the dinosaur display was a glass room with a few people in it.  Each person was working on some type of fossil project.  This lady was separating out very tiny animal fossils with a tweezers.

This man was cleaning out a fossil still embedded in a rock.  They still are not sure what it is a fossil of.

Boop must have had the camera and was taking pictures of the dinosaurs.  We are studying dinosaurs in school so that was cool.

My boys being silly.  Again, information overload.  So much to see and learn about . . .