DC Monument and Memorials - 2012

We visited the various DC monuments and memorials throughout the week as time allowed. One evening after Tim finished work we headed over to the Jefferson Memorial since it is set a little a part and easier to drive to (especially being pregnant with 3 kids).

Reagan reading the Preamble in the Jefferson Memorial

Daddy and kiddos with Jefferson in the background

We saw the Washington Monument closer several times but I included this picture because it included me! lol :)

Our friend Nathan works at the Pentagon and arranged a tour for us (thank you sooo much!). After our indoor tour we walked over to the 9/11 Memorial.

They are working on the National Mall so getting a picture with the United States Capital in the background was a little challenging.

Jackson enjoying his new planes from the Air and Space Museum during a walk on the National Mall

Saturday morning before we left we hit a number of monuments and memorials beginning with Lincoln

At this point in time I don't remember exactly how this occurred, but a couple of times the girls began talking to Asian tourists and ended up with pictures being taken with them. What's hilarious is the girls loved it and posed beautifully whereas I have to practically stand on my head to get them to smile and look in the direction of the camera. I guess the next time I want nice family pictures I'll have to arrange for an Asian family to join us... lol :)

The MLK Monument is new since we moved away from DC so that was nice for all of us to see.

We ended with the FDR Memorial which is such a nice park area along the Potomac basin.

The kids enjoyed playing on the rocks (in and out of the water) throughout the memorial

I like all the quotes they have from FDR throughout the memorial. My favorite quote appears near the end of the memorial and is as follows: "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith."

We had such a great visit to DC! This is such an awesome ctiy and we were so lucky to have spent 6 years of our lives living there. I don't know that I could imagine ever living there again but I do see many visits in our future! Thank you to everyone who made our week memorable and fun!

DC Friends - 2012

We enjoyed reconnecting with DC friends throughout the week. Here are some of my favorite pictures from various visits throughout the week. Sorry we didn't get pictures of some of our encounters and even sorrier we missed a couple of friends. We'll catch you all next time!

~

We went out to dinner one evening with our friends Kim and Nathan. They were amazing friends while we lived in DC and even let Tim live with them during a month when we were transitioning to Kentucky. It was so nice to see them again!

 One morning we got together with a couple of good friends who I worked with. One of them are also good homeschooling buddies that I enjoy trading ideas with. I don't know what we would do without Ms. Mo'mina! Sure wish we lived closer so we could do things together on a regular basis! We worked together at a daycare and now it looks like the three of us could open a daycare with all our kids! How cute are all these kiddos? It was so awesome getting to see them especially since 3 of the boys had been born since we moved and we had never met. We had a blast playing and miss these guys so much!!!

 These guys would obviously be best buddies if we lived closer together. What more can little boys ask for than a bunch of trucks and trains to play with?

 Our last evening in town we were able to catch up with our friends the Montantes. We were also able to enjoy their beautiful new home! Wish I had captured more pictures of the kids, but didn't think to get my camera out until we were walking out the door (literally as you can see my three all have coats on). 

 Thank you to everyone for making our visit to DC even more fun! We miss you all and we're going to have to get back sooner than the last time to see you all again! In the meantime we'd love to have any of you come and visit us in Kentucky!

DC Hotel Fun - 2012

The big news in DC was Reagan lost her first tooth!

 Reagan placing her tooth (and a note requesting the tooth fairy leave her tooth) under her pillow

 Jackson waking Missy Reagan up with a kiss - so love it when my kids are so sweet to each other! :)

 A very happy girl to find both money and her tooth under her pillow

 As always the pool was lots of fun! It was an especially nice way to unwind with Daddy in the evenings.

 Tim had studying to do in the evenings and Jackson was quite helpful by sharing his own perspective and notes.

 The girls would ride escalators all day long if they could. The Metro one closest to our hotel was CRAZY long! Because of the stroller we didn't get to ride it often during the week (the elevator was for us) but Daddy was able to help us a couple of times so the girls had the opportunity to enjoy this attraction as well.

National Zoo

We had such a great day at the National Zoo! The animals could not have been more entertaining! The weather was awesome for the end of November/beginning of December too which always helps with any zoo experience. :) The pandas are obviously at the top of the agenda for any visit to the National Zoo. This particular day they were extremely active and especially fun to watch.

 This was the first time we visited the bird house at the National Zoo, but all the kids enjoyed it especially since we saw/participated in a feeding. Having said that, Jackson is my bird and fish guy. The girls really don't care but he has always been much more interested them. And as you can see this Rhea was interested in Jackson too! :) 

 The cheetahs were also very active and walking around and chirping

The National Zoo has been working on a new elephant enclosure since before we left DC. They have completed one section, which we were able to enjoy, but are continuing their improvements. Since Reagan had a very loose first tooth we learned all about the elephants teeth as well as the care of them from one of the zookeepers.

 We also learned all about elephant poop which is part of the new exhibit. Here Reagan and Jackson are checking out an example of elephant dung and what zookeppers and scientists can learn from it.

Carousel rides appear to have become a part of all our zoo visits :) 

The orangutans at the National Zoo have the freedom to travel to a couple different enclosures by working their way across ropes overhead. We were lucky enough to see a couple of them doing this. They are a lot of fun to watch! It was especially neat since we had just seen the 3-D IMAX film "Born To Be Wild" which included oraguntans the day before. 

 We ran across this little snake on our way out of the zoo. Jackson was by far the most excited about it as the girls aren't quite sure they're snake fans. :)

As you can see we had a great day at the National Zoo! :)



DC Museum Visits - 2012

 After New York we headed south for a week in DC. We began Sunday morning at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum (http://www.mnh.si.edu/). I expected the girl's to enjoy it, but we were suprised how much Jackson enjoyed it as well. We had a great time and only wish this museum was closer to us to take advantage of more frequently!

It just so happened some of our good friends from Kentucky were in DC as well so we met them at the museum. The girl's loved having Nina to explore with!

Reagan and Nina were interested in the Egyptian exhibit and the mummies since they had both been studying the subject throughout the fall in Story of the World.

We saw a trantula feeding which is always interesting. As you can probably tell from her face, Missy K wasn't quite sure about posing with the spider even though it was in a container.

The kids had a great time playing in the "Discovery Room"

Jackson was completely enamoured with the magnifying glass and rocks

Ready to watch the IMAX film "Born to Be Wild" which documents orphaned orangutans and elephants and the people who rescue and raise them. This was a great documentary! 

So glad we were able to spend our day at the museum with good friends. A college friend of mine, Kalina Kwok, also joined us, but somehow I didn't manage to get any good pictures with her. I'll be sure to do that the next time we're in DC. We sure appreciated her driving down from Baltimore to hang out with us for the day! 

~

We also visited the Bureau of Printing and Engraving (http://www.moneyfactory.gov/) during our visit. I had especially wanted to do this since we were studying money last fall in Math. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures inside due to security but I did snap this one outside with the girls.

We spent one day at the National Building Museum (http://nbm.org/) . This is one of the neatest museums in DC. It was recommended to me by a highschool friend shortly before we moved away from DC and I knew from our previous visit that it should be on the top of the list for this trip. And I was right, the kids had a fabulous time especially in the Play Work Build exhibit.

Play Work Build began with different building toys of the last several decades including a large table of Tinker Toys the kids could play with. Next came this enormous light table with all different shapes and sizes of foam blocks you could put together.

The next section was a larger version of the same blue blocks.

In this section they also had blue balls so the kids could make tracks and roll the balls on them. It was fun watching them discover what did or didn't work and how long they could make there track(s) and still keep the balls rolling.

In the final section the blue blocks were gigantic!!! You can see from this picture it was a challenge for Reagan to even move the block.

Kennedy lounging on their creation :)

In this same area there was a giant wall that would identify your shape, build you in blocks and then explode apart. As you can imagine the kids had a fabulous time with this!

Next we headed to the Building Zone exhibit

Reagan is obviously a mailman, but I'm not quite sure what kind of an astronaut Kennedy is...

Such a fun day at the National Building Museum!

~

After Tim finished his training on Friday he met us at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (http://airandspace.si.edu/). We started out in the Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age exhibit where I use to volunteer.

Next we went to check out some information on Amelia Earhart since I thought it would be good for the girls to hear about a female explorer/pioneer. Here Reagan is trying to line up a plane for the trip across the Pacific Ocean. After you think you have it lined up correctly you push a button which shoots a laser to show you how close you were to being on course. It's amazing how difficult it is to correctly direct the plane even on this small surface! It's a wonder anyone made it anywhere, let alone across oceans, in the early days of aviation!

Jackson touching the moon

We spent a good portion of our visit in the How Things Fly exhibit. There are so many great activities for the kids to do and explore how the many aspects of flight work and effect each other. 

They had a demonstration while we were there and since there were so few children the girls enjoyed getting to help with several experiments.

Missy K flying a plane! :)

This had to be the most precious moment of the day and probably the trip. Even random strangers were commenting on it as they passed by. You can walk through the Skylab Orbital Workshop in the Space Race exhibit (it is huge and pretty impressive). We were already downstairs with the stroller and getting ready to leave when the girls decided they wanted to go thru Skylab. Tim took the girls back up stairs to go thru it while Jackson and I stayed downstairs with the stroller. I naturally took a picture of them at the level you enter which is what intially drew Jackson's attention to Skylab. He stood looking up at it completely mesmorized. He had enjoyed our time at the museum, but Skylab literally stopped him in his tracks. It was as if he didn't know how to react and so he just stood frozen to the spot trying to take it all in. I wish I could have gotten the entire Skylab in the picture, but even so you can see how tiny he looks staring up at it in the first picture. It was priceless watching him try and absorb the sight. One of the best things about kids is definitely getting to see things thru their eyes and experience things like this with them for the first time.

I don't miss DC traffic but I do miss these incredible museums!