Washington DC

We finally made it to Washington DC at the beginning of April.  I can't believe it took almost 3 years before we actually went.  We had a great time.  We stayed with our good friends, the Straits.  It was so much fun to spend time with them and so nice of them to have us all in their home.  They joined us in the city our first day.  We spent 2 days exploring the city and the evenings hanging out having fun.  I'm so glad we finally made the trip!  There's so much more to see.  I would have loved to see more of the memorials and Brent would love more museums, but there's only so much to be done in 2 days with kids.  We were hoping to get lucky and see the cherry blossoms when we were there.  Unfortunately, the predictions were off and they didn't blossom until 2 days after we left.  Apparently they were only really nice for 3 days before the wind an rain took them away.  We still had pretty decent weather so we won't complain.

Day 1

top left - waiting for the Metro - so excited, first subway ride for all the kids

others - on the Metro (Elliott and Derek took books to read the second day since they didn't have friends to entertain them; Preston is playing with my phone)

Washington Monument (under renovation due to earthquake)

Lincoln Memorial

We enjoyed our lunch on the grass below the memorial, what a beautiful picnic spot!

top left - WWII Memorial

bottom right - Vietnam Memorial

 The White House

center - Preston in front of the National Christmas Tree

bottom right - just a really cool bunch of trees near the White House

We finished the day at the American History Museum.  I guess I didn't get any pictures there.  Most of the cool stuff is off limits to pictures.  The most memorable thing we saw was the flag that inspired "The Star Spangled Banner."  It is huge!  It's interesting that people for a long time were cutting pieces off of it as keepsakes.  So there are parts missing and some patched parts, but what a neat piece of history. 

Day 2

Ford's Theater

Elliott's teacher told him he should go to Ford's Theater.  Unfortunately, we got into the city too late to be able to go inside.  They still perform shows there, so it is only open limited hours for tours.  The house on the right is the house where Lincoln died.

National Archives

This was my favorite, even though we had to wait in line for over an hour.  I thought it was so cool to see the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.  The writing on the Declaration, I believe, is pretty faded, but the others are still easily legible.

Natural History Museum

The kids only had so much energy, so we didn't explore the whole museum.  Besides, I've heard that could take a couple days.  :)  We did see the bones, gems & minerals, and the Hope Diamond.

Air and Space Musuem

There are a lot of cool things at this museum - the Wright Brothers plane; The Spirit of St. Louis; Amelia Earhart's plane; Apollo 11 command module; space suit worn on the moon, with moon dust still visible, and more.

 This is as close as we got to the Capitol Building - just a couple blocks, but a couple blocks we weren't willing to walk.  The bottom picture is the Smithsonian.

Day 3

Arlington National Cemetary

On Sunday before heading home, we stopped at Arlington.  We got to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  That is a really neat, solemn experience. 

Gettysburg

We went to Gettysburg at the end of March.  It's one of those things that's been on our list of things to do.  It's not the funnest outing for kids but they actually did well.  Preston wasn't that thrilled with the trip, but he did okay.  Elliott and Derek thought the cannon and monuments were cool.  Elliott really enjoyed the displays in the visitors center with all the guns that were used.  After our initial stop in the visitors center, we drove around the battlefield.  It's amazing how huge it is.  We did an audio tour in the car as we drove around.  After 1 1/2 hours or so, we finally skipped the end of the audio because it was taking a little too long.  It would have been nice to take our time and really listen to everything, but the kids could only handle so much time in the car.  It was neat to get out and look at the monuments.  I believe they said there are over 1400 monuments on the battlefield - more than anywhere else in the world.  That's a lot of monuments!  The coolest place to stop was Little Round Top, site of the most famous engagement at Gettysburg.  The boys got to feel how heavy a real musket is and see how hard it would be to tote that and all the gear around.  It was really neat to go to Gettysburg and experience the history that took place there.  

Visitors Center and monuments around the battlefield

view from Little Round Top

Little Round Top

Gettysburg Cemetery, site of Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg Museum

Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas.  I think this was the first Christmas where no one had a meltdown, everyone was happy and entertained all day.  It was a really enjoyable day.  The boys were excited with the presents they received. We loved being able to Skype with grandparents.

Christmas preparations

Christmas programs - These are always fun.  I love hearing and watching the kids sing all their cute songs (especially the preschool ones - they are adorable).  The elementary kids did a great job too.  I was thrilled to hear a religious song sung by the 4th grade classes. 

Merry Christmas!

9 Years Old!

Happy Birthday, Elliott!  It's hard to believe I have a 9 year old!  Where does the time go?  Elliott has grown and matured a lot this year.  He is a great big brother and becoming a good helper.  It's nice to have an extra pair of hands some of the time.  We celebrated his birthday by going bowling as a family.  We had a great time.  He had Cub Scouts that evening, so he quickly opened his presents before he was off.  He had a birthday party the following Saturday with 9 of his friends from church and school.  We kept it simple with pizza and a movie here at home.  The kids still managed to go crazy, but it was a mostly-controlled crazy.  :)  They were rambunctious but no one got hurt and everyone had a good time.  Elliott requested an ice cream cake which turned out delicious!  Elliott was really excited to get lots and lots of LEGOs for his birthday.  He got 6 new sets from his friends plus one from us.  Needless to say, he spent a few days doing nothing but build LEGOs.  He loves it.  He's also looking forward to spending his birthday money (perhaps on more LEGOs).  He and Derek have also been having fun with some dart guns.  All in all, I think he had a great birthday.

My creative side

 I really don't think of myself as a creative person.  This summer I got ambitious and made gifts for my dad and mother-in-law.  I went to a paint-your-own pottery place.  It was fun, but it took me a long time to finish them.  I think I went in 4 or 5 times to complete them.  I wanted them to be a little personalized, so I had the boys paint their fingerprints (butterflies and ants) .  They turned out really cute.  The hardest part was definitely the words inside the bowl.  I hand-painted them and had to do it 3 times so it would show up properly.  I am definitely pleased with the final results. 

Thirtysomething

We went miniature golfing to celebrate my birthday.  It was Derek's first time.  The boys did pretty well.  Fun times for all.

This was just too funny.  I had a whole 3 candles on my cake - one for each decade of my life (the extra 4 years don't count).  I went to blow the candles out and barely got 1 out.  I was laughing so hard.  When I tried again, I got one more out.  It was too much.  It took 3 tries to blow out 3 candles.  I guess I really am getting old.  (They were just regular candles.  I can't even pretend they were trick candles.)  Funniest thing ever!

First Day of School

Elliott - 3rd grade, Mrs. Hudak / Derek - 4 year old preschool, Mrs. Weaver and Mrs. Fekula

These boys were so excited for school to start!  Here's to another great year.