VACATION- Summer 2013

So, a lot has happened in the last 8 months since I took that blogging break....I'll attempt to catch up on some of the high points since May.

  We had a very busy summer ... but far and away one of the high points was the trip out to DC to visit my brother and his family!!  Lulu hasn't been since she was 2 and so this was Little Brother's first trip....and we started the countdown months and months and months  ahead!  We had a big mason jar that we put all our change in and birthday dollars and we used this as an opportunity to discuss delayed gratification....kind of tough for the little guy.  But we did it.

Here's the packing the night before - good times.

We made it mom!  We are at the airport!!  A little early but not too bad...but WAIT...

We almost forgot little brother?!  Can you find him - he's quite good at the hide and seek :)

The trip went well - kids are expert travelers by now - and I'm much better at packing toys, snacks, and a smidge less restrictive on the electronics use - all in all - its a good choice.

Kids were off the hook excited!  They could barely sleep and were up early...and so were all the cousins!  Hooray!  Thankfully there's a Starbucks in walking distance to help the grown-ups keep up!

There's also a nice little park within walking distance too.  The weather was great and the kids had a blast - the spinning will below is actually a corn husker.  You can make a donation to the historical barn and they will give you a dried corn cob and as you spin the wheel the kernels pop off - you bag them and viola - bird food!

 We had excellent tour guides - and the cousins never expressed disappointment with going to all the monuments and museums again...after I'm sure they've already been to each at least a dozen times.

We spent a day and stopped by the hanger at the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum.  There's an F-4 there that a family friend flew - so we took a grandkid picture for Gpa.  Little Brother was particularly pysched about the Space shuttle Discovery - below - and there were tons of aircraft - Concorde ... Lockheed Blackbird...and open space - perfect for the high energy kiddos!  

We tried to mix up the museum days w/ some afternoons at the park - here the kids have converted what appears to be a sports car into an ice cream truck - everyone has their favorite as you can see!

Lulu's  class has been studying President Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr - and even Little Brother had read the books and was up on MLK facts and trivia!  It was wonderful to share the monuments and the history with them...as much as they could take in ;)  

Little Brother respectfully observing the ....water draining system at MLK JR - AUGH!  HAHA oh well - you can lead a kid to monuments....

Here's one of the easiest pictures of the kiddos I ever got.  Not because they wanted to cooperate w/ the  pix at the Capitol Mall...noooo....they were totally excited to show-off the Pokemon card they found - see how they both have to have their hands on it?!  They still have it and have fond memories of the 'gold mine' find.

Lulu LOVED the Natural History Museum - so much we went twice!  Can you believe this is what is next to the restrooms?!  Can't believe it!  Tons of animal taxidermy - and they've really upgraded the displays since the 80s...it felt more like a zoo.

One of the best parts of the day was the SUBWAY!  Awesome - we can move and groove and chill and chat and spat the whole way there AND the whole way home?!?!  Rad.

Family Dinner?!?!?  Of course the rest of the night we all used our best table manners?!  This place was fabulous - pizza for kiddos, endless salad bar for us, and squeezy ice cream machine - nummy!! And it was nice for us to be all together.

Lulu and Little Brother also took some time to help Cousin C practice for his big test (which he nailed).  As you can see the kiddos are referencing the Kung Fu Panda coloring book to practice their Kung Fu moves...and later that same week Cousin C showed us how to karate chop a board in half - woah!  This stuff works!!!

...and too soon it was time to go home...but it was a wonderful week of fun, adventure, and family

We shall return!!!