The Trip

Daniel had to go to DC for a couple days for work... so we decided to make a family trip out of his work trip. We headed up Saturday morning and FINALLY arrived at the Hall's house around 4:30pm. Daniel had forgotten something from his office so we had to take make a "quick" stop on the way out of town. As we were heading out one of the crane drivers was heading in and you can only imagine how excited that made Levi. Thanks to the crane driver who made my sons day and let him and Kinleigh sit in the crane and honk the horn! Much longer stop but well worth the excitement of our children.

We had a great time visiting with the Hall family. They kept us well fed, well entertained, and well versed on Avatar. Alan was showing Daniel the amazing picture of the blue ray player by using the Avatar movie. Of course then they had to watch the last 30 minutes of the movie and that wasn't even so we all sat down to watch Avatar from the beginning to end yet again. Makaya and Kinleigh had their own party chatting away until 10:30pm. They play SO WELL together... Like Mother's Like Daughter's. Sarah was one of my best friends since Junior High and I am so EXCITED that they have made their way to the East Coast.
Sunday evening we met Daniel's sister and her family, The Strommer's, for dinner and of course had a great time catching up. It has been 7 months since we saw them last and they are our closest family. Shame on us!
Monday morning we wanted to get up bright and early to be at the Museums AT 10:00am... but us lazy bums didn't even wake up until after 8:30. The Metro Station was across the street from our hotel so we decided to give it a try instead of driving into town ourselves. The KIDS were SUPER EXCITED and when Daniel asked Kinleigh what her favorite part of the day was her reply was, "the Metro." We had a true definition of "Cranky Old Man" right beside us on the train but he is a post in himself.

We have been to DC several times but not since the Museum of American History has reopened so we wanted to check out the new and improved Museum. We only had 1 1/2 hours so we didn't get to see the whole thing but I was impressed with what I saw. The kids weren't AS EXCITED as they were about the Metro but they still were GREAT. We were able to see the First Ladies gowns which Kinleigh liked picking out her favorite one. We saw the trains and cars for Levi and the entertainment for the entire family. Much more that I can not remember at the moment.... (Of course I forgot my camera and so these pictures are from my iPhone and not very great, sad times). Mine and Kinleigh's favorite part was the AMAZING doll house that Kinleigh now wants Daddy to build for her room.


Daniel had to be back for meetings for the rest of the day so the kids and I hung out at the hotel, walked to the park, ate dinner, and then went swimming in the pool (that was only open from 5-10pm, lame).
Tuesday we met Ruth and Kyle downtown at the DC ZOO which is seriously downtown in the middle of apartments, businesses, etc.... Crazy. Once again we took the Metro. How nice would that be to have a metro to take you all over?!? The most eventful part of the zoo, brace yourself for this, was when Levi's diaper apparently was half way off and yes poo starting FALLING OUT OF THE DIAPER ONTO THE FLOOR. He started grabbing himself and I couldn't figure out what in the world was going on until I picked him up and realized he had poo all down his leg and then saw the poo on the FLOOR. I used almost ALL my wipes trying to clean him up but NOTHING but a good hard scrubbing was going to help those shorts. So much time was wasted searching for a bathroom, scrubbing the mess out of his shorts, and then trying to dry them. Unfortunately we only got to see half the zoo but the kid's didn't notice that and still had a BLAST. Levi fell asleep for the walk back to the Metro Station, the first train, and then woke up as we were boarding the second train. It was about a 40 minute train ride and I tried my best to keep him happy and entertained but he wanted out. It worked for the most part but only with lots of entertaining and making a fool of myself! Right before getting off the guy next to me goes, "You took the kids downtown by yourself? Sounded like a good idea this morning didn't it?" I had to chuckle because he was oh so right! However, I can't complain about my kids at all on this trip because they seriously were great.



Tuesday night we met the Strommer's again in downtown Bethesda for some authentic Mexican food and some wonderful company. Kinleigh really loves to play with her cousins!
Wednesday we made the trip home. Can I just say, THANK YOU to the invention of DVD players in the CAR! The kids were great on the trip and really made me a lot less stressed about my 2 1/2 week adventure in 2 weeks.