Yes, our trip to DC was waaaayyyy back in February over Randy's birthday weekend. And yes, I am just now posting about it. Slacker, I know! In my defense- there were a TON of pictures and they were spread over mobile phone pics & my point & shoot camera, so I had a hard time mustering up the energy to deal with it. If the quality stinks in the picture, blame my camera battery. It died while we were at the beginning of our second day & I just used my phone from there on out! :)
But nonetheless, here are some pictures from our wonderful weekend together. This was the first weekend away we had taken since we became parents. So, it was much overdue and much enjoyed! The weather could not have been more perfect either. It was supposed to be cold/rainy off & on throughout the trip, so I was a little worried since the majority of our transportation would be on foot. But it only rained briefly one morning, was really windy one afternoon & otherwise very tolerable. Not too cold to bear by any means!
Here is the view from our hotel room. It was a clear shot of the Washington Monument. It excited me when we first checked in (at 1:00AM) but I soon realized that you can see that monument from everywhere in DC. Duh!
Our main plan in visiting DC over the long weekend was to go to the Federal Bureau of Engraving & Imprinting (where they make our money!), see a White House Tour, and fit in as many monuments & Smithsonian museums we could! We knew we only had 3 days so it was going to be limited since there was so much to see in DC! It was fairly easy to narrow down which museums we wanted to see because we immediately said we were interested in the same ones: Natural History, American History, & Air & Space Museum. We really wanted to go to the National Archives as well to see the the Declaration of Independence, but the line to get in was unbelievable! We were pretty disappointed because we had watched
National Treasure the night before & were pumped to see it! :0)
Randy was our "tour guide" since he had been to DC before & somewhat thought he knew how to get around. We needed a map, nonetheless! :)
There are a ton of pictures & the thought of giving you the run down of our 3 days from start to finish is a bit daunting, so I will just hit the highlights!
Day 1: Bureau of Engraving & Printing...
This was the outside of the bureau of engraving & printing. There was no photography allowed inside, so this was the best I could get to document our visit! :)
and... the Natural History Museum....
This was inside the National History Museum.
One of my favorite stops in the Natural History Museum was this display of coral reefs... there was an entire room & all of it was crocheted! I was in awe!
At one point we saw this sign at this museum- It was so cool to see NC on it!
Randy was pretty excited to see the Hope Diamond. I didn't get what all the fuss was about until I saw it in person. It was beautiful & the picture doesn't do it justice. They actually had an entire room of just diamonds, sapphires, opals, etc from dignitaries, queens,etc of the world (& past, obviously!)
We had to snag this picture to text to the boys! We did miss them while we were gone!
Day 1 we also stopped in the Air & Space Museum. The main highlight for us here was getting to see Hubble 3D (which was amazing!). It truly reminded me of how minuscule we are in God's big world.
After the show, we walked around the Museum until closing which didn't give us very long. We did manage to see the Original Wright Flyer. I can't imagine that someone was brave enough to "fly" lying on top of this thing!
One of the biggest highlights of the trips for me (nerd alert here...) was riding the Metro for the first time! I have never been anywhere that even had a subway system before so I was nervous & excited all at the same time. It was a little confusing until we got he hang of how our stations were laid out.
We rode the Metro to the highlight of the trip for Randy: our visit to The White House! I had prearranged through our senator to visit here on his birthday, so he was pretty excited. Again, no photography allowed (but I had my phone) so I took some outside once I saw others were allowed to once outside.
It was pretty surreal to actually be standing in the Red Room, The Blue Room, and actually stand right beside the podium where the presidents of times past have stood to talk to the media or to be in the room where that very night they were having a dinner for the Congressmen (i think it was the congressmen....I should have posted this earlier when my memory was fresh!)
Behind me here is the US Capitol Building.....
Closer shot of the Washington Monument...
Day 2 wasn't just for the White House tour, but we also went to the Museum of American History. I was eager for this stop because I knew that all the former First Ladies Dresses were on display here. I was so excited! (Randy- not so much!:) Rather than upload all the pictures I took of practically all the dresses from Mary Lincoln to Jacqueline Kennedy- I just uploaded our current First Lady's inauguration gown- it was beautiful & the part that showed the times was her Jimmy Choo shoes! LOL!
There were so many cool things at this museum. I love the room that was devoted to the Kennedy's as well as the Lincoln section. They actually had Lincoln's original top hat on display. It actually gave me the chills!! But there were also more iconic things there from our culture- like Michael Jackson's famous black hat, and the red slippers from The Wizard of Oz....
They had a display of the Star Spangled Banner that also was very moving. No photography was allowed there either, but it was the
original flag! It was tattered & torn & was just very moving to see. I REALLY wanted a photo!
I wish we had more time to spend there because there was so much more we could have seen but we were just pooped! Our feet were killing us, our backs were killing us & so we just took a little break!
We headed to dinner after that & decided to move our car out from the garage of the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel ($40 a night to park- ridiculous!) since parking was free on the street beginning at 6 that night until Monday morning.... That was a no brainer to save some cash! However, the garage didn't want to cooperate & it caught us in between the lift bar & the garage door. We were stuck! We had to call security to help us out!
The next morning it was time to head back home. We did take our time getting up & moving & then decided to stop for lunch. But Randy had been wanting to drive through Manassas, Va on the way home (only about 20 minutes out of the way) to see the house where he grew up. I think this was definitely the highlight of the entire trip for him. I heard stories about everyone on the street..which ironically enough was Larch Ln - that is crazy to me because we used to live on a Larchmont Drive ourselves!
After seeing the old house (which he said looked just the same!), we headed back home to squeeze our boys! We missed them so much but really enjoyed some time to ourselves. We should definitely do it more often! Are you up to it, Nanny?? lol! We really couldn't have done it without knowing our kids were safe & being taken such good care of. So, Thanks a TON, mom!!
We've had water fun in the yard too!
We've had playdates at the park:
We've had camera lessons with my new friend & neighbor-Kim.
lesson 1: Catching the Action: READY SET: JUMP! (The kids loved this!)
We've been encouraging our little cousins- like encouraing SB to crawl (look at that cute bum!)...
and encouraging Emma to be brave & have a blast at camp!
...playing outside...
...lounging around.... (with our dirty feet!)
eating breakfast outside on the picnic table....
And the best part? Less money spent on gas! The car is parked most of the time, so I have made it 3 whole weeks in a row with only a tank a week!! BIG SMILES HERE! :) It's amazing how less trips to the school & back can save a girl a buck! (well, that & no preschool tuition, right!?)
