We took the boys on a trip last week to Washington DC. It was such a nice trip. We stayed in Old Town which is in Alexandria, VA. We were able to enjoy the quaint history of the town which leads right up to the Potomac river. We caught a shuttle from our hotel each day to the Metro station and took the train into DC each day. The first day, we saw Arlington cemetery, the white house visitors center and the Air & Space Smithsonian museum.
This is me after day 1:
The second day we started out at the Capital building to get our tickets to go inside. We had some time to kill, so walked over to the Library of Congress and saw where part of the National treasure movie was filmed. At 11:45, we got back in line to go into the Capital for our tour. That was rather neat. Everyone was given head phones to listen to the tour guide because they have about four tours in the same room at once and you wouldn't hear a thing otherwise. We got tickets after that tour to go into the House of Representatives balcony and listen to them argue about the Amtrak trains. That was quite interesting to see the process they go through.
Here's my boys in front of the Capital building.
We left there and ate in their cafeteria across the street and enjoyed some of the cheaper food DC had to offer, we also found out where all the suits eat.
We went from there to the Botanical garden in the Smithsonian museum. They had a KwaZulu exhibit that had several of the plants I grew up with in my yard.
Thursday we went to the National Zoo. That was rather hot and we missed the early part of the day when the animals were more active. We parted at the main metro station. Mark and Andrew went to the Holocaust Museum and Matthew and I went back to the hotel to swim. Matthew fell asleep on the train and I was almost asleep - we almost missed our stop.
Friday morning, we went down King street where we were staying, all the way to Mount Vernon. It is about 8,000 acres of farm land and houses several museums about George Washington, as well as his home and slave quarters, foreman's homes, etc. It was rather interesting - again, another part that was filmed in National Treasure. We had all just watched it again.
We left there and drove straight through. We got home at 4:20AM Saturday morning.
Of course, the adults and the teenager were all glad to come in and go straight to bed. The 7 year old had gotten all his sleep for the night. Yeah!!! NO!!! Not happening..... He got in his bed and was told to watch cartoons until morning.
I heard him get up every hour. At 6:45AM he came screaming into my room saying that there was a wasp downstairs. My response..."Don't go downstairs!"
Of course, not even an hour later, he was in to tell me how starving he was...."okay, I'll come kill the wasp". :)
Great details on your trip - sounds wonderful. Of course your pics are good too! Andrew is almost as tall as Mark. I like his hair too - very sharp!! Don't tell him that cuz then he probably won't like it. 90's - ugh!
I haven't written in a while. I joined Facebook, so I haven't checked this in a while.
So much is going on. We only have four weeks left of school. Band banquet is done, golf tournament fundraiser is this weekend. Thanks to an ammendment in the vote, the schools lost millions of dollars in funds for extra programs. People voted to get $200 cut on their property taxes - thanks!!! We get no money for the band program from the state or the county, so we have to raise $125,000 in order to have any kind of marching season.
Michelle is expecting baby #2 in November :):):). I hope it's another girl.
Mark and I are celebrating our 22nd anniversary this Saturday.
My little granddaughter Alyssa is just so cute. She babbles away with something that sounds like Nana when she sees me. I just eat it up.
Hi all,
It's half way through January already. The kids are back at school. Andrew had Semester exams last week. Matthew turned 7 last week. What a week it has been. We had Matthew's birthday party today at a bowling alley. That was a lot of fun. They even had a jester who made balloon figures for the kids. We had all boys, so you can guess....they all had to have swords and proceeded to play fight with their swords. It was quite fun.
The big boys...Andrew and the dads all had their own lane and had quite a competition going on with their scores.
I loved it. I would definitely do that again.
Yeah, I really do love cricket! Went to a match with a friend once, but we were way into it. We painted our faces and made a sign. It was a day/night match and the crowd kept doing waves and singing the 'Ole' song! It was great!!
certainly wish I was there now! don't have any plans as of yet. so hard when the kids are in high school and their sports run back to back. then their is a matter of grades. ugh. my kids are begging me to go there - such wonderful memories!
I can't believe that Christmas is less than two weeks away. We finally finished our shopping today for the kids. We may have a couple of "little" things for the stockings still to pick up, but it's nice to be done. Now starts the wrapping frenzy.
Matthew had his "Holiday Program" (whatever) last night. It was so cute. He stood up there bouncing around, talking to the other kids when it wasn't his turn to do anything. Telling the other kids what to do....hmmmm who does that sound like - ha!!! :)
I could hardly keep the video camera still because I was laughing so much. 6 year olds are so funny.
My mom and step dad are coming down to stay with us on the 29th. They will hopefully be with us for a week. I'm so much looking forward to them being here.
Our weather has still been rather hot - 80's during the day. The weather is predicted to change on Saturday night and bring in a low of 40 and high of 60's which won't last long. Typical Florida....it will be back in the 70's by Tuesday.
I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
80's wow how nice! Glad you are done shopping now. I was until Brea went on about how she just loves opening the things in her stocking and how that is her very favorite part ... off to get more stuff for the stockings cuz candy doesn't qualify as really cool things.
Hey all,
I can't believe it's November. We had a great time in Atlanta. The band placed in Finals and then placed 10th. This was really good for Atlanta, seeing as we are a 7th year school.
They had their state assessment last Saturday. Got all Superiors. So now they are done marching. Yeah!!! I'm so tired. I'm glad.
My floors are being installed. My step dad came down and is doing them. I am going to help him paint the base boards today. Lots to do! It already looks so great.
That is great that they did so well in Atlanta! Good for them - congrats to Andrew. So, they are done marching and that is the end of the season for them? Like a Fall sport? Of course we are tiny here (400 students in high school) so we don't have marching band.
Umm - tree decorating. You all are fast. We will probably get our tree the following weekend. It's usually a struggle fitting it in somewhere and then the weather needs to be somewhat decent. It's all fun though and we enjoy it.
