Trip to D.C.

So a week and a half before school started we made the trek to Washington, D.C. to visit the Bakers and Barry and Ami. Naturally we forgot to mention this to Barry and Ami--partly because the idea for the trip was somewhat last minute (we didn't firm up our plans until about a month before) and partly because we assumed that Barry would be sufficiently lame to not have any plans made. Unfortunately, he was not. So for part of the trip Barry, Ami, and Kayla were at Virginia Beach, but they did come back before we left and for that I was grateful.

Anyway, we left Wednesday after Kip woke up after his shift and left. We got to Katie's house late that night and then spent the next morning playing at her house. I love that she lives partway through the journey.

We got to Bec's house around dinner and were eager to associate with young baby Scarlett who Bec said was fussy, but who didn't seem particularly fussy to me at all.

 The next day was a bit of a free day. We went to a park (at least I think that's the day we went to a park).

The day after that we went to the Smithsonian--natural history museum.

Here you can see my highly privileged kids looking extremely happy and appreciative and grateful.

The truth is that the Smithsonian was okay, but disappointing in a lot of ways. They didn't have the t-rex up. Seeing it was the desire of Mark's heart. It might have been okay if they'd just told us it wasn't up and led us to the other dinosaur-y things. But instead they told us at first that it was up and then we couldn't find it so I asked someone on that floor and she was like, "Oh, it's not put together." And then we were sad. It would have been nice if she had also said, "But there's a triceratops skeleton and some other bones and dinosaur stuff" but she didn't so we didn't find that stuff until the kids were way done with the whole museum thing. 

We went to look at the hope diamond (my kids are way into gems/stones. Unfortunately, even though it is enormous and worth a jillion dollars, my kids were expecting it to be baseball sized (ala that Muppet movie) and it simply was not. It was postage stamp sized and they were woefully unimpressed. 

That's the point Mark was done (he was kind of being a punk before that, but this pushed him to his edge). We saw the mammals and the bones and the other gems. But the signs in the Smithsonian were seriously just horrible and it made it a little frustrating. I still had fun, though grumpy kids stressed me out a bit. If you asked me the best part of the Smithsonian, I would have to say that we had the most fun in the gem/mineral gift shop. Sad. But true. 

 Fortunately, afterwards our trip was redeemed by the gloriousness of roadside food stands outside of the Smithsonian. My kids use their money to buy candy (girls) and a soda (Mark). Their cousin, Ben, didn't understand this use of money on things that would be gone. I don't either (maybe if it was authentic, local cool food, but pricey Skittles just don't do it for me), but I was just glad they were happy.

So we ate our lunch and then walked through the modern art garden, which was actually really fun.

 After that we went to the arboretum, which I thought was gorgeous and amazing. We saw the herb garden and the bonsai trees. They kids liked it okay too until I just kept walking around looking at more plants.

The next day was Sunday and we rested. Barry and Ami got back that evening and we hung out, which was fun.

Monday we went to the bay. Last time we went there were actual waves, but not this time. We still had fun, except for Mark, who maybe kind of had fun, but wouldn't go in the water after the first three minutes because there was--gasp--sand and it was--gasp--sandy. I think he could have muddled through if there had been cool waves, but as it was he sat and sunned and then went to the playground that was nearby.

When we came home, the kids took showers and Savannah got this shiner. She slipped in the shower and fell onto the toilet. The saddest part is that she couldn't just run out in the buff, crying with her boy cousins around (she's gotten to a funny modest stage), so she finished her shower, got dressed, and then came outside before getting Kip to show him.

That night we chilled and I gave Ami a pedicure that was surely no better than what Barry did.

 The next day we left, which everyone was sad about. On the way home, we took a little detour to visit Dad and Craig and Moose. Which was also super fun. Dad took us to Bob Evans and the kids were over the moon about getting to see Grandpa and going out to eat.

We got home late, but happy.