Fall Break-Washington DC

During the week of fall break we took the opportunity to do some vacationing.  I have a friend who lives in DC I've been wanting to visit, Jeff's sister lives there too, and my family decided to vacation in Williamburg, Va for their fall break.  So we took the opportunity to go to Virginia!

My friend, Angie and her daughter Cassidy, were up for the adventure too.  Angie and I took our kids and headed to the airport.  Jeff thought I was crazy to fly on a 3+ hour flight without him.  But we were filling adventurous, so our husbands continued to work while us ladies and kids went on our vacation.  Since I had 2 kids, 2 carseats, 2 suitcases, a backpack, purse to haul, I rigged a contraption to carry Rachel in her carseat.  I bought a large washer from Lowes and connected the carseat straps to it on the back side of the suitcase.  It was very handy and I didn't always have to worry about Rachel wandering off.

When we were able to board the plane all that was left were middle seats.  It was tempting to put my 2 year old in the middle of two strangers and say, have a good flight! ;0)   No, the people around us were very accommodating and switched seats so we could sit together.  I sat with Rachel (who luckily took a nap so the flight didn't seem so long) and right behind me Angie sat with Tyler and Cassidy who were SO excited to sit together on the airplane.

The flight went well, but there was a thunderstorm over the Dulles Airport, so we had to hold before we could land.  We were so excited when we landed in Washington DC!

Angie and I were able to visit with our friend Nicole first.  The next day it was still raining, but the rain didn't dampen our spirits...we were ready to sight see: three moms and 6 kids in the rain.

 We went to the Natural History Museum.  We parked in a 2 hour parking stall thinking that with kids we won't last much more that 2 hours in a museum anyways.  One thing I learned is that it takes forever to get anywhere in DC (walking and driving).  It took longer than we thought to walk to the museum and back, so we didn't get very long in the museum, but here are some highlights.



Cassidy, Jocelyn, Rachel A, Rachel D., Tyler

Tyler is sticking his tongue out at the dung, not at Rachel A.

That afternoon the weather cleared up and we were able to take group pictures.

In front of the Washington Monument (yes, Tyler was the only boy, but he doesn't seem to mind.)

In front of the Capitol
Back Row: Rachel D, Jamie, Maddy, Nicole, Angie
Front Row: Tyler, Jocelyn, Cassidy, and Rachel A.

The next day the weather was much better and we went back to DC to see more sights. This time Nicole's husband, Matt, joined us and we were able to convince Jeff's sister, Sara, to join in on the fun.

Some of the kids really wanted to go back to the Natural History Museum and see the Butterfly room, so we headed there first.  The kids were able to see the butterflies up close and personal. 

Tyler was the lucky one to get a butterfly actually land on him.

After that we walked to the white house.

We saw the World War II Memorial

Then took the long walk to the Lincoln Memorial.

We did a LOT of walking.  The kids did really well considering.

Saturday night Jeff finished working and was able to join us.  On Sunday we were able to go visit the DC temple and get some beautiful pictures.

 The kids had fun walking around the temple grounds and playing.  I can't remember what was going on in this picture, but I thought it was super cute with Tyler and the three girls.

We were trying to get a good picture of the 5 year olds, but Jocelyn squirmed and pulled the cutest face every time Tyler put his arm around her shoulder.  So we switched Tyler to sit next to Rachel A. and we were able to get a decent picture.

It was so fun to hang out with these two great friends!  Thanks for letting us visit, Nicole!