Summer 2014 Trip

Another post that if I had written it months ago may have come with more commentary, but my memory fails me once again...

The much anticipated summer trip finally came in late July.  The kids were psyched to see all their cousins, new (baby Frank) and old buds (Matthew and Sophia).  The trip had many highs and its lows (the ever present sibling fighting).  We learned that we can never, ever own less than an eight passenger truck (hence we still have our Expedition from 2003).  The kids need their own row each.  We really cannot live where we drive further than 15 minutes in one outing.  We definitely worked them.  I never want to hear "We will never take another family trip again" - out of any one's mouth (Ok, especially Jim's).  Besides all that - we can't thank our cousins enough for their hospitality and hanging with us!  The excitement over finally holding, squeezing, smushing, Frank was finally met.  Many good memories were made (besides my b1tching in the previous statements).  

Day 1 - Derwood, Maryland - Chris, Vanessa, Matthew and Sophia's house.  The kids would have been content never seeing one museum, monument or memorial (well, except for maybe Kellan).  Dexter couldn't have been happier playing the Wii with Matthew.  The weather couldn't have been better.  The kids only experienced a little humidity.  They saw fire flies for the first time (I was still probably the most excited about those).  

 

With Aunt Jessie and Frank.  Frank was such a good baby.  The poor kid was man-handled non-stop.  He never cried.  He's definitely Jessie's baby.  

Zoe HAD to be the first one to hold him. 

Dexter's 5th birthday was the first weekend we arrived.  Horrible parents for not getting him any gifts, lucky his great aunt and uncle pulled through with a cake and gifts from his cousins.

With cousin Jessica and Uncle Mike

Day 2 - Del Rey, Virginia - Mike, Jessie, Frank and Tug's house.  Before we left for the trip Kellan became obsessed with Doritos Loaded.  We don't have an abundance of 7-11's here, but they were everywhere back East.  Kellan got his opportunity...

 

...as expected.

Dexter was SO excited to hold Frank.

Day 3 - Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum with great Uncle Tim, great Aunt Karen and cousins.

This is the Red Bull capsule the guy parachuted out of  at 120,000 ft. 

 

Space Shuttle...looked forward to seeing it the most, impressed by it the least (Jim's comment).

My first house.  Herndon, VA.  My parents planted the tree in the front yard (the now huge one) we didn't have the garage and we had tons of yard...not quite what it used to be.

Day 4 - Washington D.C.  It was the first time on the metro and nice not to spend time in the car.  Within the first five minutes of getting off the metro, Kellan almost got hit by a car (usually people in CO stop if there are pedestrians in a cross walk - DC not so much), in the very next intersection Jim was carrying Dexter- Zoe walked in front of him and all three went crashing to the ground.  I pulled some random muscle in my leg which stayed with me the rest of the trip (which was actually a good distraction from my back pain).    

First stop, was the National Museum of the American Indian, followed by a tour of the Capitol.  I had never been to either.

Of course there was major restoration going on.  

After the Capitol and lunch we went to the Natural History Museum AND the American History Museum.  Bummer the Dinosaur exhibit was closed.  I made the kids go see the minerals and they saw the Hope Diamond - we have a picture of my grandpa wearing it as a necklace when it first arrived at the Smithsonian (he was a geologist and a volunteer there for many years).

Post museums we made our way down to the Washington Monument.  

Washington monument selfie.

After the Washington monument we figured we were so close to the WWII memorial, we should just keep going.  Kellan definitely appreciated the day even though Zoe complained non-stop, we think she had a good day.  Dexter was probably the biggest trooper of them all.  

I told Jim it was worth having three kids, in three states, just for this photo opportunity.  

Day 5 - Baltimore, Maryland.  We tried to split the days up with walking and driving.  After the previous day of non-stop walking, we figured the drive to Baltimore would be welcomed (but it was also accompanied by A Lot of walking).  Luckily on this ride, Zoe fell asleep pretty quickly.

Home of the Ravens

Jim's second favorite sign of the trip.

Babe Ruth's house.

A door to no where.

Many shots in the background of Jim carrying poor D.

The Legend's of Sports Museum (very cool place). 

Trying on player's gear

We lucked out and the Orioles were playing the Angels.  There were probably more Trout jerseys than any other player - including Oriole's players.

Hoping to get a ball at batting practice...no go.

 

A few more Trout fans.

 

Day 6 - Alexandria and Arlington, VA.  One of my favorite things to do when I lived in Virginia was to go to Mount Vernon.  I wasn't sure if it would live up to the memories, but it did.  It's definitely come a long way since I was last there thirty years ago.  

Alexandria, VA

Mount Vernon.  Definitely one of the hotter days.

Visitor center, which was definitely not there when I lived in VA.  

I wish this was my view.  Happy to see water everywhere. 

At the Iwo Jima Memorial.

My treat after another long day.

Day 7 - Washington D.C. a second time round.  Another break from the car and a second day on the metro.  We knew this was going to be the biggest walking day - attempt to see all the monuments/memorials we hadn't previously seen + Ford Theater.  

The balcony where Lincoln was shot. 

The White House (way in the back ground).  As soon as we got to the fence they made everyone leave.  

The Vietnam Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

Glad the boys wore the bright shorts.

 We also made it over to the Korean War Memorial (not shown).

Martin Luther King - first time I had seen it, pretty awesome.

Zoe pointing toward the Jefferson Memorial and how much further we were planning on walking.

With President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Yep, he had to go there.  So disrespectful.

We told the kids, it's not always appropriate to look happy in front of a memorial, but to be respectful (um, yeah, Jim maybe not the best example).  Zoe took it to heart in this picture. 

At Jefferson.

Someone had to have known it would end up looking like this. (comment is Jim's contribution to this post)

Day 8 - Final, full day.  Took it easy during the day, spent time shopping around for National's attire and hanging with Frank some more.

I didn't think any of the kids looked too much like Frank, until I saw this picture - profile-wise definitely some similarities.  Frank - let your mom do your hair when you grow up!  (I have made some progress since this trip, telling Kellan you may not want a girlfriend, but your friends will some day and you may be a liability with that hair (mean mom!, but I say it with the best intentions).

 

Jim's favorite sign.  It reads "George Bush Center for Intelligence".  He couldn't stop laughing at it.

A great way to spend the last night of our trip.

We chased down every President.  Three pictured.

Had they not built the parking structure, there would be a beautiful shot of the Capitol.

Always good to catch a ballgame on vacation.  Because of the generosity of Uncle Tim and Aunt Karen, we got to see two!

There were some young, drunk guys in front of us (friendly drunks).  They threw money down to people the entire game.  One of their dad's called and told him they were on TV.  As they were leaving one of them threw a Cabella's gift card, some nice people handed it over to Kellan.

I'm going to keep taking selfies and posting them with Kellan until he starts taking decent pictures.

This is a shot of Jim's late ballgame snack.  His second "Ben's Chili Bowl" chili dog.  We are starting our diets...

The End.