(This is a ridiculously long blog post. Prepare yourself.)
Our much anticipated trip to Arlington, VA and Washington, DC finally arrived. Alan and I picked up the kids after school on Tuesday, made a quick stop at the eye doctor to pick up Eve’s glasses, then headed to Melville, NY on lovely Long Island.
We got there around 11:00pm and promptly became THAT family. Not thinking about the time I let the kids jump on the bed for half hour while I unloaded the luggage cart and put a few things away. That night we all got to sleep late and Lex wet the bed (despite my taking him to the bathroom twice during the night!) The next morning around 7am the kids were jumping on the bed again and a grumpy man from downstairs came up to yell at us. Well, he didn’t exactly yell but he spoke very sternly. Apparently their jumping had awoken him last night and again in the morning. Oops! I seriously didn’t even think about the people below us. After breakfast Alan went to meet some people at his new company’s NY office while the kids and I swam in the pool, did some laundry (yep, we were doing laundry one day into the trip. Can’t have a pee-soaked blanket and doggie for too long!) and packed up. I got everyone showered, dressed, fed, packed, the car packed and arranged for the next leg of our trip and everyone was happy! I was feeling good about things until about 20 minutes after we left the hotel when I realized I forgot to leave a tip for the cleaning staff. Yep, we were THAT family. Sorry Melville!
We had to walk through a crowd of business men to get here. The kids had their bathing suits and googles on and were happily skipping along. I think there were a few jealous people watching us go by.
I spent a small fortune on laundry on this trip.
Late night + swimming + TV = Zombies!
We arrived at our Arlington hotel late Wednesday night. I was hoping to stay in DC proper, but the hotel rates were outrageous so we ended up at a Best Western in Arlington. We still payed about 3x what the hotel was worth (by MY standards) but it was what it was.
Just hanging out at the hotel. This is Eve's new favorite face. :)
The next morning we took the Metro into DC to walk around a bit. Thursday was the only day that didn’t have rain in the morning forecast so we decided that would be a good day to check out the National Mall and the White House. There was no rain, but the humidity was about 110% so we were all pretty wet and sticky anyway. The kids were marginally impressed with things. Their favorite parts of that morning were the metro, a car carrier loaded with golf carts, a duck pond, and snack on the grass (on the Ellipse, for those who care) and seeing what may have been Marine One landing on the White House lawn. Ok, that part was pretty exciting for all of us! The actual landing was behind trees, but we were super close and got a great view of the helicopter as it came down.
The kids were SUPER excited for this experience. Apparently it's hard to get a good picture on the subway!
They didn't want to leave the Metro station. "Please can we wait to see just one more train come in?!?"
They were setting up for a big literacy convention on the Mall and the kids were fascinated by this golf cart carrying car carrier. The literacy thing looked really neat. I hope the weather cleared up for them.
Lunch at the Ronald Regan something or other. I just wanted a drink and we had to go through security checkpoints and around a giant maze before we finally found the food court. (Yes, Lex is looking at Alan's phone. I believe he was reading a text message from Mandy.)
Children are sweet and have no concept of dirty city birds. Eve just wanted to pet the ducks.
We need to work on our "us" pictures. We've fallen out of practice.
Marine One? Possibly. You never know.
Monkeys in DC
After dragging the kids back to the hotel on the metro
Tired kids on the way back to the hotel.
we changed into proper funeral clothes and headed to Arlington National Cemetery. There we got some ice cream and waited at the chapel for the rest of the crowd to arrive. The military guys (sorry Don, feel free to add proper titles and names, I didn’t catch any of them!) did a beautiful job with the ceremony. It was brief, but touching. They played Amazing Grace and America The Beautiful. The Chaplin was impressed with Lynn’s family’s military history (Robert E. Lee was her great (great?) grandfather). After the service at the chapel we followed them to the “wall” where her ashes were laid to rest. The Chaplin again said a few words and took a family photo for us. It was short and sweet. Turns out her space also overlooks the Lee Family Mansion on the hill. A nice touch that Arlington was able to arrange for her.
The chapel
Good thing I didn't think too hard about their clothing! By the end of that pint of Ben & Jerry's they were wearing chocolate from head to toe!
Aunt Betty brought them a few little toys which kept them busy through the ceremony and dinner later that night. Thanks Aunt Betty!
The Chaplin. He did a nice job.
Alan & Eve in the cemetery.
Alan and Amanda and Don together put her remains into the wall.
The family, with the Lee Mansion in the background. When I first saw this photo I thought how much Lynn would have liked it. Then I was saddened that it took her death to bring everyone together.
The wall just goes on and on. It's actually the exterior wall of Arlington cemetery.
Eve took a picture of me while I was putting her in the car seat :)
After the ceremony was over we took a little tour around the cemetery and stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider where most of the family watched the changing of the guard and a wreath laying ceremony, but I watched two tired sweaty kids eat snack. I also had a nice conversation with a WWII vet who was also the owner (or founder?) of Etch-a-sketch. There was a whole group of WWII vets there as part of a tour group… I’m blanking on the name, but apparently this groups arranges trips for vets, completely free of charge. Each person is assigned a volunteer “guardian angel” who helps them throughout the entire trips. Veterans are free but the volunteers pay their own way. It sounded like a great organization… the name will come to me eventually.
The crowd in the back is watching the changing of the guards, but I am watching the kids. Lex got lots of comments on his reading. He ignored them all and kept reading :)
I love this shirt.
My beautiful children at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.
What's a visit to Arlington National Cemetery without this shot.
Then back to the hotel for a brief rest
Zombie kids again. Twenty mintues of downtime before we headed out for dinner.
and off for a fancy Italian dinner with the whole family. It was yummy and great to get a chance to talk to extended family. The way the tables were arranged made a nice play area for the kids too, so for the most part they did ok in the restaurant through the long meal and yet another late night.
Glasses girls cuddling in bed :)
The next morning (I think we’re on Friday by now) Alan and his dad went off to do their own thing while I took the kids back into DC to see some museums. It was raining, but not cold, so we took the metro then walked to the Museum of Natural History first. The kids had a really good time here. We saw dinosaur bones and prehistoric fish bones and the Hope Diamond (a big let down for them, I think they were expecting something MUCH bigger!) and a cool earth exhibit and a giant elephant and lots of other fun things.
Lex taking pictures of a parking garage.
The kids making friends with a delivery guy, on our way to the Metro station, in the rain. Life with kids is fun! :)
I warned you I took a ton of pictures of Lex taking pictures of things! I loved his enthusiasm with the camera.
Check out this prehistoric whale! Craziness.
This lady possibly has the most boring job in the world. She is sorting bones so tiny she needs to use tweezers to move them into tiny bone piles for future study. Zzzzzzz......
Eve, finding her ancestors on the world map.
We had fun with this magnifying glass. Here Lex is taking a picture of a very enlarged display of the freckle on Eve's finger.
Next we get a close up view of the camera itself.
Eve finally got her turn with the camera and she took lots of pictures of the Hope diamond. I think they were both expecting someting a little bigger.
We were all excited for the butterfly exhibit, but when we got there we found this. Eve, ever the optimist, said "They say it's closed but we got in anyway! Look!" and she pointed to the ceiling where a half dozen or so very large butterflies hung. Sweet girl thought that was the exhibit!
When we were good and tired we had a giant cookie (giant in size and price!) from the cafe and then headed back into the rain to walk to the Air & Space Museum. There we met the rest of the family for lunch. We hung out there for awhile until everyone was super tired and around 4:30 we started back for the Metro. Still raining. Alan took his dad back to his hotel and the kids and I made our way back to ours, stopping along the way at a Rite-Aid to stock up on peanut butter, Ritz crackers, water, Fig Newtons and Twizzlers. Can you tell who was tired by this point? :) That night Alan went out with his family again for dinner but I begged off. The kids were in dire need of bathes and a reasonable bedtime. I was also losing my excitement for the trip.
Lunch at McD's at the Air and Space Museum. Eve asked if I wanted a picture of them together. I'll take two smiles any day, even if it's on a McD's advertisement!
Eve made a paper airplane at the kid room and had a great time flying it. Here is her crazy face.
Finally she gave me a smile, but now I'm not sure which picture I like better :)
Watching the planes land on the battleship.
Walking back to the subway we saw a Magic School Bus bus! I was so excited. If it hadn't been pouring rain we would have run over to investigate. I'm guessing it was there as part of the reading convention on the Mall.
Hahaha... I'm not sure what she thinks this jacket is, but whenever she puts it on she goes crazy. She calls it her fighter girl jacket or something like that. Thanks Grampy Don!
Grampy Don bought Lex his Halloween costume this year. It's a huge hit!
Alan and I decided to cut the trip a bit short. Originally I wanted to stay in DC on Saturday as well, maybe going to the aquarium, the botanical gardens, and/or the zoo, but with more rain in the forecast and a 12hr drive ahead of us… I just lost my ambition. Instead we checked out of the hotel on Saturday and drove to my parent’s house. About half way through the six hour drive Lex was fussing and asking if we could please just get out of the car and be home now. I was happy we hadn’t tried the 12hr drive.
I like posting funny pictures of the kids :) This was at a stop on the way to Franklin. Lex wore his astronaut suit for awhile.
One quick night at my parents house (I don’t think they minded our last minute visit ;) ) and one more five hour drive and we were finally home again! I love to travel, but seriously there’s no place like home.
Ground control to Major Tom... your beard is showing. (We all had fun with the helmet)
For those of you who made it to the end, I have a question for you. This took me three days to write and contains almost 50 photos (not even a third of the photos I took!) Do you guys enjoy posts this long or would it be better for me to pick the best two or three pictures and stick to summary writing? Sometimes I totally get caught up in blogging, but other times I find myself bored with my own posts! Thoughts? Preferences? Thanks!