Downtown D.C.

I have a lot of catching up to do. I am going to stick to posting chronologically… so this was actually from a few weeks ago…

When we were in Maryland, the weather was better than it ever has been on a summer visit. It felt like spring most of the time instead of the normal heat and humidity. One day we went downtown to see some sights. We actually covered a lot of ground. We started off with the goal of going to the Art Museum. So we rode the subway down to the Archives stop, walked over to the National Gallery and stayed as long as the kids could handle having good Art Gallery behavior, which ended up being about 45 minutes. We saw some old favorites as well as a visiting exhibit called "The Art of Power" which had all kinds of armor, weapons, paintings, etc. from around the 1500s. Shayne thought it was great.

Then, we went to the fountain in between the Art Gallery and the Natural History Museum where we relaxed for a little while. After that, we decided to go to the Natural History Museum. We had been there a few days earlier, but hadn't seen all of the exhibits. We went there for about 45 minutes, saw a lot of the things we missed as well as revisiting Maya's favorite part,the ocean room, then decided to keep walking down the Mall. We went to the Washington Monument, where we debated what to do next. We wondered if we should go on to the Lincoln Memorial or head back to the metro stop. The weather was great and morale was slightly above average, so we decided to continue.

We walked through the World War II Memorial, then moved on to the Lincoln Memorial. Shayne learned about many of these sights in first grade last year, and it had been a few years since we had seen them, so he really liked it. It was about this time that Maya started insisting on being carried most of the time. That was fine...she had already walked quite a long way.

On the way back from the Lincoln Memorial we walked through the Vietnam Memorial, which Rick had never been to. We got a good view of the White House from Constitution Avenue. When we were about half way back to the metro stop, we stopped and got some popsicles, which gave the kids the last puff of energy they would need to make it back to the Archives stop. We must have covered 5 or 6 miles, and we heard no complaining from Shayne. Maya had nothing to complain about, as she got carried on shoulders or backs about the last third of the way. I never thought we would see so many interesting things in one day, but we wouldn't have made it half as far if the weather wasn't so great.

The kid's area of the Natural History Museum

The dress-up area

Yes, this is the dinosaur skeleton from Night at the Museum

Looking up the side of the Washington Monument

WW II Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

Fourth of July

Yes, these pictures are almost a month old :)

On July third, we spent the night at Dale and Tammy's house. We all had a great time. Here are some of us in the pool.

The next day, we had the traditional BBQ at my parent's house. The weather was great and it was fun seeing everyone.

The boys with their tinker toy weapons

After that we went to see fire works at the University of Maryland. We always tell the kids, "Don't worry, it looks like they are coming right toward you, but they are actually far away." Well, this year, they were coming right for us. By the end, debris was raining from the sky. I think only about 10-15% of our group actually got anything in their eyes, so we did alright.

Baltimore

While we were in Maryland, we went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. We had a great time. All of us enjoyed seeing the animals, but Maya, as a lover of all things aquatic, was in heaven. Some highlights were the huge sea turtle, the big sting rays, the sharks, the jellyfish, the rainforest area and the dolphin show. We met my brother Tom and his family there also, and it was nice to spend some time with them. Here are some pictures.

The Flight to Maryland

We made it to Maryland safe and sound on the night of July 1st. The flight went well. Both of the kids love the airport and we had Rick with us on the flight so both of those things helped. Here are a few pictures:

Maya was sure to seatbelt her Barbies and Kermit also.

Shayne spent a few hours of the flight building with his legos.

This was taken by my Mom when we arrived at Baltimore. We don't look too worn out, do we?

Shayne's Scooter Tricks

Shayne likes to do tricks and stunts a lot. He and I made this video together of some of the tricks he can do on his scooter.

Our Adventure in Payson

So a little over a week ago we went camping for the night up in Payson, which only takes about an hour to drive to from our house. It was beautiful and we had a great time. The second day we went for a nice hike up to the top of a big hill, which was pretty. We got all loaded up to head back home around noon, and the car wouldn't start. It has never really given us any trouble, so we were surprised. We asked the ranger if he could give us a jump, and he tried, but that didn't work either. To make a long story short, 6 hours later, after we had tried several things, we had the car towed into a garage in Payson, right about closing time. The wife of the owner drove us to a little motel a little way up the road, where we stayed the night. The next day it was fixed by noon, so we left at that time. It was quite an adventure!

The bottom of the agave plant.

This is a blooming agave plant

This is an alligator juniper tree

Here is the same tree from further back. It is one of my favorites and is in the campsite we stayed at.

School is Out for Summer!!

Friday was the official starting day of summer vacation! I am off work until July 21st!! My principal showed us this video clip on the last day. It's cute...