Hike To Cecret Lake

 We had a beautiful hike up to Cecret Lake in Albion Basin with friends.

The Everyday

Swinging in the back yard.

 Water balloon fights

This kid and her costumes. She is a party a minute, our tiny event coordinator.

Like Mother Like Daughter

She is never without a book.

Williamsburg

On our last day we drove to Williamsburg, VA. It was fun to see all of the actors and the town.

 We toured a lot of houses and the kids got to act out a mock trial in the courthouse.

 Me, Scott, Adalyn and Asia, James holding Preston (who was not happy to have his picture taken), Dallin and Lisa, Sariah and Janet

More D.C. and Mt. Vernon

We visited the White House which the kids thought was really fun.

We went to the National Gallery. I could have spent days wandering around but the kids were tired. We did way too much walking on this trip and it really wore them out. They loved the National Gallery's outdoor sculpture garden. They learned about Calder this summer and had done some sculpture mimicking his work so they were very excited to see this stabile.

Red Fish loves Claus Oldenburg so she was very excited about this giant typewriter eraser. (I had to look up what it was because I don't think I've ever seen a typewriter eraser before.)

This was Red Fish's very favorite part of the trip. She was really looking forward to seeing the Martin Luther King Memorial. She had recently read several books around him and she thought it was really special to see his memorial.

The next day we moved out of Washington DC to Mt. Vernon (George Washington's home).

We attempted a group shot but we were missing D. The girls really liked touring the grounds and getting to see where Washington really lived. I think it really started to bring history to life for them. I was surprised to see how much they really got out of this trip. I hope they aren't too young to really remember it.

New Fish loved learning more about Washington. She was very impressed with him. She has read a lot of the same books as Red Fish to get ready for this trip. She get some of the details a bit muddled like thinking that "Dr. King invented equality because he was both a doctor and a king!" Her budding interest in history has been so fun and she has done a great job walking so far on this trip.

Natural History Museum and History

 Next we went on a tour of the Capital building. It is in the middle of a renovation so there was a lot of scaffolding in the way. We still got to see a big part of the rotunda and I think the kids mostly enjoyed the tour.

 We went to the National Archives and saw a Gutenberg Bible- that was on my bucket list.

 We went to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, THe Magna Carta, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights- it was an epic moment.

 Next we saw the girls' very favorite part of the trip. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. They were in heaven.

 She finally got to see a real life mummy. She has always always wanted to see one outside of a sarcophagus.

 THe girls loved the rock, minerals and gems exhibit but they were not impressed by the Hope Diamond.

 We got tickets to go inside of the butterfly pavillion and Asia never wanted to leave. She loves insects of all kinds but especially butterflies. They were flying around and landing all over her and she was absolutely in heaven.

 Story time.

Washington D.C.

 We flew overnight on a red eye to Washington DC so we were exhausted. Scott's Mom Janet went with us. We met Scott's sister Lisa and her family in DC. It was a fabulous reunion because our girls love their cousins and Lisa's family moved to Pennsylvania last year. We have really missed them.

 We spent our first afternoon in DC at the National Air & Space Museum. It was amazing although I think the Boeing one in Seattle that we visited a few years ago might be a little bit better.

 This is on of Amelia Earhart's planes. The girls have been really into reading National Geographic Kids books and they were full of historical tidbits on the things we would be seeing in D.C. This plane was on their list. As you can see they were also very excited to see their cousin Sariah.

 The girls at the Madsen memorial

 We saw the Washington Monument from a distance.

 We visited the Jefferson Memorial. It was so cool to see these things in person and to share them with Asia. She is a little sponge for knowledge and she learned so much on this trip.

 We got this amazing hotel suite that was big enough for all 10 of us to stay in just outside of Washington DC. We did a lot of driving.

The morning of the 2nd day was by far the worst day of the trip. I believe the temperature was close to 100 degrees, and the humidity was so high.  The kids all hated the cemetery.  It was so far to walk to see the things we wanted to see.  They'd all gotten to bed late, and everyone was grumpy. They were mildly interested in seeing JFK's grave.

Tomb of the unknown soldier

We headed indoors for the afternoon at the Museum of American History. Highlights for Asia included the collection of First Lady's dresses, Abraham Lincoln's top hat (Asia says he is coming back for that when he gets resurrected), the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, the Nauvoo sunstone from the original Nauvoo temple and the Star Spangled Banner.

We visited the Washington Monument and then walked to the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. The girls were most excited about Washington and Lincoln because they had read books about them and knew more about who they were.

 We also stopped to see the Korean War Memorial