Washington D.C.

While we were in Delaware last week we made a day trip to Washington D.C.  The reason for our visit was to pick up Brian's brother, and to meet his fianceé (who is awesome- by the way).  As we weren't set to meet up with them until the afternoon, we decided to spend some time in D.C. checking out the various sites.  My cousin Pam is currently deployed in D.C., so she was able to meet up with us as well.  I am amazed with the number to things to see and do in our nation's capital.  We could probably spend a week there and not see it all.  Last year we saw the National Zoo and the Natural History Museum.  This year we focused on seeing the various monuments.  We also visited the Freer Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  We had a very busy day.

One of the Kindergarten history standards is that students recognize major monuments and sites.  Olivia aced the quiz over that standard last year.  According to her she knew all of the answers because she had visited / seen many of the monuments the summer before when we had visited D.C.  So, we made sure to take pictures of Owen in front of the places on the quiz so that we can use them as flash cards next year.

















Pam visited the Air and Space Museum with us.  It was fun to see all of the air and spacecraft.  Some of my favorite things were the Spirit of St. Louis plane, the Wright Brothers plane, and the "things that went into space" exhibit.  The kids liked checking out the airplanes as well.  They seemed to enjoy watching the simulation of planes taking off / landing from an aircraft carrier.

 As we were making the LONG trek back to our car, Olivia made an all-too-familiar statement.  Of course I'm talking about the common refrain of  "I have to potty".  The nearest public building was the American History Museum.  We ran in just to use the restroom, but soon realized that one very special artifact was just around the corner.  So, we got to see the ruby slippers.  Olivia was thrilled.  The brief glimpse that I caught of the American History Museum looked awesome.  I'm going to have to put it on the itinerary for the next visit.