Potomac + National Cathedral + Richmond

We had an awesome weekend. Ty’s brother Cody flew in from Arizona and joined in on the sight-seeing and exploring. Saturday morning, we headed into DC and Ty and Cody got to kayak on the Potomac river. Jack and I hung out at the boathouse and went for a little nature walk.

After the boys got back, we visited the National Cathedral. It’s actually the second largest church in the country. We got to go inside and see some beautiful stained glass windows and architecture. This is also where the President goes for Sunday worship. According to Cody's BlackBerry, one of the gargoyles on the North tower is supposed to Darth Vader... ?? Random.

After wearing ourselves out sight-seeing and filling up on some delicious Mexican food, we came home and the boys crashed.

On Monday, we drove down to Richmond. We had never been there and Cody was flying out of the Richmond airport. First, we went to the Petersburg battlefield. They had a neat visitor's center and several trails walk along. We had near-record-breaking highs that day. We are getting to experience what 85 degrees with 85% humidity feels like.

Then we drove around Richmond for a couple of hours. We saw the Confederate White House, the Capitol building, and several other historic sites. We found ourselves on the cutest little with houses all built in the early 1900's. We also found a cute little cafe for dinner.

Thanks for coming Uncle Cody! Anyone else want to visit?

Baltimore

Jack and I drove up to Leesburg to spend a couple of days with the Johnson bunch. It was so fun! Michelle and I got to shop, hang out, and stay up way too late talking. The three boys had a great time playing, too. While we were there, we decided to take a road trip to Baltimore to visit the Port Discovery children's museum.

Jack and Dylan inside a giant bubble

This was so cute: The boys were pretending to be window washers. I need to try this at home!

Jack thought it was pretty neat that he got to sleep with Cole and Dylan. I thought they would probably all want to play instead of sleep, but we wore them out and they all crashed immediately. Isn't this the cutest picture ever?

Cruisin' DC

This weekend I met up with my high school friend, Cori Marquis. Her dance company performed in Maryland, so I drove up to see her. It was great to meet up, watch her dance, and chat for a couple of hours. 

Meanwhile, the boys were up to their usual antics: "Cruisin' DC" as Jack said.

After six hours, their adventure was complete:

 Over four miles riding the scooter together.
At one point Jack and Ty were performing "evasive maneuvers" through a crowd  and just as they approached group of elderly people
Jack yelled out, "Ramming speed!"

 Realizing Jack is terrified of heights

Experiencing Jack's first outdoor concert

 Touching the Berlin wall. (Jack also decided that the 

Unabomber's cabin is where he wants to live when he grows up. No, son...you don't.)

Having a picnic on the National Mall

Going to the Air and Space Museum

Flying a Cessna

 

Playing in a fountain

Becoming a Congressman.
At about this time, the boys started to get hungry.
When Ty asked Jack if he wanted to go find something to eat,
Jack said, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's cruise!"

Finding an authentic (read smelly) fish market. (Notice Jack plugging his nose while trying not to dry heave!)

Having a "real man's dinner" of fresh seafood. 

 But I think he still missed Mommy.

Lunch Date with Buzz Lightyear

Gettysburg

This weekend we went north up to Gettysburg. We decided to drive to Pennsylvania on Friday night and camp somewhere so that we'd have a shorter drive on Saturday morning. We were hoping to spend Saturday night in a campground again and see a bit of Amish country and find a church on Sunday. I was in charge of packing us, and in case any of you didn't know, I'm not the world's greatest packer. I always seem to forget the important stuff. On our last camping trip, I forgot jackets for the whole family and we all froze. Anyway...

So we're driving up on Friday talking about all the fun things we're going to do that weekend. Realization #1: I forgot to pack Ty's church clothes. Oops. I knew that I pulled them out of the closet, but I definitely left them laying on the bed. So, we stopped at a Marshall's in Maryland and picked up Ty some slacks, a shirt, and tie.

We camped Friday night just south of the Gettysburg battlefield. Somehow Ty always seems to take me camping in the rain at least once a year. This was that time. It was pouring and it poured all night long. Thankfully, we didn't have a tent to set up because we had planned on sleeping in an air mattress in our truck's camper shell. However, we discovered in the middle of the night that there were several leaks in the camper shell since our feet were completely wet. Somewhere about this time I had realization #2: I forgot to pack my arthritis medicine. Big oops.

Saturday morning we went to the Gettysburg battlefield museum for several hours. Realization #3: I forgot to pack the camera. Biggest oops. I tried really hard not to be too grumpy or focus on how sore, tired, and dirty I was. You'd have to ask Ty how that turned out. Aside from that, we enjoyed learning about the strategies each side employed and the events that led up to the battle. We were in the museum for a couple hours and could have been there for several more. Information overload. But it was awesome. Here are some of the things we saw, courtesy of the World Wide Web:

The Gettysburg Cyclorama: a 360-degree oil on canvas painted in 1883

The Pennsylvania Memorial

The Gettysburg Cemetery

Some more monuments with Big Round Top and Little Round Top in the distance

By late afternoon, we were all exhausted and decided to cut the trip short. We drove home that night to sleep in our own beds. Even though the trip was a bit rough, I am so glad we made it there. Ty said that Gettysburg has been his favorite place to see so far. There was definitely a powerful spirit everywhere as we walked on the ground where so many thousands of men were injured or killed.

Mount Vernon

We had another fun outing with Michelle and her cute twins Cole and Dylan. This time Michelle picked us up and we headed to Mount Vernon, where George Washington lived. Michelle and I got to do something we wanted to and the boys did really well, too. Three three-year-olds is a busy bunch, though. We tried so hard to get just one picture with all three boys looking but decided that is impossible at this age.

Cole, Jack, and Dylan

This is General Washington's actual house from the 1700's. Amazing! We got a tour the inside. About 40% of the furnishings inside were original as well.

The was the Washington's backyard with an incredible view of the Potomac.

In the gardens

We couldn't have asked for a better day. The weather was beautiful.

After we toured the grounds, we took the kids into the museum. Thankfully, they had a really cute room for kids and the boys enjoyed getting to touch everything. They even had these cute costumes. Jack asked to be a farmer.

 

I just realized that it's Dylan looking away in every single one of these pictures! So funny. Sorry, bud!

Lunga + Prince William Forest

This weekend we kept things a little closer to home and headed to Lunga Reservoir on the Marine Base. They just opened up for boat rentals for the summer. All around the reservoir are campgrounds, picnic areas, and playgrounds, so we were able to make lots of stops for Jack to get out and play. We kayaked a total of 3 miles in the beautiful 70-degree weather.

This was my attempt to get a picture of the boys. I was holding the camera upside-down behind my head.

 After we had our fill of kayaking, we headed to Manassas to run some errands (and eat dinner at Pei Wei). On our way home, we found a gorgeous back road along Prince William Forest. I have never seen such lush and green countryside in my life. We happened upon the historic town of Brentsville and got out to look at some historic buildings from the 1800's.

While Jack was rolling around in the grass, we read a sign that said this spot was were the county gallows were once located.

Can you see me and Jack walking along the trail?

We love Virginia!