Christmas in DC - Part 3

Smithsonian Castle - so cool.  Didn't get to go in but awesome architecture.

This one of Lily is out of place but loved it so there you go.  Friday morning we said goodbye to the Parkinsons and climbed into our SUV rental for the first time.  Our 8 seater was actually only a 7 seater with no trunk space.  These pictures try to capture just how crammed we all were.  No one had much leg room.

Luckily, we didn't have too far to drive into DC to check out our last few museums.  It was pouring rain, which was unfortunate but we were so glad that we had had clear skies on the days when we walked to all the memorials.  We had to get a closer look at the White House for Lily so we did a drive by on our way to the Natural History Museum.  

The museum was a hit.  We loved the stuffed animals (real and souvenir), the Narwhal exhibit, and the Hope Diamond.  But I think our favorite exhibit was Natures Best Photography.  The pictures were amazing.  These were just two of our favorites.

Then onto the American History Museum to see the flag that inspired the writing of the Star Spangled Banner.  That was so incredible, so old and huge.  Greg ran to get the car while the kids and I took in a view more exhibits.  It was so fun to see different outfits of the First Ladies and to see the girls recognize their names from pre-trip reading.  And we had to show Lily the "Teddy" bear representing all the stuffed bears that were called "Teddy" after Teddy Roosevelt.

From there we took a wet drive to Arlington Cemetery where we walked as fast as we could through the pouring rain to arrive at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier 3 minutes after they finished changing the guard.  Too bad - but we still enjoyed the museum and the solemn feeling there.

After that we crowded 8 wet bodies into the car and headed to Richmond to see the Iversons.  The girls squeezed into the two spots in the back seat and promptly fell asleep all over each other.  We had really bad traffic and the 2 hour drive ended up being more than 3.  Luckily, the littles slept most of the way.

Full on cousin party took over for the next two days.  There were epic Nerf battles, sucker making, board games, and lots of giggling.  On Saturday we drove to Jamestown to see the recreation of the historic fort, Indian village, and ship that carried the original settlers.  

Here they are making their own corn meal - harder than it looked.

Lily wasn't sure she wanted to sleep on a bed of coyote skins.

From there we headed to Colonial Williamsburg where some of the houses date back to the 1700's.  We sampled all sorts of tasty nuts at The Peanut Shop and enjoyed some fudge and ice cream as well.  

I  had a good laugh at the kids trying out the stocks.

The Governor's Mansion and all the houses were so cool.  I'd love to come back another time when we could go inside the homes and spend a little more time exploring.  The feel of the place was so unique.  I really loved it.

Here are the suckers!  We had such a blast with the Iverson's and the kids were sad to say goodbye Monday morning as we headed to Mount Vernon.  It was raining yet again as we explored the grounds and toured the mansion.  This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  When I went in High School this was the place I remembered most and it was still pretty amazing.  I wish the weather would have been better so we could have seen the scenery and the beautiful river, but it was still fun to share it with the kids.

We were disappointed to arrive at the airport and learn that our flight was delayed 90 minutes and we would miss our connection in Denver.  No one really wanted to spend New Year's in the airport so we were relieved when they were able to squeeze us onto another airline and get us home that night.  A few hours later than expected but home!

We grabbed all the kids some dinner to eat on the flight and sent them to their separate seats (Sadly we had very few seats together).  Lily got to sit by Greg and I enjoyed my movies, books and solitude.  A few hours into the flight Greg asked me to go sit by Lily while he went to the bathroom.  He said she was acting a little weird.  On my way to his seat I see Natali turned around looking at Lily with a look of horror on her face.  Lily had barfed all over herself and was still barfing as I arrived.  I sent Natali to get some trash bags from the flight attendant and started stuffing the barfed on coat and mimi into the bags.  I helped Lily into the bathroom where I striped off her nasty shirt.  washed out her hair and put her in Greg's flannel shirt he'd been using as a jacket.  Thank goodness he had that because we had checked all our luggage.  She barfed three more times on the flight to Seattle, but luckily Greg caught all of those in barf bags.  The poor little thing looked pretty miserable by the time we got on the plane headed to Boise.  But we were all so thankful to be home and we enjoyed a quiet New Years sleeping and taking it easy.  It was such a wonderful week.  So glad we spent our Christmas Vacation in DC.