Looking Back....A Visit to Our Nation's Captial (May 2012)

Did I mention we went to Washington D.C.?  Yep, we sure did....back in May 2012! It all happened really quickly. Washington D.C. was a place we had always planned on going and more specifically, wanted to take Carson to eventually. Jared's friend, Tyson and his family, lived in D.C. and so we thought we would have the opportunity to take Carson there sometime. Well, Tyson and Diana were moving to Nigeria {I know, NIGERIA!} in June, so we decided to book a last minute trip to D.C.! 

It was a blast! We decided to surprise Carson with this trip. I had given him a present which was a travel toiletries bag with a bunch of toiletries and said we were going on a trip! He was so excited! He is a patriotic kid and as many of you know, learned all the Presidents of the U.S. in order, all the states and capitals and many other U.S. facts when he was 5. It has always been on his bucket list to go to Washington D.C. and this trip did not disappoint!

And can I just say how fun it is to be able to spend quality time with each individual kid once in awhile! I absolutely love Carson! He is a fantastic kid to be around. Carson definitely has the traveling bug and he had more energy than Jared and I combined! I think with being the oldest and oldest by several years from his cousins, he just sometimes thinks he's one of the adults. In situations like this, it's fantastic!  He's very mature and fun!

Here's a picture of us in the airport waiting for our plane! We are super pumped! Plus added bonus--we were flying on Virgin which is like my favorite airline to fly on...you get to watch tv for free!

We spent 4 days in Washington D.C. We left every morning really early and came back every night really late. There is just so much to see and do! We pretty much hung out in the National Mall the entire time. In a nutshell, these are the things we visited:

::Arlington National Cemetery
::Smithsonian Museums--including the National Air & Space Museum, Natural History Museum, and American History Museum.
::Monuments--including FDR Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Iwa Jima Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington Monument.
::Capital Building
::Library of Congress
::National Archives
::Holocaust Museum
::International Spy Museum
::Mount Vernon

Yeah, our family doesn't mess around! We get a lot accomplished! That is a crazy amount of sightseeing and WALKING! I was so naive going into this trip because I thought,"Oh Carson is a kid, so there will be times that he is tired and so we may have to go at a little bit of a slower pace." Uh, wrong. One of my favorite memories of the trip was after we had finished the American History Museum and the Air & Space Museum we were like, "Ok, let's go to dinner. It's like 4:45 pm." After all, we had looked at museums ALL DAY LONG. Jared and I are good sports but sheesh! THAT IS A LOT OF SMITHSONIAN FOR ONE DAY. Even crazier was the fact that while Jared and I are more like museum browsers, like we will skim until we see something that interests us and then we will read that. Carson, on the other hand, LITERALLY READS EVERYTHING. It was like his version of Disneyland.  Anyways, when we suggested going to dinner, Carson was like, "The Natural History Museum doesn't close until 7:30 pm so we will go there and then we can go eat." I distinctly remember Jared and I looking at each other, hanging our heads down, and walking with our tails between our legs to the Natural History Museum. Man, the kid never even let us have snack breaks either!

Here we are at Arlington National Cemetery:

Here are some pics from the Smithsonian Museums:

First Lady Inaugural Gowns....something I'm interested in!

Washington Monument at Night---You weren't allowed to go up it because it was undergoing repairs.

Picture of Carson at the White House at Night...You have to book a tour like 6 months in advance to go the White House, especially that time of year. There were a million school groups there. I tried my hardest...I contacted several offices. No such luck.

Okay, so the day we decided to head out to the monuments was really funny looking back at it now. Of course, we had gorgeous weather the entire time in D.C. EXCEPT the day we walked the monuments. Right when we were all the way out there, it rained. Not just a sprinkle, but a FLASH FLOOD! It was an insane amount of rain. I had this wimpy umbrella and the nice mom I am, I did not share my umbrella! You know mama doesn't like to get wet! Anyways, it barely even kept me dry because it was cheap and the wind kept blowing it up.

See! Look how drenched Carson and Jared are!

The funniest part was that I was pretty much dry, except my feet. My TOMS were soaked and so who was the biggest baby?!  ME!  I was totally whiny with having to walk miles in wet shoes.  So much for thinking Carson was going to be the weak link on the trip! It was me!

The next day, Mitch came to visit us from New York. That was so much fun, because we don't get to see Mitch often.  Here we are at the Library of Congress. And yes, of course Carson had to go answer questions at EVERY KIOSK.

My favorite part of Library of Congress?  There were benches and it had free Wifi!  Look, I was tired, peeps!

One of my other favorite memories of the trip was that Jared would continuously try to drop some knowledge on Carson. Like for instance, when we were in the Jefferson Memorial and then later at the Library of Congress, Jared would read a bunch of facts and then immediately go to Carson, and pretty much regurgitate the facts he had just read, but say it in such a way that it sounded like it was something Jared already just knew. Carson would respond back, not snotty but like talking to a peer who was interested in all this stuff, and excitedly elaborate with extra facts and details that WERE NOT on the plaques, but stuff Carson just already knew! Oh so funny!

I don't think I realized prior to the trip how extensive Carson's knowledge is on this type of stuff. It's like when you talk to Uncle Doug about anything church-related and you think to yourself, "Man, Doug sure knows more than anyone else I know about church history!" That's how Carson is with this stuff. You are constantly thinking to yourself, "Holy cow. This kid knows way more than any other kid I know about this stuff!"

Capital Building...

 First the cipher....

And then on TO STEAL THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE!!!

We went out to dinner with Mitch at one of his friend's restaurant. It was delish! It is always an experience going out to eat with Mitch because he literally orders everything on the menu!

Mount Vernon---Tyson, Diana, and their adorable kids joined us for the day!

We were so grateful to Tyson & Diana for their hospitality! They were so great to let us come visit them, especially so close to their big move. They are so fun and we had a wonderful time!