Washington, DC - spring break 2017

Technically, spring break started with the spring carnival, but we are starting fresh on Monday. We got up and left home at 6:30 (we said we would leave at 6am but honestly, Rob and I didn't think we actually would leave anywhere close to that...not bad!)

By the time we got to DC, it was about 3 pm. We started with Arlington Cemetery. We walked "forever" and Alee's legs turned to jello and she just wanted to go check into the hotel so she could swim. We made it in time to see the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier (only having to wait about 5 minutes once we got there). We also saw the eternal flame at the Kennedy memorial.

Alee's legs did indeed survive the walk back to the van and we were on our way to the hotel (after several breaks to sit).

 Total cost: $4 for 2 hours of parking.

We had chinese take out and ate in the hotel room, which was really nice. It's hard to find a room that legally fits 7 people.
Total cost for dinner: $75
Total cost of hotel for 3 nights: $750

Ours was about an hour outside of downtown and was a suite that could fit 8.

 The 4 girls slept 2 to a bed in one room, Seth slept on the pull out couch (and could have shared with a brother if he had one yet) and we had a king bed in another room opposite the girls.

We loved the hotel breakfast each morning, but pictures of that are on Rob's phone, not mine, so he can add later. The favorite was the waffles each morning.

Tuesday

We started that morning at the National Zoo.

Seth liked the turtles.

Rob and I thought the orangutan crossing was pretty amazing.

 Right over the walkway where we were standing!

Carolyn liked a great many animals, but particularly the porcupine. (She wants most of them for a pet.)

Kaitlyn liked the fennec fox (which she knew the name of and information about as soon as she saw it and before reading the little descriptive sign.) I've never heard of it before then.

 Natalie liked the panda (which was not visible enough for a photo) and the lion.
I think Seth liked this too; he snapped the rhythm the lion was roaring - short bursts that sounded like grunts.

Alee just complained about the walking, but finally gave it a rest when we found a misting thing - which turned out to be a soaker in the case of our children....

 Alee was done and Kaitlyn was hot, but some wanted to see the last part we hadn't seen. (We skipped trails and some parts, but hit the major areas.) So, Rob took 2 to the car and I stayed with 3 to go see the big cats.)

Total cost: $22 for parking (admission to the zoo is free - parking is flat rate)

We packed a lunch every day, so we ate those in the van on the way to downtown.

We went to the American history museum that afternoon. Everyone was pretty worn out from all the walking and heat of the morning, so there was little enthusiasm left for this but the twins really wanted to see the collection of first lady dresses their teacher had told them about.
The toys of previous presidents' children were pretty interesting too.

This lady of liberty is made completely of lego bricks!

 Transportation history - we pretended to ride the subway.

 Some of the childrens' favorite part? The revolving door leading to the parking garage entrance.

Total cost: $25 parking (like all Smithsonian Museums, the admission was free)

We took our exhausted children and sore feet back out to Maryland for dinner and pool time.
(We also stopped by the Washington DC temple on the way back just to look and for Beth to shop in the clothing store for a few minutes.)

Dinner was Mexican food (Kaitlyn's was especially pretty, so she took a picture)
Total cost: $87

 And dessert was Baskin Robbins ice cream
Total cost: $23

And of course our nightly swim in the pool. (Monday night I swam. Tuesday night I just watched - my ankles/feet were so swollen and tired I could hardly walk across the floor. Wednesday night I just sat on the edge with my feet in the water.)

Wednesday
(April 12th) - I hit 6 months pregnant. The third trimester is here and I feel it. I haven't seen my ankles unswollen in over a week now.

We started at the Museum of Art that morning. I was surprised how much the older kids enjoyed it. We could have stayed all day. (That's true for every thing we did - but we wanted to fit in so much, so we did things in snippets.)

 To save me some steps, Rob got me a wheelchair, which I finally (and embarrassingly) accepted - (I'm not over 50 and I have nothing medically wrong with me!) - but I probably shouldn't gripe too much - it gave Alee a place to sit so I could control her in the Art museum - and I only limped a little the rest of the day.

We ate lunch by that fountain behind the kids.

Parking again, was $25 for the day in a garage and admission to museums and walking to monuments was free.

We walked about a mile to the Washington Monument (this is a little over half way there)

We did make it - and took a nice long break sitting on the benches surrounding it.

We gave Alee some paper so she could sketch what she observed that day (in hopes to keep the complaints to a minimum).

The twins walked around  - first Natalie and then Kaitlyn - There are 50 flags surrounding the Washington Monument. (Makes sense, right?)

Might as well touch it while you're there. How high can you reach?

We looked at the capitol from afar. Can't walk but so much with kids and sore ankles! (Same for the white house, but the picture has so many other buildings in the background, it's hard to see which it is.)

Wednesday afternoon we went to the Natural History Museum. We loved the gemstone exhibit. (We pretty much only looked through there and Rob took Seth through the bones/dinosaur exhibit.) Besides the already tired children by 2 pm, it was really crowded and hard to get through.

Alee's favorites were the ones that said, "Please Touch". Alee is touching Amethyst.

They just had cases and cases of gems and minerals - some polished and set in jewelry, some polished but left in rock, and some just as excavated from the rock.

Alee is sitting on Beryl.

As promised, after all that walking, the kids got a frozen treat. (Seth didn't want one.) I got the same as Natalie and Rob got the same as Carolyn.

Rob paid $31 cash for frozen treats.
I sat with Seth while the girls walked with Rob back to the art museum to choose a souvenir.
Total souvenir cost: $40

I didn't take pictures of these, but 3 of the girls chose a medieval horse, Natalie chose a little glow in the dark figure that had suction cups instead of hands/feet/head. Rob chose for Seth since he said he didn't want a souvenir either; he got a little stick figure man with magnets at the end of each appendage - and played with it the rest of the trip.

Just so I'm in more pictures, I took a selfie with Natalie (I'm getting better at taking those.)

We ended the day with pizza and more swim time.
Total cost for pizza: $37

Thursday

We had been too tired to continue from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, so we decided to do that one last thing before heading home on Thursday. (One picture taken by me, one taken by Rob)

And looking from the steps is a good view of the Washington Monument we had seen the previous afternoon.

 We parked on the street that day - so the parking was paid in quarters. Rob put in $4.25 (although we could have put in less - but we didn't want to be caught "expired" by a meter maid if we took longer than expected.)

Love the pretty bridges up north. Don't love so much the confusing roads and the insane number of traffic circles up north.

 We had fun and left DC about 11 or 11:30 am. My sister in law had her baby about the time we hit the NC border, so we swung by (adding only an hour to our trip home) so that Rob and I could take a sneak peak at her and say hello to my brother and sister in law. She was so cute and chubby. I hope my baby has chub like hers. :) I love little chunky cheeks and thighs (on the baby, not on me). :)

Total cost for trip: estimate $1300.
(That includes unlisted costs above - like gas.)
Total cost for family time, memories, and photos to remember: $ priceless ;)

We got home about 10 pm Thursday night.


Friday we unpacked and cleaned most of the day. My parents were in town for their twice a month temple trip Saturday and came over and did an egg hunt with the kids and mom made funnel cakes from a mix/kit that my mother in law gave me a few weeks ago. (Yea to both of them!) I am terrible at frying, but I can microwave some hot fudge sauce and a can of apple pie filling to go on top. :)

That was a big hit. Maybe I should learn how to fry things for this occasional awesome treat!

 Carolyn and Seth had youth basketball both Saturdays of spring break also.

And today is Easter.

Natalie and Alee gave talks in primary. I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting (it was the first time I was a concluding speaker). I think I did well, but since I just spoke from notes and bullet points, I can't repeat it or send a copy to anyone. Sorry. The girls can read theirs to you. (They spoke about the Sermon on the Mount. I spoke on strengthening our children through Jesus Christ.)

Carolyn was really tired yesterday afternoon and started running a fever this morning (it's low, but still, a fever), so she stayed home from church and rested in bed. Not sure what's wrong with her, but knowing what sicknesses other family members have had or come in contact with this week, I assume it's one of those so I'm not too worried right now. Hopefully she'll sleep it off and jump back into normal tomorrow?

It was a nice spring break and we had a few days to recover and work back to normal, so I suppose we are ready to go back to school tomorrow....maybe.

Countdown to end of school year? 33 days to go!