I loved Washington DC! There is so much to do and so much of it is FREE! It was a beautiful city and the people were helpful and friendly! This is certainly a place I will come back to again someday!
Supreme Court
Our first stop was the Supreme Court. What a beautiful building! Tanner and Ladd went to a public lecture there where they learned all about it. I let the little ones explore the building, inside and out!
Capitol Building
Next, we hopped across the street to the Capitol Building. We took a public tour and it was very informative! We saw the beautiful Rotunda and the Hall of Statues.
National Museum of Native Americans
We headed down the National Mall and stopped at the Native American Museum. We really liked the kids area!
All the museums close at 5:30, so we took a quick run through the Natural History Museum and got closed out of the American History Museum (don't worry-we came back another day!) We spent the rest of the evening walking to all the Monuments-that never close! :)
Washington Monument
World War II Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
This was a long walk at the end of the day, but well worth it!
Tanner spent some quiet moments reading the Gettysburg Address.
After this long day, I was surprised when the kids wanted to get out their journals. They were very good at recording what they saw every couple of days throughout the trip! Look at this great table we had in our hotel room!
Charity wanted to get in on the "coloring" too!
Monticello
Our second day we met up with the B and C families at Monticello. It was about 2 hours or more away from DC, but what a beautiful drive!
Overlooking the gardens...
Charity is in an Andrew sandwich...
Holding their nickels in front of Monticello!
The house was up on hill, and we had great weather there. AS soon as we got down to the hill, at the visitors center, it started pouring! Lucky us because they won't let you up to the house in the rain! We spent a long time in this kid friendly museum while staying dry...
Dressed as slaves, or "enslaved servants". I never saw or heard the word slave once while we were at Monticello, they were always referred to as enslaved servants.
Mount Vernon
It continued to pour all night, but cleared up by the time our tour started at Mount Vernon the next day.
We had an EXCELLENT tour guide. He was General Washington's valet (personal servant). He was great with kids, even the little ones splashing in the mud, and never broke character.
This was the ha-ha wall that the kids loved.
Looking at the Generals sheep...
Later, we took another tour by the sweetest lady.
The green house...
This is George and Martha's burial chamber. Our tour allowed us an up close look.
The tour guide gave an inspiring talk about George Washington, then we said the pledge and these three got to place this wreath next to their caskets. It was a very special moment!
After our tours, we went to the museum which was AMAZING. The kids room was super fun. Look at this cute doll house of Mount Vernon.
Decoding a secret message...
Little Martha...
George Washington's actual teeth! (not made of wood)
I LOVED Mount Vernon and will certainly go again when I get back to DC!
Arlington National Cemetery
JFK's burial site and the eternal flame.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with the changing of the Guards. I am glad my boys got to see this sacred place and think of all those who gave everything for our Liberty.
National Archives
On Saturday, we made it to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Very Cool!
We also went to the Newseum and the International Spy Museum but somehow didn't get any pictures :(. Saturday night we went to dinner with our friends Natalie and Topher. The restaurant we went to was called "Founding Farmers", cute huh? We had a great time and ate bacon wrapped dates there. Who knew those existed? We crashed at their house for 3 nights! Thanks so much Natalie for letting us take over your whole downstairs! You are AWESOME!
Washington DC Temple
Sunday we went to church with Topher and Natalie, where Ladd got to go to High Priests with Harry Reid. Crazy! It was fun having secret service men at church. After church, we drove to the DC Temple. Beautiful!
My kids with Natalie's cute little boys. They just naturally lined up like this to see the temple!
In the Visitors Center...
Brad wasn't big on pictures so I had to act fast to snap this shot!
Grant, Charity, and Run Away Brad. Hmm…. I wouldn't mind seeing her in pictures with either of these boys on the temple grounds when they get a bit older….
After visiting the temple, we had to take Ladd to the airport. The saddest part of the trip. He just couldn't take that much time off work. We were so sad to see him go. When we finally saw him again (almost two weeks later), he said I am never allowed to leave him for that long. I am glad I am loved and appreciated!
National Museum of American History
Monday was our last day in DC. I knew we had to get back to the Museum of American History! It was great and we spent 4 hours there!
This was a boat they pulled out of the water in 1930, but had been sunk in the Revolutionary War. Amazing!
Uh-oh, a Redcoat is at the door!
We marched across the grass to the Museum of Air and Space next. It was fun and huge! We snapped a picture of this car that drives itself. Notice how few pictures I get when I am the only adult around. I am too busy keeping track of little people to take pictures!
The White House
We did make it to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave before heading back for the night. We had set up tours with our Congressman 6 months ago, but found out we really just got a whole bunch of nothing from him. All the tours that were scheduled for us were really just public tours. Everyone else we know who used another Congressman or Senator got to go into the White House and behind the scenes tour of the Capitol Building. Oh well, I guess that just means we will have to come back someday! So, we didn't get to go into the White House, but got a picture in front of it anyways! When I told the boys we were going to take a picture in front of the White House, Hunter said, "Ok. Let's go, protest, take a picture, and leave." I asked, "What are we going to protest?" His response, "I don't know, but isn't that what you are supposed to do in front of the White House?" So funny.
