summer vacation...

Last summer was rough, Little Miss had just been born so I was exhausted and sleep deprived with an infant nursing every 2-3 hours, all the kids were home and bored, I fell in early July and badly twisted BOTH my ankles, plus it was a bajillion degrees outside so no one wanted to go out. Needless to say, we were homebound and had major cabin fever. Worst. Summer. Ever.

I was really looking forward to a better summer this year, I think we all were. We've had a couple of Disney vacations, and although they can be fun and memorable in lots of ways, they are just not relaxing, and Orlando in the summer is a nightmare - HOT, crowded, humid, HOT. We wanted a vacation that the kids and adults could both enjoy. J and I thought that Washington D.C. would be a great trip to take, he hadn't been in years and the girls and I had never been, and the Pre-teen especially was at the perfect age to appreciate D.C.

Little Miss stayed with Nana and Papa, which we were so grateful for, she loved getting 100% attention all week and we loved that we had more freedom and flexibility in the activities that we were able to do on the trip.

Now it was definitely warm there, but not like Florida hot, ok well sometimes it felt that hot, but the difference was that we were indoors a lot of the time. We rode the Subway/Metro all over town - it was very clean, seemed safe, and was cheap and easy to use. We saw so much! We did a great guided walking tour and saw all the monuments, we visited the White House, the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, Natural History Museum, American History Museum (mainly just the First Lady dresses exhibit), we went on a guided tour of the Capitol (awesome!), we saw a Presidential motorcade drive out of the White House (awesome!) We walked and walked and walked - thank God we took the little stroller for Miss Priss, she would NOT have been able to keep up with all the walking we did.

Kids in front of the Capitol

The girls and I in front of the National Art Museum - we didn't see much art here unfortunately, we ate lunch in the cafe and enjoyed their A/C.

The fountains at the National Sculpture Garden. The building directly behind is the National Archives.

Natural History Museum. This is the elephant that was in the movie Night at the Museum.

Washington Monument. Notice the stone changes color half way up, they ran out of money during the Civil War and construction was halted for several years until they could raise enough to finish it.

Family picture in front of the White House.

The girls at the Lincoln Monument

Lincoln Monument. I'm pretty impressed that my camera got such a nice picture of it, almost looks like a postcard.

J and Miss Priss at the Lincoln Monument

Stephen F. Austin statue that Texas contributed to the U.S. Capitol. TEXAS!!

Dome in the Rotunda inside the Capitol. Beautiful!

Miss Priss on the Metro. Her favorite part of the trip!


All in all it was a great vacation! There is so much to do, there is no way to see everything in just a few days. Miss Priss was a little bored in the museums, but luckily she kept busy and was happy to be on vacation. Her favorite parts? The airplane to get there, the train to get into the city, the hotel and the subway. Ha!