Postcards from our travels

Our recent travels during the holiday included several days in the Washington, DC area.  In honor of being in our nation's capital, we hit up a few tourist traps.  First we walked by the White House to wave to President "Rocko Bahma" as my 9 year old calls him. My husband shoved me into a photo for a change to prove that I was in fact there.

We also checked out the White House tree.  I shoved my nearest and dearest in front of it:

I'm going to be honest.  That White House Christmas tree was a little underwhelming.  Don't get me wrong.  As a taxpayer, I'm not saying we need to shell out any of my hard earned tax dollars to improve it.  I'm just saying, couldn't some big company underwrite something bigger and better to stick out there?  They have the equivalent of net lights on it like we put on the shrubs outside our house.  Come on.

They also sort of surrounded the White House tree with a smaller tree for each state with ornaments made by kids from that state.  This is awesome in theory until they have to make all the ornaments weather proof which including putting them inside clear plastic balls they sell at Michael's craft stores.  It didn't look quite as presidential inside the plastic balls.

We also hiked around town to see some monuments.   First up, Washington Monument.  My crew did what they do best to prove you can't take us anywhere:

As if that photo was insufficient to demonstrate how we roll, my husband told the kids to step aside so he could show them how it's done.  Per his request to add to our collection:

We also did the Lincoln and Vietnam memorials.  Then we hit the World War II memorial.  It's moving. It's extra moving when a guy takes it in with his little buckeroo:

We also visited a couple of the trillion or so museums in the area.  We didn't get the memo that half of North America was going to visit the Air and Space Museum the week between Christmas and New Years.  On the downside, we had to wade through them to see anything.  On the bright side, there are plenty of people to ask to take a group photo for you:

I was in awe of the Wright Brothers and their bravado to essentially lay on the wing of a plane and steer using joy sticks attached to ropes.  Even with the internet and my BFF google, I couldn't build an airplane if my life depended on it.  That they could successfully do that back in the day blows my mind.  I left feeling mind blown and stupid for never having come up with anything as remotely brilliant as any piece of any of the vehicles in that museum.  What have I done with my life and why didn't it involve being better at science and engineering?

We also hit up the Natural History Museum.  It was amazing, too, and my children rewarded us for taking them there by attempting to touch every object in the building. 

 

I probably didn't help by suggesting we attempt to get a shot of the kid's head in the dinosaur's mouth.  You, seriously, can't take us anywhere.