Grandpa & Grandma B. Come to DC!
Grandparents!! :D HOORAY!!! Anytime grandparents come out you know it's going to be a fun time. A time full of hugs, doting, and spoiling grandkids and their poor battered-down parents ;) We had such a great time with Gpa and Gma B!
Did you know the National Zoo in DC is free? I didn't. It's just sitting there smack dab in the middle of town like a mall, but it's a ZOO. Awesomesauce. It was actually a nice warm-ish day! We saw a butt-ton of animals and the kids were so enamored with the zoo that they completely skipped lunch and hardly complained. We were able to provide a few granola bars and cookies, but I was still pretty impressed with them. Tristan was an absolute angel. He's been ultra super amazing lately. It's like a switch suddenly flipped and he's a grown child now. I promised them we'd be back again soon with our friends to explore even more, especially considering their stellar behavior.
I drove us all out to Annapolis to the US Naval Academy on one of the days Josh had to work. It was not warm-ish. The few minutes we spent outside traversing from one building to another were damn near arctic, but we survived. The museum fascinated the crap out of all the adults, but I fear the kids got bored pretty quickly looking at model ships behind glass. It all looked the same to them and when I told them "this ring was buried under water for 18 years until it was found and the family of the man gave it to the museum for their collection" or "this is a piece of the hull of a ship this submarine blew up during WWII" they are not even remotely impressed. All they wanted was buttons to push. The cannon room proved slightly more entertaining, but alas. Needless to say, the restless young lads and the nonstop freeze breeze pushed us along and back towards home much sooner than anticipated.
When Josh had a day off again we all went out to Fort Washington, which I had been dying to see. The temperatures by the Potomac were chilly yet again and the relentless wind made it seem much colder. Thankfully inside the walls of the Fort it was pretty bearable. Noah didn't get to join us because he had school that day, but Tristan and Brennan were pretty well-behaved the entire time. We all marveled at how advanced the construction was, especially the intricate brickwork and little iron embellishments all around. Most of the surfaces were covered in hardened minerals from groundwater seepage over the years. The ceilings were developing stalactites! I thought that was so cool! They were sure to keep the Fort authentic, from the colonial padlocks to the nails on the bunk beds.
Our last day we did some final grandkid spoiling and shopped 'til we dropped, finishing our busy day with a home-cooked spaghetti dinner. We all had a wonderful visit and were very glad to have them come and see us! :)
Did you know the National Zoo in DC is free? I didn't. It's just sitting there smack dab in the middle of town like a mall, but it's a ZOO. Awesomesauce. It was actually a nice warm-ish day! We saw a butt-ton of animals and the kids were so enamored with the zoo that they completely skipped lunch and hardly complained. We were able to provide a few granola bars and cookies, but I was still pretty impressed with them. Tristan was an absolute angel. He's been ultra super amazing lately. It's like a switch suddenly flipped and he's a grown child now. I promised them we'd be back again soon with our friends to explore even more, especially considering their stellar behavior.
I drove us all out to Annapolis to the US Naval Academy on one of the days Josh had to work. It was not warm-ish. The few minutes we spent outside traversing from one building to another were damn near arctic, but we survived. The museum fascinated the crap out of all the adults, but I fear the kids got bored pretty quickly looking at model ships behind glass. It all looked the same to them and when I told them "this ring was buried under water for 18 years until it was found and the family of the man gave it to the museum for their collection" or "this is a piece of the hull of a ship this submarine blew up during WWII" they are not even remotely impressed. All they wanted was buttons to push. The cannon room proved slightly more entertaining, but alas. Needless to say, the restless young lads and the nonstop freeze breeze pushed us along and back towards home much sooner than anticipated.
When Josh had a day off again we all went out to Fort Washington, which I had been dying to see. The temperatures by the Potomac were chilly yet again and the relentless wind made it seem much colder. Thankfully inside the walls of the Fort it was pretty bearable. Noah didn't get to join us because he had school that day, but Tristan and Brennan were pretty well-behaved the entire time. We all marveled at how advanced the construction was, especially the intricate brickwork and little iron embellishments all around. Most of the surfaces were covered in hardened minerals from groundwater seepage over the years. The ceilings were developing stalactites! I thought that was so cool! They were sure to keep the Fort authentic, from the colonial padlocks to the nails on the bunk beds.
Our last day we did some final grandkid spoiling and shopped 'til we dropped, finishing our busy day with a home-cooked spaghetti dinner. We all had a wonderful visit and were very glad to have them come and see us! :)
