Washington DC trip- day 1

This Wednesday was Daddy's birthday- happy birthday Daddy!  And on that night we took the two older children to Washington DC.  Every November Marc goes up there for a conference and last year he took me.  This year we were excited to be able to take the two older children- and they were thrilled!

Walking into the airport- I'm pretty sure they were negotiating who got to sit with Daddy on the way up and on the way down.  Daddy is the superhero of this family- no contest.  And look at me with no bags- traveling with older children is AWESOME!   They begged me to let them pull the suit cases!





Sissy sat with me on the way up- she was so sweet. She had her stuffed horsey and talked to her the whole way "don't be scared we are going up....here we go...isn't this fun?"


We started out Thursday morning with a yummy breakfast and then off the the Smithsonian American History Museum. I had really been looking forward to this museum. I got up that morning and showered and blow dried my hair, but I was rushed and didn't get to use any heating element and thus I had my Amy Grant's 1979 Father's Eyes album hair all day.

 

Highlights of this museum- definitely seeing the ORIGINAL STAR SPANGLED BANNER! It was so touching- and it is HUGE! Also- we saw a piece of Plymouth Rock-


Gunboat Philadelphia-
The draft wheel used by the union in the civil war-
My favorite section ever- the dresses and china of the first ladies!

Daddy had to leave us at the American history musuem so he could go to some meetings. The children and I walked along the mall and enjoyed the beautiful, cool weather.

The Father's Eyes Amy Grant hair is killing me-

As we were walking towards the Air and Space Museum we were passing the Natural History Museum and Marky saw the sign for TITANOBOA! He has watched the discovery channel show on that a million times- he was SO EXCITED he could see it in person! Let's go Mommy! And they are off-

This museum is one of the most impressive architecturally- it was gorgeous-

I didn't want to see but three things in here: 1) titanoboa 2) the Hope diamond and 3) the ancient Egypt mummies. Done, done and done.

We had also watched a show on the Hope Diamond so Marky knew all about it and the "curse" it carries-

What I didn't expect here was the Mummy situation- I thought we'd be seeing the outer-layer painted-on Mummy cases that we are all used to- here's what we saw-

Am in the only one a bit unsettled by this. This is a human being- just like you and me. This does not seem fitting treatment for deceased. This person was made in the image of God and deserves more respect than he was getting from the school groups laughing and pointing. There were SEVERAL of these bodies, including one of a baby and MANY mummified animal corpses. It was WEIRD. We did see the other things that I had hoped to see-

Oddly enough, after leaving this exhibit Julia was leaning over the second-story rail and I said, "Sissy- never lean over the railing you could fall and might die!" And she said "Then they'd just put me in that exhibit we just saw, right Mommy?" See- she knows it's weird. ANYWAY- we had lunch at the Natural History Museum and then headed over to the Air and Space Museum. We walked in and I said, "stand by those rockets" and Marky said, "they are nuclear missles Mommy." :)

While we were there Marc finished his meetings and met back up with us- just in time to see the Wright brothers flyers-



We also got to watch the Journey to the Stars planetarium movie. I would tell you if it was good, but I feel asleep. :)

After the three museums we headed over to one of my personal favorites- the Jefferson memorial. As soon as we walked inside Marky said "this is modeled after the Pantheon in Rome- and turns out he was right!"



Jefferson knew it was essential that we believe some rights are given by God not government-

After all that walking- we were hungry and tired. We headed to Potbelly Sandwiches and had the BEST meal!



Who says Marky looks like Marc? Look at that resemblence to Mommy- :)




After dinner we ran back to our fancy hotel (The Mayflower) and got our winter gear- hats, gloves, scarves and then headed out on our Monuments by Moonlight Bus tour!


The capital is SO BEAUTIFUL at night-



Iwo Jima-

We also went to the FDR memorial-

Sissy and Fala, FDR's dog- I think that's all she remembers from that stop-

The new MLK, Jr. memorial-

The Korean War Memorial-

Haunting statues-

And last stop- the Lincoln Memorial- Marky realized this was modeled after the Parthenon in Greece-



Sissy's legs were DONE- she couldn't walk another step- Marc literally carried up the Lincoln Memorial steps on his shoulders-



Beautiful and amazing-

Mr. Lincoln's view-

What an amazing day with my sweet babies. We are SO GLAD we brought them- they learned so much-



Sissy was asleep before we left the parking lot-

Little Flowers- Joy

Sunday we had our Little Flowers group meeting.  We studied St. Clare of Assisi, the virtue of Joy/Mirthfulness and the flower was the tulip.   St. Clare is one of my favorite saints- she was the daughter of a count who was so moved by St. Francis of Assisi's teachings that she gave up all she had and took a vow of poverty.  She wore no shoes and ate no meat and wore only a woolen habit and rope for the rest of her life.   They still have a box of her gorgeous hair that St. Francis cut off as she took her solemn vows- even though she lived in the 1200s!  The Poor Clare nuns are still in existence today- Mother Angelica of EWTN is in that order.



We told the girls about why you always see images of her holding the sacred monstrance with the Eucharist- when soldiers came to attack her convent she ran to meet them holding the monstrance with Christ and said, "O Lord, protect these Sisters whom I cannot protect now."  And the captors fled in terror- Jesus defended His own!



After coloring St. Clare the girls worked on their JOY notebook pages-








While they cut and pasted I read verses about Joy from the Bible and the true source of our joy.  Then we looked at this image of a pregnant woman and talked about how women feel when they are pregnant- the struggles and hard times they face-



But we suffer the heartburn, the sleepless nights, the weight gain, etc because we know the JOY that comes at the end of 9 months when we hold a precious, eternal soul in our arms-



Joy comes from looking at things through Christ's eyes- not our own eyes.  Seeing things the way God sees them.  We accept hardship now for the reward to come.  This world is not our home.  The girls seemed to understand this.  We also talked about the acronym JOY- Jesus, Others, Yourself- and how that's the only way you can find joy in this life because it's how we were made.  When we put ourselves first our joy is stolen.  We also took time to learn our memory verse and sing the song that goes with it-



Then it was time to clean up and have snack.  One of the mothers brought sugar cookies and small rice cakes to represent the Eucharist-









And as always, after cleaning up we headed to the playground and let  the girls play to their hearts content.  A superfun day with supersweet little girls.

Overheard

Tonight Daddy and I went to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall.  The sitter said that as she put Tucker to bed:

Tucker:  I'm so thirsty.
Sitter:  You can have some water.
Tucker:  Nonsense!  For I shall have vanilla milk!

The sitter gave Shakespeare water.  :)

Friday

Today the older children and I took a little field trip to hear Todd Green perform on rare instruments from around the world.  I would like to say this "world music" trip was awesome- and I guess we did learn some thing, but largely we were pretty bored.  :)





"Now this one is similar to the last one but instead of 6 strings has 10"....and on and on and on it went.  :)



The one thing I did like about this trip is that this man is truly a gifted musician- a stark contrast to the posers I saw last time we went to this venue.  It's always a treat to see people do something almost nobody else can do.

I got home and let the children watch a movie- such a treat!  Then Sissy and Tuck Tuck worked on painting while Marky played with the neighbors-



Cheer up, Tuck Tuck!  :)





And by my feet at all times- Mr. Sippy Cup-