Adventures of the pregnant homeless lady...DC Week #3.

Wow! It seems like we barely got here and it's time to pack up and head back out on the road. We've had an amazing 3 weeks in our nation's capital and couldn't ask for a better summer thus far. Since I last posted Dan did, in fact, find us a home for the fall(I guess I shouldn't call myself the pregnant homeless lady anymore), he came back to DC (yippeee), and we've packed in the fun. Let's see...

Dan came home Thursday, everyone was thrilled to see him, his flight was uneventful. Friday the weather was heavenly so we decided to do the monuments. The metro ride in was really fun for the kids...we sat in the front car and they got the jump seat by the cabin...they smashed their faces up against the glass and pestered that poor driver the entire ride, he was a nice guy! Great day to walk the city. We couldn't get into the Washington Monument but we walked around it and figured that would have to do. We did go up to Lincoln and then around the tidal basin to Jefferson (anyone familiar with the area should really be impressed by this...it's a LONG walk!) Of course the kiddos saw the paddle boats in the basin and we just had to give them a try so paddle we did :-) Whew, I earned my extra snacks that day. It doesn't really sound like a lot, but it was...really fun day. We came home and enjoyed a backyard BBQ and some outside fun. Best weather day of the trip by far.

Saturday Grandpa took us down to the navy yard and showed us around a display ship. It's always fun to tour a ship with Grandpa (my Dad lived on an aircraft carrier for 2 years during Viet Nam...he knows his ships). We also went to the museum at the navy yard. Aaron could not get enough of the ships and cannons...I was a little worried about how much he liked the cannons but it was a great day.

Sunday was a good 4th of July. My Dad was sick so he stayed home from church and got some sleep. That evening we decided to keep things low key and do a movie night instead of fireworks...we heard fireworks in the area about halfway through the movie, paused it, went outside for a 15 minute display, went back in, finished the movie and off to bed. Great call by us.

Monday was a cleaning day. Not a ton of fun for everyone but it needed to be done...we have been here for 3 weeks. The kids have been great sports about chores and have really done a good job of keeping their belongings picked up and helping with daily tasks. Monday we did a really deep clean though, ugh. After a long day of chores we celebrated by going to a game at the local minor league park. Fun times (dollar night...really fun times!)

Tuesday we did our 4th and final day down in the district. Thanks to a friend of my parent's we were able to get some White House tickets (by the way, if you are coming to DC you need to ask your congressman for tickets ASAP or you won't get them). Unfortunately he got stuck in traffic and was an hour late to work...really bad for us because the secret service would not let us in without him there...and it was hot. The good news is Aaron got to watch the police dog sniff a lot of cars and we fed the ducks that live in a fountain near the White House...Aaron had fun. Once he finally met us there he got us in...thankfully. We had given him our SS#'s a long while back and were told we had the green light but somehow when we got to the first security checkpoint I was not on the list...everyone else in the family went right on through, but I was told to "please step into the fenced area over there." The secret service took my license and they were trying to run a background check on the fly when my parent's friend pulled some Oval Office Jedi magic and informed them that I was, in fact, cleared to enter. Thanks Dan deGuzman! The White House is cool. I do have to admit that the tour is not nearly what it was pre 9/11...this was the first time I had been back in 10 years! It was still really neat though and the kids had a great time. So many historical items to see. Unfortunately you can't bring anything in with you and photography is prohibited so we have nothing to show from our tour...but trust me it's cool. Last night Dad, Dan, Tyler, and my brother Adam all went to a National's game. Apparently they got amazing seats (put your feet on the dugout seats), and had a great time. Again, no photos...not because they are prohibited...but because they are men and actually watched the game and do not care at all about blogging. While they were at the game the rest of us enjoyed swimming and pizza...great day!

Today is packing day. We are having a treasure hunt to find all our belongings in this house...we are scattered about everywhere! We did take the kiddos to one of those inflatable jumping thing places...they needed to get out some wiggles. We take off first thing in the morning for Palmyra, New York. The good news is my parent's are coming along for the weekend so we will have two cars for the trip tomorrow...yippeee!!! They can take a couple of grandkids in their car ;-)

All in all this has been a wonderful leg of the journey, we're excited to continue on but sad to leave. Okay, here we go...on the road again...