washington, dc

I kept my suitcase out and at the end of March we traveled to Baltimore and Washington, DC. Ben led worship at a YoungLives & Capernaum Summit in Baltimore. So the kids and I tagged along. Friday was supposed to be a day off, but turned into a make up snow day. We still took them out of school for the day and went early to Baltimore.

 We visited the Maryland Science Center for several hours on Friday. It was so fun! We haven't done something like this for quite awhile. My favorite part was the imax about oceans. Super cool!

Sophie wearing a jacket the scientists in the North Pole wear. She just finished reading a story about the North Pole so she wanted to be able to share with her class.

A bed of nails - didn't hurt!

Making electrical circuits. The electricity part of the museum was really cool too. We also did some experiments and investigations that were also a highlight.

It was a gross rainy day. 

 

Of course they fought over the umbrella so they lost that privilege.

Saturday morning we got up and took the train from Baltimore to DC. That was a first for all of us.

Ted's favorite ended up being the Capitol.

 Looking at buildings and monuments can be really boring (not to mention all the walking!). So our goal was to share what we noticed about things. Ted asked lots of great questions. Google came in very helpful.

On a whim we hit up the Library of Congress, which might have been my favorite this trip. Thomas Jefferson's library was especially interesting.

The cherry blossoms were in bloom which gave us some entertainment in between sites.

 The morning was so cold and windy. Ted was definitely regretting the shorts choice.

Walking. Walking. More walking. Into the wind.

Ted was a huge champ. He has learned enough in school to have some good conversation and ask great questions. He didn't complain a bit even though he could have for being cold.

I plead the 5th on this one.

It was the day of the Cherry Blossom Kite Festival. The book we listened to a couple of weeks ago was about a school's field trip to Washington, DC and talked about a kite festival. So that was kind of fun.

John and Shawna picked us up a the Lincoln Memorial and we had lunch at a fabulous pizza place in Chinatown.

 

 You always have to find a coffee shop. And laugh at snapchat filters.

 John & Shawna went with us to Arlington Cemetery to see the changing of the guard. 

*Note to self: Always take other people with you. Your kids don't complain nearly as much when they have someone other than their parents to engage with.

The changing of the guard and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has always been a personal favorite of mind.

We love these friends and are so thankful so they spent part of their Saturday with us. 

 They dropped us off at the Lincoln Memorial (we missed that the first time around).

And then we hoofed it to the White House. Ted was most excited about this one all day. 

Our goal was to make the 5:30 pm train back to Baltimore so we could get dinner and watch the Final Four. We were cutting it way too close by walking and were thinking we would have to wait for another train two hours later. We had walked 12 miles at that point and were DONE. Ben came to the rescue when we found the red metro line. We made it to Union Station with 5 minutes to spare.

Unfortunately, Sophie did not get the "no whining reward." Next time.

Then we took pictures of Ben and snap chatted it on his account.

Back at the hotel Sophie wrote about her day.

And Ben was the only one that stayed awake for the second of the Final Four games. Which, in all honesty, is pretty usual around here. All in all, it was a great trip. I'm thankful for these sort of opportunities to share with my kids.