DC to the Max

It's the post you've both been waiting for!  Sorry for neglecting my blog.  I have an awesome excuse.  I started my own photography business (Jubilee Family Photography) back in October and business is booming.  Whaddayagonnado?  Not blog, I guess.

Last year the kids saw "National Treasure" for the first time and decided they wanted to go to Washington, DC to see the treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence for themselves.  We told them there was good news and bad news.

Our first stop on our DC tour was the LDS Temple.  This was the temple Jeff and I attended when we were in the youth program and it was the closest temple to our home in NC.  Two of my sisters were married here.  It was sweet to see it again.

It's kinda pretty, I guess.

The next day we set out from our hotel room to visit all of the things.

I'm always surprised at how well my six year old can compose a picture.

Now our children know what the Washington Monument looks, feels, and smells like.

The Washington Monument is kind of a show off, so you can expect to see it in a few more pictures on this post.

This picture makes me laugh so hard.  This is what EVERYONE was doing in their pictures.  "I'm holding the White House!"  So original.  Obviously Jeff is not holding the White House.  He's holding nothing.  He thinks outside the box.

When we got to the National World War II Memorial, there was a group of veterans from World War II and the Korean War posing for a picture.  It was very moving for all of us.

Miles doing some heavy thinking here.

Something about this moment made me teary-eyed.

I think it was emotional for them, too.

He was there for a while.  The Gettysburg Address isn't so short to a first grader.

There's the Washington Monument showing off again.

And again.

This was right before we dropped eleventyhundred dollars on lunch at a nearby stand.  God Bless America!

The Korean War Memorial is pretty amazing.

By the time we reached the Korean War Memorial, the veterans from the earlier photo had made their way there.  

This is the DC War Memorial (or the CYA Memorial).  Please note that Harrison is being nice to Miles.  #proof

Chloe and Jeff stop to read everything.  I'm glad.

I hadn't seen the Martin Luther King, Jr, Memorial, yet.  Pretty impressive.

Our walk along the Potomac was delightful.

Just hanging out with F.D.R. and his adorable dog.

That's right: two monuments in one photo!  Skills.

I'd never seen the Jefferson Memorial, either, so this was a dream come true.

One of the weirder photos from the trip.

Super glad I packed my wide angle lens.

My favorite photo from the trip.  Jeff and Chloe reading the Declaration of Independence and Harrison and Miles patiently waiting.  That's how things went.

We had already done so much walking.  I couldn't believe they were still all smiles.

Again with the weirdness.

Obligatory "I was there, too!" photo.

We walked all the way back to the Capital Building and that's when the smiles began to fade.  All the prettiest parts of the building were covered.  Stop being so modest, Capital Building!  Why can't you be more like the Washington Monument?

It was nice to stop and rest for a while.  My fitness tracker said we walked 7.5 miles that day.

Chloe claimed the Capital looked better upside down.

The next morning when we set out to see the National Archives and Smithsonian Museums, the walking of the previous day made it harder to move.  Some people insisted on being carried everywhere.

We loved the National Archives (no cameras allowed) and the American History Museum as well as the Air and Space Museum.  I brought my lighter lens that day and was kicking myself for not bringing my wide angle.  Ah, well.

Special shout out to "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" for making my kids care about these museums.  

The museums were very cool, but we discovered that our interests were all very different.  Museums aren't so much a group activity.  (Did I mention Jeff and Chloe read everything?)

The American President's wing of the American History Museum is my favorite.  

My favorite item in the museum: Abraham Lincoln's hat.  Chloe's favorite: Dorothy's ruby slippers.  Harrison's favorite: original Kermit the Frog.  Miles' favorite: anything with buttons.

Miles in his St. Louis shirt next to the Spirit of St. Louis.  Boom!  That night we soaked our feet, watched the St. Louis Cardinal's season come to an end, and ate barbecue.  

The next morning we went to the National Zoo to see the pandas.

Why are they the cutest?

Chloe's favorite part, obviously.

Photo by Chloe.

At first we couldn't see the elephants, so Miles told me to pose next to this picture.  I wish you could have heard him giving me instructions.  He sounded just like me.  Such a smart boy.

I'm so grateful we could show our kids around our nation's capital and give them a better sense of what our country is all about.  What a joy it was to be there in the fall and experience the wonderful weather and to not have to share a soda, like when I was a kid.

U.S.A.!  U.S.A.!  U.S.A.!