DC 2016 – Day 4

We spent our 4th day in DC going to a couple of the Smithsonian Museums. I especially enjoyed seeing the original Star Spangled Banner.

This sparked such a great discussion with us and the girls.

Once again after a long day of sightseeing, we grabbed food and headed to the rooftop pool area. I told them to all pretend we were having a terrible time!

DC Zoo – July 2016

We spent the whole day at the DC Zoo, but #1 for Miss Dani was seeing the Pandas!

So the orangutans can climb across these ropes over the heads of the visitors! It was really fun to watch. I am kind of obsessed with them and this was so entertaining.

For dinner we headed down to grab some food at the grocery store near the navy yard. Then back to Caitlin’s to swim at night.

Washington DC – Day 2 with Hameloth’s

We started our day with the Hameloth’s at the Washington Monument.

This is a view from the WWII memorial.

Just like the last time we were here, there were very old men being brought by their families or other organizations to see this tribute to their sacrifice.

Korean War Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

At last we worked our way over the Vietnam Memorial. It’s hard to express how emotional this was to see Nadia standing on Mike’s shoulders to take a rubbing of her grandpa’s name.  It was a very different experience for Mike to come here now that we have children.

The wall was too hot for Nadia’s hands so Logan got on Steve’s shoulder to finish the rubbing.

Dani was such a trooper, but so tired after our very long day together. Steve was happy to hold her while she slept and we waited for the bus.

We had a wonderful time with the Hameloth’s, but the time went way to quickly!

Washington DC – 2016 with the Hameloths

As soon as we knew our dates, I quickly started arranging to meet up with our east coast friends/family while we were there. We started out by spending a couple of days with the Hameloth’s who traveled to China with us in 2011.

First time on the Metro.

We started our day at the Air and Space Museum.

Logan and Dani on our way to the Natural History Museum.

Ava and her Texas Armadillo.

It started to rain when we were leaving the museum and we bought some cheap umbrellas from a smart guy on the sidewalk. He was selling water until it started to rain, then changed out to umbrellas. Much cheaper than buying one at the museum.

Then we had a tasty dinner at Ollies Trolley! It was just as good as all the reviews said. It was such a wonderful day with friends that we hadn’t seen since 2013. They hadn’t met Dani yet and all the kids were so big.