Washington DC

From September 1 to September 7, 2010, Lindsay, Grant, Cole and Shelli took a trip to DC to visit Kitty. We, except Shelli, have never been to visit her since she moved there many years ago. On this trip, we did a little bit of something and a whole lot of nothing. We ate a lot of good food, saw a few sights, watched movies, went swimming and relaxed. The boys loved seeing Kitty and being completely spoiled by her. She gave them whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They couldn't have been happier.

We landed pretty late on Wednesday night so we got food and went to Kitty's house. Thursday we did some swimming, some eating, some shopping (at H&M) and some sightseeing. Grant loved seeing the giant statues. We saw Lincoln the first night. They are so much prettier at night. Before it got dark, we had a delicious dinner at Potbelly then took a walk to the White House and found a Cosi for some lemonade. Grant was whiney as usual about walking but we made it through and managed to have some fun.

(Lindsay, Grant and Cole at the Lincoln)

(Lindsay, Grant and Cole at the Lincoln with the Mall in the background)

(Grant, Cole and Kitty at the White House)

(Lindsay, Grant and Cole at the White House)

(Cole spotting a squirrel - On our walk to the Lincoln we saw the Vietnam Memorial and some other statues on the Mall. Cole felt the need to stalk and chase any squirrel he saw on the grass.)

(After eating dinner and walking back from the White House we made a second stop at Potbelly for ice cream. I thought it was a good idea to get Grant a scoop and share an ice cream sandwich with Cole. I was wrong. Cole through the hugest fit you could imagine, until Kitty went and got him his own scoop. This is his enjoying his victory.)

(Shelli enjoying her watermelon habanero lemonade from Cosi during our lemonade break walking back from the White House)

(Kitty entertaining the babies, as usual, while taking our lemonade break)

(Grant enjoying his Potbelly ice cream)

On Friday, Kristen had to put in face time at work so we went in with her. She gave us a tour of the Capitol. We were supposed to be by ourselves but a couple of constituents got their tour time and day confused and showed up so we had company. After we saw the Capitol, we had lunch at a burger place owned by the winner of Top Chef or something like that off Food Network. From there we left Kristen to finish her work and we headed home for a rest. When she got home we got sushi take out and ate dinner on the grass by the Jefferson Memorial. Grant loves sushi. He ate salmon nigiri, salmon rolls and just plain raw pieces of salmon. It was awesome. He loved to eat small pieces of ginger with them. I was so proud of him. We then took the boys up to see the Jefferson and enjoy the view from the Tidal Basin.

(Lindsay, Shelli, Grant and Cole at the Jefferson)

(Kristen, Shelli, Grant and Cole at the Jefferson)

(This was Grant and Cole's position every morning - eating and watching)

(Kristen, Shelli, Lindsay, Grant and Cole on the very center of the city in the Capitol)

(Cole wearing a pair of Kitty's sunglasses)

(Grant napping in a pair of Kitty's sunglasses)

On Saturday, we went to Eastern Market. It has great food, art and random things. Shelli and I got some cool things for our walls. I don't have any pictures of anything.

On Sunday, we took the boys to the zoo. It was a fun zoo. The coolest part is the "O" Line they have for their orangutans. They can go from one enclosure to another in another part of the zoo on this telephone type lines with platforms placed periodically. At any time you can look up and see a giant orangutan right above you.

(One orangutan on the "O" line)

On Monday we went to the Aquarium. It is the only thing that costs money and it's not worth half what they charge. It is in a random building in the basement. It's small, closterphobic and disappointing but the boys loved the fish. From their we walked to the Washington Monument and back. That walk turned out to be longer than expected. The highlight was seeing a motorcade on our walk back to the car. We don't think it was the president though because there was no advance warning and we saw him fly from the White House a while earlier in Marine One.

(The motorcade)

(Lazy boys watching movies on Kitty's bed - we did a lot of this)

On our last day, we went to the Sculpture Garden to see a giant fountain. On our walk there, Kitty took the boys on a carousel ride. I opted out because we only had enough cash for three to ride and I would have vomitted.

(Shelli relaxing in the shade at the Sculpture Garden)

(Kitty with the boys calling for the ducks)

(Kitty with the boys on the carousel)

(Lindsay with the boys on the Mall with the Capitol in the background)

This trip was so much fun. We all love seeing Kitty. It was great to have Shelli come with me and the the boys. I couldn't have made the plane trips without her. It was a fun sister/aunt trip. My sisters were patient with the many meltdowns from Cole and Kitty was always willing to carry Grant when he just couldn't walk anymore.