Our Thanksgiving

To start, I would like to thank our cousins, the Maloney's, for having us to their house for Thanksgiving and taking us site seeing. We even had our own tour guide (Cindy).

This was actually our 2nd day trip to DC.

The sun may be out but this was a COLD day!!

That's the whole crew. 12 kids and 4 adults at the Washington Monument.



Julie on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Our Tennessee crew at the WWII Memorial.

(Hannah's asleep under the purple blanket.)

This was our first daytrip into DC. We got caught in a short, cold and windy rain storm as we walked from the Air & Space Museum to the Capitol. It felt like little shards of ice were hitting us in the face. But we HAD to get a picture in front of the Capitol Building. Todd didn't even turn Spencer around for the picture.

Mount Vernon across the bowling green.

In front of the Potomac River.

We rode the Metro into DC the 2 days we went into the city. Christian had to sit in a seat where he could point to the map and count down the stops (There were about 12 I think- You'd think I'd remember having a 5 year old tell me after EVERY stop how many were left.). The morning we left our cousins's house, Hannah woke up and the first thing she asked was if we were going on the "big train, again?".

This was where I thought we lost Russell.

Russell lost his balance while walking on a raised part of the sidewalk and stepped in a muddy mess on the grass (The grass that has signs on it that say, "Please respect our Veterans and stay off the grass."). Julie found him scraping the mud and junk off his shoe onto the bushes.

I think you would agree with me that we Conquered DC!!

12 kids (ages 6 months-14 years) with 4 adults.

We also saw the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the American Indian Museum(we ran back to this building to get out of that rainstorm), the Vietnam Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial.

Hannah slept both days we were in DC in the stroller. I'm not sure she actually saw a whole lot.

Spencer LOVED running everywhere at Mount Vernon. I had to cut my tour of the house short because he had HAD it and wanted to be outside.

Christian liked being able to ride in the stroller and NOT having to walk the whole time. (I liked that part, too. Not as much complaining.)

Russell had fun playing video games with cousin Robbie and DS downloading with his siblings on the 9 hour drive to Fort Belvoir,VA.

Julie liked playing with Faith and MiKayla but didn't like NOT being a part of the "big girl" group.

Rachel liked staying up late talking to cousin Celeste and having late night snacks.

Janelle liked having someone as obsessed with the Twilight series as she is to talk to about it.

Todd and I decided that just the 2 of us need to go back so that he can have all the time HE wants in the Air and Space Museum and I could go see whatever I want to see while he is there.

(You know I didn't get to see the Hope Diamond.....)