Spring Break

I feel like I've become a lazy blogger, relying on pictures to highlight our recent adventures so I'm going to try to write about our week before I post the plethora of pictures that I took last week.

This year's Spring Break for the kiddos was structured differently from previous school years.  Instead of a whole week, they went to class on Monday, Tuesday was a half-day and then they had the rest of the week off. Glenn and I talked about a few ideas but we decided that I would take the kiddos to Washington, D.C. and he'd stay home with work and pets.  I have an aunt and uncle and lots of cousins in the D.C. area so we had a great place to stay, tour guides and so much to see.  Both kids are at a good age to travel and they like history and "old stuff" as Reina puts it.  So off we went.

We had an easy trip out to DC and we got out of town just in time.  The next day a big snowstorm shut down the airport in Denver and gave Glenn a snow day from work.  Coco and the dogs were happy about that.  But we landed in DC to lovely springtime temperatures and cherry blossoms in bloom.

The first full day of our vacation we went to the beach with my aunt and cousin.  I hadn't been to Rehobeth since I was a teen and it was as fun as I'd remembered.  There was a brisk wind coming in from the ocean that kept everyone out of the water but it didn't stop us from sitting in the sand.  Will even organized a family football game - two hand touch, naturally.  We spent the whole afternoon on the beach and boardwalk, hit the outlet shops for a few hours and then back to the beach for the best pizza I've had in a long time.

The next day, we got to read the Metro and headed to the Smithsonian, along with lots of other school kids on vacation.  We went to the Natural History Museum first and looked at all of the animals and the Hope Diamond.  One area had a big collection of animals from the Arctic and Reina asked if all of the animals had been alive once.  When we said "yes," she noticed a mannequin dressed as an Eskimo in a canoe and timidly asked if that guy had been alive too.

After that serious set of questions, we headed to the American History building and wandered around that great place for a while.  Reina especially liked the First Ladies display (Will did not) and we looked at all of the dresses and shoes.  I think it was this point in the trip when Reina started asking if the people were still alive or had passed.  She was always very polite about it but her interest in this topic only increased as the week went on.  The rest of the First Ladies display went something like this:  "No, No, No, No, I don't think so, Yes, Yes, Yes you've seen her on tv, Yes she's now running for President, No she was alive in the 1800's."

On Friday, we had a leisurely morning.  Well the kids did - I got to experience the joy that is IKEA with my cousin.  I'd never been and it definitely lived up to my hype.  It was also a good thing that I had a weight limit on my luggage because it helped keep my spending down.  I'm taking Glenn to the IKEA in Denver soon so that we can look at couches and bookshelves and cute pillows and maybe a new chair....

After the IKEA adventure, we all headed over to Mt Vernon.  I have some cute pictures to share but first I have to write about it.  Reina was pretty interested in going and Will was a little lukewarm until we were inside the house and I said "Can you believe you are standing in George Washington's house" about 15 times and it finally sunk in.  I really love Mt Vernon and I could've easily spent all day there but time and two elementary-aged children wait for no mom.  After touring the house, we looked at some of the outbuildings and took lots of pictures of baby lambs and pretended to get water out of the well and then wandered down to the museum.  This ended up being Will's favorite part of the day.  The museum featured Washington's military career so what else do I need to say?  I had to drag Will away from one of those displays with all of the little miniature soldiers and cannons (a diorama?) after at least twenty minutes and that was just because the interactive movie was starting.  We watched a short movie about Washington's role in the Revolution but the movie theater had fog and realistic cannon booming and was much enjoyed by all members of our group.

Friday night we headed back into DC for a tour of the West Wing of the White House!  My aunt and uncle have a friend who works in the White House and he generously offered to give us a tour.  What a treat! The kids might not have appreciated the significance of seeing the Oval Office up close but I sure did.  I have more great pictures of all of us outside (no cameras inside understandably but also dangit) and Will was especially impressed by the photos of President Obama shooting hoops with Steph Curry inside but it was a tour to remember.

On the way back to my aunt's house, we stopped by the WWII memorial so that Will and I could run through it.  It was pretty late at this point but I was amazed at the number of people still there.  Will and I stopped to find the Wyoming pillar and took a few more pictures of different states (more on that later when you see the actual pictures.)  I visited the memorial for the first time last year and found it just as powerful this time around.  What a nice tribute.

Our last day of the vacation featured lots of fun family time with cousins and second cousins (my cousins kids?) and some friendly basketball games and delicious food.  Oh and a little more shopping, naturally.  The Hansen side of the family loves a little competition so there were several games of Knock-out and some dice games that almost devolved into violence, in a good way.

Our travel home was easy-peasy, besides the 4:30 a.m. alarm clock ringing.  We made it home in time for an Easter egg hunt with the Daddy and I even got most of the laundry done. It was a great trip an I'm so glad that we did it.