Retraction: The Vacation Was Never Over

Only a couple of days after I wrote the previous post, Stephanie (B's sister) came into town and so, obviously, we went on vacation! Sure B had some Bar studying to do, but the rest of the time was spent in touristing.

We visited the Pentagon Memorial and the Air Force Memorial (both within walking distance--we love where we live!) ...



...and then to Triangle, VA to visit the National Museum of the Marine Corps, which was pretty awesome (the Marines don't do anything half-way, right?)



...and then on to Fredericksburg, VA to check out some of the sites. We even toured a plantation that was used as a hospital during the Civil War.



The tour guide told us that those trees on the right were the only ones left standing during the Civil War. The surgeon would throw the amputated body parts out of the window until they were stacked half way up the trees. Body parts were collected and disposed of on a daily basis. Mmmm. Thank you, tour guide.

Last, we went to Chesapeake Beach to check out the bay. As always, Kiddo loves the water!



(Thanks, Steph, for the use of your camera! We miss you already!)

The Vacation Is Over

After almost two weeks of non-stop fun (have you seen our blog lately?), Brandon has started to study for the NY Bar. Kiddo had a hard time today without Dad being around to play with and was chatting non-stop after B came home this afternoon. Let's face it, I miss having Brandon around, too. But there's only two months of studying and then...well, we're not quite sure what happens after that. But at least the Bar will be over.

On another note, my restlessness today manifested itself in H's hair. Poor kid. I'm kind of loving the rat tail.

A Few Random Adventures

We live in such a great place! There are so many things to see and do without having to fight the tourist crowds. We went to a few last week.

First--the George Washington Masonic Memorial. We'd driven past this huge building several times and finally decided to go check it out. We happened to make it right in time for a tour. It's quite the impressive building and equally impressive on the inside. It definitely piqued my interest in Masons and their role in our country's history.



Next, we saw the DC Aquarium. We went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore last summer and heard that the DC version was a poor substitute. It's a good thing our expectations were pretty low because the DC Aquarium consists of only one room slightly bigger than our apartment. The up side, however, was that we could let Kiddo wander around without having to worry too much about where he was going. And we got a pretty good view of the alligators being fed their lunch.



On Saturday, we were looking on Google Maps for the outlet mall a place nearby we could go hike around and happened to see Occoquan Bay Wildlife Refuge. It's a great little marsh area right on the bay that has trails throughout. We saw several ospreys on their nests and a couple of cranes. And this boy of ours loves the water!

Oh Shenandoah!

At long last we made the drive to Shenandoah and it was worth every minute in the car. It was a beautiful day and we were able to do two little trails with H--not an easy feat with a wiggly one-year old.



By the way, have you seen how cute my boys are?

At the zoo again

We kinda can't get enough of the zoo. It's free, and H loves to look at the animals. Plus, we keep finding animals we didn't know were there. Bird house? Who knew.






H had a love/hate relationship with the peacocks.
As you can tell.

A little DC touristy stuff

We've been reintroducing H to some of the DC monuments the last couple of weeks.
So far his favorite are the ducks.

And he's done!

B turned in his last law school paper for his last semester of law school. EVER! To celebrate, we grabbed some Mexican food and H's highchair and went to Gravelly Point. It sits next to the Potomac River, has great picnic areas, and--oh yeah!--is right next to the airport. Dinner and a show! Congrats, Brandon! Next stop: graduation!


Good views of the city....


Who cares about picture-taking when you can watch the airplanes land?

Kiddo becomes more useful

Tour of the White House

That's right. We had a tour of the White House. I practically saw the President eating his breakfast. Ok, actually, he wasn't even in town. But I practically saw the room that he would have eaten his breakfast in. Ok, actually, he probably eats upstairs in the residential part of the White House (aka the part of the White House we didn't see). But if we were allowed upstairs and if the President was in town, I bet we would have seen him eating his breakfast. Because we were there. In the White House. Where the President lives.



Here's an illegal picture of us in front of the main entrance of the White House. I bet those people in the background are super important.

a little reading material

Kiddo kept trying to crawl away while we were in the midst of changing his diaper, but we figured out the solution.
Now he cries if we don't give him a book to read.