Friday & Saturday

There's nothing quite like logging on to blogger, clicking "New Post," and then having to run to the bathroom to puke. Isn't morning sickness supposed to get better? I thought the placenta was supposed to take over the hormone stuff! Trust me: It's getting worse by the day for me. Somehow.

At any rate, I'm combining Friday & Saturday into one post.

Friday, we traveled to Richmond to visit the children's museum! I love museums - they provide such fun hands-on learning experiences! This museum was for younger kids, so it took on a "play to learn" atmosphere. We saw a dinosaur dig, an air chute, a giant tree house, and so much more:

He says, "I was milkin all I could milk;
I was squirtin it real good."

There was lots of pretend play, which Clayton didn't really like. He thought it was for "babies," even though a good portion of the other children were older than him!

This is C "bored as a dog" in the 6th grade.

He climbed into an ambulance, painted a photo, and had lots of fun with water play. I don't know if he "learned" anything, per se, but play is learn - and he loved it! Afterward, we ventured to the Short Pump Town Center in Richmond. This is a neat "outdoors mall" - best way I can describe it. It's two stories, huge, and each store has a door leading to the outdoors. If that makes any sense. We rode a train around the mall and had fun shopping in stores that aren't found in KY! We ended up stuck in traffic (the story of our lives in Virginia) and didn't make it home until about 5pm. Then we all (including Mark!) went to Red Robin - where, you guessed it - I enjoyed a deeeeelicious guacamole bacon burger! Yummo!

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We woke up at 530am on Saturday to head to Washington DC. It's a 3-hour drive from my house, which isn't too bad. Luckily, we didn't run into any traffic. Now, let me just say: GPS's are basically obsolete in the city. They, like, barely work. Though we had an exact address to a specific parking garage, our GPS would not find it. (Brand new GPS, not a new parking garage). So it took us forever to find a spot to park.

But we finally did! We asked two "local-looking" girls how to get to the Natural History Museum, and we were shockingly close! So we headed there first, but not before running into a big parade. That was in our way. And prevented us from crossing the street (until the policeman let us).

We finally found it and waltzed in. I was feeling fine and dandy. We saw the prehistoric men, a gigantic squid, etc. C was anxious to see the dinosaur exhibit, because that's his favorite thing! So there we were - walking through the bones section, and a huge wave of nausea hit. Like, bad. I had to get out of there fast! I practically yanked Mark's arm and told him I was serious. I tried to sit down in the closest cafe area, but they were cooking something HORRENDOUS (broccoli, garlic soup? I don't know, but it smelled GROSS and made me gag). So that was a no-go. I quickly found a vacant bench and sat myself down and fanned myself. At this point, I was fairly certain that I would throw up right there in the dinosaur exhibit.

But I didn't.

I somehow escaped alive! After C picked out "Tiger Wiger" (sabertooth tiger) from the museum store for excellent behavior all week, we headed out the door and walked toward the Washington Monument. My memory is a little fuzzy here, but we somehow managed to find ourselves at a TourMobile location! This is a little bus that drives you around to all major monuments, and you get off & on whenever you want. For a fee, of course :) This little bus saved our lives!

We saw nearly everything, but we did skip the FDR, Vietnam, WWII, and Korean monuments. Clayton's favorite was "TJ" (Thomas Jefferson). My family really enjoyed the Arlington National Cemetery & the changing of the guards. In high school, my marching band was chosen to represent Kentucky by marching in the dedication of the WWII monument. So... I'd seen a lot of these monuments before. I also liked Thomas Jefferson the most! :)

We snacked on pretzels and coke and walked ourselves to death! I was exhausted by the end of the trip. It probably isn't a great idea to go to Washington DC at 13 weeks pregnant. I was just asking for it! :) But it was so much fun!

At last, we walked past the Capitol building and then headed to our car. After endlessly searching for a restaurant that wasn't packed out the door, we found a trusty Chipotle and enjoyed burritos and guacamole. As usual. On the way home, we made our 3 hours very educational by turning our iPhone into a text book!

We used Wikipedia (our trusty resource!) to learn all about our founding fathers. Yes, George Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson proved to be very interesting - and we learned so many new facts (and put many myths to rest!). C went back to preschool on Monday and told his class that Washington actually had hippo teeth -- I'm so proud! Who knew that his wooden teeth were actually a myth?


Friday & Saturday were so fun! Exhausting, but fun! It has been one of Mark's biggest dreams to tour all of DC, so he finally got his wish. C was eager to meet Obama (I'm so proud that he knows our president by name!), but we didn't spot him, sadly!

We came home at 930pm to find a spotless house. Piper held her bladder/bowels for 15 consecutive hours, and we couldn't be more proud! She's such a champ! She just sat around and watched the Masters all day! Ha!! More photos are on my Facebook page, if you happen to be my friend! :)


And, for the record, I am feeling much better than when I began this post. Yes!