The Capitol - Day 1

We're exhausted. I hardly have the energy to post...but if we didn't post each day, one post would be crazy long. So we made the short drive to Washington DC today. They called for rain in the afternoon. But there wasn't a single drop until after we got back to the hotel in the evening.

We started the day at the Museum of Natural History. And I knew it would be a good day when we found an open parking spot on the street right in front of the building! Free parking, free admission to the museum...our tax dollars at work! :)
We rushed through the various exhibits and still managed to spend nearly 3 hours here. We saw how the oceans work and what lives there, crystals and gems, dinosaurs, mammals, lots of models and bones and more bones and a real mummy. Anya especially liked the Hope Diamond that was on display.
Our stomachs started to growl before we could get through all the exhibits. So we walked outside to the car and enjoyed a little picnic on the National Mall. It was picturesque.

And since we hadn't done enough walking already, we decided to do a little more. Actually, Eliza was confined to the stroller for most of the day. So any chance she had to walk, she took advantage.
And she wasn't afraid to play chicken with a large group of school girls three times her size! She went head on and made them clear a path for her. Anya finally pulled Eliza back. It was really cute...and gave the school girls a good laugh.
After the picnic, we went back inside to finish a couple more exhibits.
Mark was especially excited to see a real mummy. But our 3-hour limit for the free parking spot was about to expire...so we had to rush out.
Then we found another free parking spot right between the Washington Monument and the White House. And still no rain. It was such a good day! :)
After we got this shot of the kids in front of the White House, a group of Asian tourists were awestruck at the number of children we had. They saw four and their eyes were huge. Then they saw another....and then one more. They were speechless (probably due to the fact that they spoke no English). They showed us their cameras and asked for permission to take pictures. Eliza was in most of them. One lady tried to lasso as many of our kids as she could to have her picture taken. Peter wasn't too thrilled about it. But Eliza was trapped in her stroller. And Luke put on his best face. It was really kind of cute. And very sweet. Our kids will be in some strangers photo albums for years to come.
It's always a fun challenge to get 6 kids under the age of 11 to cooperate and be photogenic all at the same time. So, while there weren't many, we got as many pictures as we could with all of them.

It's so rewarding to see our kids enjoying these kinds of experiences. We don't have an opportunity to go on any exotic vacations. But that's ok. Because we find as many opportunities around us as we can to enjoy together as a family. And we've been blessed to live in such a historic setting the past 3 years. Our kids enjoy the little things in life...probably because Karen and I have learned to enjoy the little things in life. But being in the Nation's Capitol is certainly no small thing. And we're soaking in as much as we can.