Weekend at home!!

Football season has begun!!

First Vikings party! (Craig made chili and it was 95 degrees out!)

Joel had all the kids yelling what to do for the game he was playing! Fun.

Sleepover after the kids watched Mama Mia!! :)

Spent the rest of the weekend at Island Park craft show and lunch with the girls,

shopping with Katelynn and Mom for back to school (and a Tutti Frutti treat after!),

playing Clue Jr. and Monopoly Jr. with Austin,

going to a really fun park that Kateynn suggested this afternoon!!

The home stretch!!

Chicago (Austin has requested we go to Chicago next summer as we drove by the White Sox stadium twice and didn't get to see a game!!) Katelynn has requested Oregon?!?! :)

 

We stayed near Schaumburg our last night (Redhawks rival!) and had a little night swim before bed!!

Home tomorrow!!

Austin liked wearing two caps with the headphones..that worked best I guess!!

The last day seemed to be the longest day...especially from the cities...I guess since we make that drive a lot it wasn't that exciting!! Good to be home!!

 Amazing Day!!

We had a great day touring museums, seeing the capitol, swimming at the hotel, and seeing the Nationals play....our 30th MLB stadium!!!

We LOVE D.C!! It's easy to get around, quiet, full of history, and clean!!

Started the day on the carousel!! Next....

National Museum of Air and Space

 

Hubble telescope....this place was amazing. They have all these actual

 HUMONGOUS things that went into space!!

The actual very FIRST airplane. It flew for 59 seconds!!

The planets/universe were Katelynn and my favorite!!

Lunch Break! Coolest McDonald's I've ever seen! 22 ordering lanes and separate pick up lines. Then, there were separate spots to order just the treats!! They had really cool ice cream cones!!

The Capitol building is AMAZING! It takes my breath away!!

Next....

The National Museum of Natural History

(most of these pictures are for you, Eli! Your cousin Katelynn really thought you should be here! We decided next time we just bring you and Katelynn to tour more of D.C!)

Crazy big Elephant! Just the skin weighs over 2 tons!!

The dinosaur exhibit was amazing!!

Katelynn thought Eli should see these tools. They are going to be fossil scientist, I guess!! :)

The actual Hope Diamond!! It's gorgeous!!

This blurry picture is of a snake that was 48 feet long!!

A caribou...the mammal exhibit was cool...all kinds of stuffed mammals sea and land and a big exhibit on evolution...imagine the questions I had to answer??!!

The Smithsonian Castle

cool!!

Craig and Katelynn went up a clock tower for a view of the city, so Craig has pics on his phone! Austin and I had an ice cream treat while we waited!! We weren't sure how long it would take, but no waiting!!

Nationals Park

Washington, D.C.

Nationals vs Mets

We drove to the subway from our hotel, hopped on and took us all they way to the ballpark!!

George Washington was there!! :)

And Abraham Lincoln (Teddy was there too, but I didn't get a picture!!)

Great seats! (The kids like to sit way up high, so they didn't think so!!)

Heidi, Austin told me him and Noah call the Nationals the "Walgreens team"! Now I know why!! :)

We bought a hat for Austin for $5 off the subway before the game!! :)

Super fun after Papa's home run guy hit a GRAND SLAM!!!

 

It started raining in the 6th inning. We went up top and hung out for awhile. Decided to head to the subway in the bottom of the 8th...they get sooooo crowded otherwise!! We bought Katelynn a pink Washington Nationals hat on the way back!! She had to borrow Austin's for this picture!!

We did it!!

All 30 MLB stadiums (and many minor league stadiums)!! It took us 12 years!! (Florida has a new one since we've been there, so that's next!!) It's been amazing, fun, crazy, and AWESOME!!!! I would do it all again and we maybe will! :) Looking back at our honeymoon, to the first game in Kansas City with a 3 hr rain delay....I never would have thought we would be at our 30th stadium 12 years later with our amazing kids!! What memories!! :)

( I have to mention...Mom gave this blue bag before our honeymoon...it has been to all 30 stadiums with me!! Mom, thinks I should get a display case!! HAHA!!)



Lots of sightseeing today!! (lots of pictures to follow!!)

What a day!!

We took the hotel shuttle to the subway..hopped on, transferred once, and walked a few blocks!

We did our own walking tour of the white house and memorials. Craig's phone had suggested trours and we just modified one of those and followed that. It had some fun information for us too!

The kids did better than we thought they would! Austin rode on Craig's shoulders a lot and  Katelynn made it the whole way walking!! We had LOTS of water and tried to stay in the shade as much as we could. It was sunny at upper 80's!! It was one of the BEST days of the trip!!

Katelynn has been re-reading her book about Presidents as well as flashcards from Gma Penny on the drive here. She knew all kinds of facts to tell us on our tour today!! I was amazed at the things she knew!

She read them again tonight in the hotel!!

The White House

 We had to point out to the kids the guys on top of the roof with their guns!

WWII Memorial

All states have a pillar. I told Katelynn I sat at this memorial when I was pregnant with her and she was kicking like crazy...here she is with me 7 years later!!

Lincoln Memorial

Kids were starting to get tired after walking the long trail to this one...so I told them the first one to find Lincoln up the steps gets a dollar (they decided it was kids against parents)....they won and guess what? They made it up all the steps for a $1!!

The one thing I was excited about was seeing water in the reflecting pool, since their was no water in it the last time we were here......OH NO!! No water AGAIN! They have been doing renovations since Oct. 2010!! They did, however, this time have a small amount of water so people could see a reflection of the monument!!

Picnic lunch half way through the tour!! I have to note, Craig came back from the refreshments booth with a salad!! Anyone who knows him will think this is weird! I have never seen him eat anything like this since we've known each other! It was really good!! :):) Oh...and nobody ate the sandwhiches we packed!! But the cheesesticks were good later and the cold pop was good!!

Korean Memorial

I like this one too.

 I thought before and still think the soldiers look scary and

gives you a lot to think about.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

This one was new since we've been here. The only monument of someone that wasn't a president!

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

(my favorite)

Ummm....I don't think you are suppose to climb on the statues!!

Eleanor Roosevelt

Thomas Jefferson

It was getting pretty toasty outside by the time we got to this one! We had another "contest" to see who could find him first walking around the basin....kids win again! :) (this time 25 cents!)

Taking a break from the heat!

Cool

Washington Monument

So neat how you can see it from everywhere!!

I took a lot of pictures of this from all over!! This is one of my favorites!!

Afternoon at the pool after walking around in the heat!!

Drinks and snacks!!

Dinner at the hotel again! It was another beautiful night to eat outside!

Great Day!! Tomorrow we are touring the Smithsonian Museums! Katelynn wanted to save the "Best for Last"! She has really been looking forward to these!! It is suppose to be 95 tomorrow so it will be good to do "inside things".

Nationals game tomorrow night!