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!

Drive to D.C.!!

We headed to from the Fisher's this morning (we had so much fun!) and headed to DC!

Only one tollway that had a HUGE traffic jam (about 12 lanes trying to get down to 1!)

Made it to our hotel 4:00

I have encountered MANY bridges on this trip! Yikes!

Got some good pool time this afternoon! Great pool! Sand bean bag toss by the pool and the hotel bar is partly poolside!!

Supper at the hotel restaurant! (Kids eat free and half price appetizers!)

It was a perfect evening to eat outside....had a little happy hour and great food!! :)

Nice to hang out at the hotel....we have a couple of big sightseeing days ahead!

A day in New Jersey, a night at Yankee Stadium!!

We spent the morning hanging out at the Fisher's! The kids LOVE their basement (especially Austin!)!! They played wii down there and had a blast!! It was nice to hang out and relax!

We went for lunch to my favorite spot...Qdoba! And then to a Children's Museum called Imagine That with Hazel (and Tyler and Becky!)!! The kids had a blast!!

Sliding with Hazel!

Cars, trucks, airplanes, motorcycles......

Dress up, shadow walls, doctor's office, dentist office, grocery store.........

Arts and Crafts and Music!!

Hmmmmm....can you tell which art belongs to which child?? :)

Yankee Stadium

New York City, New York (The Bronx)

Yankees vs Rangers

Craziness!! This place is nuts with baseball fans!! We had more interesting adventures!! We somehow ended up at the wrong train station that was suppose to be minutes from Becky's! (I was wondering how she walked here....then realized....wrong one!) So, we missed the first train we were supposed to take into the city...got on the second one! Then at the subway station we got on the wrong platform...(there goes the $$ we put on our card to try and get on the subway right away after the game!!)! We finally got on the right one and it took forever to leave......super crowded with LOTS of people going to the game!!

We finally got there....only 1 inning late!! I have to say we've never been late for a game...usually SUPER early!! It is CRAZY but AWESOME!!

Still......CRAZY amounts of peope trying to get in.....late!!!!

We sat WAY up high (3 rows from the top!)! Which the kids thought was fantastic!!

We cheered with some crazy Yankee fans and met some people from Staten Island who were really fun! (Connie would've loved it!) The WHOLE crowd, no matter how far away you sat....was into the game the WHOLE time...the place was Rockin'! Yankees had a no hitter going into 6th....the crowd was fired up! Gave up 2 hits in the 6th....oh well! Then there were back to back home runs which was SOOOO fun! I've never seen Austin cheer so hard (Yes, for the Yankees...I forgot to ask him if he is still a Redsox fan!) Everybody was giving high-fives up in the cheap seats!! :) Jimmy Fallon and the Mayor were on the big screen, too! Fun!

We actually left early (what is this?) to make sure we made the train back to Becky's...we did! Only bad part was waiting in line to get money back on our card! Soooo many people left early to get on the subway...I couldn't believe it!! Kids are exhausted, but we had the best time at the game!!! Got a litte lost trying to find our van at the station...Great job to Katelynn for sticking it out and walking all around the park with us in the dark to find the van when she was soooo tired!!!! The kids have been troopers!!

Heading out to DC tomorrow! We have had such a GREAT stay with the Fisher's!!

I can't thank them enough!!