Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Ariel visits the museum

Having grown up in a suburb of Washington DC, and then having lived in another one for nearly four years with my children, I was shocked to find out that Bracken had told his preschool teacher that he had never been downtown to see the White House or the Capitol. He has, of course, been down to see the sights several times but apparently none of that ever sunk in. Justin and I vowed that this trip back home would not pass us by without a trip to the national mall. Unfortunately for us the weather did not cooperate on the chosen day. We headed down to Washington last Wednesday and it was a cold and rainy day, I think it was only around 40 degrees and it wasn't just drizzling it was pouring down rain...fun. Abbie came appropriately dressed for the copious amounts of rain in her newly-acquired Ariel costume that used to be her Aunt Kelly's.

It actually was fun once we found a parking space (which literally took one full hour of circling), we finally decided to exercise a little faith and pray that a parking space would open up and one did IMMEDIATELY after I said Amen. It was a great teaching lesson for my kids, although now I'm sure they will start praying for all kinds of things and expect instant gratification. We did have to run through the rain for about a block but once the kids were inside the Natural History Museum it was all worth it. Our brothers, who found a parking space nearly 40 minutes earlier than we did, were so much fun to be with and made the trip a lot more fun for the kids. My younger brother Josh and Justin's younger brother Spencer have been good friends since Justin and I began dating twelve years ago, they were 7 and 8 years old at the time. Spencer just returned from serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in London, and Josh is entering the Missionary Training Center tomorrow to begin his mission in San Bernadino, CA. It was a great reunion for us all because we hadn't seen Spencer in two years before this trip and we know we won't see Josh for the next two years. We love them both and are grateful for the example they set for our children.

We had planned on hitting multiple museums and several more sights but because of the bad weather we settled for just the one museum followed by a drive through Adams Morgan for pizza. Jessie and Taylor have experienced the joys of Pizza Mart with us on another trip (we went to the zoo that time) but this time we thought that Spencer would get a kick out of the 24" slices. The pizza is good, especially when you are famished from a day downtown, but we go more for the novelty and experience of going to such a dive and ordering a slice of pizza taller than some of our children.



The gang in front of the iconic giant elephant


Two scary kids


Tate is fascinated by the T-Rex skull


My little dinosaurs


The boys touching the rock "like Ms. Sarah has at school"


Abbie's turn to touch the rock


Uncle Josh viewing the rocks with the kids


Abbie having the time of her life


Bracken making a typical Bracken face


Bracken, Abbie, and Tate trying to grab the 3-D molecules in the precious gems section


Mermaid Abbie outside the butterfly house


Bracken asking me if they had to kill that butterfly...unfortunately, yes


Tate really trying to see what was living in that bubble


they are really checking out what's going on in there


The kids crawling through a bug house at the bottom of a faux tree


the whole gang (except me) sitting in front of a window overlooking Washington


Spencer and the kids looking down at the giant elephant


Abbie with a blue tongue from her lollipop


Bracken imitating the orangutan


Abbie looking like a zombie

7 comments:

Anna Whiston-Donaldson said...

looks like fun! i think that butterfly died of natural causes...at least that's what i'm telling myself!

megan&steve said...

Brooke its hard to see or tell that you are pregnant with all of this energy you have of running through the rain & playing tourist. Also having your children stand in front of you while wearing black doesn't help me find your baby bump either :)

Allie said...

Looks like fun. All but the elephant part at least!

Heather and Dave said...

Oh what a fun visit back home! I bet it was great being together as a family one last time! Your kids are the cutest! And I'm excited to see what your new baby girl will look like :)

Lonna said...

Every time I read your blog,it is pure entertainment. I love that you travel so much so that you have lots to post about, and really funny things to throw into the mix, for example Abbie wearing the Ariel dress all day, and Tate glued to the case of the T-Rex skull. What a perfect photo with Abbie at the butterfly exhibit, and the totally disturbed face that Bracken has as he learns that the butterfly was sacrificed for science.

It sounds like your trip is only going to get better. I am glad that you were able to get out there to see everyone before your brother left, and spend some time having the kids with their uncles. This post leaves me wondering what other fun adventures you took on.

Jessie and Taylor Miller said...

At LAST we have discovered the trick to get your adorable kiddos to do normal smiles in photos...just take them to a museum!! They look so cute in all of these shots! I miss them already!

R.I.P Mr. Butterfly.

Miss Maddie Pie said...

It's to bad you couldn't see Roosevelt island! It's awesome there!!! 8o)