The kid's favorite part of our trip to DC

Roasting marshmallows & eaing smores!

More Memorial Day Pictures

N&J at the White House. N couldn't understand why he couldn't just walk right in to the White House and talk with the President. Not sure what he would actually say to the President, but it sure would be interesting! (Well for me anyway.)


The Capital Building

One of my favorites - the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capital Building off in the Distance.


The Washington Monument

Kids at the National Zoo

Happy Memorial Day

We started off our camping season with a trip to DC over memorial weekend. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I chose DC - MEMORIAL WEEKEND???!!! - but for some reason I thought it would be "nice" and off we went. Seven LONG hours later we arrived at our campsite (which was quite nice) and settled in for the weekend. Sat & Sun we took the Metro (train) into DC and toured the typical hot (literally, it was like 100 degrees each day) spots (along with about 2 million other tourists, I think). Fortunately, many others had hot, cranky kids in tow so we didn't stick out too badly! We were able to see the new WWII memorial, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Capital Building, White House, Sculpture Garden, Museum of Natural History, Air and Space Museum, and some the sights along the way. Didn't make it to all the Memorials as it was too busy and we saw everything when we were in DC a couple of years ago. We did learn that when we go again in a few years we will definitely do one of the tour buses. Little kids don't like walking all day long! :-)

Got some nice pics to share here. Not camping again until July after we return from Hawaii...not sure where we will camp yet. Will camp on the Jersey shore in August, the Maine coastline in Sept, Vermont in Oct and then probably done camping for the season.



Top three are the WWII Memorial

Looking at the Lincoln Memorial across the Reflecting Pool

Back side of the White House

Dad & Son Bonding

N is a tiger scout - that is what they call 1st graders in Cub Scouts. He quite enjoys it and had a chance to go on an overnight trip with his dad to the USS Massachusetts. It is a WWII battleship and they got to tour it and spend the night sleeping in the bunks. N jumped at the chance to sleep on the top bunk - 4 high. Well, apparently the kids slept but I hear the dads couldn't...too many kiddos snoring, talking in their sleep and the quarters were a bit confining. But N & K had a great time together and N is already looking forward to it next year. K, will soon start looking for a padded sleeping bag and ear plugs!

The Big 5!

Wow, can't believe it's been 5 years, but J had his 5th birthday! And it was quite the party indeed. Close your eyes, picture sixteen 4 & 5 year olds roaring, jumping, screaming, and ROARING. For 2-1/2 hours. Quite the "dream", huh? That was our party - J's Dinosaur Island. Complete with a "boat" (bounce house), rare dino egg hunt (got double duty out of those easter eggs), "excavation" (anything with sand thrills the little ones), erupting volcano (well, sort of...my mistake of not trying this experiment out ahead of time), the ever necessary pinata, and more that I'm forgetting. The kids had a blast and J declared that is was the "BEST DAY EVER IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE!!!". How are we ever going to top this one?

Here are some pics.

Some more b-day pics: