Fabulous Fun

Last night we loaded into David's truck and did some driving over the mountain behind our house. David kicked it into 4-wheel drive and we had a good time, bouncing all over the gravel and holes. These are actually state game lands in that mountain with a gravel road to drive. But it is clearly not maintained by PenDot! LOL

Brooke was ready for Daddy to load her into the truck.

Our church can be seen through that small hole in the trees. (on the left)
The pretty German house in our neighborhood. You can see it from any location in our town.

You can see our brick house and our church in the middle of this photo. In the grand scheme of things they seem so small.

Martinsburg

Here's Brooke with her Nikes. :)

We stopped on the road and the boys had fun climbing this rocky hill. When they got to the top they threw rocks and discovered that they would spark when they hit each other! That was so much fun for them!

A Mish-Mash of Pictures - DC Trip

This post is just a compilation of various photos of our trip. They're in chronological order, and represent many of the things we saw that day.

Potomac

A building dedicated to the women of the Civil War

Double Decker Tour Bus

Bathroom near the Washington Monument - You can see the Capitol Building in the background.

There were quite a few kites flying on the National Mall.

Peek-a-boo!

Weeee!

Part of the Smithsonian

Yep - there's even a carousel on the National Mall.

Only the Smithsonian people would consider this art!

U.S. Botanic Gardens

Leaving the Capitol Building behind, the boys had to climb up on the stonework.

Near Grant's Memorial

Capitol Reflecting Pool

White House

I asked the boys what their favorite parts of Washington D.C. were. Cole replied, "I liked all of it. Except the walking!"

Such a beautiful picture. We think that maybe our next overnight trip will be to Washington D.C. I'd love to be there at night to see the reflectings pools, and the pretty lights of the city.

Worn Out!

Washington Monument - DC

The first thing you can see when you approach our capital city is the Washington Monument. It's amazing. It's spectacular. It's really cool! We parked as close as we could, (which was not very close at all!) and walked straight for that monument. Whoever designed that monument probably didn't think of how handy it would be for future visitors. You can just look up into the sky, find the monument, and easily get your bearings!

We all really enjoyed the Washington Monument. You can get tickets to go inside, but we are saving that for another time. I tried to teach the boys about the Washington Monument that day. Now they can recognize it by sight.

This was my first glimpse.

I never knew there were flags at the bottom like that. I love it! So patriotic!

Finally! We were getting close to it.

This is the Commerce Building.

Glancing back I saw the World War II Memorial. We never made it to that one.

I saw the Capitol Building and had to get a creative picture. I love seeing the building between the American flag.

Trevor David

Trevor (in the background), Logan Joseph, & Cole Patrick

Somebody offered to take a picture of our whole family. Yes, I worried if they would run off with our camera! (hee-hee!)

I just love all the flags circling the Washington Monument.

It's just beautiful, isn't it?

After this, we headed down the National Mall towards the Capitol Building. Brooke quickly tired of the stroller so Daddy obliged her and put her on his shoulders. Nah! She doesn't have him wrapped around her finger at all!

The White House - DC

After we'd been in D.C. for a while, we realized we were not going to make it back to our van before our meter expired. We were over a mile away from the van and we were on foot! Oops! We just hoped that our van would be there, and that it would be there without a ticket on the windshield!

After we saw the Declaration of Independence, we decided to split up. David took Trevor and Cole and they RAN all the way back to the van, so that they could feed the meter. I walked at a slower pace with Logan, Brooke and the stroller. It was during this walk that I finally saw the White House! I had wondered why all this grassy area was fenced off. And why people were standing there in big groups. It was then that I noticed the White House.
Did you know that you can enlarge these photos if you simply click on them? Click on these and you will see a man standing on the top of the White House. It looked like he was standing near a tripod. Perhaps he was watching us, just as we were watching him!

There is a big iron fence around the White House. This is as close as you can get.