Samantha: 118 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 86 Months, Week 1
Owen: 42 Months, Week 3
Some friends of ours from New York City and Philadelphia rented a cabin in the Poconos as a way to get away from the city and hang out together. They were only about an hour away from us, so they invited us to come out to their cabin on Sunday, March 28th. We went to church in the morning and then made our way out to the cabin. The kids brought some toys to play with. Samantha read a lot of books to Daisy and Owen. Aedan was able to "help" Neil build a cool Lego set. The adults were able to just sit and around talk and catch up with what was going on in our lives during this crazy Covid year. All the adults were vaccinated, so we felt comfortable getting together. Then, Kyle and Neil made everyone a delicious dinner, and we ate until we were full and satisfied. It was a good day. I enjoy the company of these people, and it's nice feeling like we have friends to hang out. We probably stayed longer than we should have considering we had to drive all the way home, get kids to bed, and school was the next day, but it was worth it to have that time with friends.
Monday was back to a normal week of school for Samantha and Aedan, work for Ben, and me hanging out with Owen.
Here is some work the kids brought home from school. Samantha was working on character and theme, adding -ed and -ing suffixes, a math Easter egg color by number, a project on their class novel "Shiloh," vocabulary, a practice math test, as well as the chapter test on algebra patterns and graphing.
Aedan practiced his weekly spelling words and got a 91% on the test, did a color by number for subtraction, got 100% on an addition without regrouping page, got 100% on his weekly reading test on the story "Mama's Present," did a color by words picture, practiced adding, learned about a country and a continent, and then moved on to telling time by the hour.
The kids brought home more work on Tuesday. Aedan practiced telling time to the half hour and drew some cute cartoons as well as a rainbow and leprechaun art project.
Samantha worked on her spelling words with -ed and -ing endings, practiced multiplication through color by number, got a 100% on her Chapter 6 Social Studies test, learned about line plots, and got a 97% on her Chapter 9 Math test.
The weather was nice that afternoon, so the boys enjoyed spending some time on the front porch playing together. Here is a cute picture of the two of them together. They love having each other to play with. Owen looks up to Aedan so much.
On Tuesday night, our friends, Neil, Kyle, Sheridan, and little Daisy came over to our house to visit since we lived so close to their vacation cabin, and so that we had another opportunity to hang out with each other. It was fun to show them where we live and to eat dinner together, even though it felt a little rushed and short due to kids sleeping schedules. It's definitely harder to hang out with friends once you have kids!
I always enjoy the spring when everything starts growing again. I was worried about how some of our plants and bushes would do this spring because of how much the deer decimated them over the winter. However, I was encouraged to see this bush at the end of our driveway showing signs of new growth.
The week went pretty quickly as we had plans to go on a trip to Washington, D.C. over Easter Break. The kids don't have a Spring Break off of school, and Ben gets more time off, so we decided to make a long weekend of it. We left after school on Wednesday and made our way on the four hour trip to D.C. It is so cool that we live close to these cities where there is so much to do and experience. But because of just moving here a couple years ago and then Covid happening, we haven't had as much of a chance to take trips like this that we would like to. We stopped for dinner on our way down, realized that Owen had an accident in his car seat while he was napping since we didn't put a pull up on him, so that wasn't a great start to our trip since would have to figure out how to wash his car seat at the hotel.
Nevertheless, we got to our hotel, a Holiday Inn just a couple blocks away from the National Mall, and then we decided to go for a little walk to show the kids what D.C. looks like. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial was was just a block away from our hotel, so we walked through that and looked at all the huge statues, before going out to the Mall to point out the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument. The kids didn't know what to expect when we told them about this place, so they were impressed at how big everything was and how much there was to explore. It was good to walk around, stretch our legs, and get some energy out before going back to the hotel to tuck the kids into bed.
With a lot of inside places still being closed down, particularly the Smithsonian museums and other historical places, we decided to focus our time on outdoor places that were still open to visitors. On Thursday we decided to go to Mt. Vernon to show the kids George Washington's home. On our way out to Mt. Vernon, we stopped at really delicious French breakfast restaurant. The hotel we are staying at doesn't do free breakfast, which is the most challenging part since where we are staying near the National Mall, and there really are not many restaurants besides a McDonald's. I would have eaten breakfast at this French restaurant every day if I could. Once we got to Mt. Vernon, we were able to get tickets for a tour inside his home, so after getting an interactive scavenger hunt map for the kids, as well as audio guides that we could listen to as we walked around, we walked around the gardens for a while before going to tour the house.
They were pretty strict about everyone being quiet inside the house, which was a little difficult for the kids, but I think they found it interesting to see the old furniture and decorations. The views off the back of the house of the Potomac were lovely, and Samantha enjoyed taking her own pictures on her camera. Here are some pictures of the house. I really liked the color of the walls, especially the teal and green colors. I love touring historical homes and imagining what life was like for them, feeling like you are walking in their very footsteps.
After touring the house, we made our way around the grounds, following the numbered map. We saw the kitchen, a storage house, the large gardens, where George Washington was buried, a blacksmith shop, and many other buildings that were a part of Mt. Vernon running smoothly.
We walked all the way down to the slave quarters as well, and although they didn't have too many buildings still up, we were able to talk with the kids about what it would have been like for slaves living here, how families were often separated, and even how Washington didn't free his slaves until after he died.
It was pretty chilly out that day, and our layers of sweatshirts and light jackets weren't quite cutting it with the wind blowing, so after touring all we wanted to see from the grounds, we went back to the museum area, had lunch inside, and then walked around the museum. With it being mid-afternoon at this point, the boys didn't have too much patience for walking around and learning things in the museum, but they did find George Washington's teeth to be interesting.
We were done at Mt. Vernon a little after 3:00, and since we had driven away from D.C., we decided to stop a Arlington National Cemetery as well, to check out a few prominent gravestones, and to watch the changing of the guard. It was quite a long walk from the entrance to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was a bit challenging for our cold, tired kids, but they really enjoyed watching the changing of the guard. They stood quietly, taking in the whole thing, and they had a lot of questions after it was over regarding why they do this, what the ceremony means, and even noticing how the ground was worn showing how they walk the same exact path every time. Here are some pictures from Arlington National Cemetery.
After seeing the changing of the guard, we decided we were cold and hungry, so we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner before heading back to our hotel for bedtime.
With the chilliness in the air on on Thursday, we decided to save our time seeing the monuments for Saturday when it was supposed to be warm and sunny. Instead, we decided to take it easy in the hotel room in the morning, and to let it warm up a little before venturing out. Here are the boys playing with their Legos that they brought along.
After eating breakfast and getting ready, we took the Metro subway over to the Capitol, partly to save ourselves a cold walk, and partly to give the kids the experience of riding on the Metro. They thought it was pretty cool, even though you can't tell that by these pictures and with everyone wearing a mask.
Since the riot at the Capitol on January 6th, a lot of security had been tightened, and we were unable to go into the Capitol or get tours of the Capitol or the White House, like we originally planned. However, we wanted to still show the kids what they looked like, so that was what we did on Friday morning. We started with the Capitol.
Then, we walked past the Supreme Court building which had a beautiful cherry blossom tree outside it, and I got some beautiful pictures. Visiting Washington D.C. in the springtime is a great time to go because of all the cherry blossoms and other blooming flowers, plants, and trees.
Since it was so cold outside, we decided to take the Metro over to get closer to the White House, rather than walking there.
It was pretty difficult to see the White House with all the gates around it, but we stopped and had a look around before going to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch. We decided that we were all pretty hungry, and we could just have a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner.
We were given huge portions of food and had way more than enough to bring back leftovers for dinner. We enjoyed sitting inside the restaurant where it was warm. It was just so windy outside, which made it feel a lot colder. All three kids sat next to each other in a booth, and both boys had to snuggle up into Samantha because she is just the best big sister to those boys.
We didn't really have other things we wanted to do that afternoon, so we decided to head back to the hotel, warm up, rest, and relax before heading back out later when the sun was expected to come out and warm things up a little more. We put the movie "Despicable Me" on for the kids to watch, and we all snuggled up on the bed together to watch. In fact, I think I may have dozed off for a few minutes during the movie. The rest and downtime was just what we needed.
After the movie was over, and before dinner, we walked through a couple outdoor sculpture gardens that were along the Mall, not too far from our hotel. We saw some more beautiful cherry blossom trees, and the kids were actually more interested in the sculpture garden than I thought they would be. We had a good time exploring.
Saturday, April 3rd was the day we decided to walk around the Tidal Basin to see all the memorials and monuments. We planned to do a lot of walking, but it was going to be a beautiful sunny day. We had the double stroller for the boys to use, if necessary, and the kids were excited to see all these famous sites. We started off walking on the Mall toward the Washington Monument. The kids could not believe how tall it was when we got up close, especially when we stood right next to it and looked up.
It was cool to be able to look down the Mall toward the Capitol building one direction, the Lincoln Memorial the other direction, as well as the White House.
We saw some beautiful trees along the way and had to stop to look at them, smell the flowers, and take some pictures.
We made our way to the World War II Memorial, and the kids thought this was really awesome. We looked at the scenes depicted in the marble, as well as the different sides depicting the Pacific and Atlantic theaters. It was a good experience to share with the kids how they had grandpas that fought in the war, what their experience was like, and how lucky we are that they came home so that we could all be here today. We spent quite a while walking around this memorial.
We continued around the Tidal Basin toward the Lincoln Memorial, walking by the reflection pool and the Vietnam Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial was definitely busier, with more people milling about and even a protest going on on the steps out front. The kids were pretty in awe about how big the statue of Abraham Lincoln was, as well as the large engravings of the Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address.
At this point it was lunchtime and we had already walked quite a bit, so we decided to get some lunch from a little food stand. It wasn't the best food, but it was nice to sit down for a while, enjoying the warm sun shining down on us, and giving us a little more energy to continue looking at monuments and memorials that afternoon. Our first stop after lunch was the Korean War Memorial, which Aedan particularly liked because of the life-size statues of the soldiers.
From there we continued on to the MLK Jr. memorial, and this one was definitely my favorite. The cherry blossom trees surrounding the memorial and lining the Tidal Basin were so beautiful, it just took my breath away. I took so many pictures of the trees and the views, as did many other tourists, but it really was just such a lovely day. I was so glad we waited until it was warm, sunny, and not a cloud in the sky to spend the day walking around to see the memorials like that.
We got some cute pictures of the kids together as well. These three are so lucky to have each other. It's fun to think that they are old enough to remember this vacation we took together. Ben and I love to travel, and we are excited to allow our children to experience traveling with us, seeing new places, learning history, and making wonderful family memories. I love our kids so much. I love spending time with them, so going on vacation together is the best of everything I love.
We stayed on the path along the water's edge because the trees were just so beautiful and full of amazing flowers. As I said earlier, this time of year is definitely a good time to visit D.C. It's not too hot, and the trees are in full bloom.
Next up was the FDR Memorial, which the kids also enjoyed a lot. They liked the statues of different times of his life and presidency, the big stone blocks they could climb and sit on, as well as the huge statue of his dog.
The Jefferson Memorial was closed for refurbishment, so we could not go inside, but we saw it from across the Tidal Basin and walked around near it.
By this point it was mid-afternoon, we had been out walking around the Tidal Basin all day. Samantha's feet and legs were starting to get tired, and we had seen all the monuments/memorials, so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest for a while and find a place to get dinner.
After dinner Ben wanted to walk around a little more and get closer to the Capitol building, and Samantha was eager to join him. I stayed in the hotel room with the boys because they had no interest in walking anymore. I think Samantha enjoyed the one-on-one attention from Ben anyways. She likes to do things without her brothers sometimes.
Saturday night was our last night in D. C. We had plans to hang around for the morning on Sunday before making our way back home and preparing for a new week of work and school. We had a great weekend trip, and we were glad we were able to do it despite Covid still being a concern. We felt safe because pretty much everything we did was outdoors. Going on trips like this is one of the reasons we were most excited about living in northeastern Pennsylvania, because we can get to cities on the east coast so much easier. We are looking forward to visiting more places with the kids. We weren't sure exactly how it would go taking the kids to D.C., but they really enjoyed it, more than we probably expected them to. There is so much to do there that we just hit the tip of the iceberg. Next time we come we will have to go to the Smithsonian museums. We had a great vacation, and it was so fun to spend this time together.
(Blog about March 28-April 3, 2021)
