Batts Go To Washington, Day 2

Today we got a very, very late start, due to our very, very late night! We went out for brunch (yeah, it was that late!), and then headed south to Washington DC for what was left of the day!
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All week, the kids and I will be spending the day in DC while Justin is working, so today, we drove down to get the lay of the land and formulate our plan for the week.

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We parked the car by the art museum and made a large loop around the mall.

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We walked down the mall, from the Capital, to the Washington Monument. What an awesome sight! The weather could not have been more gorgeous, and what luck! The cherry blossoms are at their peak this week!

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The White House - we'll get a closer look on Saturday, when we come back to the monuments!

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The Thomas Jefferson Memorial - what a beautiful sight.

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The Washington Monument again - this tree was particularly pink, I thought it was beautiful!

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Justin and I, with the Jefferson Memorial in the background

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Inside the Thomas Jefferson memorial

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What a man - one has to wonder what he would think of the current state of the union...

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On the steps of the Jefferson Memorial

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Cherry blossoms and The White House, from the top of the steps of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

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What a magnificent day!! I can't wait to go back on Saturday for some time at the Lincoln Memorial, and a closer look at the White House. As for the rest of the weeks, we'll be spending our time at the various Smithsonian museums, and logging it as school time!

Batts Go To Washington, Day 1

Wow! My last post was almost four months ago....oops! Well, pardon the cobwebs, but welcome back!

This week the kids and I drove up to Washington DC to meet Justin, who is here for a month long, temporary assignment. We got into town on Friday night, and just got settled and went to dinner. On Saturday, we ventured out to Baltimore, MD to check out their children's museum, Port Discovery.

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Sir Hunter, the Brave

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Most of the museum's third floor is made to look like the seaside town where Clifford and Emily Elizabeth live - here, Justin, Hunter, and Morgan are using a conveyor belt to get the bones into Clifford's bowl

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Here is Morgan, working at the fish n' chips shack

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The museum had a very cool water works room - the table Hunter liked the best was this one - where he had to load a ship with cargo (weighted legos) and get it to float rather than tip!

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All of those things were neat, but the real reason we picked this museum was the Egypt exploration exhibit! As you enter, you take a map of the exhibit.

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Here, Hunter an I are making a rubbing of some ancient heiroglyphs, to try and determine which Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb has been discovered!

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Here is Justin, thouroughly annoyed by the fact that they misspelled 'Cairo' in Arabic...

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After gathering a few clues from the city, it is time to pull yourself across the Nile river on a raft.

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After climbing weaving through pyrmid corridors and climing through tunnels (both things were very difficult to get good pictures of!), we finally found the burial chamber! Inside the burial chamber was a mummy, some artifacts, and some coffins (that you could step inside!).

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Hunter, posing next to some chamber art

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Justin and Hunter checked out the coffins - look at the back!

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Morgan - driving the train

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This was a very cool museum, but without a doubt, the best part was the Egypt discovery exhibit, which brpught to life something Hunter and I have spent a great deal of time studying this year!

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After a few hours, we left the museum, and headed down south to Virginia to visit an old friend from highschool, her husband, and her two awesome kids - we ate, and talked, and stayed waaaayy to late, but it was well worth it!

Fall Fun!

This past Saturday, we took a break from trim installation in the basement, and took the kids to a local dairy farm for some fall fun! It was VERY close (about 10 minutes away!), and a million times more fun than we ever expected! It was VERY chilly, (58!), and there was absolutely NO sun. However, after 7+ years of living in states that only offer summer weather - we were THRILLED to finally experience FALL!

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Beautiful view of the Georgia/Carolina state line!

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First up was the corn maze!

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Morgan enjoyed chasing Hunter and I through the maze!

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Following #23

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Corn maze for the digital age - call if you get lost!

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Luckily, we had our own scout :o)

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They had a big pit full of dried corn kernels - super fun to dig around in, and much cleaner than a sand box!

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Sweet face :o)

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Another sweet face :o)

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Attempting to take a picture of the kids in the hay...

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"SHE'S SITTING STILL, QUICK! TAKE THE PICTURE!!) "

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Hunter even got to do the zip-line! I was really impressed by his bravery!

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Justin ran alongside, just in case!

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WEEEEE!!!

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Bringing back the seat for the next kid in line

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After the zipline, we went on a hayride - by the time we were done, we needed a warm-up! We headed to the snack trailer and ordered hot chocolates and s'mores - we received our drinks and then the snack lady handed Hunter his s'more...

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I must have had a weird/confused look on my face, because she said "You take that down to the fire pits and roast it yourself" - AWESOME! Even better!!

So we made our way to the fire pits and got toasty - what could be better on a chilly fall day??

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Mmmmmmmm...

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Morgan's first bite of oooey, goooey, s'mores goodness!

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After our toasty snack, we played around on some of the play structures (seen in the very top picture), and slid down some huge slides together. I don't have pictures of that, because I was busy playing too :o)

It was a great morning, filled with fall memories!
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