Day 3 in DC - play ball!

I had a whole post written out, and lost it :( so, this will have to be very short! Boys played in the pool at the hotel this am, then we had a great breakfast with Chandler and Amir at Eastern Market and a great visit. Alex fell asleep on the bus ride back and I stayed with him while he napped and Andrew and Johnny went on to the game.

Johnny and his giant bucket of popcorn!

Nationals park was really really nice!

See! Alex and I did make it there!

Alex and I finally arrived in the 7th inning, and the Nationals lost 7-1.

Boys played in the wading pool after the game, then we had dinner by the park with the splash pad, where the boys played afterwards. 

Andrew took Alex on up for bath and bed and I may or may not have taken Johnny out for frozen yogurt and allowed him to make this concoction: :)

Chocolate and vanilla swirl with gummi worms, fruity pebbles, chocolate chips, m&ms, and a cherry :)

We have had an awesome trip, and I think we are all almost ready to go back home tomorrow.

Day 2 in DC

Too tired to write much today - up a little later this morning. Swam in the pool in the hotel after breakfast. Took the Metro in to Union Station and rode the tour bus all around DC - an open topped double decker bus, and Alex took a nap on Andrew :). Then hit the Natural History museum to first have some lunch, And then to check out the insects, the butterflies, the gems, the dinosaurs and the whales. Had a great time and Johnny fell asleep in the stroller as we were about to leave the museum, so we carried the stroller down the steps and parked it on the mall and let Alex play and wrestle and run while Johnny napped for a good while. Then we got back on the open topped tour bus and rode around a little more, during which Alex took a nap :) then had dinner at Pizzaria UNO (Chicago style) followed by ice cream before taking the metro back to the hotel and crashing! Big day! Tomorrow is Brunch with Chandler and Amir followed by the baseball game.

Alex LOVED these fish skeletons for some reason!

He also love the shrimp and crabs that were in these bubbles

Crawling in the "termite tunnel"

Soft bear holding the shark tooth one of the employees gave Johnny

Johnny liked the wool larvae and moths best in the butterfly room :)

Alex absolutely loved these tropical fish and cried when we had to leave them.

Pooped! 

Day 1 in DC

It was a good, very full first day in DC today! We had a great day and the boys are both snoring away as I type. They were both exhausted and ready for bed. Overall the train ride went well yesterday. Even though it was late leaving Raleigh, it made up some time one the way. The only big problem is that Alex didn't want to fall asleep on the train. He finally fell asleep late in the afternoon, around 2:30 or so, but not until he had cried some, unfortunately. He slept for most of the rest of the train ride.

We did well taking the subway from Union Station to the hotel, except that we hit the Metro during rush hour and weren't quite prepared for the number of people or how fast we would need to board the train. We missed the first train because the doors shut on us right as we were about to board! This surprised me and really upset Johnny, and all the noise of the subway trains and the number of people were a lot for him at first. We ended up putting him in the stroller and Alex in the carrier to make it through the train rides!

The hotel is very nice, and though it was not where we originally wanted to be, it is a really nice area, with plenty of restaurants and lots of outdoor park and play space, which has been awesome for the boys! We went to Gordon Biersch for dinner last night, which was good, and then took a walk down to the waterfront where we discovered a great boardwalk and then a huge wading pool and waterfall, and another splash pad closer to the hotel. Johnny and I went back out when Andrew was putting Alex to bed and took the metro one stop up to buy some snacks and drinks. That metro ride went much better since it was less crowded and he was used to it by then. Today he really enjoyed going on the metro.

This morning the boys woke bright and early and we went down and had breakfast in the hotel. We came back up and the boys played in the room while Andrew went and worked out. The Smithsonian doesn't open until 10, so I got the boys ready and we went down to the waterfront wading pool this morning, and they had a great time! The water was really cold, but it didn't seem to bother them. Andrew joined us, and after a while we went back to the hotel to get dry clothes on and head to the Air and Space Museum.

We had a great time at the Air and Space museum, and I think Johnny really enjoyed it. They had an interactive area about all the science concepts behind flight, and while I don't know how much of all that Johnny took in, he really enjoyed pushing all the buttons! We had lunch there in by far the most efficient food court I have ever seen.

I had forgotten our pass for the U.S. Capitol Tour back at the hotel, and we weren't allowed to take any food or drink at all into the Capitol, so I went back to the hotel to get the pass and drop the food off, and Andrew took Johnny and Alex to the Art Museum (National Gallery, I think?). Alex took a nap, finally during that, and we met up (after some confusion about where it was) at the east side of the Capitol Building where the Visitors Center is. The tour was OK. We were losing Alex at this point, and Johnny was getting tired. And we really only got to see the Rotunda and the Statue Room. But, it was still pretty interesting. Afterwards, we had ice cream and let the boys run around on the Mall for a while, which was much needed :)

We came back near the hotel and picked up a picnic dinner, which we ate at the little park right by the hotel. It had two water features - a splash fountain - for lack of a better description. It was just a puddle-depth amount of water running kind of like a stream. And then a splash pad. So, we played there for a while before calling it a night. Whew!

Tomorrow I think we are planning to go to the Natural History Museum and then we have passes to an open-topped bus tour. The weather was glorious today - sunny but not hot at all.

Having trouble getting all the pictures uploaded - just a few more below- more to come later! Off to bed to rest after all of the walking today!

Johnny at the north end of the wading pool

Johnny checking out the rotunda in the capitol building :)

Alex enjoying the wading pool :)

Time to ride!

We are on our way to DC this morning! The boys are sooo excited. This morning I was explaining to Johnny how he needed to bring just his backpack, soft bear, and only 1 blanket because we would be riding on the train, then walking, and then taking the subway and that I would be pushing the stroller and Daddy would be pulling the big bag. I told him "everything you bring you have to carry yourself", and then I pointed to Alex and said "everything you bring I have to carry", and then Johnny said "and everything you bring, Mommy, Daddy has to carry!" We thought that was really funny. We made it to the train station in Raleigh in plenty of time. Unfortunately, the train was about an hour late. We are on our way now, though, and the boys seem to be enjoying the train ride. 

Alex on the train

Johnny playing Angry Birds Star Wars in Daddy's phone

Reading Mr. Brown can moo. :)