Great Weekend in D.C.

Joshua was able to attend a Montessori conference in Washington, D.C. with his sister, Amy, who came out from Seattle.  The kids and I tagged along and had a great time visiting with Aunt Amy, touring the Capitol, hitting the highlights at the Natural History Museum (early humans! mammals!), and visiting the major memorials/monuments (MLK, Abe, Vietnam, Einstein, Korean War, Washington).  Alma was moved by the symbolism of the Vietnam Memorial, claiming that it was her favorite.   It was such a joy to have this special time with them.

James knows everything about the presidents, as he just studied them in school, and was a great tour guide for us.  For example, the lobby of the hotel had artist versions of the images of past presidents and Joshua and I could only name Washington; James, on the other hand, went along the images and named them accurately without skipping a beat ("Adams, Madison, Monroe, ...").  At one point, I started to tell him about Jefferson's estate, to which he said, "Are you talking about Monticello in Virginia?  Jefferson designed the building and it has 70 windows." While he is not sassy about his wealth of knowledge, it is a wonder James allows us to hang out him and his brain full of animal and presidential facts.  Ha!

Traveling with older kids is so fun.  We spent about five hours walking/touring on Saturday morning and then they proceeded to swim in the hotel pool for three hours in the afternoon = endless energy!  They are also very excited about a good deal, including free museums, analyzing which restaurants will give them the most food for the lowest price, and marveling at the high costs of hotels.  Sunday morning we enjoyed a feast at The Corner Bakery (a chain restaurant with tasty food) for only $17.  They thought this was fantastic compared to other recent restaurant bills they have seen (including my $16 oatmeal at the hotel the day before).  I'm grateful that both Alma and James love spending our family funds wisely.  It also makes me laugh how our perspectives on life are rubbing off on the children in a slightly exaggerated format.