Easter and Egg Hunt

Happy Easter everyone!!

The girls wanted to do an egg hunt before church. Clay put out our dyed egg on the deck for them to find. Rebekah is modeling the new Rapunzel dress she found in her basket this morning.

After church we had a neighborhood egg hunt at the end of our street. We had about 13 or 14 kids and about 600 eggs!!!

There were boys in the egg hunt, but they didn't want to be seen with the girls (sat on the other side of the street!). The girls: Katherine, Emma, Bridgette, Quinn, and Riley. Rebekah already went inside to eat as much candy as she could before we stopped her. We found LOTS of wrappers when we came in.

Mount Vernon, Arlington, and Easter Eggs

Mount_Vernon, home of George and Martha Washington. Here they are with their grandchildren, Washington and Nelly.

This is the back of the house, lined with rocking chairs facing out over the Potomac River. It was great to see Mount Vernon after reading Mount_Vernon_Love_Story by Mary Higgins Clark.

This first picture shows all 8000 acres of land he had. And here are some Johnny-Jump-Ups, and edible garden treat. We finally got a picture of the whole Young family: Braxton, Heather, Camryn, Layne and Tanner.

We stopped off at the Pentagon_Memorial. You can see in the wall where they replaced the stones. The memorial benches for each person who died here, both on the plane and in the building, all arranged by year they were born.

We concluded our day with a walk around Arlington_National_Cemetery.

Arlington House was built as a living memorial to George Washington by his adopted grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. After his death, the house went to his daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, wife of Robert E. Lee. During the Civil War the Lees abandoned Arlington House for safety and it fell into government hands. Brig. Gen. Montgomery C Meigs, intended to render the house uninhabitable should the Lee family ever attempt to return by making it a military cemetery -starting with a stone vault containing the remains of 1800 Ball Run Union casualties.

Some prominent graves: JFK and his wife (above), Tomb of the Unknown Solider, and a Chase (we will have to look into that one).

Two memorials for the space shuttle flights that ended in tragedy. Rebekah spent most of the time of on Tanner's shoulders, beating his head like a drum. Sorry Tanner!!

We got back in time to color some Easter eggs before we sent everyone to bed.

A Day Off

After many morning of getting up around 5 or 6 am and not going to bed until 9 pm (after midnight for me), the girls (and I) were worn out. We needed a day off to sleep in and relax. Clay took Heather and the boys for a tour of Orbital_Sciences_Corp, where he works. Then they went to the Udvar_Hazy_Air_&_Space_Museum. The Udvar Hazy location holds artifacts that are too big to be at the location on the Mall. Like the space shuttle Enterprise. The boys had a GREAT time. Meanwhile, I kept getting texts from Heather with things like "bored" and "help me" :) Glad the girls and I could take a day off ;)

Library of Congress & US Capitol

The Library_of_Congress is my favorite building on the Mall. I love all the mosaics and architectural details. This my friends, is where all our tax dollars went. Lots of them. It is a beautiful building.

Next we went to the Supreme_Court_Building.

This is where the justices sit. We also found this bust of Salmon P Chase.

After we walked through the US_Botanical_Gardens. This was my first time seeing it.

Finally it was time for our tour of the US_Capitol. Another building with great architecture.

After our tour we did a quick run through of the Senate Gallery. Great artwork, no cameras allowed.

Old Post Office & Museums

We finally got to go up the tower in the Old Post Office.

We saw some great views of DC and got a close look at the bells. My favorite thing is to spot all the cute little gardens and seating areas on top of the buildings, like this one.

Next we went to the American_History_Museum. Here we saw Dorothy's ruby slippers, Kermit the Frog, and Julia Child's kitchen.

These comic books I took for my brothers who used to collect them. For my sister Holly, Michael Jackson's hat.

My favorite section of this museum is the First Lady's Gowns. Here are Mrs. & Pres. Lincoln's clothes followed by Michelle Obama's inauguration ball dress.

Next, the boys headed over to the Air_&_Space_Museum. We knew they would take a long time there, and the girls weren't quite up for that. We took the girls back to the Natural History Museum to see the butterflies (free on Tuesdays, not today). It was very cool. Well, no, it was a hot and humid room, but a very neat experience. Emma's favorite is the Blue Morpho butterfly, which we found right as we walked in. See how many butterflies you can spot in the next picture.

One rule is DON'T TOUCH the butterflies. So the workers have paint brushes they get butterflies on and then you can hold. Or you can just stick out your camera like Heather! They seem to like that too. My camera was not special enough :(

Check out this Comet Moth! He's green and right behind the flowers. On our way to meet the boys at the Air & Space, Rebekah found another 4-leaf clover. This time she is even wearing her shamrock shirt :)

On our walk back to the car we passed some beautiful wisteria.