Washington D.C.

Well, we made it through our first day in DC!! LeaAnn and her kids met us at the Air and Space Museum and we spent the rest of the day exploring with them. The kids were so happy to have the company and it made the day a lot more fun for all of us. We were also able to visit the archives, where the documents are, the Natural History Museum, and a brief glance at the Holocaust Museum. Kevin and I were most interested in the documents and I would have stayed there for hours reading every word but we didn't have much time and wanted to see as much as we could. We ended up buying copies of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. Tristan and Calista, of course, were completely in awe of the rock, mineral, gem collection!!! Tristan expressed that he was pretty overwhelmed at the enormity of the collection. They would have bought everything at the gift shop had they had enough money!!

Our plan is to go back today and visit all the memorials and monuments. None of us do very well with the more "touristy" sort of thing and being in a large city where it is a production to get where you want to go is not our idea of fun so I think we are doing pretty good. The hardest part is when we get back to the motorhome and all Martin and I can think of doing is reading a book, catching up on our e-mails, or relaxing in front of the TV and the kids are still needing us for things. They also get energized, where it zaps my energy, so we have had some challenges the last couple of days but all-in-all have been able to get through it without any major meltdowns.

It has been so fun to see some of the kids interests taking shape, I have learned so much about them on this trip and that has been really exciting for me. They have been exposed to so many new things on this trip and it is fun to see what puts a sparkle in their eyes or gets them excited! One thing that has really sparked Kevins interest is photography. We have taken hundreds of pictures on this trip, many of them taken by Kevin. He wants to learn all the tricks of the trade so I think it is time to start saving to get him his own camera and get him some books so he can start playing. He has also developed a pretty strong interest in anything old, from his Aunt Ruth's antiques to the Declaration of Independence. Tristan has been really intrigued with how people lived long ago but it is when he can see it, touch it, smell it that he gets excited about it. We were able to get another computer on this trip so Tristan inherited our Dell, which is only a few months old, so now he can start learning all things computer. When we approached Washington DC he said, "Hey look, there is the Washington Monument!" I didn't even know that he had heard of it so I asked him how he knew that. He replied, "Oh, I learned that on Simm City 3000." Computer games are great! Calista has spent hours collecting rocks and shells EVERYWHERE we go!! Yesterday she was collecting pretty white, see-throughish kind of rocks off the path in front of the Capitol Building. She has quite a collection to bring home. Tristan joins right in on that one, of course.