Family Fun

It was great fun to meet in Washington, DC.  Here's some family pictures from along the trip:

Our hotel had elevators that were fun for the boys.  Of course, they pretended that they were blasting off in a rocket ship every time we went for a ride!

Cherry Blossom Parade

The big event of our third day in Washington, DC was the Cherry Blossom Parade.  This year marks the 100th anniversary of the gift of the cherry trees from Japan.  Unfortunately we didn't see any actual cherry blossoms because they bloomed early this year.  That didn't matter, though!  The parade was great!

It was the hottest day of our entire trip

The parade begins!

Ambassadors from Japan

Many many marching bands with many many drums!

From our seats, we watched everything pass by in front of the Washington Monument.  It was spectacular!

Unicycles!

Japanese drummers are Noah and Isaac's favorite!

The boys loved this robotic spider that "walked" the entire parade route

Miss Cherry Blossom

While the parade went on, Isaac ate countless cookies from this tub, then drank the crumbs...

...and wore the tub as a hat!

More drummers!

The parade was fabulous, and long.  It went on for a few hours!  We were ready to leave and get some lunch, but we had to convince Noah to leave early.  He loved watching every float and band coming down the street and didn't want to miss anything.

Seeing the Sights

On our second day in Washington, DC, we were excited to see Dave, Travis, Connor and Jacob arrive form Phoenix.  The red-eye flight and time change was rough for them, and Jacob had a fever, so unfortunately we didn't see to much of them during the trip.  But, Travis did join us for breakfast and he and Noah had a blast playing together.

Travis was amazed by Noah's magic tricks 

After breakfast, we took a double-decker bus sightseeing tour around the city. 

The boys had fun trying to spot our bus as we waited at a bus stop

The bus was a great way to see the highlights of the city without having to do endless walking

Isaac and the Washington Monument

Matt and the boys in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Laura and the boys

Abraham Lincoln is SO big!

It was a beautiful day for sightseeing!

The White House

The boys loved President Obama's front lawn.  It was a great place to run and play!

Air and Space Museum

Noah is obsessed with NASA and space travel.  He watches NASA TV on the computer and keeps up to date with the current projects that NASA and commercial space companies are working on.  He knows that  Expedition 30 astronauts recently returned from the International Space Station and landed in the Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan.  He is anxiously awaiting the launch of the next Soyuz rocket that will bring Expedition 31 astronauts up to the ISS.  He has been following the training of the astronauts in Russia as they get ready for their mission.

He is a wealth of information about he space shuttle program and has followed the various shuttles as they made piggyback flights to their new museum homes.  He knows where Discover, Atlantis, Endeavor and Enterprise are.  He also knows that Challenger and Columbia were destroyed, but we've kept him clear of the details of those events, which is a challenge when he's knee deep in NASA information.  His favorite movie is "The Big Space Shuttle," and he has memorized the entire thing.

All this information has rubbed off on Isaac too and he has become quite the space fanatic.  Noah has patiently taught him how to count backwards from 10 so he can announce liftoffs when they play.  When Isaac saw one of the rockets Noah got for his birthday, he gasped and said, "Oh!  Boosters!  Look Noah!  Solid rocket boosters!"

Here are the boys learning about the VAB building while watching "The Big Space Shuttle"

So, needless to say, visiting the Air and Space Museum was one of the highlights of our trip to Washington, DC.  Noah poured over books about the museum and knew exactly where he wanted to go and what he wanted to see upon our arrival.

First stop:  The Eagle lunar lander!  There is Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin!  

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

Noah with a cosmonaut space suit.  

Isaac was not quite appreciating every detail like Noah was, so Grammy and Yaya whisked Isaac away and they had great fun together in a quiet spot of the museum.

Here's just a sample of our tour around the museum:

Watching a demonstration about the physics of flight

After lunch, while we were waiting to see "To Fly,"  Noah took a much-needed power nap.

While Isaac enjoyed showing us how a rocket lifts off:  3...2...1..

Blastoff!

Isaac soaks in all the attention while brother naps!

After we were finished at Air and Space, we enjoyed eating ice cream sandwiches even though the weather was chilly.

Wow, what a wonderful view!

It was a fun, full day for us and we were ready to take the Metro back to our hotel in Bethesda.