Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Today's the day!

our two Chinese boys arrive for their 3 week stay! We've been working very hard around here to try to get the house arranged and cleaned.

My feet are killing me, so off the podiatrist I will go next week.

but for now...I've gotta keep workin'!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Wednesday, July 6th

We did it! The boys and I made it back home, sans hubby/dad, and it was a much smoother trip coming than it was going!

We got up at 4:30ish. Everyone got dressed, got the last stuff packed, and we were out the door @ 5:15. We stopped in the Metro station and purchased one-way passes to Reagan airport.

We got to the airport, checked in and got to the gate. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before boarding. The fight home was fine. We were among the first to get to the luggage claim & our bags were among the first 6 or so bags to come out.

less than a 2 minute wait for the shuttle to take us to remote parking and we were outta there!

Great trip!!!

Tuesday, July 5th

Well, the trip has been good for my youngest. He's been eating and *sleeping* and has been in a growth spurt while we were here! So today, we bought passes to go to Ballston and back. We shopped for a new pair of khaki dress pants for D, had lunch @ Chick-fil-a and came home.

We got everything packed and ate out tonight.

Have to be up @ 4;15 in teh a.m. to leave on time!

Monday, July 4th

Well the plan was to get out and go to the National Cathedral today. Reality was that we stayed home and rested.

There was a party on the roof of the apartment building tonight, so we ate dinner (tacos!) and then went up for the party. We had an almost 360 degree view around Arlington. We had lots of far, distant fireworks to see. Then the Capitol fireworks started!

They were fantastic! The mall looked so crowded on TV that we felt we really did make the right choice in staying home.

Sunday, July 3rd

The guys all went to the National Building Museum today. My feet were so sore and painful that I opted to stay home. I washed laundry all day and got everything clean!

Tomorrow is th 4th!!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Saturday, July 2nd

We left around 11 and made our way to the Holocaust Memorial. We picked up tickets for the permanent exhibition as soon as we arrived. Our time on the tickets was 2:15. So we toured "Daniel's Story", visited the museum store, saw the Hall of Rememberance, and the exhibition about propoganda.

When it was our turn to enter the permanent exhibition, we rode up an elevator to the top floor of the museum. We worked our way down to the 2st floor over a 2 1/2 hour period. The photographs, the personal tetimonies, the history of what Hitler and the Nazi party did was horrid.

The rooms that affected me the most were 1) the room of shoes left by those being herded into the gas chambers. 2) the room with photographs of the hair shaved from those same victims heads, 3) the tower of photographs made by the 4 photographers in Eishyshok, Lithuania; and 4) the testimonies that were filmed and played back in the last room of the musuem.

My youngest was very emotional after the visit. It's the first time he'd heard about this and then to be faced with it as he was in the museum affected him. I know that many would argue that he's too young, but as I was musing later about how unusual I found it to be that the US has a Holocaust Museum (since it didn't happen on our soil), the youngest said, "They had to [build it] so we can see it and learn about it so it never happens again!"

My sentiments exactly.

Friday, July 1st

The boys and I stayed in during the morning and watched Wimbeldon. We finally got out and met Glenn @ the Living Social offices on New York Ave, NW. Very cool office space. Then we left and rode the Metro to Union Station. WE had dinner there @ Johnny Rocket's and then took off for our DC after Dark tour. We saw the Tile Bridge, The Capital Reflecting Pool, the Capitol, drove down Pennsylvania Avenue. Saw the WWII memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, drove past the FDR memorial, saw the Iwo Jima Statue, and then back to the Lincoln, Vietnam and Korean Memorials. We finally got to see the Korean Memorial at night. very striking.

WE saw the White house and the North lawn. WE were so close to Glenn's office that we left the tour there, stopped by his office space to grab his backback and then made our way home.