Fireworks at the Mall

We were going to have a picnic dinner on the National Mall with our friends John and Kate. We had planned on picnicing and waiting for the fireworks. However, when we left the hotel it was raining. So we had our picnic at Subway and waited for the rain to stop. Once it stopped we walked down to the mall and hoped for the best. The kids had a great time runing around for a little bit. Nicole busied herself meeting everyone within a 1 mile radius of our picnic blanket. Ryan went in search of anyting with a round shape that he could throw. Katie was tackling John and Kate was capturing the whole thing on film! Needless to say we didn't get a lot of time to chat.
Then it started to rain. We hoped it would stop but it was not to be. The rain started pouring through our little tarp. Although the kids looked happy we knew it would not last long. We packed up and said goodbye to our friends and headed back to the hotel. We had just enough time to clean up before we headed up to the roof of our hotel to see the fireworks display. It had stopped raining just long enough for a fabulous fireworks display.

4th of July in Washington D.C.

We took a trip to Washington D.C. over the 4th of July. It was great to be in our Nation's capitol on the 4th of July.
We met our good friend Johnny B there and he joined us for the day. We started the day with the D.C. parade. The kids loved the parade.

Nicole and Katie smiled their way to the front of the crowd and had front row seats on the curb of the street!
Of course what is 4th of July without snow cones?
After the parade we had lunch on the mall and headed to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum. We saw an awesome 3-D I-max film on Dinosaurs. In hindsight it may have been a little bit scary for Nicole and Ryan. They were cuddled up pretty close to Mom and Dad. They don't seem to be having re-curring nightmares about dinosaurs eating them so I guess it wasn't too bad.
We couldn't leave the museum without seeing the butterfly exhibit. There were lots of neat butterflys and one even landed on Katie's head. The kids really enjoyed the butterfly house.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The entire time we were in Washington D.C. Nicole was singing this song. It took me a little bit to figure out what she was singing but it is definately Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Thanks to my new camera I was able to catch it on video as she ran around the pizza playground singing at the top of her lungs!

A Day at the National Zoo

We finished our trip to Washington D.C with a trip to the National Zoo. As you can see from the pictures the kids were very excited to see the animals. I was a little worried when we left the hotel as it was raining. It was still raining lightly when we arrived at the zoo; however, soon after we arrived, it stopped raining and the weather was just perfect.
Our first stop was the panda exhibit; this was Stephanie's favorite. Next stop was the Hippos. We had been on a quest to find hippos ever since we left Colorado. This day, we found both little pygmy hippos and one giant hippo! Katie was pretty excited.

Nicole's favorite animal was the elephant. I couldn't get her to stop looking at the elephants so that I could take her picture.


Ryan's favorite part of the zoo was getting out of the stroller and playing at the giant pizza playground. The kids had a great time playing and getting some of their energy out before the long trip home. I think that was Jim's favorite part (knowing that we were going home).