I haven't been blogging much lately. I wanted this blog to be more introspective than it has been lately. But, I also like the basic journaling of our lives. And, I am way behind on the basics.
As is tradition, we went to Rita's for the first day of Spring. We had dropped Thomas' car off for an oil change and planned to go to the Lexington Park Rita's. The car took forever. We were told it was done, but there was some issue with the computers, so it took around 30 minutes to pay and get out of there. Then, we headed to Rita's, but it was closed. Not one to be thwarted in my efforts for achieving free ice, I told Thomas I wanted to drive across the bridge. He didn't say how insane he thought I was (I could just tell). Despite it being the first day of Spring, it was cold! And, not only was it cold, it was rainy. But, we have a saying in our house, "nothing is free, except for Rita's on free ice day," and I was determined. So, we got in line with the base traffic and headed across the bridge. Thomas lost the bet and there was a line of people getting their free ices. Totally worth it.
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| It was so cold, we even broke our "no eating in the car until it's fully paid for" rule |
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Luke enjoyed his first taste of Rita's
Marta and Elizabeth came up for Spring Break. We are lucky that they have the same Spring Break that we do. They got here on a Monday. Tuesday, we went to D.C. We parked at Arlington and visited the grave of one of Matt's friends. I had never been and it was a very sobering experience. The rows and rows of white markers are an amazing site and I don't think there can be a more visual reminder of the cost of war. Obviously, not everyone buried there died on active duty, but everyone there, and I purposefully include military spouses, made a sacrifice for our country. As we were leaving a funeral was taking place for a young Marine. There was a horse drawn carriage carrying his casket to be buried. The casket was draped with an American flag. I was glad that the kids were able to see it. They all felt sad, but it was a good conversation. We did not do the tour, maybe when Luke is bigger and we don't have to the stroller to contend with. I did not take any pictures, it seemed a little distasteful to me (no judgement here, just the feeling I had that day).
From there, we walked across the bridge toward the Lincoln Memorial. We got some lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather before going inside. After that, we saw the Vietnam and World War II Memorials and the Washington Monument (although, we did not go inside). We had hoped to see the Jefferson and to walk by the White House, but it was getting late so we decided to take the metro back to Arlington.
We drove past the White House and headed for home, stopping for dinner at Red Robin. When the day was done, we had walked over 6 miles and were out for about 12 hours. The kids did awesome! Luke was happy the entire day. The only time he cried was briefly on the drive home. The older three never really complained. I did make Jack stay by my side after having to chase him down a few times, but overall it was a great experience. And now, the photo dump for our DC day:
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| We actually read the entire speech. Good stuff! |
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| Standard shot from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, the Reflecting Pond was empty. |
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| Aren't they cute?!?! |
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| We let Luke run around and he was thrilled! |
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| WWII. |
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the Vietnam Wall. I remember hearing about it and thinking it was kind of a boring idea for a memorial. I am not sure memorials are supposed to be exciting, but so many of them are so elaborate and stately that a wall with a bunch of names seemed anticlimatic. But, after seeing it, I can say I was totally wrong. There was something so personal and powerful about walking by the names of the 58,000+ who died. It was a beautiful idea.
Wednesday we visited the Mudd House. As with our previous visit, we were impressed with the friendly staff and enjoyed the visit. After that, we came home and made cupcakes. Thursday, I took the kids to the Calvert Marine Museum while Marta and Elizabeth went back to the city. Friday, we had planned to go to Fort Washington, but we decided to have a quiet day at home instead. Then, Elizabeth got sick Friday night, so we ended up staying in Saturday as well. Fortunately, she was feeling better in time to fly out on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, Thomas had worked the rest of the week, so he didn't get to do any of outings with us.
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| The only picture I took at the Mudd House was one of Kara trying on the hat Anna chose as her souvenir. |
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| Red velvet cupcakes. The kids wanted to do monkeys, then just had fun with the decorations. |
Sunday was Easter. We dyed our Easter eggs on either Friday or Saturday, which is a fun tradition. The kids did an Easter Egg hunt in the house (rainy outside) and we had a ham dinner. It was a quiet day. They were out of school on Monday as well, so we went to the base and had lunch with Thomas and then met some friends at the park. Overall, I would say it was a pretty great Spring Break.
On an unrelated note, several months ago I wrote about Thomas hurting his ankle. I think I mentioned how I wanted him to see a doctor, but he didn't want to go. Well, he finally went to the doctor, 4+ months after the injury, and it turns out he fractured his Talar Dome (something neither of us had ever heard of). The doctor did say the injury isn't really visible on x-rays, so is often missed in the E.R., so he probably would have been misdiagnosed with a sprain if he had gone in. Now, he has to wear a cast for 6 weeks and if it doesn't heal, he will have to have surgery. Never a dull moment!
