Our Trip To Washington D.C.

Hello everyone! I'm back from my trip to Washington D.C.!  It was fun and exhausting at the same time. We were definitely on the go from morning until night, but you have to be in order to see everything. Although, there is no way you can see it all in the three and a half days we were there.

 I think we all enjoyed the Smithsonian Natural History Museum the best. There was so much to see there! It was incredible...I have posted a few pics below.

 One thing we moms and grandmas did not get to do was take a tour of the White House. They would only allow six inside and the boys went with their teacher and her family. They enjoyed the tour but I think Chase was expecting to see the President in the Oval office! Ha! They said they enjoyed the Capitol tour better. We all got to see it and it was amazing!

Here are the boys in front of the White House.  

Here they are with Arkansas Senator John Boozeman's wife before going into the White House.

One thing the boys could not wait to do was visit the Air and Space Museum. They really enjoyed it and  liked the flight simulator.

I enjoyed seeing the Write Brother's display and learned so much about them. They really paved the way for the global aviation industry we know today. This is the original 1903 Wright Flyer.

  I also enjoyed seeing the space part of the museum. This space suit was worn by one of the Apollo 11 crew members.

Here is some original food from the first Shuttle mission in 1981. There was so much to see, I just snapped a few pics of things I thought were interesting.

We spent almost a full day at the Natural History Museum. It just went on and on! Here we are in the butterfly exhibit. The boys really didn't stay to long in here, they wanted to go see the cool stuff! I could have stayed for hours! 

 There were beautiful butterflies all around us! My mom enjoyed it too. 

 Another thing we saw was the Hope Diamond. This picture is horrible...there were people all around it and I could barely get a picture. Although this diamond is not the biggest in the world it is still huge and extremely rare due to the beautiful blue color.

 The Smithsonian houses the most beautiful jewelry and alot of it was worn by Kings and Queens. I couldn't imagine wearing this necklace...Wow!

One thing I found very interesting was the collection of mineral rocks. It's so interesting to see all of the beautiful shapes and colors that come out of the earth.  

 On to something ugly...have you ever heard of an Angler fish? This fish lives deep down in the ocean and looks like something out of a Sci Fi movie! Look at those teeth!

 There are also alot of ancient skeletons from animals to humans at the Smithsonian. Like I said...this was definitely our favorite museum! It is a must see if you ever visit Washington D.C.

Here is Chase in front of the Capitol.

I was so excited to get to tour the Capitol. This is the top of the dome and it was stunning! The beautiful painting in the middle of the dome is called The Apotheosis of Washington and was painted by Constantino Brumidi in 1865.

  The frieze is located around the inside of the base of the dome and is a chronological, pictorial history of the United States from the landing of Christopher Columbus to the Wright Brother's flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The frieze was started in 1878 and was not completed until 1953.

All around the dome there are eight large paintings about the development of the United States as a nation. They were beautiful!

This was a room inside the Capitol, but I can't remember what it was called. I do know it is a room where important meetings were held.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was eating out! There were so many great restaurants. On the last night after we ate we ran across this cupcake shop called The Sweet Lobby. On the window it said "Winner of Food Networks Cupcake Wars" so we knew their cupcakes would be good and we were not disappointed! They also had French Macarons which were delish! I think this was my favorite part of the trip...lol!

We had a great time, but I am glad to be back. I don't think I could have walked another day! I did a whole lot of nothing yesterday...just rested. Now I have to get ready for Jamaica! We leave next Friday and I can't wait to relax on the beach. I am so thankful to be able to go on two trips this year. That will probably never happen again...lol.

By the way, the boys did not win in their category at Nationals. That's ok though, they were up against 99 other groups. We are still very proud of them for getting as far as they did!