Vacation Photos

The Washington Monument - we're all so glad to finally be in Washington DC!

This was our favorite! WWII Memorial at night - absolutely breath-taking!

Sarah is "windsurfing" at the Smithsonian. Hannah gave it a try too. Much harder than it looks...

A common site while riding on the Metro...everyone exhausted. We had about a 20-30 minute ride to and from our hotel each way. It was so fun to see the kids become familiar with the subway. They were extremely cautious and excited (and clueless) at first. By the end of our vacation, they looked like old pros scanning their tickets and knowing which trains to watch for. Ethan was our route planner - his nose was always in the map. We couldn't have done it without you Ethan!

The Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This tomb is guarded 24-7-365 no matter what the weather. These soldiers undergo intense training and this assignment is considered a very high honor. The guarding and ceremony to change guards are both extremely precise (21 steps; pause 21 seconds; gun switches shoulders; 21 steps back, etc.). So cool!

Here's our family blocking the view of DC from Arlington National Cemetery. Spectacular (as seen below)! As you can probably tell, Hannah was DONE for the day. We had to hike up to see this and it was near the end of a long day. We had all we could do to just get her in the photo... You catch a glimpse of Lincoln Memorial at the left of the photos, Washington Monument in the middle, the capitol in the distance. In our family photo, you can see Jefferson Memorial just to the right of the flag pole.

Washington Monument in the daytime - Ethan showing signs of the misery to come.

Feeding the ducks in the Reflecting Pool. That pool is so much prettier from a distance with the Washington Monument reflecting in it.

The Vietnam Wall is an amazing picture of the number of people affected by war. There are 50,000+ names on this wall - each one with a family and a story... The children had lots of questions about this. It's almost mesmerizing to stand at the wall and contemplate it all. The top of the wall is at ground level. You walk down to where the 2 walls meet at a right angle - at this point the wall is about 10 feet high. The names are written in order of the casualties. There are books outside the wall where you can look up names in order to locate them on the wall. We searched and found the name of an individual Nedra's dad knew of. This really brought this whole thing to life. The children pressed their fingers to the names in order to see the imprint on their hands. We noticed our reflections in the wall.

Union Station - as everyone grows weary of the mom taking photos, I tell them to just give me their best "I'm tired" face...here's the result.

Happy Birthday Mom! (37)

The Smithsonian Museum of Art. The children are all listening to some information from a phone-like "kids' tour guide" they were given. Nedra loves the impressionist paintings esp. Monet and Renoir. This kids' tour allows Nedra to look around a bit while the children are entertained.

Back in Columbus at the Zoo - Ryan had to work so he couldn't join us.

After several more-than-sweaty hot days of touring in DC, we threw Dana's hat away so we had to get him a new one at the zoo. For some reason, Nedra finds this somewhat silly hat strangely attractive on her man :o)

Thor tries out the hat.

There's that sweet Baby Solomon and his beautiful Mommy!

Thor and Hannah are checking out the fish at the zoo. We sat and examined this tank for quite some time. We marveled at the complexity and diversity in God's creation - and that was just fish!

This is Misha, a baby gorilla. She was injured at the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky and sent here to recuperate. She lost part of a leg, but is being nursed back to health. We were enamored with her. Isn't she CUTE?!

Just around the corner was one of the other gorillas...not quite as cute, but pretty funny...

Leaving the zoo. As we drove out of Ohio, we remarked on how bittersweet it was to see the "Thanks for visiting Ohio" sign. Ready to go home, but lots of sweet memories...thank you so much Ryan and Stephanie! We miss you already!