our trip to DC

One of these days I hope to be all caught up...but for now let's jump back to July, June, May. Are you ready? How about a recap of our trip to DC (which was before Memorial Day). Whenever I write DC now I can hear Carter say "D.C." Daddy had to go up early for a conference but we decided to join him at the end of his work and stay an extra day to go to the zoo!

The first night we arrived we settled into the hotel and then hopped on the Metro to Alexandria. We visited Old Town Alexandria last year...and thought Carter would enjoy the boats, airplanes, train rides again.

Here we are on the trolley...



And at the river...



The boys actually both slept great that first night. We were staying at the Embassy Suites, so we had Ben set up in the pack-n-play in the bedroom. Once he was good and asleep, we put Carter to bed in the big bed in between lots of pillows. Once he was out and we were ready for bed, we moved him to the sleeper sofa in the living room. We all slept all night. In a hotel. Small miracle.

The next morning we walked down to the national mall. Carter and Daddy played.



Ben snoozed with Mama.



We took a quick ride on the carousel...



Then we were off to see dinos.
We took the Metro back to the hotel and I caught some cute pictures of Carter watching the train arrive.







That night before bedtime Mama and Carter went for a quick swim.



The timing was perfect. I tried to remember some of what we learned from swim lessons last year and Carter went under water several times with me. I think this quick trip to the pool really helped him start this years' swimming lessons on the right foot. (They started just 2 days after we got back)

The next morning we checked out and headed for the zoo. I do think Carter enjoyed the animals. But if you ask him what his favorite part about the zoo was I am pretty sure he will tell you it was the map.



He loved finding the pictures of the animals and then saying "lets go there!" We covered some ground...

Lions...


Elephant Tracks...




Pandas...


Flamingos...


All planned out by our map reader extraordinaire...


Such a treat to be able to sneak away to DC for a quick weekend.