Okay, now for the finale of this amazing tale. We had a great time in Washington DC! We really slowed down once we got there. We were at a really nice hotel with a pool, and fellow adoptive families were also arriving for the adoption reunion. DH had a hard time just hanging at the hotel when our nation's capital was just a few minutes away, but after dealing with ridiculous traffic, getting our car towed, and having to find a bathroom every ten minutes, he eventually relented and let us all relax a little. DC was so overcrowded and hard to get around in, we decided our down time at the hotel was quite enjoyable. We also discovered very quickly that the train (like a clean subway) was by far the best way to get around if you were going to venture into DC.
So we spent the last four days in the DC area with the highlight being swimming in the hotel's indoor pool. (That was always the highlight for me when I was a kid too.) On Thursday, we went into DC and to the Spy Museum, but ended up just enjoying the gift shop. It would have been quite pricy to get everybody in, we would have had to carry Megan the whole time, and it would have been a long tour. They told us that the younger kids probably wouldn't get anything out of it anyway, so we bribed the kids with a toy from the gift shop. They had a lot of fun just looking around and picking something out. Once we recovered our rental car from where it had been towed, we drove through Georgetown and saw the university. Wow! That is a very impressive looking school! And Georgetown was such a neat little town. We drove by the Vice-President's mansion and some other countries' embassies that evening as well.
We saw the White House from a distance. It is impossible to get very close to the White House now (since 9-11) without being preapproved for a White House tour. We had been and were scheduled for a Friday morning tour, but our congressman had a change of plans and needed to leave DC, so our tour was cancelled. We were fine with that because it meant we didn't have to all be up, dressed, and into DC at some ridiculously early hour. We were pretty much worn out by then anyway after NYC and Philly, and I think the kids were on information overload, so we weren't terribly disappointed.
We did have a chance to go to the DC zoo on Friday and onto the Navy Memorial which was especially meaningful to my veteran DH. The National Archives building was just across the street, so we were able to see the original Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Unfortunately, one of the kids was not feeling well, and dragging him around in the heat wasn't helping, so we headed back to the hotel. We had a fun evening fellowshiping with the other families that we had traveled with to China. It was so neat seeing the girls together again. They had all grown and changed so much!
On Saturday, we went to the reunion picnic at Bull Run. That was definitely a special part of the trip. We had more time to visit with the other adoptive families, the boys had more time to play with Brett whom they had bonded with during our China trip, and there were a lot of fun activities for the girls. They both had their faces painted, rode ponies, and played in the bounce houses. We had some good old-fashioned barbecue, too. It was sad to say good-bye as some of the families were heading home from there. We all hugged, and some of us cried, but it had been so nice to be together again.
Our last day was Sunday, so we went back into DC for a final attempt to see some of the sights that we'd hoped to visit when we planned our vacation. We saw the Washington Monument, the Capital Building, the Iwo Jima WWII memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, and other places of interest as we drove around the city. It was raining, so we stayed in the car most of that day, but enjoyed seeing the sights.
We had scheduled an evening flight out so that we could spend as much of DH's vacation time as possible actually on vacation. The timing would have been great had it not been for the three and a half hour flight delay that resulted from a storm. We boarded the plane absolutely exhausted. Well, except for Megan who was a bit wired. She would not stay in her seatbelt and was just kind of all over the place. The flight attendant got on to us and wanted us to keep her strapped in. She did not know what she was asking! Megan fell asleep about 10 minutes before we landed. Perfect timing as usual.
Overall, we had a wonderful trip and are so thankful for the time we spent together as a family. My absolute favorite thing is for all six of us to be together. I've been so blessed with the best family in the world. Maybe I'm a bit biased. :)
Until next time...
School is going well. I've really been encouraged by the progress the kids have made in their academics. We've also done a science co-op with some friends that's been a lot of fun, and plenty of outside activities have kept us on the move. In spite of our busyness, we're really enjoying our kids. They're at such fun ages right now, and we're just so blessed by them everyday.
We had a great time at the fair, and were able to share the experience with extended family. The kids love being with their cousins, aunt, uncle, and grandparents! Brother won a stuffed panda for his baby sister. The big kids are so sweet and loving to their baby sister. They are so good with her and love her unconditionally. She definitely tests them at times!
