Forty in DC

There's a two month training course that Justin's job requires him to attend in Washington DC.  From what I can gather it's very boring, but deemed by the people above him to be a necessity, so back in June he flew off and left us for the nation's Capitol.  The kids and I went to Utah so that I could work on getting some things done with the National Guard, and then squeeze in a little visit to Boise with Justin's parents and Grandma.  After that we flew out to DC to join Justin in his 15th floor one-bedroom apartment for the last month or so of his training here. 

Now flying cross-country pregnant, with two small toddlers is, for the record, not the greatest experience of my life.  Our first flight left so early that I was rousting out my little people at 3am in Utah, and they were weirdly okay with it, because after a month of no "Dad Bug" all I really had to say was "okay kids, we have to get up, it's time to go get on an airplane to see Dad Bug."  Magic words for my little Vivian, and Ivan takes all his cues from her, so off we went.  It really went pretty well, other than when Ivan lobbed a water bottle at Vivian in the middle of our layover in Minneapolis, and an all out brawl ensued, ending only when I intervened and had to drag Ivan off of his older sister.  Considering their level of sleep deprivation though, I think they did remarkably well.  When we finally arrived in  DC, and there was Dad Bug waiting for us at baggage claim they seemed half stunned to have actually arrived at his location.  Stunned but shortly thereafter elated. 

Our first few days here were spent just lounging and napping.  This is partly because my kid's hours were all screwed up and they were sleeping in until almost 11am, and then partly because I was exhausted and not all that motivated to drag them out early to address the issue.  However, Friday the 13th was my birthday, and as much as I wanted to spend the day in a tiny apartment, I didn't, so I picked that day to drag them out early and reintroduce afternoon naps.  It was a rough morning, with some very crabby little people, and at one point I found myself looking in the mirror thinking "I never ever suspected that I would celebrate my fortieth birthday, pregnant, living with two small toddlers in a one-bedroom apartment in DC, with my 29 year old husband...and yet, here I am."  All the same, we were ready to go when Justin got home.  We loaded up the kids and headed out to the National Mall to tour some of the monuments. 

This was my idea to spend my birthday touring the monuments.  Partly because my husband, whom I love very, very much, basically sucks at celebrating birthdays.  His preparations to celebrate this year consisted of a "happy birthday" text received at lunchtime.  He's really great at a lot of things, but if you're counting on this guy to make you feel like your birthday is special...just don't.  So we set off on what Meredith later, appropriately labeled my birthday death march.  I mean it wouldn't have been that bad if I weren't pregnant, but I am, and perpetually exhausted, but I still very much enjoyed the whole excursion.  We started out at the White House

This is the best picture that the four of us could manage.  Ivan looks distinctly unimpressed.

Some nice tourists offered to take a family picture for us.  After they watched this attempt unfold:

I think that Vivian's face pretty much mirrored my own.

After that we moved on to the Washington Monument, which unfortunately is closed so we couldn't go up inside of it, but that's okay.  It was closed the one other time I was in DC too, so I'm starting to think it's all just a vicious rumor anyway.  

The kids just were not cooperating for this one.

Next we headed over to the WWII Memorial, which was under some sort of construction on my previous visit.  I love this one, and the fact that you can sit and soak your feet made it the kid's favorite, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever met them.  

She would have happily stayed here for the rest of the evening.

This might be my favorite memorial.

We finally dragged them out of the water, and moved on to the reflecting pool and then the Vietnam Memorial. 

The kids mostly just liked the ducks in the reflecting pond. 

Vivian was actually pretty poorly behaved at this point.  Turns out that war memorials aren't super interesting when you're only 3.

We don't have any names to look up, and Vivian was struggling to keep her volume down, so we didn't linger at that one very long.  We looped back around to the Lincoln Memorial, where our kids were only slightly better behaved. 

Still uncooperative for pictures

Ivan was released from his stroller for this, and therefore became the biggest culprit of noise and running at this memorial.  

We stopped for a snack, went through the Korean War Memorial, but failed to take pictures and started our trek back to the metro station.  On the way back we realized it was really late, we hadn't had dinner, and decided to honor a Goodale family tradition and visit the Hard Rock Cafe.

Ivan insisted on getting down to go touch this velvety wall.

Our kids somehow managed to stay awake for everything, even the metro ride home and the walk back to the apartment.  It was all just too exciting I guess.  They didn't want to miss a moment.

We slept in the next day, and at least the kids and I were still dragging quite a bit from the birthday death march, so we considered, and then abandoned the idea of skipping our planned trip to Shenandoah National Park.  The highlight of the park is a scenic drive, so it didn't seem like it was going to be all that taxing of an experience anyway.

Once we got there, and stopped at the visitor's center, I stupidly agreed to do a hike.  I'm not sure what I was thinking.  Maybe I was thinking that I didn't just turn forty, and that I'm not pregnant, but I did and I am.  I even more stupidly picked one of the longest, and probably the most crowded one from off the list of options that Justin presented.  Regardless of what I was thinking, that is the decision that was made.  

He loved being allowed to hike

About five minutes in I realized how big an error it was to do this without something to carry Ivan.  His legs are too short to make hiking anything but an exercise in patience, but too heavy and wiggly to carry without feeling like you're trying to hike with a shake weight. Ivan however, loved being periodically let down to trudge along with us.

We stopped to take in some scenery on the way to the falls

The number of trees out here is really just kind of crazy, by the way.  

Finally made it to the falls

We are a slow moving party, and it took way longer to get to the falls than it should have, and even longer to get back to the car, but we made it.  Vivian and Ivan were extremely unhappy with us because we wouldn't let them swim in the water with a hundred of our international fellow hikers, who didn't seem at all bothered to be crammed together in the bottom pool, although in fairness I think a large number of them were related to each other.  Seriously though, we were the only native English speakers there.  

On the way back out Justin found a big rock for he and Vivian to climb, because what would a hiking outing be without a little scrambling with her Dad Bug.

We finally made it back to the car, and drove into a nearby town for dinner.  We intentionally stalled heading back into the city, so that we could drive around and find some lightning bugs.  We found a park, and it didn't disappoint.  I'm not sure that Ivan understood what was going on, but Vivian definitely did, and it's the most lightning bugs that I've ever seen.  Justin had seen a lot of them when the army sent him to live in the woods of Kentucky for a month, so it was less of a novel experience for him.  I'm pretty sure that the guy out there at the park playing basketball thought that we were really weird.

I told Justin over dinner that I was exhausted that I was going to sleep the entire drive home.  Justin slept the entire drive home.  He let the kids and I sleep right through church the next morning, and I'm grateful for it.  We spent Sunday afternoon at the air and space museum in Fairfax, where I met up with the best roommate I ever had, my AIT roommate.  We haven't seen each other since graduation, so this was a happy late birthday to me!  

Now if I can just talk her into moving west.

We had to call it after her 3 year old took his second fall for the day and some security guard there felt a need to come over and lecture her about the dangers of letting your kid fall too much.  Still, great to see her, meet her family, and Butcher, I think you're a great mom!