Homebound

We're in our last 24 hours here in the east, before the kids and I have to return to Utah for me to attend August drill.  Our last couple weeks here have been a lot of fun.  We went on a second outing to see the rest of the memorials at the National Mall.  

My feet were swelling a lot on this walk, so we stopped in again at the WWII Memorial to soak them.  Our kids didn't complain.

He loves me.  He just doesn't want anyone else to know.

Jefferson monument from across the tidal basin

The Washington Monument at sunset.  Incidentally we saw it get struck by lightning the other day, which was crazy.  Wish I had a picture of that.

At the FDR Memorial.  Vivian loved all the water features of this one.  I felt that it was a little too big personally.  Maybe I would have felt differently if my feet didn't feel huge, and uncomfy, but they did, so I was unhappy about it's size. 

Inside the Jefferson Monument

This was the outing that led to the "Disney rash" that I mentioned in the previous post.  So we're a little out of order here I guess.

The week after the trip to NYC I took the kids to the Natural History Museum to see a live butterfly exhibit.  I went on Tuesday because the exhibit is rather pricey, but free on Tuesdays.  First we met up with some friends from DLI for lunch, and it was great catching up with them, and then we continued on to the museum.  It was nuts.  We had to wait in a very long line to even enter the museum, and then we got one of the last tickets to see the butterflies for that day.  However, we had something like 90 minutes to kill before the time on our tickets.  So we visited the dinosaur section which was surprisingly interesting to Vivian, and then the remainder of the time looking at rocks and gems, which she loved.  I wanted to take her back to get another look at them since we were on a bit of a time crunch by the time we got to the jewels, which was definitely her favorite part.  We never got to it though.  So next time in DC I guess.  Anyway, by the time we got to the butterflies the kids were tired, and they get very hyper when they are tired.  Ivan was tired and then freed from the confines of his stroller for the butterflies.  So moments after we got the talk about not touching butterflies, there he was, a foot from the entrance snatching at a butterfly.  It was a very long exhibit for me. 

Moments before he reached over and snatched at that butterfly

Just happy to be out of the stroller

This is what he does when you ask him to smile, but seriously he was like a wild person in there, which made it almost seem like some kind of a threatening face. 

At least one of them actually enjoyed the butterflies.

Exiting the exhibit proved problematic since there was some worker there that has to let you out.  I had to drag Ivan away from more butterflies, and he was not very happy about it.  I was standing there with my screeching, flailing 1.5 year old while the worker first tried to tell Ivan that he needed to be quieter or he would scare the butterflies (Genius, why didn't I just think of that?  Oh, because he doesn't care, and just writhing around and shouting to be put down), she then proceeded to continue talking to some lady there that appeared to have an endless list of mind-numbing questions about butterflies.  I was on the verge of just barging past her out the door when it seemed to finally dawn on her that if she just let us out that we would go away.  The truth is that the butterfly exhibit wasn't really all that great either.  Quite frankly the one at the Boise zoo was way more impressive.  Still, Vivian seemed to really like it, so I figure that it was worth dragging my hyper little boy through it, but I'm glad we didn't pay for that experience.  

A few days later was Vivian's 4th birthday.  Her birthdays make me sad.  I don't like how quickly they seem to pass.  We talked about how we weren't going to do anything that day other than take her to the mall nearby for some ice cream.  We didn't want to buy her gifts since we don't have a lot of extra room in our suitcase for gifts.  We told her that we'd do that when we get home to Colorado.  However, while eating our ice cream I spotted a Claire's and suggested that we buy her a piece of jewelry as a small gift now.  It seemed like a great idea.  It was a great idea, but we completely underestimated her enthusiasm for that place.  So as Justin was checking out with 5 necklaces, a bracelet, and a small stuffed animal the cashier was laughing as Vivian told her dad that "everything that I see in this store is amazing.  I want to buy one of everything here."  It was definitely a win.  I guess now we know where we need to go for Christmas shopping this year.

When the weekend rolled around we took her to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  She loves aquariums, and this one was a very good aquarium.  

Touching jellyfish

He was eager to touch them.  Vivian initially refused until she realized that Ivan was doing it. 

She was much more compliant about the "one to two finger" touching policy than her brother.

A look down at the open pool on the main floor

The dolphin tank

Waiting for the dolphin show to start.

It was a very impressive show, although the kids were disappointed that the dolphins didn't play with some balls that they spotted sitting next to the pool in the background.

We had a great time, came home exhausted and very happy with the trip.  The only thing we'd do different on this one is to go during the week.  The weekend was so crowded.  At a minimum we would have left earlier and bought our tickets online in advance.  Just trust me on this, if you ever consider doing this, buy your tickets in advance.  Even if you get the $5 military discount at the window, it's not worth it.  Just buy them online.

After that we took a few days to recover, and then one of my friends from DLI took the kids and I out to Great Falls Park in Maryland for a little hike/walk while Justin was at work.  We had a great day.  The kids loved it because it had rained and the trails were full of puddles.  I made a weak initial effort to keep them out of puddles ("Go around the puddle!  Go around the puddle. Go around the puddle...as Vivian barely skirts the edge and Ivan walks directly through the middle of it), but I gave up on that pretty quickly, and really, you're only little once, so why not?

Apparently the falls were very full that day because of recent rain storms.

In all of my perusing of things to see and do in the area I hadn't stumbled across this one, and it was really beautiful, and a very fun day, so thank you to Kate Semons for taking us out there. 

Our last weekend here we decided to drive out to Assateague Island National Seashore.  It's a few hours away, so we left at 8, which we hoped was early enough for a Saturday.  It was, and it wasn't.  We hit some bad traffic, but as it turns out little kids on a hot beach only do well out there for a little while anyway, so we had plenty of time.  If we were to do it again when the kids are older we'd probably get a hotel nearby, camp out there the night before, or leave at the crack of dawn, but for this excursion what we did worked out fine.  We would however, definitely pack a lunch.  We decided not to, since we were a little short on lunch type foods, and agreed that we would buy lunch out there.  There isn't really a place for that out there, or nearby, so we had to settle with a lunch of ice cream and snack foods, which was most definitely not ideal. 

Ivan went into a state of high alert every time that Justin and Vivian ventured away from our little spot on the beach.

We hadn't been there very long before I took Ivan down to see the water.  I watched the waves for a while, and decided that since we did not have life jackets it was best to not take him in very far at all.  When we returned to Justin and Vivian playing in the sand on the beach I reiterated this advice to him as he was gearing up Vivian to come play in the waves with him.  He dismissed me, and told me that it would be fine, and it was...mostly.  She loved holding onto him while the waves crashed up around them.  I could hear the people around us talking about how cute they looked out there together, and you could hear her laughing and squealing all up and down the beach.

He didn't realize that this wave would be so high.

It was all very fun to watch, until one of the waves broke over their heads, and they both disappeared under the water for a few seconds.  To be honest one of the pictures looks for all the world like he momentarily dropped her, but Justin insists that he hung onto her, and Vivian confirms that "Dad Bug had me tight the whole time."  Although she also has mentioned several times that she loved playing the water with him "except for the part where I drowned" which cracks me up whenever she says it.

Dragging himself and Viv up out of the water. 

And exiting the ocean without glasses.

Unfortunately, because he had Vivian and was focused on not letting go of her and having her washed away, the Atlantic claimed his glasses.  This is kind of big deal.  Okay, it's a really huge big deal.  His eyes are terrible.  He can't see anything without them.  He acted like it wasn't a big deal as he sat there squinting at me, trying to see my face, and telling me that he can still drive because "I can still see when there are objects in front of me...", that if he caused an accident nobody would ever know that it was because he wasn't wearing them (he didn't realize that it says something on his driver's license), and that of course he does not carry his prescription with him, "that would be ridiculous."  So unfortunately he missed some very pretty scenery as we left the beach, and went on a walk on the marsh trail to see if we had any luck spotting wild horses. We did not, or perhaps I should say that I did not.

We did spot these little needle fish though, which I thought were very interesting, and I took this picture mostly so I could show them to Justin later.

We ran across a family that was breaking rules by wading around in the water in the area and had fished out this horseshoe crab, which completely disgusted Vivian and myself.  I had to take the picture though, so that Justin could be disgusted by it later too.

These two...I'm convinced that there is no bigger Daddy's girl out there.

After that we left and drove into Maryland to visit another couple that I know from DLI.  We spent the evening chatting, with Justin squinting his way through the conversation.  It was really fun to be able to see so many friends that I haven't seen in a very long time, fun for me to see them, fun for Justin to talk to them.

Sunday after church we walked to the mall nearby and went to a place called Visionworks that claimed to be able to do an exam and new glasses in 24 hours, for most prescriptions.  The guy working there told Justin that they should be able to get him something unless "you've got some really crazy prescription or something."  He turned and whispered to me "So my glasses will be ready sometime in November."  It was funny, but really, not that funny because we were really afraid of how much truth there might be in that.  We were lucky though, and although the guy seemed pretty shocked by how blind Justin is, they had one set of lenses for him.  They're pretty cheap, no glare reduction or scratch resistance or any of that other fancy stuff, but they said that they would be ready Monday afternoon.  We found some frames that he likes, placed the order and headed out to have dinner with  my cousin Lyle and his family at their house.  I was hoping that they could have his glasses done sooner, because I hate doing all the driving here, but it wasn't to be.  I did manage to get us out to Lyle's house without killing us, and home again late that night after a good visit there.

Then we all got up early the next morning, drove Justin to work, dropped him off and the kids and I spent a few hours exploring the base, waiting for rush hour to end so that we could head home for lunch, short naps, and back to pick him up again before the traffic got out of control again.  I'm so glad that we only had to do that once, because the kids were not loving it.  Monday afternoon Justin finally got his new glasses, and I'm not sure who was more relieved, me or him, but probably him.  I was very worried that I was going to have to annoy my company, and pay a fortune to reschedule flights to stay out here and shuttle him around until the new ones got here, but as much as a hassle as that would have been for me, I'm guessing that living in a blurry world that whole time would have been a far, far worse experience for him.

So we leave tomorrow, Justin stays for a while, and we will see him soon when our family regroups again, at home, in Colorado.  We are counting down the days until we get to all be home and together.  It won't be soon enough.