Our Vacation

Our family vacation this year took us to Richmond to spend 4th of July at Tammy and Dante's annual Fabulous 4th party and then on for a few days of fun in Washington, DC.  We took the kids to DC a few years ago and we all really enjoyed it and there are still so many things that we haven't gotten to see.

Since we were going to be gone for a week, of course we had to take the pups with us (after all they are members of the family).  They traveled well and were a good diversion during the many hours spent in the car.  We found that Piper enjoys the front seat and being able to look out the window...

Being a lot more mellow, Owen was perfectly happy to snuggle up beside Ellie on the blanket that she brought just for him to use on this trip.   He was so cute getting ready to go to sleep that Ellie decided to share even more of her travel accessories with him including...

...her froggy sleeping mask that she actually wears every night.  Being such a sweet doggy, Owen did not even mind that he had a sleeping mask over his eyes.  He might have even enjoyed it a little bit!

On our first day in Richmond, Kenny and Leigh-Emma invited us over to their house.  We had delicious bbq for dinner and got to spend some time with the boys who we had really missed since their visit to Florida in May.  Emory spent the night and shared Jack's first sleep over with him.  It's so sweet to see how much they love each other!

Our next day in Richmond was July 2nd and  we headed over to Tammy and Dante's for their 4th of July party.  It was held a couple of days early this year because Tammy and Dante joined us the following day on our trip to Washington, DC.  Besides the pool, one of the highlights was the new ATV that is one of Dante's newest toys.  Dan and the kids really enjoyed riding it around the trails in their neighborhood.

Ellie got lots of hugs and tickles from Uncle Dante and she loved it!

Tammy and Kona enjoyed a float in the pool on the neatest raft.  It's made just for dogs but looked like a floating bean bag chair.

July 3rd we got up early and drove to DC.  We had tickets to the Nationals game in the early afternoon and they were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates.  It was a neat stadium but it was so hot that it was sweltering!  We had to leave our great seats and go and sit in the cheap seats just to get out of the sun a little bit and get some air.  It was miserable but at least the Pirates won the game which made Dan happy!

Outside of the seats at the stadium, they had these huge bobbleheads of some of the presidents that you could pose with for pictures.  Here we are all hot and sweaty after the game with a bobblehead George Washington.

We had great weather in Washington DC and were able to take in some of the sights that we had missed on our previous trip.   The city was all decked out for the 4th.

We hadn't planned on it but were pleasantly surprised to be able to see the 4th of July parade.

 

 

 We were able to tour the US Capitol and also sit in the gallery of  the House of Representatives.

We visited Chinatown and ate a fabulous noddle restaurant.  I didn't go inside but from what I saw from teh window out front it was definitely authentic.

 

We visited more of the Smithsonian and got to see Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and Kermit the Frog among other things.

On our last day in DC we visited the National Zoo with Tammy.  The weather started off raining in the morning so not all of the animals were out that day even after the weather cleared up and was just overcast.

The Ape House is always a big hit and very entertaining.  Since it was all inside, all of the apes were out playing around for us to watch.

Many of the other animals that we had hoped to see were not out, due to the bad weather earlier in the day.  There was no shortage of statues of animals at this zoo though.  There might have been more statues than animals!

 Ellie really wanted to see the two pandas since we don't have any pandas at our zoo in Jacksonville.  The only one that we could see was the male panda who was inside and taking a nap...

 ...we did get a good picture with the panda statue though!

 The best animal of the day was the peacock.  We were able to enter the aviary and walk around.  We came upon him and were able to sit just a few feet away from him and watch him prance around.  He was beautiful and put on quite a show for us.

By the end of the day we were all tired...including the tiger.  He clearly knew that it was almost time for him to go back inside for the evening because he kept going up to the door, scratching it and looking inside.  Finally he gave up with that and took a break to cool off in his moat...only to go back and try to get back inside the door!  Smart tiger!

One of the main reasons for going to DC for the 4th of July was to see the fireworks by the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument.  Dan and I did this many years ago before we were married and actually took Madison and Kelsey with us.  It was breathtaking back then and we have never forgotten it.  This year we were close by again but they were very different than we remembered.  The fireworks were much shorter and didn't seem as extravagant.  Maybe it was budget cuts in DC, who knows?!  It was still an extra special place to watch the fireworks and celebrate our independence. 

Happy Birthday, USA!