Back from Washington

We got back from Washington, D.C. early this afternoon. We had a wonderful trip!! The drive there and back was pretty easy. We stopped once there and back for Chiara to have a break.

Our friends, Andy and Kristen, took great care of us. They took us to the mall in DC (they actually live about 30 minutes outside of DC) on Saturday. We rode the Metro, which the kids loved! We had planned to make it to both the Natural History Museum and the Air & Space Museum on Saturday afternoon, but the kids loved the Natural History Museum so much that we never made it to the 2nd one! They loved the dinosaur bones, the gems, all the earth and planetary stuff, and the mammals. Maria wanted to read everything, and Cati and Matteo really loved looking at everything. After the museum, we walked up to the Washington monument, which is very impressive. It was the first time any of us had walked all the way up to it. From there, we could see most of the major DC sites...the White House, the Capital, the new WWII memorial, and the Lincoln memorial. We didn't have time to walk to any of these places since it was getting late. It was a great Saturday!

On Sunday, we had planned to go back to the Mall in the afternoon to see the other museum. However, Chiara went down for a nap after we got back from Mass, and we really thought she needed the sleep. She did NOT sleep well during our stay, so we didn't want to interrupt her one good nap. So, we got to relax and spend time with our friends. We took the kids to the playground at their apartment, which was fun. The kids were a little disappointed later when they realized that we weren't going back to the museum, but I know they had fun anyway!

We can't wait to visit again!


Today I have some pictures from our trip to the museum. I'll post other pictures throughout the week!