Beach vacation Part 1- Henry.

Last year, mama and Miss Leah cooked up a week at the beach with their two sweet little girls and a few friends.  They decided to make it an annual trip.  Mama also said I could come along this year too.  

On the first night, I got to stay up late to watch the closing ceremony of the Olympics.  Miss Holly was a super sport and endured all of my constant requests all week.  At almost 7, I clearly see myself as one of the big people and Miss Holly was right where I wanted to be.

 Also on our trip- Leah and Olivia.

 And newcomers Logan and Owen!  They came with their mom Colleen, mama and Miss Leah's friend from college.

And they brought their older brother, Connor.   

Miss Maggie rounded out the group.  

 Mama had originally committed to bringing Jo along with us, but with all these kids, and only a three bedroom condo, mama quickly started to doubt that decision.  Luckily, papa was willing for JoJo to stay home with him and the workload on vacation got much lighter.

 Don't get me wrong, we love Jo.  It's just that she's two.  And the twins are 1.  And Olivia's 2.  And that's about 4 too many toddlers for vacation.  Never mind the fact that Olivia and Georgie are in the dictionary under "Frienemies."  You have never seen two kids go at it like these two.  Then they make up and hug like they weren't just screaming at each other.  Sigh.  Two year olds.

 Back to vacation.  With only one kid immediately under her jurisdiction, mama and I were able to have a great week.  Here's our daily schedule:  I get up early and watch TV.  Mama rolls out of bed around 9.  We eat breakfast and head down to the beach and.or the pool.  Come up around lunch time.  Stay inside watching a movie during the hours of really strong sun.  Head back out to the beach around 4, stay out until supper.  Eat, then go to bed.  Repeat 7 times.  It's hard being us.

 We all took showers and did our best to clean up one night so we could all get some pictures at the beach.   Here's Miss Colleen and Owen.

 Connor and I.  Connor is 4 and would do anything I did.  

When mama got put on babysitting duty, it was generally looking after these two at the pool, which was a piece of cake. 

 Miss Colleen and the twins.

 Mama and the big boys.

 The Turner contingent.

 Miss Maggie.

 Friends since the first day of college!

 Miss Maggie and Miss Holly.

 Crazy boys!

 Silly girls!

Thanks GG and GG!- Henry.

GG and GG sent out some presents for the kids.  

 June has christened this guy "Bee Buzz Buzz" and he had joined her troops of friends in her bed.

 JoJo's penguin demands hugs, which Jo finds hysterical.  Then she hugs him and throws him back to mama and yells "Again!"

 I got a new Lego first truck- complete with a tree with flames.  I just love it- especially since I told mama that I only like Legos that are based in reality.  There goes mama's dream of getting the Lord of the Rings Lego set.

 After Grams and Cole left, we all had to get busy packing our own things.  Mama and I were going to the beach and papa was taking the girls home to Ohio.  June was put in charge of packing her clothes.  She did a great job of picking out her outifts- complete with underwear.

And poor sweet Jo was stricken with a stomach big that left her a pitiful, sad sack who laid on the floor with her blanket looking for some sympathy.

Luckily, it didn't last long.  Soon she was back to her favorite activity- playing with mama's spices.  Maybe she'll be a chef some day.
 
If you watch one video today, please make it this one.  This pretty much sums up Georgie right now-  wonderfully cute and terribly uncooperative.  If you haven't spoken to her in a while, you'll be surprised at how much she's talking!

Back downtown- June.

We decided to go back into the city one last time.  Mama did some planning so we wouldn't have to walk so much, because all the kids were going!

 Mind you, it was still about 95 degrees, but I insisted on wearing winter tights, socks and a belt with my dress.  Fashion knows no weather.

First stop- Ford's Theater.  (What did you expect?  We had Lincoln's biggest fan with us!)   Let me tell you- this place is a gem.  Most sites in DC are very well run, but this place was great.  We marched up and got our timed tickets with no problem.

 Before we got to see the theater, we viewed a great museum next door.  There was a ton of stuff to look at.  While the grown ups read, Henry figured out how to take timed self-portraits.  He took about 100 pictures of the museum.

 Including this one of the gun that shot President Lincoln.

 Look at how tall he was!  He didn't even bend down to get in our picture.  Probably because he didn't want to be seen with the kid who pratically ruined the day for everyone in the museum.  Miss Grumpy Britches herself- JoJo.  She was TERRIBLE through the whole museum.  She cried and whined, refused to walk, refused to be carried, and screamed "NO!" for the duration of the downstairs portion of our tour.  When it was our time to walk upstairs, we had to wait in line.  Mama got stuck again with a crying grump.  Finally, after receiving several dirty looks, she cut ahead of everyone to just get out of the building.  Luckily, we were able to retrieve the stroller outside and Jo's nuk and blankie.  And she remained locked in there for the rest of the day.

 After that debacle, we were able to evjoy what we came for.  There's Mister Lincoln's box.

 A very low self-portrait.

 A sweaty and flustered mama, who was later returned to good spirits by a steak and kimchi taco she bought off a food truck.

Look closely and right next tot he box you can see mama and I.  Henry walked all the way around to the other side to take the picture.  Note that mama is crouched down very low next to me and the railing on the balcony only comes up to everyone's knees.  Mama's already afraid of heights, so when I took off around the other side of the balcony to take the picture, she stood there frozen, expecting me to tumble off the other side as I set up the camera for their portrait.  Luckily, we all escaped alive.

 

Which wasn't the case for poor Mister Lincoln.. (Too soon?)  The President was rushed across the street to the Peterson house, where he died the next morning.  Again, the Peterson house proved to be three floors of very good exhibits and a cool gift shop.  Well done, DC.

After that leg of our tour, we stopped for lunch (and the aforementioned Far East Tacos).  

 Next up, we walked down to the Old Post Office Tower, which is now a sort of shopping mall.  But you can take the elevator up to the top of the tower and get a great panoramic view of the city.  Apparently, very few people know about this place.  It was really fun and Henry could tell us every street name and what most of the buildings were.  I was just impressed that some of the buildings had gardens on the roof.  Mama later heard that the Trumps have bought the building and plan on turning it into a hotel.  I hope they leave the Tower open. 

The original plan was for mama to take the kids home early, but everyone was doing so well (remember we locked Jo up in her stoller), that we decided to stay downtown and visit the Natural History Museum.  Henry was excited because he read a chapter book adaptation of "Night at the Museum: Smithsonian."  In it, everything in the museum comes to life.

 And that's why he's looking a little nervous standing in the shadow of the T. Rex skeleton.

 Thank goodness this one finally fell asleep.

 The big hit of the day turned out to be the Gems and Rocks wing.  Guess who loved it the most?

I picked out all the gems I'd like for my collection.

Everyone was very enthralled.  Except mama- she wanted to get to the mummy section before we had to leave.  She finally had to hurry us through because she said we were going slower than papa in the bullet display of the Gettysburg museum.  (2 hours- not kidding.) 

One last shot before the train ride home.  What a great day.  Thanks for coming to visit us, Uncle Cole and Grams!

Tuesday in the City- Henry.

We took a little break after the long trip downtown and the miles of walking.

Mama took us to the Town Square- the hip, new part of town with all the hip restaurants and night life.  In the middle of the square is also a great fountain.    

JoJo just runs around on the outside and sometimes gets the gut to stomp in a puddle.  On recent trips, June has become brave enough to stick her head in the water.
There's not much going on in this video, but that little ruffle bottom is too cute to resist.

And I ran through the water like a crazy person.  We went out to lunch at Five Guys
9huge paper bags of fries and roasted peanuts in the shell!).

After lunch, the kids got dropped off at home with papa so the rest of the grown-ups could go explore a little known gem of the city- Lincoln's summer cottage.

Three miles from the White House- it's the house that the Lincolns lived at when they needed to escape the hot summer of downtown DC.  

On a hilltop on the property of the Armed Forces Retirement home, I can see why they'd rather be there.  There's another check off our Lincoln Tour of DC.

Our first visitors!- Jo.

Mama finally got the last of the boxes put away because we were receiving our first guests!

Grams and Uncle Cole came up for a few days.  And we did all kinds of touristy things!  Papa and Henry took them into the city on the metro for the ultimate summer in DC experience- a long sweaty day visiting monuments.  

First up- the Washington Monument, which is regrettably closed due to that earthquake last year.

Uncle Cole, Papa, Henry and Grams on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

I think this is the World War II memorial?

Henry can tell you all about the history of the Tidal Basin.  (That's the Jefferson Monument back there.  They walked all the way around the Basin.)

When they finally got out of the baking sun, they hit up the Air and Space Museum.

Grams said Henry was very good- despite the very long and hot day.  He certainly is proud of himself for being a big kid now.  

And I am certainly not a big kid yet.  I sat by the window for a good half hour rubbing my favorite blankie corner on my nose waiting for everyone to come home.  Mama's insistence that nukie and blankie stay in bed sure aren't working.  But it is nice to have a respite in my constant demands.  "Juice!  Snack!  Cereal!  Pizza!"