Baseball

 A little game of bat and ball. Unfortunately, the mosquitos made most of the homeruns.

Marissa and Mr. Froggie

 Marissa loves when she catches a frog. I honestly think frogs are her favorite creatures.

Don't all little girls stand on the counter and smile?

Science Experiment

Our little electrical circuit actually lit a lightbulb! Hooray!!!

Summertime with Sherlock Holmes

Volcano Explosion

 We had a fun time making a volcano and erupting it in the backyard. It was very cool!

Bike

Tate used his birthday money to buy a new bike which turned out to be defective. We had to return it and he was a bit bummed. Dad found this bike for Tate and he was so excited he leaped to Kevin to say thanks. They spent this weekend getting it all "souped up" they would say. He added a bag, a light, pegs and a light up disco bell.

Rain Gutter Regatta

Tate has had a great year in Cub Scouts. After his awards and badges ceremony, they got to do their last activity: rain gutter regatta. They turned water bottles into boats and sailed them down gutters. He did not win, but he was a good sport. It was a fun night.

Raingear

It was raining while I was weeding and mulching. Tate decided to make me an umbrella hat. Here it is!

Homemade Grabber

Tate really liked Garett's grabber. So, he decided to make one himself. We got a design off the internet and it actually worked! He has started his own invention blog if you are interested. He has worked very hard on it. It is greattate.blogspot.com

A pole lot of fun

Garett loved the Metro.

Mt. Vernon

We loved Mt. Vernon, home of George and Martha Washington. I remember going when I was a little girl and was really wanting Garett to have a few memories like I had. I remember sitting on the back porch and the stories that this was George Washington's favorite thing to do- sit and look over the Potomac River. So, we did it and it was wonderful. They have some amazing things on display in their museum- which is new. We got to see the sword George Washington used in the French and Indian War, his family bible and the dentures he wore! It was amazing. The day we went was the hottest day ever... 97 degrees and blazing with the sun. Garett kept hydrated with his water bottle.

The Capitol, The White House, The Library of Congress, The Supreme Court

Garett took this picture of me inside Congresswoman Melissa Bean's office. We met there to go on a tour of the Capitol. Our camera was confiscated after that BECAUSE we had a tour of THE WHITE HOUSE.

Oh, how I wish I could have taken pictures of the White House. It was sooooooooooo amazing. I loved the stories, the originality of the furniture, the picture of George Washington that Dolly Madison saved, the fresh flowers in every room, the Secret Service, and the fact that the areas we toured are very much used. I thought they would only show you a portion that was just "for show". As it turns out, when the tours are over at 1 pm, they roll the carpets back down and take down the little rope barriers and still very much use each of the rooms we toured- the West Wing, the Green Room, the Red Room, the Blue Room, the library, etc.

We made it past the Library of Congress (see picture above) which is beautiful with a fountain in the front. Garett, frankly, was too exhausted to go to the Library of Congress tour. We had a tour of the Supreme Court where we got to sit in the actual Court Chamber. Garett fell asleep in my lap while we were given a lecture on the Supreme Court.

We got to eat lunch in the Supreme Court cafeteria. I'm not sure I have ever let a child of mine eat cereal for lunch, much less Cocoa Krispies. There is a first for everything!

Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is one of my favorites. The original plan was to make the Memorial something like 6 feet tall in his chair. When they built the outside structure, they realized he would look itty-bitty. So they redrew plans that included making him so big that it would take 28 pieces of marble pieced together to make him the right size. It is neat to stand and look over the mall and see what Martin Luther King, Jr. saw as he was giving his "I have a dream" speech. Okay, and I'll admit. It was fun to pretend to be Forrest Gump.

We loved how Lincoln was portrayed as being kind and strong. One hand was stretched open to show kindness and the other was made into a fist to show strength. Garett was being "Abe Lincoln" in the above picture.

Reflecting Pool

There are so many famous pictures in and around the Reflecting Pool just outside the Lincoln Memorial. It was crazy to see Garett on his knees trying to catch little critters in the pool. As if history was all around him but the present was the most important thing right now. His present is being a little boy full of ideas and possibilities and dreams and hopes.

He walked just a little way and found a stick with his grabber. Boys, I have learned, are a stick magnet. It cracked me up that he could find and be attracted to a stick outside the Lincoln Memorial. This huge monument was in the background, all lit up at night with tons of people swarming it, and he could bend down and grab a stick with his grabber.

U.S. Marine

Garett decided to stand next to the Marine emblem at the World Ward II memorial since his grandfather was a Marine.

Washington Memorial

The Washington Monument was so cool! Garett absolutely loved it because he kept saying it was the tallest structure in Washington D.C. and nothing was allowed to be built taller than it. He liked the story that they ran out of money to build it, so they stopped. When they started building it again- they had to get stone from a different quarry and that is why the building is two-toned. He bought a "Galactic Grabber" at the Air and Space Museum earlier that day, so he carried it around with him and "grabbed" everything he could along the National Mall from the Smithsonian to the Lincoln Memorial. I love seeing his little body in the above picture next to this huge monument...carrying his grabber.

Air and Space Museum

We did enjoy the Air and Space Museum. We saw some amazing things. We probably liked the moon rocks the best, but we also enjoyed the prototype for the Hubble Telescope and the
Apollo Mission Spacecraft. We got to see an IMAX movie about Fighter jet pilots performing their mission Operation Red Flag which was fascinating. Garett was enthralled. This last picture is Garett outside the museum writing some notes to take back to show Dad. He had quite an amazing little notebook when we got home!

We had the greatest flight ever. Garett had the window and he was Mr. Observant during flight. When we were deboarding, he all of a sudden stopped at the door and turned to the flight attendant and said, "I just think you should know- your wing is wobbly and you have a whole in the wing." The flight attendant said, "That is very important. You had better tell the captain." So, she had him go tell the captain. The co-pilot said that he had better take his seat (he left and went and stood in the galley so Garett could sit in his co-pilot's seat. The pilot then gave him the best lesson in aviation including a great lesson radar and 'holes in wings' and autopilot buttons. He had him push any button he was curious about including the red button that takes the plane off of autopilot. He felt pretty proud of himself for setting the captain straight about the wobbly and holey wing. I felt pretty happy the pilot would take so much time with my little boy teaching him about aviation. Later that afternoon, we went to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum which was fun. It did, however, pale in comparison to his firsthand experience in the airplane's cockpit earlier that day.

Here we come Washington D.C.

Garett and I went on a Mommy-son trip to Washington D.C. to see some of the things that make our country really neat. Here is a shot of us at the airport just prior to our flight.