Vacation!

April has been another whirlwind.  I mentioned that we had a lot going on in March and April has been no different.  We have had a lot of "irons in the fire".  I will go into more detail about all the changes that have been going on in our lives later, but for now details about our last minute decision to go on our vacation for the year.  We had to move our planned vacation to go to Washington D.C. in September to last week.  We were excited to get away for a week and do some good family time.  We had such a good time.  We were able to stay with my cousin and her family while we were in D.C. which was a bonus.  They were great hosts and helped us stay in the D.C. area more easy on our wallet.  A BIG thanks to the Hammond family!!  Another bonus was that my aunt was able to be there too which made for some great family time as well as a built in babysitter for two little ones that would not be interested in some of the D.C. sites.

We were able to visit the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport (very cool), the Natural and American History Museums and most of the memorials.  We saw the capital, White House and the Library of Congress. We also made it to the National Zoo which Abeba seemed to enjoy.   A favorite of  the two older kids and mom and dad (didn't take the two little ones to this) was Arlington Cemetary.  It was pouring rain on the afternoon we were there, but it didn't seem to matter to any of us.  It is such a place of honor for so very many of America's bravest people

One big hit for Israel was the butterfly house in the Natural History Museum; he just loves butterflies!  Eli loved the Lincoln Memorial.  He has read a lot of books about Lincoln and I believe that I can say that he is Eli's favorite president.  Hannah was the main picture taker and did a fabulous job at it.  She loved the memorials.  I was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to be there.  This was my first trip to D.C. and I am already ready to go back and dig in deeper. Justin was glad to finally catch some memorials that he had not visited yet.  He too really enjoyed Arlington. 

We were so thankful to have the opportunity to go on such a grand vacation.  It is the first major road trip that we have taken as a family of 6.  It was awesome, simply awesome, to be in our Nation's Capital.

There is so much there.Here are pictures of our week: