Wrapping things up

Not sure why it has taken me like 6 days to get this one up here, but here is what we did LAST Thursday.




First we went to the White House, but we had to be there at 7:15 for our 7:30 tour, we decided it would be best to take the Metro so this meant we had to get up at 5:30 to be there on time, not really hard task since the babies had been waking up all week at 6, much earlier than their usual 8. Anyway we get to the metro and the train is about there when Anna realizes that we don’t have the tickets for the Washington Monument (which was second on our list and we were to be there at 9:30) so there wouldn’t be time to come back and get them, so she hurriedly told us directions on where we were going and what to do and told us she would meet us at there, as she went back to get the tickets.

We got to where we were going kind of on time, however we weren’t allowed to take the stroller in (we already knew this, but had planned on Anna staying out with the stroller-since she has been a few times already) so I waited at the gate while the boys and Jeremy went in, and Anna showed up just in time for me to catch up with them in the long security line. We have no pictures of the inside as we weren’t allowed to take our camera in. However it was very cool, even if we only were allowed to see a handful of rooms. I do think it was Josiah’s favorite part of the day.

Then it was off to the Washington Monument where we got to go all the way to the top and take some pictures, it was very cool.

inside waiting to go up. The kids were a little stir crazy, at least it was cool in there.

WW2 memorial and reflection pool and Lincoln monument (from the top of the Washington Monument)

Giant Josiah

Judah holding up the monument

After that walked over to see the WW2 memorial and then decided to go to Union Station to check it out and eat lunch.

After lunch we went to tour the Capitol building, not real sure why I don’t have more pictures of this but it was very cool and we had our own personal tour guides (three of them actually) I kind of missed the whys and how’s of that but I think it had something to do with a friend of my sister’s connections. Anyway I loved seeing all the art and all the symbolisms.

Each state gets to send two statues to the capitol for them to display and every ten years they can change them if they want. Well Oklahoma’s two statues are Will Rogers and Sequoyah, except that Jeremy didn’t hear her and thought she said Bill Rogers and we spent half the tour trying to figure out who the heck Bill Rogers was.

After the Capitol we were supposed to go to Kennedy Center but we decided that we had seen enough and were all tired. Oh did I mention it was about 100 degrees out?

We did have a great time but we were very ready to start our journey home. Which after a great stop in Louisville to see my Uncle and Aunt and Cousins we haven’t seen in a while. Oh and my Dad came down from Indiana with my kid sister. (I do have some great pictures of this and will post them as soon as I find my camera) We did finally make it home at 1 o’clock Sunday morning.

Since we have been home we have just been taking it easy.

Uncle John and the boys..Look at all those blue eyes

Sticky and HOT!

Today we went to a bakery in DC called “Sticky Fingers Bakery”. GEE I wonder why we would want to go there.

Me with 30 of my sticky fingers

It is a vegan bakery that really was very good, and has won all kinds of awards, and we had a good time aside from the babies throwing a random fit, still not really sure what caused it.

a moment of silence

YUM!

He sure didn't miss the animal products!

We also went to the zoo, I think it was the hottest day of the year here, maybe not, but it sure felt like it. I think the kids had a good time.

Tomorrow we have a very busy, very early day.

Museums and Ballgames

We planned to get out of the house early and go to a couple of the museums, but it didn’t really happen, we did get out of the house and did get to go to the museum of American history.


I took Avrah to look at the dresses from all the first ladies. I enjoyed seeing the actual dresses as opposed to just looking at pictures. We could see how big the person that wore the dress was, turns out Martha Washington was really short and Nancy Reagan was/is really skinny. We also saw Julia Child’s kitchen. We looked at a TON of other things too. But since we didn’t get out as early as we had planned, I thought the babies and Avrah should take a nap before the baseball game, so Mr. Vargas took me on the metro most of the way and then I took the babies and Avrah by myself the rest of the way home. Then Mr. Vargas took the big boys to the Air and space museum and the natural history museum, while I “tried” to get the babies to take a nap. They finally did, but only after fighting me for an hour, which let them only get 1 hour sleep.

Then we went to see the National’s vs. the Padres. It was our first time to see a professional team sport live. The kids did pretty well, it was SOOO Hot, so Anna and I took the little kids to the play area until the 7th inning. We made it back in time to see an awesome play by the Nationals and then saw Zimmerman hit the winning homerun out of the park.

Mr. Vargas checking out Julia's kitchen

The hope diamond

Not sure? Mr. Vargas took this one

Live bugs

at the game: These big guys really scared Avrah, don't think the babies were too sure either

Micah looking HOT! (It was in the 100's)

so cute in their hats

Our seats were great!

trying to stay hydrated

melting

doing what he loves.

Tomorrow’s agenda, the Zoo and “The Sticky Finger’s Bakery”.

Beach, Burns, and Burgers.

This was actually yesterdays blog, but the internet crashed and it was late so you get to read it today :).

Today we went to the beach. We went to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. It was lovely. If I had a complaint about this area, it would be that the drivers are not nearly as friendly as they are back home.

All the children had a great time in the sand. Most of them enjoyed the ocean as well. Only one didn’t care too much for the water, can you guess which one?

When we realized we would be going to Delaware, Mr. Vargas remembered that he has a cousin that lives out that way, and gave him a call, and sure enough he was able to stop by for a bit. We hadn’t seen him since I was pregnant with Hosea and Micah, so it was nice to catch up.

We all came back a little bit crispier, yes we did use sun screen, but it was a little hard to see where you were getting it on the very excited to be there children. Hopefully it will turn into a nice tan, without being too painful.

For dinner tonight we had “Five Guys”, if you have ever had them, you know how awesome it is. If not, and you get the chance don’t miss out. So Good.

one very excited about the ocean, one not so much

These guys loved it!

running away from a wave, she fell, but I thought it was a good pic

so much fun in the sand

paparazzi photo my sister took, had I known we were having our picture taken we might have turned around :)

sad but still so cute

Aunt Anna (and blueberry) and Uncle John with Micah and Hosea

Mr. Vargas and his cousin Ryan

I think tomorrow we are going to hit some museums and go to a baseball game, should be lots of fun

Happy 4th!

What a great day! The weather was nice, we went with my sister to her church, and they were having service and picnic in a park today. It was fun and the food was great.
However Hosea has started a new thing that is not fun or great. He has started throwing fits, knock-down, drag out fits, where he literally throws himself onto the ground and screams. And of course everybody stares, and we the adults (and Micah) try to figure out what is wrong and why he is acting this way. I am hoping that this is short lived and may be caused by his lack of sleep and disruption of his schedule. Keeping that in mind all the things we did today were peppered with fits from Hosea, we did our best to ignore it and have a good time anyway. This was easy since the company was nice and the views were even better, more on this later.

After our picnic we were going to go to the mall (for those that don’t know that is what they call the area between the white house and the Washington monument), but decided that it would be better to go home and take naps.

After naps we went to the Air Force Monument. Mr. Vargas and I got separated from John and Anna’s car and had a nice little tour of I395 South and then back North, but we did finally find our way to where we were going. And aside from a couple more tantrums from Hosea and Josiah wanting a hotdog instead of the sandwiches that we packed, the kids did great. We had a great view of the fireworks and they were just far enough away that they weren’t loud enough to scare anybody.

at the park (notice who is grumpy)

Micah eating hummus with a spoon (YUM)

Avrah pointing (not sure what at)

The Air Force Memorial

cuteness

Me and Avrah waiting on fireworks to start

Posing for Daddy

Conversations over goldfish

Our view (see the washington Monument on the left and the white house on the right)

Fireworks (didn't photograph so well, but were awesome)

Hope you had a safe and happy fourth.

Tomorrow we invade the beach…

Vacationing

For those of you who don’t know, I am on vacation. No not vacation from my blog, although it would appear that way. But no, I am on vacation with my family. We are in Washington D.C., and instead of tell you about it in one big blog when I get home, I am going to try and keep you updated nightly (maybe).


We left on the first after Mr. Vargas got off work, I had the van packed and ready to go and the house clean and the kids fed and waiting. We were able to pull out of our driveway at around 6. Since it is about a 20 hour drive from Tulsa to DC, we decided to stop and see some of my family in Tennessee. To make it easier on the kids, we decided to drive straight through the night so that they could sleep. This worked out great. Also the portable DVD player (Thanks Gramma) and the boatload of DVDs (Thanks Miss Dana) that we borrowed helped to keep our sanity while the kiddos were not sleeping. We made excellent time to Tennessee and were able to stop and take showers and let the kids run around and eat lunch with my Aunt and Uncle and their beautiful children. I think my camera was packed away for this part of the trip so no pictures of that.

After that it was about a 7 hour trip from Tennessee to DC, I tried to catch up on some sleep from driving the night before and Mr. Vargas got us there, making great time.



Today the adventure began.

We played at a park.

We went on a boat tour/ride to Georgetown

"on a boat"

Our view of the capital

We ate at Haagen-Dazs ice cream in Georgetown

yum

We took another boat back. (loved this pic)

Exhausted by the day's adventure (the big boys rode with AntAnna and Uncle John)

We went to dinner at Marrakesh- A very yummy Moroccan restaurant.

eating on couches with your fingers, every child's dream

After we ate we were entertained by a belly dancer,

 she was great.

Tomorrow looks like a busy day for us, among other things there is a picnic, going to the mall (not the shopping kind), seeing the Air Force Memorial and possibly a pentagon Memorial tour. Also I’m sure we will see fireworks of some kind. Hope you all have a safe and happy 4th!

OH and a big shout out to our house sitter, love you muchly!