Mr. Finley goes to Washington - Part 1

Last week David was invited to a partner's retreat with his firm up in Washington, D.C. David invited Fin man and I to tag along for a long weekend. It is always nice to have getaway trips on someone else's tab :). The first two nights in DC we stayed at this amazing hotel called The Willard. It is a swanky hotel with a lot of history. It has been up and running for 150 years and hosted almost every US President since 1853. It was also where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed after delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech. How cool is that? Needless to say it was an awesome hotel in the heart of DC.

We were just a block away from the White House. The first full day we were there David had to be in meetings all day so Finley and I took full advantage of our location and walked our butts off! (Well, technically Finley rode in his stroller)

None of the museums open until 10 am so we started our day by seeing all the landmarks. Luckily the weather was just beautiful and even breezy!

We said 'good morning' to President Obama. Finley really wanted to go inside, but unfortunately we weren't on the guest list.

We then marched on over to the monuments. First up was the WWII memorial.

I am currently reading this amazing book called "Unbroken" about a WWII pilot and his story of survival. With all my new knowledge about WWII and those who fought in it, visiting the memorial meant a lot more to me than it did the last time I saw it. 

Finley was mostly just excited about seeing the fountains. To his disappointment, we weren't allowed to throw coins into the fountains.

From there we headed down along the reflecting pool.

We thoroughly enjoyed walking under this beautiful path of trees and seeing lots of ducks!

Here is our view of the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Monument was covered in scaffolding and we couldn't even get close to it. I hear it is still being repaired from that earthquake back in 2011!

Fin man enjoyed seeing these cool soldier statues at the Korean War Memorial,

while I was really impressed by the faces etched into the wall.

Next up was the Lincoln Memorial. Luckily we were able to ride the elevator up to the top since we had the stroller with us.

Finley really wanted to touch Lincoln, but I told him those ropes were there for a reason! (and by the way, every time I tried to teach Finley about some American President he would also ask where President Monson was!)

Look at this cute kid!

We decided to take the road less traveled and walk around the exterior of the Lincoln Memorial. It gave us a beautiful view of the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

We finished up our tour of the memorials with my favorite one of all: The Vietnam War Memorial. I think this one is so moving because it lists the names of everyone who died during the war. It is so powerful to see the rows and rows of names of those who served.

After our walk around the monuments, it was time to head over to the National Mall. Our first museum on tap, requested by Finley, was the Air and Space Museum.

He was really excited to see all the planes and learn about astronauts.

They had a great kid's section with a lot of hands on experiences that showed you how planes can fly.

It is always fun to be able to see all the airplanes up above your head too.

Finley was telling me he really wanted to be an astronaut. Isn't it sad that our space program is practically closing down? I told him he needed to come up with a backup plan.

After a hearty meal at McDonald's we started walking to the Botanic Gardens. On the way we passed by the Native American Museum. We didn't go in, but of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity of seeing another really cool fountain!

The Botanic Garden was my first choice of things to see, but Finley really loved it too. They had all these huge wooden insects in and around the building on display. Each person could get a little book to check off each of the sculptures as you explored the gardens. This was really fun for Finley.

He also really enjoyed this one section where they had a bunch of different spices and herbs to smell.

The first picture was taken in the Hawaii section. And the second in the children's garden.

They even had a cute little house in the children's garden.

We also saw some beautiful Hydrangeas (my favorite).

Sunflowers.

And pineapples.

But the coolest room was the orchid room.

Before we left, we went over to a little station where we could make our own insects to take home. 

The Botanic Garden was a huge success!

Since we were all the way on the other side of the mall we got to see the Capital building.

And then swung through the sculpture garden on our way back to the hotel.

But, of course we also had to stop for ice cream on our way back since we had had such a long day! We earned those extra calories! And that my friends was only our first day in Washington D.C. Phew! I am tired just thinking about it! Stay tuned for part 2 of Mr. Finley goes to Washington.

Swimmers

These might just be the cutest little swimmers I have ever seen! 

Finley and Caroline just finished up their first round swim lessons. 

They both did such a great job! 

Finley was really comfortable in the water, even though if unassisted he sunk like a stone. 

They learned about swimming strokes, holding their breath, treading water, pool and water safety, and floating on their backs. 

They had such a great teacher Miss Justine!

Finley was especially good at relaxing and floating in the water. I just loved it when his little bowling ball belly would stick way out of the water. 

By the end of our six sessions they had both conquered their fears of the water. 

Caroline even started swimming on her own! 

Finley still has a way to go, but we are going to try and work on that all summer long! 

Thank you Miss Justine! And Caroline for being a great swim buddy. 

TI 2013

 

Get ready for a million pictures!

That's right, last week was our annual (and much needed) trip to the beach!

We were so glad to have everyone join us this year! Both sets of our parents were there, plus Uncle Donovan and his girlfriend Addie, Auntie Michelle, the Nani, and my mom's brother, Michael.

 

Our first day at the beach we spotted lots of crabs crawling around! We tried really hard to catch one all week long, but were unsuccessful. Those crabs are fast!

 

We found lots of these shells on the beach. I call them butterfly wings, but I am sure that isn't their technical name. We also found thousands of live ones in the sand on the edge of the water. It always amazes me how they dig themselves into the sand when the water pulls back out to the ocean.

 

We saw one too many dead jellyfish that had washed up on the beach.

 

Luckily we never saw any live ones in the water. We did come across a fisherman down the beach who had caught a baby shark though! Yikes! 

 

Mimi had a lot more energy at the beach this year! And Michelle was able to join us for almost the whole time! 

 

David enjoyed being buried in the sand again. This time we brought a real shovel which made the task so much easier!

 

I allowed Finley to be buried as well, but only up to his waist. For some reason I am really afraid of people getting trapped or buried alive in the sand.

 

David and his parents, a.k.a. Abuelo and Grammie. 

 

Finley was so much braver in the water this year. The fact that the water was a little bit chilly didn't bother him at all. And he also liked going in deep! Deeper than I felt comfortable with.

 

On one of their long walks, Grammie & Abuelo came across some turtle tracks.

 

A sea turtle had come to shore and laid her eggs in the sand the night before. There were two women there digging up the eggs and moving them up higher on the beach to keep them safe.

 

They keep track of when the turtles lay their eggs, and then as the time for them to hatch draws nearer, they come to watch and wait. When they hatch the women make sure the turtles head towards the water and not towards houses. They also protect them from predators! I wish we could be there to see them hatch!

 

David and Donovan taught Finley how to play pool this year. He was almost tall enough to reach the table. :) He had to use a little stool to get up high enough to hit the balls.





 

The big shovel also came in handy when we built our massive sand castle.

 

Complete with a moat and a huge dribble castle in the middle. Finley said that the dribble castle looked like a volcano!

 

The grandmas looking good!

 

We decided to decorate the top of the volcano with dead crabs. You know, to warn all the other crabs to beware!

 

Nani and Finley enjoyed getting to spend some quality time together.

 

We played lots of bocci, but for some reason David and I struggled to win many games. I guess we didn't bring our A games to the beach.

 

The beautiful view from our deck.

 

On one of the windy days we broke out our little kite.

 

Finley had a good time flying it sooooo high!

 

Me and my mama!

 

We were able to get my dad down to the beach for a family game of soccer. We recruited a bunch of the neighbors to play with us too. It was a lot of fun, but we were all so sore the next day! One of our neighbors was a soccer coach from High Point. He seemed pretty excited when he found out who my dad was. :)

 

It got so windy towards the end of the week that our sand castle turned into ruins. It actually looked really cool.

 

Donovan and Addie decided it would be a good idea to start a 1000 piece puzzle. I was convinced that we wouldn't finish it. It was really hard! But we did! It was really addicting to work on. Once you started, it was hard to walk away.

 

Here is Finley being superman off of our bed. And the Nani playing pool! Who knew she was such a pool shark?!

 

My dad and Abuelo were pretty good at it too.

 

Thursday night/Friday morning brought some scary weather. We were woken up in the night by a terrible storm a.k.a. Tropical Storm Andrea. Then our phones started beeping and warning us about possible tornadoes in the area. With all the recent tornado drama we decided not to take any chances. We turned on the TV and kept a close eye on the storm. When our phones told us to take shelter now, we woke up the whole house and headed to the bottom floor. We decided if we started to hear a 'train' coming toward us we would stuff ourselves inside the elevator. Luckily only high winds and rain came our way. The next day was extremely windy and the waves were huge and super rough! I don't think these pictures quite do it justice.

 

There were just waves after waves coming so fast! Needless to say we weren't able to get into the water on our last day at the beach. :(

 

The water finally reached our sand castle and flattened it.

 

With the rough wind and waves we headed into town to visit the SHARK ATTACK beach store.

 

We did have one final nice walk on the beach together.

 

Here is almost all of the crew. We forgot to take a family picture while everyone was still there! This is who remained for the whole week! And, yes, I am closing my eyes in the picture. It was too bright!

 

We had such a great family vacation. We ate so much good food, stayed up way too late every night playing games, and cracked each other up on a regular basis. I love my family to pieces. Can we do this again soon?