New York, New York- Labor Day Weekend

 For Labor Day weekend this year we took the train from DC to New York City.  The kids were so excited to take the train, and so excited to see the Statue of Liberty.  Pay thought New York would be a lot like DC, but he realized it is actually quite different.  Everyone, but Zaylee, said they like DC more than New York.  Josh and I both agreed that Rome also beats New York City, but it is a fun city, and next time I go I am going full blown Broadway!!! This trip was definitely a family trip, and we did a lot of things the kids enjoyed.

Some things we did in NYC included:

-Rent bikes in Central Park

-Go to all the cool kid loving stores (Lego store, American Girl Doll, ect)

- See St. John's Cathedral

-Ride the old school subway (lol- DC's subway system is a bit nicer and updated)

-Play on playgrounds with metal slides (I told the kids about the old metal slides that I use to play on as a kid, and sure enough we ran into one just like the one I played on)

- Go to church under the Temple

-Walk The High Line (the once elevated train track converted into a high mile walkway)

-Go to Governor's Island (where we rented a quadricycle, saw the Statue of Liberty, watched Biden fly over head with multiple army helicopters, saw the fort and historic military housing, and played on huge/fast hill slides)

-Went to 9/11 memorial and saw the new World Trade Center

-Had dinner in a mall food court, but had to show our Covid-19 vaccination cards to be able to sit at the tables, even though they were distanced apart from each other

The train was a lot more crowded on the way back to DC.  We had to share 4 seats between all 6 of us (we payed for 6), so that was not cool, and when we got on the train there were no seats together.  Thankfully, two people moved, so we could at least have two sets of seats together.  They were about 5 rows apart, but at least our kids could sit by us.

The trip was fast, fun, and tiring.  We got a lot of steps in, but it was nice to get away for the weekend.  I made a video of our pictures.

Summer Birthday Kids!!!

 I have two sets of twins both born 5 years apart.  Pay & Zay and Anny & Trex.  Anny and Trex have birthdays five days apart, and this summer they turned 2 and 7. Anny made herself a number 7 flag, and we made Trex a number 2 flag. I thought since we were living in the Nation's Capital during their birthdays this year, it would be fun to take American Birthday pictures in front of the Capital.  I did some of the four kids, as well.

Trexy kind of got two birthday parties.  Him and I flew out west to do a cabin framing walk through.  We stayed at my parents in St. George, so one day we got delicious Crumbl Cookies, and had a little party for him. 

Then on his actual birthday we had a little family celebration.  He picked out his little cake from the grocery store, and opened his big present.  He loved his little soccer/basketball sport set, but even more than that he loved all the balls he got.  He also got his first haircut on his 2nd birthday.

Anny girl loves, loves, loves birthdays- especially her own.  She counts down the days for months before her birthday. We had a special little girl cousin Zoom makeup party for her birthday. Then, she picked a strawberry something cake, and had a good day for her birthday.  

Summer 2021- Summer of the Museums

   (Posted August 29) This is the last day of our summer- meaning school starts tomorrow.  I don't mean "at-home" or "virtual" or "homeschool."  Actual in person school for Payson and Avenly starts tomorrow!! Can you tell I am excited?  Homeschooling over the past year + wasn't all bad, and we had some fun times, but it was one crazy year.  Our life continues to be crazy as we prepare to move to Brazil, however, this summer was maybe the longest summer for me (and the kids) since having kids in school. lol  Usually, I am sad when they go back.  Usually, we are travelling all summer long.  This summer was different.  This summer, we lived in our 2 bedroom DC apartment without a van (most of the time), and hardly travelled.  We did, however, take advantage of living right in the city, and we had a summer long stay-cation in DC, which is the reason I labelled this post, "Summer of the Museums!"

As a note, our Bishop and his wife in our DC ward are so so so nice.  They are close to our ages, and they left town for about 5 weeks.  They let us borrow their van while they were away, but we could not park it in our building's garage, except for the occasional visitor parking for $15 a day/night.  So, we picked it up on Saturday, used it for the day, brought it home, drove it to church, and then left it. (They live by the church).   This was a life-saver for us, and we are so grateful to them for letting us do that.

So enough with the introduction.  Let's get to the details of the museums (and other adventures).

Before Memorial Day we went to the Smithsonian American History Museum. At this point, you still needed reserved tickets, and the museum was not letting very many people in.  It was actually pretty nice because there were no crowds.  (It made  it easy to get pictures).  The kids really enjoyed this museum. 

(Everything written previously was started over a week ago, but since I can never just sit down write a whole post in one sitting the language may seem funny.  I am just noting this because now it is no longer our "last day of summer," but I don't want to rewrite the first paragraph).

I love that the Zoo in DC is a Smithosian because that makes it free.  It did require reservations all summer, but we were able to get some for a Saturday and meet Josh's cousins and his family there. We were even lucky enough to see the pandas.  Payson loved taking pictures of the animals.

When we went to Arlington Cemetery, the kids (especially Pay), were amazed at the many many graves.  The kids were reverent and respectful as we explained what Arlington Cemetery was.  

We hit up the National Mall our first weekend in DC and when Grandma Molly came in May, but we didn't see The Jefferson Memorial either time.  We spent some time after Payson's pinewood derby to visit the memorial, as well as, some gardens. 

When the Museum of Natural History finally opened up with reservations, we snagged ours.  A lot of the museum was closed because the displays were too small of spaces for social distancing, but we did love what we saw.  PS- They have a new exhibit all about diseases and transmission.  Education on Covid-19 was even covered in the materials. 

I am so glad we made the choice to stay in DC for the 4th of July.  Since we lived so close to the National Mall we were able to walk to the mall to see the fireworks, and they were spectacular with the Washington Monument just in front of them.  Before fireworks we had Chris and Courtney Housley (Josh's cousin) join us for bbq on our roof top deck.

The National Museum of The United States Army was also very cool, and similar to the Marine Museum.  There was a cool area of the museum where we could investigate problems and try and solve them.  

Thanks to Chris and Courtney for purchasing season passes to the Baltimore Aquarium, we got in free.  It, however, just came off of the reservation system, and was PACKED.  It was still cool though, and we had a fun time going out to lunch with them afterword.

Since we were already in Baltimore, we couldn't pass up Fort McHenry on the way home.  

On our way home from church one day, we took a detour to visit the Temple grounds, but they were closed.  We just happened to come across the National Cathedral on our way home from the Temple.  It was a hot day, but I am so glad we visited.  It was like an oasis in the city.

Our next museum was the Smithsonian Museum of African American History.  It was as cool as everybody says it was complete with how many African Americans helped to shape US History music, sports, entertainment, and everything else.  

When you live in DC, and many of the museums are free, you drag your kids to the "boring" museums like the Portrait Museum (I was actually out of town when Josh took them to this one, so I don't have pictures) and the Art Museum.  They actually didn't hate the Art Museum.  They just got a little bored after awhile.  It is a big museum. 

Not too far away from DC is the Battle of First Manassas, also knows as the Battle of Bull Run.  Avenly was so proud of herself for completing the Junior Ranger book and getting a badge.  Payson had a great time with his binoculars. Zaylee was upset for some reason, and Trexton was digging the dirt!

Our last museum, Museum of Air and space,  of the summer took forever to open because it was under construction, but we hit it up right before we moved to Arlington.  Only the first floor was open, and it was pretty crowded, but it was still cool.  We definitely want to see the other Air and Space before heading to Brazil. 

My parents were SO Awesome and drove our van all the way to DC from St. George.  That allowed us to take a little drive to Roosevelt Island.  If you want to see Avenly scream, just take her to the island with flipflops on and walk on the paths.  There were daddy long leg spiders, and she DID NOT like them. I am pretty sure most of DC could hear her every time she saw a daddy long leg. 

We couldn't end the summer without one more beach day (we only had a few hours at the beach during our Memorial Day trip).  These kids may have got a lot of education all summer from the museums, but they were definitely deprived of swimming this year, especially when they were so use to it from swimming every week the last 3 summers in Vegas.  So, right before school started, we went to Mayo Beach in Annapolis, MD.  It was fun, but there were jelly fish we had to watch out for, and sure enough Payson got stung by one.  He was tough, and it wasn't too bad.

That's a wrap!!  Good-bye Summer!  Buttttt, since it is the end of summer and beginning of the in person school year- here are the first day of school pictures: