Washington DC Trip

Updates on Clifton -
Clifton gets sent home with a behavioral chart each week.  And he has been doing pretty good, one week we had to talk about keeping our hands to ourself, but this week he rocked it.  All stars... so proud of him.

Updates on McKay -
She is a sweet sweet girl but also such a difficult girl.  I am trying so hard to understand her and all her screaming and crying.

But I sure do love her.

Updates on Stanley -
He is so fast now!  Moving everywhere and getting into everything.  It's crazy but boy oh boy do I love it.  Such a fun stage.

This week was such a special week.  Alex needed to go to Washington DC for work, just for one meeting.  So he decided to take me along as an early birthday present.  After much thought we decided to leave all the kids at home with Grandma Peterson.  Oh man I cannot even begin on how thankful I am for Grandma P.  She is amazing.  We also had many friends helping us out so this could happen.  I just feel so blessed with all the wonderful people we have in our lives.  Kathryn took McKay for a day so Grandma could get a break.  Misty took Clifton to and from school.  And David took Clifton to his soccer game for us. I love my friends!
We left early morning Monday and our adventure began.

Five and half hour plane ride.  This is how we do it.. crossword puzzles, movies, and snacks.  I sure wish I could have slept, but hey I finally got to watch Avengers 2.
We landed around 4pm DC time and went to dinner with Alex's boss.  Then out to explore a little.

Pentagon memorial.  Each structure has a name of someone who lost their life either on the plane or in the pentagon and there was water flowing under all of it.  They set it up by age.  This is the youngest person all by itself at three years old.  

 Then we went to the Marine Corp. memorial.

 My first time on the Metro.  And I swear this is the worlds longest escalator.

One of the best part of the trips (there was so many) was spending the night just Alex and I.  After exploring a little Monday night we got pizza and ate it in BED, while watching the Seahawks game.  Great night!

The next day Alex got up for a meeting but I got to sleep in.  Yep it was amazing! And this was my first night of sleep since having Stanley.  Oh it was Heavenly!  Once Alex was done with his meeting we hit the town ready to explore.
First we started with the White House.

Some crazy man was yelling and saying he was going to kill everyone so they shut down the street. But we still got to see it.  Not as big as I thought it was, but still big.

There was a carousel at the Mall so I thought it would be fun to ride one without the kids, because well I am still a big kid. 

Alex is the best husband ever and agreed to ride along with me.  Love that man!
Next we stopped at the Air and Space museum.

Then we walked to the Capitol.

Sadly it was getting a lot of work done so it wasn't nearly as impressive but it was gigantic!
Then we went to the Botanical Gardens (again not Alex's choice, he's awesome).  It was so beautiful and smelt so good.

Loved every minute in the gardens.
Then we went to the History museum.  When we got there we were surprised to hear they close at 5:30 and it was ten till five.  So we pretty much ran through as many rooms as we could.

Which I was sad we had to rush because that was by far my favorite museum.
It was dinner time and the sun was going down so I thought it would be fun to pick some food up, eat, and watch the sunset at the Washington Monument.  And was I right!

Hands down my favorite part of the trip.  It was a beautiful day and watching the sun set behind the Lincoln and World War 2 memorials was stunning.
We then walked to the World War 2, Vietnam Veteran's, and the Lincoln memorial.

The view was stunning!
The lights were shining so bright on the Lincoln memorial and I was loving the shadows.  So we played with shadows a little while.

Next we finished our night by visiting the Korean War and Martin Luther King Jr memorial.
Man oh man what a fun packed day.  We headed back to the hotel and enjoyed our last night of a full nights sleep and left early Wednesday.  This was such an amazing experience and wonderful time alone with my husband.  I am thinking we are going to need to take a yearly trip alone from here on out.

Thursday night was Clifton's last soccer game of the season.  And it was a great game.

We went to Bluberries as a team to celebrate the awesome season.  Boy how I love my Orange Dragons.  Can't wait till next year!

Friday afternoon my parents came to town for the weekend.

So we all went out Roller Skating.  It was our first time as a family going.  McKay struggled and we eventually put her in a stroller and rolled her around. Clifton was all about it even though he was falling all over the place.  A very fun night out with Grandma and Grandpa.

The next day I forgot I signed up to help clean the church and my mom being the amazing lady she is came and helped Clifton, McKay and I clean.

Thanks mom!
The weather was horrible so our plans changed and we just ended up playing games together.

And make Halloween crafts.
When the rain took a break we decided to go splash in puddles.

 Then they spotted slugs.

McKay is my animal lover, silly girl kissing a slug.  A wonderful weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Stanley.