"DCCCC!!" is what Zooey yelled in preparation and now in remembrance of our fun family vacation we took last month. It was supposed to be a work trip for Ryan, but we ended up being blessed with having him with us the whole time. It was our first family vacation with just the three of us, and it was so much fun.
Day one was purely a travel day. Zooey always does pretty well on the plane, and this trip was no exception, except coming back - she had a rough time then due to exhaustion and no nap. I am not ashamed to admit, it's time like this when I am glad she can watch TV; it made the trip go so much smoother.
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| Excitedly waiting for "DC!" |
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| Does this seriously not look like a glimpse into the teenage years? |
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Quick lunch break on layover - I think she looks so grown up here
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| After no sleep the whole plan ride, she fell asleep on the ten minute bus ride. Then woke up when we got off. |
Day two we went to the National Zoo. This was a fun day; the National Zoo is so beautiful, and they have some things we don't have at our zoo, like pandas (yay!) and an octupus (yay for Ryan!). Note to self: never, ever go to a zoo again with a three year old with no stroller. We figured she'd walk a lot and I could carry her in the Ergo if she really, really needed it (she still only weighed 28.6 lbs at the time of the trip). I don't know what we were thinking. Nevertheless, we had fun, and Zooey slept really well that night.
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| Big girl on the Metro |
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| playing outside the hotel |
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| kissing the bear |
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| hugging the bear |
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| Zooey loved her new panda purse! |
Day three took us to Arlington. Ryan has a friend who is buried there. It was really beautiful that time of year. All the leaves were changing, and they have those beautiful red leaves that we don't have here. Very picturesque. Sometimes when we were walking around the city, we would talk about living on the East Coast. Then the hurricane happened and stranded us out there and well that idea...ha.haha.hahahaha!
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| Zooey had a favorite breakfast on the trip: fruit loops and yogurt. She still asks for it. |
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| This is a cute picture and I lost this jacket on the trip. GRRR. |
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| Cutie pie playing with Daddy |
After Zooey's nap we headed to the Greenbelt Park. This park is HUGE and gorgeous. We stayed in a hotel in Greenbelt right by this park for the first few days. When we walked into a clearing, there were a bunch of deer. Zooey thought that was really cool. She got to play for a bit at one of the many playground areas.
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| SUPER excited about the deer! |
On the third day we went to the National Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This was a little bittersweet for me, because I know my mom would've loved to see this. I told Ryan I wanted to go "for her." It was neat to see how they printed off the money, and the guys working down in the rooms would make little jokes and hold up funny signs about loving their jobs, and one guy held a stack of $100 bills and kissed them. It was funny!
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| Cute, right? |
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| playing with Daddy in line |
After lunch we headed to the National Museum of American History. Zooey slept most of the time in here, but Ryan and I enjoyed it.
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| There were squirrels all over the place, and Zooey was fascinated by them. |
Day four took Ryan to visit headquarters for work, and Zooey & I went to the National Aquarium. This aquarium was, how shall I say it? Lame. Plus, Zooey was in a MOOD that day, so we kind of rushed through and then went to eat at Potbelly's (YUM, I LOVE THIS PLACE AND WISH WE HAD THEM HERE!). That evening we went to Hard Rock with Ryan, a guy he knows from work who moved to VA and his wife. Zooey really liked Hard Rock, and so did we. It was a fun night. They brought down a guitar and let us take pictures of Zooey with it. The staff there had little dance routines they did, and Zooey got really excited and would dance with them.
The next day, we headed to hotel number two, the Embassy Suites in DC. Then we went to the National Air and Space Museum out by Dulles Airport. We didn't plan this, but they were having a Halloween day for the kids with candy and cool experiments and face painting. Since we ended up being stranded on Halloween, it was a good thing!
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| Zooey's first gelato. Can you tell she liked it? |
Sunday was supposed to be our final day in DC, so we did a lot this day. We walked a lot - Ryan said about six miles! Wow! This was both Ryan and my favorite day, because we saw all the really cool monuments and visited the National Museum of Natural History, which we didn't visit last time we went to DC.
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| Meltdown followed by nap in stroller |
Monday we were supposed to leave but got stranded due to Hurricane Sandy. We changed hotels once again and made the best of it by taking Zooey to the airport to play on Tuesday (and Ryan checked out some stuff in their office), getting her a swimsuit at Walmart and letting her swim and relaxing. We finally made it home on Thursday, late. Even though we got stuck those last days, it was a nice time together as a family and looking back I enjoyed the downtime.
