DC day 2

We started our second day in DC at the National Zoo. Of course this zoo is famous for its giant pandas...

They were alright but we preferred the much smaller red pandas. They were much more active and really cute. Caitlin got a stuffed one and named him DC.

Most of the animals were out and active. The female lions were very entertaining, one crouched down and then pounced on the other one. I think Briann got it on video. I will try to post that, I haven't tried posting video before. We might have had a little too much fun with all the animal statues. Here are just a few.... Caitlin trying to catch a prarie dog...

...Andee trying to find her handsome prince...( frogs are her favorite animal and green is her favorite color)

....and fianlly Briann staring down the Silverback..... The gorillas were interesting too. One of them had a stick he was using to stick in an ant hill and then eating the ants off of it, like it was a spoon.

I intended for this photo to be first. Here we are at the entrance to the zoo. It was the hottest, muggiest day of our vacation but I guess it had been long enough since we went to a zoo that none of the kids could really remember going to one, so they really never got tired here.

After a lunch break we were off to our second museum, American History. We really liked this one and could have spent at least a whole day here. We chose this museum in part, to see the ruby slippers...

We saw lots of fun things and only visited about a quarter of the museum. Since I really don't like visiting the dentist, I really appreciateed this scary looking dentist torture device.

Before we left I actually flipped through a museum pamphlet and discovered the star spangled banner exhibit. I went by myself at first. It turned out to be the highlight of my trip. I do not have a picture because they don't allow any kind of photography. But there it was, the actual flag that Francis Scott Key saw at Fort McHenry when he wrote the Star Spangled Banner. This is one of my favorite stories and it was an emotional experience to see it. I had to go drag the family back in to see it also. ( here is a photo I forgot last time. this is at the Korean War Memorial.)

Washington DC Day 1

Our first stop in DC was the LDS temple. It is beautiful. We went to the visitors center and watched the Joseph Smith movie. We all really enjoyed it.

OOps these two are in the wrong order. This one is inside the museum. They had a gem display that we spent too much time in. We did see the "hope diamond". Not really that cool. Andee did like this crown.....

Here's the girls outside this museum. Of course there are too many museums here to see so we chose two. This is the first one, natural history.

After the museum it was on to the mall. Let the walking begin. Just starting out here with a view of the capital.

Next stop, the Washington Monument.

By the time we got to the WWll monument we were already hot and tired. So the kids decide to soak their feet a little before we headed on.

Here we are at the Federal Reserve.

Does sitting on Einstein make you any smarter? There is spot here where you stand and it echos but a only you can hear it. (finally a picture that proves Briann was with us - she was a great tour guide, having been here a few times before)

Some how I missed a shot of the Korean war memorial. Nathan's dad served in Korea so we felt a connection . All of the war memorials are very inspiring. On our way back to the metro we walked right by the White House. Wish we could have had more time. We rushed through most everything.

While relaxing in the evening we did get to visit Cami & Josh and Darrick, Ariel, Nolan and Baylee. Thanks for the place to crash.

More Beach Photos

Here's the view as you arrive at the beach. It was a great day to be at the beach.
This is our little spot in the sand...

What do you do a the beach???

build sand castles....

run....

jump!!!

and jump again!!!

twirl........

and surf.......

GO LEANN!

surf some more.....

(one of the few shots of Briann, since she took most of these pictures.

Cami has an unnatural fear of sharks and told us there was no way

she would go into the Atlantic ocean, maybe racing Briann got her

into these shark-infested waters?!?)

and then surf even more.....

then try some body surfing......

how about some wave jumping????

then ...........rest!

now, back to the water to catch some jellyfish (they were everywhere!)

success.........

ohhhhhh, looks what happens when you catch jellyfish.....

their friends come after you

(Garret got stung first on his foot and then one wrapped himself around Ethan's

knees and dropped him)

After that Andee would not go in the water.. She and Nathan took a safer route

searching for shells......

and then its time to relax in your very own hot tub???

We had a great time!!!!!

Cape Henlopen

After NYC we headed to Delaware to stay at the Ben & Leann Wendt Bed & Breakfast. They took us to their favorite beach, Cape Helopen. Briann & Cami joined us for a day at the beach. We have so many pictures (over 600) for just that one day, that it was very hard to choose. Briann took most of the pictures so in this series you will notice that one of her is missing. Here is Nate & I.
We seem to have a thing with feet, at least pictures of them. I had this idea for a shot, but the logistics were a little trickier than we thought...

For those of you who remember our old Canon Beach shot - here is our ode to that shot...

Cami's glamour shot. She thinks her hair looks bad but it is just beach hair. Since her and Josh were working in DC this summer she came with us to the beach.

Ethan says this is his modeling shot and he didn't even have to try.....

Garret, of course, can not be out done by his older brother. They are constantly trash talking each other. I will have to check again for a close up of Andee. This one is cute of her even though she has her back to you.

Caitlin had a ton of pictures. Maybe its because she stayed by the edge of the water so her pics are closer.

Next post I will show some of the things we did while at the Atlantic ocean.

NEW YORK CITY continued

It is so irritating when these come up in the wrong order. The second day in NYC we took the Statten Island Ferry into Manhattan. Just in case there were any problems........

Here is the ferry passing us going back. It's free, so it was a great way to get into the city.

You also get a good view of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry. We did not want to wait in the lines to go see it close up, so we thought this was good. I did really want to go to Ellis Island. I think if I had insisted I would have had a mutiny, so I guess I will have to go back again.
The kids enjoying some NYC artwork.

We made a quick trip through the south end of Central Park. It was beautiful. We could have spent a whole day or two there, but it started raining and we heading to Delaware so we can really only say we were there.
Food in NYC. Not too imaginative on our part, this is McDonalds in Chinatown. The one in downtown Manhattan was two stories and had live piano music. (does that make chicken nuggets taste better)

More food. You can't be in New York and not get a hot dog from a street vendor. Ethan is always ready to eat.

Back on the subway we got some live entertainment from this band.
We mostly enjoyed using the subway. It's not scary like we imagined and we did see a lot of interesting people. Our favorite place in Time Square was Toys R Us. It was 3 stories and had a full size ferris wheel inside.

UPDATE!!!

We took a family vacation this summer. It was the first time Ethan, Garret, Andee and Caitlin had been on an airplane, so just that was an experience. We left Spokane at 5:30 pm and arrived in NYC at 6:30 am. We were all a little tired after trying to sleep in the SLC airport and then on the airplane but we were excited so we headed into Manhattan.

Did I mention we were all tired? Here's Nathan and Caitlin asleep in the subway. Caitlin laid down anytime we stopped and tried to sleep right on the dirty streets.
The kids we not at all excited to go see Wall Street but we went just to say we were there. At least Caitlin and Andee were excited to see the famous bull.

We spent too much time at the 9 11 site trying to get a good view. But with all the construction, there really is no great viewing area. It will be much better when the memorial is done and there is someplace to visit.

And finally, an update on the house. Here is the new siding, its a bit of an improvement over the pink. And this weekend they even hydroseeded our yard so we may even have some grass someday instead of dirt.

SPRING UPDATE

I know finally a new post. Here's an update:
We are residing our house and this is what was underneath. Pink!!

Caitlin in Sandpoint at Lake (Ponderay).
Catlin, Cami, Josh, Nate and I with Felica Frisbie at her baptism in Seattle.

We also visited the reptile zoo while we were there.

It was feeding time, here is the rattlesnake striking it's prey.

Andee sang at her school talent show and tied for first. She sang "The Show".

After school she competed in the hershey trackmeet and got three first places.

She also played softball this spring.

Garret set the school record in the high jump by jumping 5'6. (that's over his mom's head) He took first at the district trackmeet in the high jump and was 2nd in the 400 and long jump.

Garret at 8th grade completion ceremony. He received the president's award and a special award for social studies.

Garret with his friends Logan and Cody. (Garret is now just over 6' and wears size 13 shoes)

Look closely for Ethan long jumping in this shot. He went to state in the long jump and the 200.

He got the mvp award for track and also the inspirational award.
This is the parade of athletes at the state track meet. He and his teammates are in purple. This is at Boise State. (notice the smurf turf)
Ethan is working on his eagle project this summer. He will be rebuilding this bridge at our high school.