Goodbye Love (No pictures yet)

 The last month in DC. Not only was it filling with preparing to move, but we also had the added pressure of this could be the last month we live in DC. What do we want to experience again or what have we not done yet that we need to do? We tried not to get too crazy with it, but we did have a fairly eventful few weeks. 

One of the museums that had been on my list to checkout was the Bible Museum. It's one of the museums you do have to pay to go to, but I'd heard such good things about it. So on a Sunday in May we headed to the museum and man was I sad we hadn't checked it out before! It was a great museum for kids! Not only did it have an adorable little play area with Bible themed games, but even just the main museum areas were very engaging and kept Riley interested. 

The Old Testament section had this big multimedia presentation to summarize the Old Testament. There were moments where things got a little too intense for Riley so we did have to cover ears a bit. At one point it was talking about Cain killing Abel and a splatter of blood covered the wall. Riley said, "Look at all those cool red lines!" Haha glad she didn't catch on to that one. 

The New Testament area was made to look like what Jerusalem would've looked like at that time. The olive press was a favorite of Riley and Nelson's. Oh, and I didn't even mention! We found an amazing parking spot for free near the museum. So all in all and amazing day. 

Strawberry Picking!!

Mel has been picking berries with her kids for years and years and I guess I finally gave in to the FOMO. A friend of mine posted pictures of a near by farm where she picked berries and I said...you know what? Let's do it! I had two kids in tow on a hot day, after driving 45 minutes to get there, but man if those berries weren't totally worth it!! They were the yummiest berries I've ever had, and Nelson and Riley seemed to agree. 

Over Memorial Day weekend we had visitors! Ben's brother's family came to stay with us for a few days. Most days they adventured on their own, but we joined them for a visit to the Botanical Gardens downtown. Lo and behold another awesome place for little kids! I really wish I would've known how cool this place was earlier on. It was really fun to look around at the plants, but my favorite place was the kid section. They had shovels and watering cans so the kids could plant and tend to the plants in that section. Such a cute idea! It's these little gems that you just don't know about when you are new to an area. It can be so hard finding places that are good for kids when you move. 

Another weekend in Downtown DC. This time our destinations were the National Gallery of Art and the Holocaust Museum. I was bummed we didn't allow more time for the Gallery before our appointment at Holocaust because it ended up being one of my favorite places! Who knew that art can actually be moving? Seeing famous painter's works of art in person actually was really cool. Things from Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Monet...it was an amazing collection and we had to rush through it a bit. Riley was so funny with the painting, she was pretending like they were all about to fall and she was catching all of them. Then she would pretend to put them in the stroller. I hope none of the security guards were listening too closely or they would've thought we were planning quite the heist. 

In the Holocaust museum Ben and I separated. I kept the kids with me and he took the museum nice and slow. It was our first time at this museum, but the first time we also had Riley so we couldn't take it too slowly. His wish before leaving DC was to really read everything in that museum. The first floors of the museum were absolutely packed so I took the kids down a few floors to the section about the helpers and the survivors. I hadn't made it that far the first time I'd been through and it ended up being my favorite part of the museum and the best to take your kids through. I still had to explain to Riley how awful things happened to a lot of people, but these stories had some uplifting and amazing endings to tell as well. 

Our last weekend of adventure we went to the Spy Museum. I had been with Mel and fam, but Riley was too young to appreciate any of it and I wanted Ben to get to see it. So we bit the bullet and paid the money to go to the Spy museum. It's a really fun, interactive museum. I wish we could've seen all the cool things there, but we enjoyed what we did get to see. After finishing at the Spy museum Ben got to go explore the African American museum because I did that with Britt when I went, and I just took the kiddos home. 

There were still so many museums we didn't get to visit, but we hope that we may get to return to DC someday and keep adding more to our checklist!  

Beach Days (no pictures yet)

 Family Beach Trip! 

Something crazy that I realized while booking a little weekend for our family was that this was going to be the first trip we took simply for fun. Every other vacation we'd ever done was in order to see family. I really wanted to have a little beach trip with the family, we ended up booking a place in Ocean City. Ocean City is kind of the touristy beach in our area, but we didn't mind that vibe. I just wanted a good, relatively clean beach. It ended up being a perfect little place for us. We were steps away from the beach, a short walk from a park, mini golf, and custard. The first day was a little stressful because Ben had to arrive later than me and the kids. So it was just me, Nelson, Riley, and the Ocean. Luckily, Nelson was so thrown by this new place that he just sat still most of the time. So I could be down at the waves with Riley and just have my eyes on Nelson sitting on our towels. The waves were a little strong and there was a little scary moment when I had my back towards the ocean and ended up getting pushed over by the waves. I had to remind myself not to take my eyes off those waves. Even if I'm standing right next to Riley scary things can happen. Of course, she had on her floaty, but I still have a respectful fear of the ocean. So after playing in the waves a bit I encouraged Riley to do some shell searching. It was also clear I was new to beach days when all of a sudden a wave hit our towels and things. That tide comes up really fast! 

Saturday was a much less stressful day at the beach. When we had one parent to each child I was actually able to enjoy the day. Nelson wasn't a fan of the water so I mostly played in the sand with him and Ben did the heavy lifting of playing with Riley in the waves. 

Since we couldn't spend all day at the beach we eventually found some new entertainment. We decided to try some mini golf. I hadn't played a round of mini golf since my dating at BYU days! It was actually really fun. Riley even enjoyed it for the first few holes...but then she was over it. It didn't help that these were not super fun holes. Back in my day I feel like there was a fun gimmick with each hole! This place was just a bunch of little putting greens. But Ben and I were getting competitive so it was still fun. On the way home we stopped for custard.

Oh, just a quick note. I could NEVER live in a beach city. Do you know how much sand was constantly covering the floor of our airbnb?? It was insane. You just can't get rid of it! It looked like we were bringing buckets and buckets in with us every time we came back in. If you're gonna live in a town like that you need a room to enter before you actually enter your house to shower and get scrubbed down. I'm picturing hazmat suits being involved. 

On Sunday it was a bit cold so we didn't go swimming. I did walk to the beach and just sat for a bit. The sound of the waves, the feeling of the sand...I just love beaches. When I don't have little kids I'll be able to enjoy them even more. Maybe I'll even be able to read a book!