DC Days {American Indian Museum}

Now that the weather is warmer, we're back to our family tradition of D.C. Days, as we now call them. D.C. Days are simple: they involve taking advantage of one or two of the large amount of free tourist attractions that just happen to be short drive from our home, a single backpack filled with the necessities, an Ergo for short-legged little gal in our family, and at least one Starbucks trip. ("It's Mommy and Daddy's reward for keeping four kids alive in a big city.") We've found these days to hold some of our favorite family memories.

This last one was a trip to the American Indian Museum...

DC Day {Botanical Gardens & Natural History Museum}

Early last year, Steven and I started talking about ways to make opportunities for our little family to grow closer via having fun together. The fact that we live outside the third most visited tourist sight where most of the attractions are free certainly didn't hurt. Thus DC days were born. Last summer we went monthly, playing the tourist. Each month a different child got to choose what they wanted us to do. It was an absolute hit.

So this summer, we're back at it. Last month was Eastern Market and Lincoln Park. And this month was the Botanical Garden and the Natural History Museum.

Outside the Botanical Gardens...










The jungle room and children's garden were hits; but in the end, I think that simple water was the biggest attraction...




Lunch in the outside gardens...


My husband actually got behind the camera...this never, never happens...




The many faces of my drama king...


While I love my city, I'm just going to go ahead and say it: the amount of boring business suits was almost depressing. But Adriana was more than happy to lend a fashion hand to the streets...




Then on to the Natural History Museum. Elijah had the guts to hold a ginormous cockroach...


And if you're in D.C. in the near future, do yourself a favor and check out the nature photography display at that museum. Stunning. Simply stunning...




So tell me, what's your favorite thing to do in D.C.?

DC Day {Eastern Market}

On Friday, Steven and I realized that something unusual was about to happen the next day. I had decided not to schedule any photo shoots on that Saturday and we had nothing planned. An open day. On the calendar. What!?!

We decide it was the perfect timing for one of our D.C. days with the kids. So the next morning we packed everyone into the van, managed to get lost twice downtown (even with an iPhone helping us), and finally made our way to Eastern Market.






The kids had brought some of their spending money and wanted to spend it on...drum roll  please.....Starbucks. I have no idea where they would get the taste for such a place. *cough*







Then we made our way to Lincoln Park to see the Emancipation Memorial. Isaiah asked me to get photo of him with the name of his hero.



My kid's favorite part of the day came when we headed over to the playground area of the park. In that fenced-in spot, there was a dog birthday party going on with about seven adorable little canines running around. Their kind, laid-back owners let my kids hold and play with the dogs as much as they wanted. Every last one of my offspring was in puppy heaven.





I had to frisk the kids as we left to make sure no one had stuffed a puppy in their pocket.



Even after all of this, my personal favorite moment of the day was a wonderful gift from God near the end of our visit. He allowed our family to have the opportunity to interact with a homeless man. And it was the most valuable thing my children (and their parents) took away during our D.C. day. We live in a relative affluent suburb of D.C., and my kids could not get their brains around the idea that the man we talked to really didn't have a home. They begged us to go back to our house and let them dig into their piggy banks for him. Adriana finally asked, "Well, can he come live with us?!" We ended up have a wonderful chance to teach our kids about what the real world is like, and our call to serve others and preach the gospel. It's gotten Steven and I both thinking about how we can foster this desire in their little hearts. And while, when we went back to look for this man a second time and couldn't find him, he's been in our kid's bedtime prayers.