Mr. Blondies Goes to Washington

This morning the coolest thing happened.  I slept in and then David climbed into bed with me to sort of get me awake.  We joked and laughed.  I spoke to him in portuguese and he made up a funny language to speak to me in.  We pulled the covers over our head and let the light come through in a funny gingham pattern and we talked about preschool friends and being ticklish.


Then Brigham came in.  He's had troubles sleeping for a while and so sometimes when he sleeps in, Mommie just lets him sleep in.  So there were the three of us.  I mean four of us--Briggie never goes anywhere in the morning without his stuffed animal Tigee (pronounced 'Tie-geeee).  We lay there joking playing giggling and up and out laughing for quite some time.  It was a moment I don't want to forget.  I'll always have those boys and this morning.  

I suppose it would have been nice to have a camera to take a snapshot of that moment but really I think that might have stolen a bit of it's soul.  

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I'm home from my last deployment.  Yea.  We spent two weeks just playing and being together, it was nice.  I started a few 'honey-do' jobs, though I was a pretty miserable failure at actually finishing any of them.  And then last week I had to go on a TDY to Washington D.C.  We figured, what better way to hang out as a family?  

So instead of buying a plane ticket we all climbed in the van (the one that breaks down on highways and needs engines replaced all too frequently) and we drove to D.C.  We were in a fancy Hyatt in Arlington which in many ways is worse than being in a lower level hotel just because there aren't any other families and they didn't have a pool or breakfast bar.  But we got along just fine.  

We got there a day early so that I could go to a museum with them, so of course the first day was the Air and Space.  It was pretty much all we could do to keep those crazies in line, and there were two of us.  I had both of the older boys hand in my pocket for about half the day because they were so out of control.  Poor Michelle got to keep taking them out on excursions all week and she was all by herself.  She is brave and kind of a sucker for saying yes to that idea.  

They explored the American History, Natural History, Spy, and American Indian museums as well as the White House, the Lincoln, Vietnam, and Jefferson memorials; and even tried to go to the mint (some grumpy guard turned them away).  And finally they went all the way up to the steps of the capital building.  

It was a fun town to explore though the traffic sucks and it is tremendously expensive.  We ate at a great little Brazilian steak house in Georgetown for my birthday and got a flat tire just outside of Auburn Alabama on the way home.  I hope that it is an experience the Blondies never forget.  I also hope we can do many more things like that with them in the coming years.  They are pretty amazing and we love being with them, even with all the crazy.