staycation+a mini vacation=perfection

Before I can get into this post, I have to share that we are expecting our third baby! We are over the moon! My body seemed to know exactly what was going on, and decided to give me a visible tummy way too early for my liking. :) I am 14 weeks and feeling good. As for how the kids feel about it, Eliza has no clue, and Isaac was excited at my initial 8 week ultrasound for about 5 seconds, until he started playing with medical tools and asking, "hey, what's this one for?!!!" It's a long 40-week road, so I'm actually glad that I haven't been asked 5 gazillion times when the baby will be born. Anyway, we're ecstatic!

Onto the staycation+minivacation...
For medical residents here at Strong Hospital, they are asked to put in their vacation time months and months in advance. Sometimes we know specific weeks that we would like off, other times we just take a gamble. We usually throw in a week off mid-winter, because we know how mid-winter is around here.

Boy, did we luck out! The entire week that Sean had off was in the 70's and 80's, a rarity if I ever knew one. I can't recall the last time I was getting rosy cheeks from the sun on a March afternoon. Never ever. Little to our surprise, we didn't have much money to do a formal trip (which we desperately could use about now...)and so we decided to do a weekend trip down in Washington D.C. It was perfect, and I'm so glad we didn't have the money to do something bigger. :) Well...

I have been to D.C. several times, but never with our kids. I can't say enough about how much fun they had, and we had as well. We went down with a list of optional things to see, and we probably only crossed off 3 of them. We just did what we could, and kind of let the kids lead. Plus, the weather was just as beautiful there, so it was hard to make ourselves go inside! There's always next time.

We probably could've spent the entire trip riding the extremely lengthy escalators, which lead to the metro.








We asked my parents if they'd like to join us, and they did! It was SO much fun to have them with us. The kids couldn't have been more thrilled. We got into DC around 4pm, and we checked in, let the kids jump on the beds, and then got back in the car to take care of some serious business:

Cafe Rio.


I ate all of it. My family had to wait for me. I was savoring every single bite.

We woke up the following morning to a bright blue sky and warm weather! We headed to the National Zoo. It has been two weeks since we took this trip, and Eliza talks about the zoo morning, noon, and night, every single day. The funny thing about the day we went, was that it was also St. Patrick's Day. I hadn't even thought about it when I was packing the kids' clothes. I usually try and put them in something easy to spot, and I happened to bring a GREEN shirt for Isaac. Not the best idea since everyone was wearing green! :)



Can you tell from the above pictures that the sun was directly in their eyes? Yeah.



We happened to be walking past this gate where the elephants can come up to be closer to visitors. It got within a few feet...


...and turned back around.






Trying out his new zoo toy


After the zoo (which we spent a considerable amount of time at ) we got back on the metro and got off near the White House. It was starting to get really warm at this point, so we stopped to get some drinks and let the kids out of the strollers.






She held onto that tiny rock the rest of the day.

A green fountain! And the back of the White House!




I'm in love with this picture:


Such a sweet smile, no? :)


At the World War II Memorial


Grandma and Eliza










After the White House, the Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial, we headed towards Tidal Basin to see the Cherry Blossoms




by this time it was nearly 5pm, and we were getting hungry. The nice thing is that we weren't on anyone's schedule but our own, so we decided to save the museums for another time, and bring the kids back to the hotel for some more swimming and some room service pizza and mac and cheese. It was surprisingly inexpensive, and the kids gobbled it ALL up.


Mom and I were able to get away and go out to dinner together at a great cafe in downtown Bethesda. We then drove by the temple so I could take a few pictures.


The following morning, we brought the kids over to see the DC Temple. I just love the memories of this temple for my family. My parents were married here after they were converted to the church. The kids loved the temple, and of course wanted to know when they could go in.




This photo makes my heart melt:

Eliza looooves her grandparents, that's for sure!

Our Little Family!







Some vacations we find that once was enough, but we couldn't feel more differently about our trip to DC. We can't wait to go back and do so much more, and eat at all of the places that people had recommended!