Monster Road Trip Washington DC Leg

We stayed in an apartment really close to the metro in Washington DC. It was the perfect location to explore the city from, except for the fact that when we got there, we found out that the owners didn't want any of the neighbors to know that they were using the apartment as an Airbnb so we had to try to be an invisible family of 6. Tim was especially good at not making too much noise or calling attention to us. 🙄

Our first day in DC we walked a million miles to see the major monuments around the mall.  The kids were really good sports about so much walking in the heat. I think everyone's favorite was the Lincoln memorial. 1) It was a recognizable and impressive statue. 2) Everyone except Tim knew who he was. 

3) It had shade. The kids also liked finding the different states in the WW2 memorial. The kids still clearly identify as Washingtonians as they were given the choice of which state to pose in front of and they chose Washington over Texas.

 

As a reward for all their trekking across the city at the end of the first day we got exorbitantly priced, but delicious ice creams from a van. We'd earned it!

On our second day in DC we hit the museums. We went to the Holocaust Museum, which everyone except for Tim was really fascinated by and could've spent more time in. After 15 minutes Tim was done being somber and watched cartoons on mute on my phone for the rest of the time that we were there. I was impressed by how respectful and interested the kids were in such a serious topic. Unfortunately due to COVID restrictions the children's portion of the museum was closed so we couldn't do that. 

We also met up with dad's cousin, Tyson, and his baby son for a food truck lunch before hitting

the Smithsonian Museum of Natural Science, which the kids were a big fan of. Everybody enjoyed different aspects of the museum and it was fun to see what they gravitated toward. 

We also stopped briefly in a museum of futuristic inventions and a modern art museum. I wanted to go to an art museum and the modern art one was on our way back to the metro. In retrospect it wasn't the best choice. No one liked it and it didn't inspire a new-found love of art. But it was interesting! 

The last thing we hit before we left the city was the Smithsonian Zoo. As one of only five zoos in the country with pandas it was a must see. It was a fun zoo, but it was super hot and humid, and we were ready to leave and sit in the airconditioned car. 

 

Monster Road Trip Georgia Leg

We started off our road trip in high spirits and ready to cross some southern states off of our list! We hit Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama all with pit stops. Note for posterity- Alabama had the best rest stops. Mississippi was the scariest, and Louisiana was somewhere in the middle. We also had a specially curated playlist with songs about the individual states that would be cued up to play right as we crossed the border into the new state- thanks to dad for doing that while mom drove.

Speaking of songs- the best of all the playlists was of course "The Devil went Down to Georgia". Having only ever heard that song on the radio we as parents were not prepared for the bad word that we blasted at top volume throughout the car. Oops. We enjoyed our time in Georgia. We stayed with Collin's college roommate, Brian, and his family for two nights. We went hiking, and swimming, and grilled hamburgers. Their oldest three lined up pretty well age-wise with our youngest three, and they had a great time playing and hiking together. Georgia was beautiful, and we had a blast! 

Unplanned new BFF matching jammie moment.

This year's snack bracket. Collin almost got out of the car and walked home when he thought original goldfish were going to win. Unmarked on the snack bracket was what we all agreed was the worst snack bracket item of all times- baby bananas. They looked like poop, smelled like baby food, and got thrown out the windows where MAYBE some scavenger animal ate it.

 

First Week of Summer Vacation

Crazy hair, don't care

Leona and Clara were invited to Ezrah and Donovan's piano recital. They were rewarded with not only sweet music, but ice cream at Braum's also.

Blanket fort fun

To celebrate the start of summer Clara and Leona invited a few friends over for a movie night. Everybody had tons of fun.

Modeling a pair of earrings that she got from Gma Roueche. Such a beautiful girl, inside and out!

 

Last Week of 2nd Grade

The last week of school Tim and I brought lunch and ate with Leona. It was a lot of fun to see some of the classmates who we'd heard about all year, but hadn't yet put faces to a name.

Leona with her buddies at the end of year party. I only know that the really tiny one is Emma and the one in tye-die is Allie. The others I don't have names for.  Emma and Allie were Leona's main crew in second grade.

Leona getting her stack of awards at the award ceremony. I am always so proud of Leona and how hard she works at school. She in enthusiastic and stalwart and her work really paid off this year with tons of progress.

 

First Half of May

Some action shots of Leona killing it at gymnastics. She is such a natural! Clara took these shots during Leona's class and took particular care to get action shots.

Uncle Jaybob, Aunt Kaleigh, and Levi cam to visit Texas. For part of the visit they stayed with us, which was extra fun. We went on a hike, got Korean corndogs, and fancy mango desserts, in addition to just hanging around the house and trying to get Levi to giggle.