Day 3 was Sunday, Father's Day, AND our 12th wedding anniversary! What better way to celebrate all of these things than with more sightseeing in DC!
There was a slight chance of rain this day (which never happened), but we were excited that even if it rained our plan for most of the morning was to be indoors at various museums anyway. We had ponchos just in case, but never needed them!
So we headed out to the National Museum of Natural History first!
We were in line to go in when they first opened, see that line starting to form behind us!?
We were all very excited!
(And this can count as his Father's Day pic with the kids too! We gave him his Father's Day gifts before leaving Alabama since we were trying to pack lightly. I am so thankful for what an amazing Daddy John is to the kids. He loves them so much and loves spending time with them and truly loves caring for each of them. He's so patient and loving. These four have a wonderful Daddy to celebrate on Father's Day!)
Everyone loved the dino skeletons!
And the shark jaw
Clayton loved this aquarium area more than probably anything else in the museum. He kept referring to this museum as the aquarium.
We were discussing the movie Night at the Museum, and saying what if this elephant came to life?! So Dawson wanted a picture.
Then NK felt like she was missing out so she joined in
Then Carter wanted to be a part too!
In Mrs. Johnson's kindergarten class the class pet was a (stuffed animal) pangolin. We had never heard of a pangolin until kindergarten and we learned lots of cool facts about his odd animal. The stuffed pangolin even spent Thanksgiving 2017 at our house (because even stuffed class pets can't be left at school on extended breaks!), so Carter thought it was VERY cool to see a pangolin at the museum (it's that interesting animal hanging behind him).
More of NK's requested silly selfies.
Shark!
Bear!
Another Shark!
Somehow I guess we ended up without any pictures of the gem area, but the kids absolutely loved the gem area of the museum especially Carter and Dawson. Everyone was in awe at the Hope Diamond, but they have fun looking at each and every gem.
This was really neat! We got to touch a narwhal's horn! That's what Nora Kate is holding here. We learned that it's basically just a giant tooth, and it's made out of a similar material as fingernails!
After this museum we walked across the National Mall to the National Air and Space Museum. I debated adding this museum to our list because we go to the Space and Rocket Center all.the.time! BUT in the end we decided to add it to our sightseeing plan because we figured it would be something different, and I'm so glad we did! It was very neat.
Clayton's favorite things were the rockets and astronauts.
We enjoyed seeing all the different kinds of planes.
My very favorite area was the room where they displayed the Wright Brother's different creations. It was really neat to see how their ideas changed, and we couldn't get over how thin the material was that they stretched across the wood to make the plane wings!
After getting an early start and touring two museums, we were ready for lunch.
More street food which we enjoyed under a shade tree on the National Mall.
We just loved all the open green space to be in the city but spread out and run. I joked with John that it was Father's Day and our anniversary and we were eating food from a food truck sitting on the grass...but it was perfect! We enjoyed our lunch...the highlight of the lunch for the kids was that while sitting under that nice shade tree...a bird pooped on my leg-ugh! At least the kids got a good laugh about this.
After eating and relaxing in the shade, we were ready for something different.
So we hopped on the metro and rode to Arlington.
WAIT, We are above ground now!?
WE didn't realize that the metro goes above ground at Arlington!
We went from being in the dark underground to sudden day light and all snapped our heads around to look out the window!
And this is what you saw out the window-we were over the Hudson.
Of all the things I had prepped the kids for and taught them about in anticipation of this trip, I realized when we arrived at Arlington that I hadn't told them much about this. Arlington was one of my favorite memories from when I went to DC as a kid. There's something so meaningful about the guarding of the tomb of the unknown soldier and I remembered so many details of this that I knew I really wanted to go back. Well, it ended up not mattering that I hadn't told the kids much about it because even after going through the gates at Arlington, we still had about a mile walk uphill to make it to the tomb of the unknown soldier to see the changing of the guard, so we had plenty of time to explain and talk about everything while walking there.
Carter watching the changing of the guard.
Dawson at the top of the steps at Arlington
John and the big 3 kids at Arlington.
Arlington.
I'm so glad we got to go! Arlington had been on my list of "if we have time" because it was a little out of the way from almost everything else we were going to be doing/seeing...so I was very thankful it worked out.
Another item on my "if it works out list" was the National Archives. In doing my research I had read about the CRAZY lines to get in here, and about how you can buy tickets online to bypass the line...BUT the tickets for every.single.day we were in DC were sold out.
We decided after leaving Arlington to head to the National Archives just to see if maybe at the very end of the day the lines cleared out. This was John's idea, and I was skeptical, but we headed back toward DC to check.
More great views on the way
Fun on the subway on the way
Everyone's favorite game became try to stand up on the moving subway without holding on.
We only played this game when the subway wasn't crowded-Haha!
Another great view
The Smithsonian Castle
And I'm SO glad that we went with John's great idea to go to the National Archives about an hour before they closed. There was NO LINE! I couldn't believe it! We walked right in (after going through security), and this became one of my favorite things we did in DC.
We saw the actual Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Emancipation Proclamation, and so many more originals of important documents.
This is one of the things I would tell anyone visiting DC that this is a MUST.
Obviously, you are not allowed to take ANY pictures at all in the National Archives building, so this is the only picture we have-the building (above).
The escalators at most of the metro stops were CRAZY long.
The kids thought getting to ride these numerous times a day was great fun. They honestly made me pretty nervous because one of us always had the stroller and then the other one had to have a hand on Clayton and remind the kids that as soon as we got to the top there was road so to be so careful! I relaxed after we all got in a good routine with this. The kids still talk about these escalators and how fun they were!
After that full day we headed back to our hotel. The kids needed some time to just BE so we dressed them in their swim clothes and let them enjoy the hotel pool while John and I talked about planned out our next day in DC.
Since Day 3 was our anniversary, we kept talking about what we were doing twelve years ago and how we would have never dreamed that 12 years later we would be totting four sweet kids around DC. I'm so thankful for our wonderful family. Twelve wonderful years and counting.
Time to rest up for DAY 4!
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