Phillip and my dad had an annual conference and this year it was in Washington D.C. We were originally all going to go but I decided that 5 days was going to be too much with no sleep (since Haven sleeps horribly when we travel) and there wasn't going to be that much to do since we were about a half hour outside the main part of DC. We were actually staying with my mom because our floors were being refinished (again, ugh). 3 days after Phillip got there he texted that he wished we were there and that he missed us all. We decided to surprise them the next day. He was pretty excited! The hotel was really nice and had this beautiful atrium in the middle of it. Addison loved it and kept saying that it looked like a little city because it had restaurants and shops in it. It also had a great little fountain that the kids loved. Unfortunately when we went to the children's museum the next day my camera was stolen so I only have the pictures from my parents' phones.
On the first day of meetings, they had a 5K that surprisingly my dad ran with Phillip. Phillip said they had a good time and it was good practice for Phillip's half marathon next week.
The kids were begging to go swimming the minute we got to the hotel so we made it down there after dinner. Haven looks so cute in her little suit!
Just 2 blocks from the hotel there was a little children's museum. It got really terrible reviews online but so I wasn't sure about going but we didn't really have anything else to do so we went and I'm so glad we did because the kids really had a good time. We were there longer than I thought we'd be and the kids didn't want to leave.
They had an awesome little space for babies/kids under 3. Haven loved this little climber. She could have stayed in there all day.
They had little exhibits of stuff from a bunch of different cultures. Addison loved the dress up stuff.
This is what they drive in the Philippines so the kids were excited to take pictures of themselves driving it to send to Quin.
Cooper especially loved building the cars and racing them. My mom said he did that for a really long time while I was playing with Haven in the baby area.
We went back to the hotel for lunch after the museum and then we headed back out to walk around the harbor to see what kind of stuff they had. It's a really nice, clean, not crowed area so it was a good place to walk around. We really wanted to see the Peep store and it was super cute. I don't like Peeps at all but it was a fun place.
We were bone tired by the time we got back so we all took naps before swimming again and dinner. After dinner we hung out in my mom's room for a bit. Haven was quite snuggly since she was so tired from not napping very well. She was super cute in my mom's bed just chilling.
Since Cooper took a nap after walking around, he was up until about 11. He got to walk around for a bit which of course he loved. The new ferris wheel was all lit up and he got to see the fountains all lit up and spraying along with the music they had to go with it.
The next morning we checked out and headed to the zoo. The traffic in DC is insane. We had a hard time trying to find a spot to park since the zoo parking lot was already completely full an hour after it opened. We finally found a spot and headed in. It was insanely crowded. Probably because it's completely free to get in but it was crazy just trying to move around. After a little while it thinned out quite a bit and we were able to enjoy it a lot more.
The kids especially loved seeing the huge elephant
We got to a little splashpad and Haven was in heaven. She LOVES playing in water and she went crazy for the sprayers. She was always so confused when they went off but freaked out when they came back on. It was fun to watch her.
We all got matching hats at lunch the day before so it was cute when everyone was wearing them! Oh, and we loved the monkeys too!
Kids in the bird house
After the zoo, my mom, Haven and I headed home. We wanted to get back earlier to have some time to get stuff cleaned up and put back together before we went back to our house the next day. Phillip had never been to DC so he wanted to see some of the main stuff there. He really wanted to go to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing but they were done with tours for the day. The kids wanted to go with him and my dad and Addison said they had a lot of fun. She really wanted to see the White House which she loved.
My mom and I were stuck in traffic for 3 hours trying to get home and ended up only beating the boys and kids back by a half hour which definitely was the hardest part of the trip. I could never ever live up there with the traffic like that. It's insane!! But all in all we had a great time. I'm glad we went up there and I'm grateful my mom agreed to go and drive with us! I could have gone by myself but I really didn't want to do that drive by myself with all the kids. We had a good time with everything and the 2 1/2 days was the perfect amount.
