Elder and Sister Butler

 The 4th day, we planned on hooking up with Elder and Sister Butler, aka, Mom and Dad, Grammy and Grandpa, aka, the reason I came on the trip!  (along with seeing Amy)  We were going to go thru the Museum of Natural History, but there were GPS snafus, and believe me, Mom and Dad, you need to be glad you weren't there.  Every school in the entire state was going on a field trip that morning, that museum!  So incredibly crowded and loud!   Here's some action shots:

Flat Stanley gets fed to the hippo.

Flat Stanley gets fed to the T-rex.

 Aislynn and I went to the butterfly exhibit while the boys hit the gemstones, then we went to the Ronald Reagan building to meet Mom and Dad for lunch!  It was so great to see them!!   I remember taking at least 4 or 5 pics during lunch, but I can find only 2 and your eyes were closed in the one where we were smiling Mom.
   
BTW - that's NOT my coke in the pic; I'm clean and sober!  It feels really great to say that, and it was awesome not to have to worry about where my next fix was coming from.  Roger and Arek on the other hand - Did! (snicker)


After lunch, we went to the mint, and had a really interesting tour on the actual place where they print our actual money.  There was hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars RIGHT THERE BEHIND THE GLASS (No pics allowed.) Recently I read a true story about a counterfeiter called "The Art of Making Money"  - (the guy's name was Art Williams)and it made me so much more impressed with what the guy accomplished SOLO, when I saw how incredibly much was involved.  

Then we walked to the Jefferson Memorial, and stopped to get all photogenic with the blossoms.

Whats with the darn Flat Stanley?

It was Jefferson's birthday that day, hence, the guy from the parks and rec dept. and the flowers to help celebrate.  The man came over and introduced himself as a fellow member of the church.  (He saw Mom's missionary badge)

These kids are STILL getting a kick out of their heli-spinner toys!  Here we are at Mom and Dad's apt.  The complex included a hotel section where Roger and I got a nice cute, clean room for $40 a night, waaaaay better than Motel 6!  See how green and rural it is?  Quite peaceful. It was reassuring to see my parents in a nice cute little missionary apartment, and be able to put a mental picture to their last year.  I wish we had been able to take pictures before we all came in and dumped our junk around, or let the KIDS in, for that matter!

Gotta publish, will finish up ......... sometime.

The reason Roger really came on this trip

Sorry I'm so long in getting this out there.  Sorry because I'm already forgetting stuff, but my attention has been commanded by the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency!  I read the first one on the trip, along with the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, and Out of My Mind by Sharon M Draper.  All of them are such excellent, excellent books!  Happily, there is a total of 11 of the Ladies Detective Series, with another one on the way.  Right now I'm in the middle of the 5th one: The Full Cupboard of Life, and that's pretty much all I want to do.  Dishes?  pffff.  Supper?  Don't you know where the cheerios are?  But then I say to myself, what would Precious Ramotswe say?  Fine.  (Such charming quirky little books, do yourself a favor and READ THEM)  
  
The weekend was spent cleaning the house in order to have the friendly Paul Fisher and his lovely family over for dinner Saturday night, then having Bonnie and fam, Arek and fam, Rick and the two college kids over for Easter dinner.  Of course we dyed eggs Saturday morning, and there was a loud and chilly egg hunt with all the cousins.  


But!  back to the DC Extravaganza.  Day 3 (or 4 if you count the traveling day.  Should I count the traveling day?)  we went to the other Air and Space Museum, otherwise known as almost the entire reason Roger wanted to come on this trip.  The 2 youngest were done after about an hour, so I bought them - (those little helicopter on a stick thingies that you spin between your palms and they take off? what the heck are they called? Spinners?  Google is letting me down)  and they had a great time in the locker room for a couple of hours!  Then lunch, and a really boring Imax.  It sounds bad, but we all had a really good time, kids playing, me reading or chatting with Amy; Arek, Roger and Eli pretty much memorizing each and every plane, talking, talking, talking!  They had a fabulous time!  They took 5 HOURS.  Then they bought a book each to continue memorizing plane facts.  I think they should give each other a quiz.  

They love their Ann Tamy

Yes,  THE Enola Gay!

That big white one on the bottom is an entire Concord.  This place is HUGE.

This is all the more we saw of these two,  their brains were sucked into the jetstream.

Afterwards, we had a fabulous meal at PF Changs, which the kids LOVED, then we went to the movies because we needed to stay out of Amy's roomate's hair for the evening, well, and cuz we like movies.  We saw Rango, which was enjoyable, but a little weird.  Don't you wish you hadn't stuck out your tongue AMY????  After all, this blog is viewed by possibly 5 people!

  

Zoo day

Day 2 in DC was spent at the Smithsonian Zoo; a really AWESOME zoo!  It was by far the warmest day we would have, downright sweaty by the end.  We had packed lunches and treats, sunscreamed up, and enjoyed the animals.

When asked, Ethan said the flamingos were his favorite part of the zoo, because he never knew their knees were backwards, and they did alot of this:

well, apparently I don't know how to post home movies.  Well the flamingos got in groups of 3 and 4 and put their faces all together and yelled and squawked and argued like crazy.  It was hilarious.

Somewhere along the way Ethan missed the "posing for pictures" gene.  Eli and Aislynn have it in spades.  Since I am also posing challenged, I can sympathize.

Arek is going to get me the pics off his wifes iphone.........hint hint.

Ethan is NOT, however, DRAMA challenged!! 

Reminds me of Toby!

After the zoo, we bought slushies and drove to the National Cathedral.  To get there, the GPS took us on a road with at least a dozen embassies!  It was exciting.  The cathedral turned out to be closed due to an upcoming prayer meeting for Japan, but we enjoyed the outside and the grounds.  I didn't even know this incredible building existed.  Pictures of course, don't do it justice.  

Roger heard that one of the gargoyles was a Darth Vader, and sure enough!!  It's way the heck up there, but our new camera with it's digital zoom came through.  Crazy huh.

Tulips in the Bishops Garden.  Dig my hat I bought at the zoo.

The guys had reserved 2 smaller cars for a big savings over a rental van, but the guy offered a screaming deal when we got to the rental place, so we had a van after all!  It was much more fun going places all together, saved on parking, and made OUR Sienna look mighty grungy and dented when we got home.

The kids begged to stop at a park on the way home. Ethan is fixing to sneeze here, but they got a huge kick out of this giant baby swing.  Then we went home to Amy's house and watched "The Parent Trap"  (the Lohan version) where we all proceeded to laugh our heads off.  A day spent in the great outdoors with kids will do that to you.

Next Post:  The OTHER Air and Space Museum.  

The Butler and Butler - Spring Break 2011 - Washington DC EXTRAVAGANZA!!

The Participants:  Roger, Ethan and I, my brother Arek, and his two oldest, Eli and Aislynn.  

The Purpose:  to visit Elder and Sister Butler on their mission, visit Amy, and see as many Smithsonian museums as humanly possible with a 7, 8 and 10 year old along for the ride.  

So: we took off for the airport in SNOW, natch!

ON OUR WAY!!! Salt Lake City airport

The last time a plane ride will be so exciting.  They decided it was kind of a chore after that. However, our kids were pretty darn stellar on both flights; I will travel with this crew any time!

This was cool, at the rental car place where we got a van.

There was alot of this.

And This.   

So.  When we got to Amy's house, she had set it up all nice and convenient for us, thank you so very much AMY - you are a rocking hostess.  That was one totally delicious stew!  The secret is out that you're a fabulous cook.  

The next day we set out to go to church, and had the singular and novel experience of having the fire alarm go off in sacrament meeting!  We all filed out to the parking lot for awhile, then straggled back in to finish the sacrament.  Never had that happen before!

Amy gave the kids special spy glasses - they have mirrors on the corners so you can see behind you!  A total hit.

After Sacrament meeting, we hit the town.  Here we are in the metro.  Arek (with the map of course!) was the most EXCELLENT travel and event coordinator.   I really need to express my gratitude of his git 'er doneness and leadership skills.  

Union Station, where some of those statues up there proved to be going commando under their shields and capes.  It provided MUCH amusement, but by the end of the trip Eli remarked that he was tired of seeing naked statues, and artists ought to put clothes on their subjects.

The Capitol Building.  A pretty classic and illustrative incident occured while Arek was explaining what happened government-wise in each of the buildings we could see from here, and the kids were all - "SQUIRREL!" -  like the dog in the movie UP.  They just couldn't get over all the squirrels in every tree.  We dragged them from place to place with the promise that they could chase the squirrels OVER THERE NOW.  Sheesh.

That would be MY bright pink purse that lovely Roger is carrying for me.  Amy is holding Flat Stanley for Ethan, who didn't have much enthusiasm for the homework assignment the teacher gave him. (get as many pictures of Flat Stanley in places not American Fork as you can.  The point was to mail him to our relatives and friends and have them take pictures of themselves with Flat Stanley.  So you can thank me very much that I was too stinking lazy to do that. I figured we could get enough variety on our own vacation)

 (I resent homework that teachers give parents)

The cherry trees were pretty much done, but the magnolias were magnificent!

Too-wrists.

Flat Stanley with a ..........Picasso? 

Aislynn's expression pretty much sums up the kid's opinion of the Museum of Modern Art, so we were quick.

Cool!

A carpet of magnolia petals

SQUIRRELS!  DC just has a more fascinating variety of them than Utah.  During our sack lunch on the grassy mall, they cornered one intrepid rodent by luring him in with trail mix, but they were a little too close for his comfort, and he made Eli scream like a little girl by jumping straight at him and rebounding off his legs!  Actually, I think we all screamed.

  The kids loved the Air and Space Museum along with Imax show.  But the gift shop was the best of all the game, of course.

This was as close as we got to the white house.  TOO MUCH WALKING for our pioneer children.  Well, ok,-  me.  They probably could have been talked into it.

The lovely end of a lovely day.
Tommorow:  the Zoo!