Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Christmastime in Washington DC

Ride on the Metro

Actually riding the Metro into Washington from our house is quite expensive, however fun it may be. Lately we have been able to drive in and find parking. However, on this particular trip we knew it was going to be a long afternoon of walking and we wanted to only walk the distance between the Capital and the White House once.
Our plan was to park as close to the White House and a Metro station as we could.  
We parked with valet parking, which was included with our online prepayment, and it was fantastic!
Go Parking Panda!
We walked over to the McPherson Square station to ride the metro over to The Capital building.

I have used the Metro kiosk 3 times before and was completely confused and always had to ask for help to get tickets.  On this, my 4th attempt, I finally got through it! We only had to start over like 5 times, but we did it!!
I had to document our success with a picture:) 


This was Kevin's first time on the Metro



The Library of Congress
housed in the 
Thomas Jefferson Building

As we were walking from Capital South station we passed the Thomas Jefferson Building. It wasn't part of our plan, but we didn't want to miss a chance to go see inside.

This whole building is a work of art!
Just breathtaking!
The kids weren't too sure about the people in the sculptures and paintings without their clothes.  They did there best not to giggle too much.

They also had the Magna Carta on display, which was an awesome surprise.










Stop for a quick snack.
Cole is barely hanging in.

Supreme Court






United States Capital


It is not very photogenic at the moment...
They are doing repairs on the building and it is covered in scaffolding.


Model of the Statue of Freedom.  The statue that sits on top of The Capital building.


U.S. Botanic Garden

They had their seasonal Christmas display of light houses from around the country, ships, and the capital's landmark buildings all made out of plant material.  They also had model trains running throughout.  We all agreed it was defiantly worth the wait in line.








The Capital Christmas Tree

DC at sunset

The National Christmas tree


The White House at night



~ December 27, 2014 ~

Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve


Christmas cookies

Story Time

Christmas ornaments for the kids are of our Virginia forest friends.



Christmas PJ's

Christmas Day

After waking up at 5 o' clock in the early morn we happily opened the presents!
He's the loot...

Ashton

Izzy

Ethan

Ethan lost his tooth unexpectedly after chewing on some 
Mike n' Ike's that Santa put in his stocking.
He wasn't too happy about the surprise.

Cole

Kevin
&
Jill


 After presents were all opened we had a yummy breakfast!

Church Cleaning & Gingerbread Houses

The Saturday morning before Christmas we were up for our turn for cleaning the church.  Cole was on a very cold hike to help him finally finish his cooking merit badge.  
He was so sad he had to miss it...HA HA!  
But we sure missed his cheerful happy face that we shares with us on morning such as these.

When you are cleaning the church bathrooms right before Christmas, 
we made sure to wear our Santa hats!




Gingerbread House Tradition

We are always looking forward to this each year!











~ December 20, 2014 ~