A Virginia Wedding

The catalyst for the DC/Maryland/Virginia trip was Draper and Carrie's ring ceremony and wedding reception. So after a few days in Washington DC and Maryland, we headed for Virginia for some more wedding fun.

It rained hard the morning of the reception, then let up into a misty drizzle by afternoon.

Zeke loved the fountain so much. Here he is driving his cars and trucks through it.

The ceremony was beautiful, even with the misty rain and dripping trees. It wasn't cold so it was fairly pleasant even if it was wet. I quite enjoyed it and I wouldn't mind more weather like that at home!

Even though the dinner moved inside, Zeke wanted to eat at a table. So we ate outside in the mist. He sat on the one dry-ish chair we could find, and Aaron and I ate standing.

And of course, dinner was followed by the beautiful and delicious wedding cake. Zeke's favorite part.

After the wedding reception on Saturday, we went back to Maryland Sunday to visit Uncle Tyler for a while. Even though it was a lot of driving, it was quite restful (well, except for the very rainy parts of the drive) and just what we needed. We were glad to be able to see Tyler at his home.

Simple Vacation Fun

The most fun parts of our trip for Zeke were the little things. Like running and dancing with his reflection in the Air and Space Museum windows,

watching the fountain at the NOAA building just down the street from our hotel,

playing in the rocks on the National Mall pathway,

and playing in puddles.

We could have done most of that at home, but I guess we had to go to Maryland/DC/Virginia to find the time to really enjoy them! One thing that's not at home is the Metro, which he enjoyed so much.

This was Zeke's first plane trip. He loved the airport, he loved take-off and landing, and he was surprisingly easy to entertain during the hours we were cruising across the country. He insisted on having the window seat during take-off, which Aaron so kindly allowed him to have.

In the airport, we gave him Aaron's rolling carryon to pull around and he had so much fun with it (and lightened our load too!). Unfortunately, it didn't slow him down much so we were still chasing him down the concourse at times. When he wasn't running he was watching the jets and chatting away at the other people sitting near our gate about jets and trucks and all sorts of airport things.

We rode the shuttle bus between the airport and the rental car terminal, and Zeke had the best time doing that. We've ridden the bus before, but not in the city with all of the traffic lights and traffic. Plus jets and trains and other busses.... He was so excited about everything.

And, thanks to the airports, Metro stations, and museums, Zeke is now an escalator pro. He was a little nervous on the first one, but by the time we had done two or three he had the hang of how to step on and off and loves riding the 'tracks'.

On the National Mall

We spent two days on the National Mall. We took the Metro into the city, which we all enjoyed and Zeke particularly loved.

There is so much to see! I had hoped to walk to the monuments with Zeke, similar to what Aaron and I did 4 years ago, but we didn't have time or energy to go to all of them. (Touring with a toddler can be very slow going). We saw several of them from a distance and a few up close.

Elsewhere, we spent time watching the carousel,

and enjoyed beautiful flowers and buildings as we walked the mall.

We also made time for a few museums. In addition to the Air and Space museums, we went to the American History museum, mostly because they had a transportation exhibit that included several trains.

Zeke was drawn to the model displays in both museums. I'm sure he's trying to figure out how to get it out of the glass and down on the floor to play with.

We also saw the very star-spangled banner that inspired Francis Scott Key to write his poem. Because the flag is so old, it is kept behind glass with special lights, and we walked through a dark hallway (no cameras, no cell phones) to look in on it. It was beautiful.

Air and Space Adventures

We went to both Smithsonian Air and Space museums, in Virginia

and in Washington DC.

The Virginia one was packed with aircraft, warehouse style, including some big jets.

As expected, Zeke was a big fan of the helicopters.

We liked the present-day military jets too.

On the mall, the museum had an interactive kids exhibit. Zeke had a great time here, and there were a couple of stations we had to literally drag him away from. One of the stations we tried was a scale that told us our family of (almost) 4 weighs 408 lbs on Earth and 1022 lbs on Jupiter.

Even though Zeke loves planes, the museum scene wasn't really his favorite. Not enough action, I think. But he did like the passenger jet area and the model aircraft.

We also learned through our museum-going that when Zeke is bored he is a lot more willing to take an afternoon nap. So we carried a sleeping Zeke around in both locations and on the mall. Cute, but heavy!