Our Country's Birthday

I feel like most of my blogs lately are about trips. Sorry about the one track blogging, but here is more journaling and more photos about our time to explore. Someday I won't have any trips to blog about--

We took advantage of the long weekend over the 4^th to drive to Washington D.C. And Philadelphia. It was good and bad timing—We encountered lots of patriotism and crowds.

We ate our lunch in front of the Library of Congress -facing the Capitol. The Library of Congress was one of the impressive places I remember from my visits to D.C. when we lived in Virginia growing up.
Jared enjoyed seeing the Supreme Court building.



We made it to part of two Smithsonians to show Jordan the dinosaurs and Michael the space ships.


Of course the best part at the end of a long day was our stop to the temple. It is a spectacular sight and such a peaceful place.

The rest of these pictures are in Philadelphia on Saturday the 4th!
Waiting for the parade--Michael's patriotic artwork

We arrived just in time to claim a great spot for parade watching. The red brick building we faced across the street was the restored "Declaration House" where Jefferson rented a room while he worked was working on the Declaration. Michael wants me to include that he was the photographer for that picture.


One of the fun floats in the parade was the carriage with Abraham Lincoln commemorating his 200th birthday. The Lincoln festival outside the visitor's center had fun activities for the boys like building Lincoln Log cabins and making stovepipe top hats out of paper....

Our last two stops before heading home were the Liberty Bell and Independance Hall where the Declaration was signed.


There is the synopsis. condensed but not brief..
Happy Birthday America!

p.s. this one's for posterity

Jordan enjoying dress up at the Children's Discovery Center

Summer Swimming!

Michael and Jordan are so excited about their swim classes right now. We have missed them in the past because of moving and transitions. But this is perfect timing now--I think the swim lessons are what they will remember most from Virginia. The swim teacher, Debbi-Jo has a calling in life to do what she does. After two or three lessons Michael is jumping off the side of the pool, going under water to sit on the bottom.... Debbi Jo adds a hula hoop to swim through and a fun song or name to everything....
Michael is the one swimming to his classmates in the first picture. --in the orange shirt with white sleeves.


















I love this picture of Jordan. He has to have his goggles on his ears (-so they poke out) and he often puts his sandals on the wrong feet when we are running out the door.








On a side note, this is the house we have our swim lessons at. I had to take a picture for future reference. I love this kind of house with a big front porch for rocking chairs and hanging pots.

Monticello

Charlottesville's main claim to fame is Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home and plantation estate. Its second claim to fame is the University of Virginia, designed and founded by Jefferson. We visited a few weekends ago and gave Michael a crash course in U.S. history. After visiting so many church historical sites, it took him a little while to understand that Thomas Jefferson wasn't a prophet. Now it is fun to hear him shout "Thomas Jefferson!" every time he sees pictures or statues. He associates red bricks and columns with Jefferson's house too.