#1 -The New Bedroom: The girls were away all week, so I decided to tackle a big project - painting our master bedroom. Three days later and with minimal errors, our bedroom was finished and is now a nice, dark green color. We lived with the builder's white walls for 11 years, so we are loving the new color. The walls are filled with Don's nature pictures of various waterfalls and flora/fauna pictures. Still need to find new bedding, but we love our little piece of "Nature Paradise."
#2: Upon completion of the "new room," we (the girls and I) prepared for our journey to the Kennedy Center with Rina (Laura's mom) to see Mary Poppins. As many of you know, Mary Poppins is a childhood favorite of mine. I was the one who had to have the Mary Poppins breakfast at Disney World 4 years ago, and as soon as the girls were old enough, I introduced them to the movie with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. I think Carleigh might have been a new 4 year old when she saw the movie for the first time, and she became obsessed with the Jolly Holiday segment with the dancing penguins. Katie followed after and we have all become big Mary Poppins fans. So, even after seeing it on Broadway in April, we all had no problem seeing it again at the Kennedy Center with my mom.
I love that the girls will "dress up" for these occasions and appreciate them as much as I do!
After my attempt to drive into DC - I was successful, but not without a few scenic detours - I was not looking forward to another attempt 2 days later, but alas.....another adventure awaited the Rahns!
#3: Visiting the White House and playing tourist - Don was very lucky this year and received an end of year gift from his class that included a prearranged tour of the White House for the family. We worked with his room mom and the congressional contact to arrange it for a day when we would actually be in town :) - so the time had finally approached and we were scheduled for an 8:30 a.m. tour, to arrive by 8:15 on a Tuesday, in Washington D.C., during rush hour, ....you get the picture.
We woke at 5:15 and left the house by 6:10 a.m. to hopefully arrive by 8:15. Crossing our fingers for no heavy traffic, no unexpected backups or accidents, and no unexpected "rush hour" situations. If you've ever driven in DC rush hour, then you know that you NEVER know what you will run into. So we set off....with the GPS set for a parking garage address that I had found nearby the White House. Well.....we arrived unscathed, with no traffic and minimal distractions at the White House at 7:10!! We were shocked, but had planned for it. I had also researched all of the McDonald's within walking distance of the White House. (There were about 10 listed!) Laugh as my may, but my advance planning usually works out and I literally leave no stone unturned in these adventures that we take.
We ended up getting in line right away, as the uniformed guards at the entrances told us that even though we were scheduled for 8:30 - we could get in line now and go in with the 7:30 crowd.
It was a fun adventure - a 45 minute inside tour of the public areas on the main floor. We saw the room where President Obama holds all of his press conferences - in fact they were setting up for some sort of announcement/press conference while we were there. We also saw the state dining room and about 5-7 other rooms used for receptions/meetings/greetings. It was a self guided tour, so that was neat, as we could wander at our own pace and there were secret service agents in each room to answer questions and monitor the activity.
I was realizing that the girls were looking at it as a big museum, and I wanted them to realize that it was the actual house and was used as such. We talked to the agent in the State dining room and he explained to us how the house is open from 7:30 to noon each day and then closes and everything is put back to normal. The ropes are taken down, the carpets are rolled back out and Sasha and Malia can be seen running through the rooms on occasion. The afternoons are spent with meetings and preparing for State dinners or press conferences and these rooms are used every day by the president. Carleigh and Kate thought that was really neat.
After we exited and were guided to the are outside the big fences by the guards, the girls also stopped to look at the upper levels and wonder where Sasha and Malia slept and ate dinner, etc. One of the guards was nice enough to point out exactly which windows were Sasha and Malia's - and showed us that the windows had butterfly decorations on them. Carleigh and Katie thought that was really cool also.
It was short tour, but it worked getting there before our set time, we were back out on Pennsylvania Avenue before 9:00 a.m.
Here are some pics after the tour, no cameras allowed inside (in fact, NOTHING allowed inside except for photo ID, cell phone, and small wallet.):
The two bedrooms are two of the second floor rooms under the pillars - in the above picture.
The girls enjoyed this opportunity:
After the White House tour, we decided to play tourist for a while. We did some souvenir shopping, hence the above photo op and we found one of those McDonald's I had mapped out. After breakfast, we then headed down to the Newseum - a VERY fun, 6 level museum about news that came highly recommended to me by many friends. We hadn't been there before, so we decided it was a perfect time to play.
We started with the orientation film to show us about the museum and then watched the 4D movie. That was also pretty fun. Then straight up to the 6th floor to admire the view, and work our way back down.
Back inside the Newseum was a lot of information that was over their heads, but they appreciated the interactive floor with games and the opportunity to make your own news video:
Click play on the above video clip to see their finished product!
After we finished at the Newseum, we headed back to the car, stopping for a few more pics along the way and were home in Purcellville by 2:15. It was a great day and fun to play tourist so close to home.
Don actually made the comment that he "is bored." a few days ago, so there may be some more day trips and "Staycation" adventures before we head back to work on August 25th.
Stay Tuned!
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