Carpe Diem!

With the temperature in the 90s, we decided that it was a much better beach day than work and school day. We can always count on our party cousins to be in on the fun. We made arrangements the night before. All of the kids were down with the idea, although Superkid did come to me in the morning wanting to know if skipping school would affect him becoming a pilot. I assured him that taking one day off for a little beach fun would not de-rail his goals (remind me of this when he is in high school and the beach day is his idea not mine).
Abz sat up straight in her bed that morning and yelled, "BEACH DAY!"
No worries, we kept it educational. We had a resident marine biologist next to us on the beach who scooped up lots of friends to share...
Superkid was inspired and started his own, "Day Aquarium" full of sea snails...
Little Chief got into the fun too... but he was more into snacking on snails than collecting snails. His enthusiasm was not hindered when I scooped the first snail from his mouth... he just walked back to the snail covered rock to pop another one in. ICK!
Cousin Tiney was successful in diverting Little Chief's attention to the big girl's shell collection...
Tadpole was truly in his element...

We are so HAPPY summer fun is HERE! We are even happier to share it with our Rhode Island cousins!

We Decided to Flip 'Em

We decided to "flip-'em" and stay a bonus day in Philly. Some of us were lured in by the major pig out at the Franklin Fountain. For others of us, it was all about Independence Hall.
But first we had to inspect the Liberty Bell...
Who knew Philly would offend Abz' delicate sensibilities as much as D.C.?
Little Chief got promoted to stroller pusher...
And even spent a little time "free-range" before the big tour...
Finally, we made it. Uncle B will attest to Pops' love of this sacred place. Pops, Uncle B and I took a trip here 10 years ago. Pops was unsatisfied with the sparsity of pictures I was taking and took over the camera. When I developed the film I found an abundance of pictures of this building. As for all those pics Uncle B and I thought we were posing for, turns out we were more obstacles to what Pops really wanted to record. After photographing every stairwell, chair, and wall in the place we re-emerged from the hall. Pops said, "That was great! Who wants to do it again?!" and like kids at Disney Land we raced to see who could get in line first for the next tour.
This tour of Independence Hall went a little bit differently. This pic is proof that we all actually made it inside. We didn't actually survive the tour, but one of the Park Rangers took mercy on us (and everyone else in the tour) and let us jump ahead and just spin through the main hall. Perfect.

Then back outside to burn some steam before the long haul home...
Pretty amazing, we were back on the road by 10:00 a.m. Only regret is it was a little too early to ride out of town with a steak and cheese in my greasy little mitt.
Abizella begged and begged to stop in New Jersey on the way home too. I explained to her that the Zeller family was in NYC looking at the Tall ships. Abz said, "But Mom, isn't Friend-SHIP, the most important ship?" She got me there.

There were some natural ups and downs to the ebb and flow of our journey, but I have to say the worst part had to be the stroller. Our dutiful, much beloved, double-wide stroller met its demise the day before the trip. I ran to Babies-R-Us that night and bought the cheapest double stroller on display, reasoning that we only really needed a double stroller this one last time. Wow. I have never bought anything more cheaply made. This hunk of junk dropped wheels right and left. "Excuse me, is this your wheel?" became a regular conversation starter for the folks who crossed our path. Our first clue should have been the manufacturing error with one of the umbrella's being attached backwards. Good riddance!
But to leave the post on a high, I asked everyone what the best part of the journey was. Here is our list:

One thing we can all agree on is being with Uncle Brian and Aunt Jenny was the best part! ...oh ya, and swimming at the hotel!

Pops: National Archives, Mount Vernon, Independence Hall

Superkid: Mt. Vernon and the Capitol Tour ... pretty cool to see Philo T. Farsworth, inventor of Television...can't see it in this pic, but there was actually a rainbow descending on his head (the heavens smile on the inventor of TV)...


Abizella: Star Spangled Banner, the First Ladies dresses, and twirling the night away on George Washington's back patio


Tadpole: Watching the 400,000 "Rolling Thunder" motorcycles roar below our window at the hotel. He called them his "friends". Wouldn't be too surprised to see Tad on a hog one day. And he wins the "banana split enthusiast" award!


Little Chief: He loved to run and run and run. He was the family's ambassador.


Me: Reading Captain Underpants to the kids in the car and listening to them giggle, walking through the monuments and following Little Chief up and down the halls of the hotel as he expended his energy.

When can we go back?

D.C. to Philly

Next up... Capitol tour!
This tour has greatly improved since the last time I took it 10 years ago. With the addition of the visitor's center (constructed underground in front of the building), came tours with headsets. This is crucial because this place has a wicked echo... which would have made this feisty group extremely unpopular. The headsets also were a great distraction for the kiddos. I actually learned more this time through than when I went by myself 10 years ago.
(view from underground visitor's center)

Superkid sucked it all up like a little sponge.

Reagan time.
Nap time.
Abizella abstained from partaking of the rich olfactory experience the Nation's Capitol had to offer. It wasn't just this building that offended her, it was pretty much the entire capitol city.

We also were delighted to meet up with Uncle Brian and Aunt Jenny one more time for lunch. It is a good thing we are going to see them next month again, because they are pretty much all we talk about around here.
And of course, no trip to D.C. is complete without paying homage to the Supreme Court. It was closed for tours, which is probably for the best. Ever since the BEST tour guide EVER left his post there 10 years ago, there really is no point. Oh wait! Unless you happen to be married to the BEST tour guide EVER! Too bad it was closed. I would have loved to glean information at Pop's feet as he re-lived the glory days. I am not being facetious here.
Just ask Sandra Day O'Conner's husband!
Pops had a really great idea to swing by the Washington D.C. temple on our way out of town.
By now we REALLY deserved it. Ice cream time. Over the winter when we were locked inside we watched the entire Man vs. Food series. We just couldn't fly by Philly without indulging in the Franklin Fountain.
And did we EVER. 2 enormous old fashioned banana splits!
Our kind of heaven.
Some of us didn't come up for air...
Some of us blew caution to the wind and dove in head first!
I love me some Philadelphia!

Stars and Stripes Forever

Before we left on vacation, we did a major push to tidy the house and bolster the little Toad's spending accounts. Abizella was firm from the moment we got to D.C. she wanted to buy only an American Flag. She proudly marched through the streets waving her flag. Here she is flaring it before the collection of First Ladies Gowns (Hillary Clinton and Lora Bush) at the American History Museum.
The guys played it cool and just breezed through the Ladies evening wear and got some man time in with some heavy duty machinery.
There was also time for play at the American History Museum. Not sure what marbles and blocks have to do with history, but we'll take it.

Superkid even spotted an old friend on the way out. Now THAT is history!
Next up was the National Art Gallery. The kiddos tossed a coin in the fountain to make a wish (the highlight for the kiddos).
My highlight was seeing Abizella twirl through the collection of Degas dancers.
Pops and I also really enjoyed Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington and the only Divinci painting in the Western Hemisphere. While these treasures were largely lost on the littlest Toads POOL TIME wasn't! After all of that cultural refinement, we were ready to burn a little steam. FINALLY we took a dip in the hotel pool.
And a little poolside snack... (I'm telling you, if you haven't had a Tadpole chat recently you're missing out!)
Next stop was Mount Vernon. Uncle Brian, (possibly the only bigger George Washington fan than Pops) did a little pre-trip research and found a special Memorial Day event at George Washington's home. We threw out some blankets on his back lawn and enjoyed the sunset over the Potomac River.

Abizella simply adored the 18th century music being strung on the mansion's back porch. And the crowd adored her as she took to her stage and danced for her pleasing audience. She literally danced the night away.
Superkid took the opportunity to kick back and munch on a piece of grass...
We were all delighted to learn that the "hors d'oeurves" advertised, were actually a collection of cakes. Hey *chocolate cake* is not just for breakfast anymore!
And there was also some time for Aunt Jenny Snuggles (and dog piles...sorry about that Jenny)...
It all was just lovely until we wandered down to take our wagon ride and found that the rides were *over* and it was time to close.
We all tanked.
Pops wanted to secure a sweet spot in the children's hearts for his beloved Mount Vernon. He made deft tactical decision and spun the children through the gift shop to make a selection. Superkid ran from the shop to show me his gains and said, "If you ever want to see Mount Vernon, just look in my kaleidoscope!" Abizella later confided to me, "It came true, I wished for a pony at the fountain (remember the National Art Gallery fountain?) and my wish came true! Tadploe got a bucket-0-revolutionary men. Retail therapy makes everything better. Just ask the kids. They will tell you every time that Mount Vernon was their fav.
And they played Revolutionary War peaceably, well into the night.
We'll definitely be back!