We loaded up a lot of cars and a lot of gear and headed for the beach in Delaware....once down there we sent Aunt Amy, Uncle Scott and Corey to the boardwalk with the big kids to help them burn off any excess energy from the trip. They road some rides, ate some dinner and Abbey was very excited to take them for a ride through the Haunted Mansion!
Harrison really did have fun even though he doesn't appear to be smiling in any of these pictures!
Which must explain Uncle Scott and all these happy face balloons!
This picture perfectly sums up Bobby's sudden concern about riding the Haunted Mansion ride just before it was about to begin. We will get the pictures of all of us riding through it scanned in soon for you to see just how frightening it must have been!
The next day we headed straight for the beach!
The kids LOVED the water. Reagan only took a second to get into the act of "jumping" the waves. This is quite possibly one of my favorite pictures from vacation:
Kennedy LOVED the water as well....she had no fear (which created much fear for us!) and stood in the surf just squealing everytime a wave would come up and crash against her.
Harrison and Bobby were slightly more content to stick to land and build sand castles (although the second day they went down and everyone ended up having a blast in the water....thus...there are no pictures since everyone was getting wet and making sure everyone stayed above the surface!)
Madison did not share her sister Kennedy's enthusiasm for the surf. She was a bit like a cat...sticking her legs straight up in the air anytime I tried to lower her into the water.
And as much as she loves the sandbox at home, the beach proved overwhelming to her as well, so really, Madison proved to fall into the side of the Shaw family that loves to be at the beach and see and smell and be a part of the beach, but would rather not mess with actually being ON the beach :) Here is Madison, safely removed from the sand (and moments after the picture was taken resumed her crying to be returned safely to mom's arms)
The four bigs taking a much needed movie break after playing hard at the beach....(this moment of all 4 kids sitting quietly on the couch did not last long of course!)
Apparently, we didn't tire the kids out quite enough because the next morning, they were awake at the crack of dawn. Literally! We heard the pitter patter of their feet and I went up to find all four of them upstairs ready to start the day. After explaining they needed to head back to bed for a little bit longer and sending them on their way, they stopped to inquire about the "red dot" out over the ocean. Well, I guess the benefit of them waking so early was that they were able to witness their first sunrise. (and, I do have to admit, it was gorgeous enough that I was glad I saw it too.....but then we all went back to bed for another hour thank goodness!)
Later that day, Uncle Scott and Corey took the big kids on a pirate ship adventure. Reagan went on this once when she was about 2 and Abbey has been a few times as well, but they really had fun all going together. They dress the kids up in some pirate gear and go out to cruise around the bay where they encounter another pirate they have to fight with water canons, a sunken treasure and some grog to drink. Here are our fearsome four ready to roll:
Taking the Pirate Pledge:
Fighting the pirate (notice how Harrison is holding onto Reagan! Cute! Oh, and it's not to protect her....he's keeping himself safe!)
They give each kid a special "pirate" name using the first letter of their first name. Well, this didn't sit well with Harrison as they were trying to think up his pirate name (as anyone who has ever tried calling him Harry can attest!). Apparently, he made his point clear because when he came back to Corey with his nametag, it read as such: (JUST Harrison)
And, honestly, are you going to argue with this face?
I am so disappointed that we didn't get pictures of the kids with Pops and Gams (or with anyone for that matter, but if you were there, you would understand that there was just no hope!). I did snap a few of Kennedy "delegating" some building responsibility to Pops while playing legos. She would decide on which block was next and hand it to Pops and spout of some sort of gibberish that was clearly an instruction on where it went....
One of my personal favorite highlights of the trip was the night that Corey and I were given a date night....just the two of us and a beautiful restaurant on the bayside that plays the 1812 Overture timed perfectly with the sunset. An amazing thing to watch. The sunset is always gorgeous, but to have it turned into even more of a spectacle is even more amazing....even when covered up by clouds!
The other favorite was a night out with all the grown ups. Diane found us a fantastic babysitter who took on all the kiddos (she is a Kindergarten teacher....and we had all the under 2 crowd in bed already). We headed out to Dad & Diane's favorite restaurant and had a really fun night out!
Thank you to Pops and Gams for letting us all invade the beach house.....and thank you to all the aunties and uncles that helped manage the craziness of our beach "vacation"!
Harrison had to decorate a cutout person to look like himself.....he made a fairly accurate image, don't you think????
So far, both are off to an excellent start. Let's hope it continues that way through the year!
We are very thankful that Harrison and Reagan have turned into excellent travelers and did so well throughout the entire day. We never had a single complaint from them. And they reminded us to stop and enjoy the experience as we sat watching them looking out the airplane windows and marveling at the sights below. It really wasn't that bad when you watched it through their eyes :).
and Harrison and Bobby....
We had to include Pops in this photo because despite the fact that he has lived in the Washington, DC area his entire life, he also had NEVER been on the Metro. This fact was even more unbelievable to his sister Mary Aleese who pointed out that their dad was very involved in the development of the Metro while on the DC Board of Trade and actually rode on the very first Metro ride. A very cool family history lesson for all of us!
The gigantic escalators were a huge hit as well (and thank goodness they were working that day!)
Playing at the water fountain at the Bethesda Metro stop
Stopping for a snack at Georgetown Cupcake (I don't recall asking everyone to make a silly face, but that's what we got!)
An interesting tourist outing but it satisfied the request of one little boy who wanted to ride a bullet train!
Harrison really did have fun even though he doesn't appear to be smiling in any of these pictures!
Which must explain Uncle Scott and all these happy face balloons!
This picture perfectly sums up Bobby's sudden concern about riding the Haunted Mansion ride just before it was about to begin. We will get the pictures of all of us riding through it scanned in soon for you to see just how frightening it must have been!
The next day we headed straight for the beach!
The kids LOVED the water. Reagan only took a second to get into the act of "jumping" the waves. This is quite possibly one of my favorite pictures from vacation:
Kennedy LOVED the water as well....she had no fear (which created much fear for us!) and stood in the surf just squealing everytime a wave would come up and crash against her.
Harrison and Bobby were slightly more content to stick to land and build sand castles (although the second day they went down and everyone ended up having a blast in the water....thus...there are no pictures since everyone was getting wet and making sure everyone stayed above the surface!)
Madison did not share her sister Kennedy's enthusiasm for the surf. She was a bit like a cat...sticking her legs straight up in the air anytime I tried to lower her into the water.
And as much as she loves the sandbox at home, the beach proved overwhelming to her as well, so really, Madison proved to fall into the side of the Shaw family that loves to be at the beach and see and smell and be a part of the beach, but would rather not mess with actually being ON the beach :) Here is Madison, safely removed from the sand (and moments after the picture was taken resumed her crying to be returned safely to mom's arms)
The four bigs taking a much needed movie break after playing hard at the beach....(this moment of all 4 kids sitting quietly on the couch did not last long of course!)
Apparently, we didn't tire the kids out quite enough because the next morning, they were awake at the crack of dawn. Literally! We heard the pitter patter of their feet and I went up to find all four of them upstairs ready to start the day. After explaining they needed to head back to bed for a little bit longer and sending them on their way, they stopped to inquire about the "red dot" out over the ocean. Well, I guess the benefit of them waking so early was that they were able to witness their first sunrise. (and, I do have to admit, it was gorgeous enough that I was glad I saw it too.....but then we all went back to bed for another hour thank goodness!)
Later that day, Uncle Scott and Corey took the big kids on a pirate ship adventure. Reagan went on this once when she was about 2 and Abbey has been a few times as well, but they really had fun all going together. They dress the kids up in some pirate gear and go out to cruise around the bay where they encounter another pirate they have to fight with water canons, a sunken treasure and some grog to drink. Here are our fearsome four ready to roll:
Taking the Pirate Pledge:
Fighting the pirate (notice how Harrison is holding onto Reagan! Cute! Oh, and it's not to protect her....he's keeping himself safe!)
They give each kid a special "pirate" name using the first letter of their first name. Well, this didn't sit well with Harrison as they were trying to think up his pirate name (as anyone who has ever tried calling him Harry can attest!). Apparently, he made his point clear because when he came back to Corey with his nametag, it read as such: (JUST Harrison)
And, honestly, are you going to argue with this face?
I am so disappointed that we didn't get pictures of the kids with Pops and Gams (or with anyone for that matter, but if you were there, you would understand that there was just no hope!). I did snap a few of Kennedy "delegating" some building responsibility to Pops while playing legos. She would decide on which block was next and hand it to Pops and spout of some sort of gibberish that was clearly an instruction on where it went....
One of my personal favorite highlights of the trip was the night that Corey and I were given a date night....just the two of us and a beautiful restaurant on the bayside that plays the 1812 Overture timed perfectly with the sunset. An amazing thing to watch. The sunset is always gorgeous, but to have it turned into even more of a spectacle is even more amazing....even when covered up by clouds!
The other favorite was a night out with all the grown ups. Diane found us a fantastic babysitter who took on all the kiddos (she is a Kindergarten teacher....and we had all the under 2 crowd in bed already). We headed out to Dad & Diane's favorite restaurant and had a really fun night out!
When we got to the top of the stairs to the Lincoln Memorial, Harrison commented that "President Lincoln must have REALLY liked steps!"
A kind man offered to take a picture of the four of us together...
Reagan was fascinated by Martin Luther King, Jr when she learned about him last year at school and therefore was very interested to see and stand upon the spot where he stood to give his I Have a Dream speech.
Unfortunately, the reflecting pool is being renovated so the view isn't quite what it should be (but beautiful nonetheless!)
We walked down to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall...a hard one to explain to the kids and always an emotionally striking sight for the grown ups...
We hopped out of the car to see the Washington Monument up close. We went inside on our last trip down there a couple years ago and the kids were getting tired so we just walked around, visited with a policeman on horseback and headed home. A fun day and we look forward to going back again next time to take in even more sights!
Luckily, our return flights went much smoother than our trip out to DC and we arrived home safely. We miss everyone so much and are so grateful for everything you did to make our trip so wonderful. Love you!
