Memorial day weekend getaway

We decided at the last minute to head down to Washington, DC for the long holiday weekend. We haven't done a good job at visiting the places we intended to while living here, so we thought it best to fit in a trip before we move in a few weeks.

This was a first for us....a first family vacation. We've gone to visit family with the kids before, but never vacationed just the four of us. It definitely wasn't a relaxing trip. We spent Saturday traipsing around DC. Long story short: we spent a bunch of money and didn't get to see much. Melt downs and little patience caused us to pass by some of the monuments. However, I WILL tell you some of the highlights from the trip.

1. Arriving at our hotel in the pouring rain and minutes later watching a whole middle school evacuating because one of them pulled the fire alarm. Nice. Glad my ears aren't ringing anymore.

2. The kids thankfully not breaking the lamp when they knocked it off the side table in our room. The light bulb was the only thing to break in this incident.

3. Seeing Jack's face light up at the sight of dinosaurs in the Museum of Natural History was (to me) totally worth the tantrum he would throw 10 minutes later. I'm sure Ben would beg to differ.

4. Visiting with my friend, Sarah, and her son, Hunter, in our hotel after our first day of sightseeing. Sarah was a trooper. You'll see why...

5. Ordered dinner in when we visited with Sarah only to find that the food we ordered wasn't quite enough for everyone. That sucks.

6. After repeatedly telling Jack not to jump on the couch he fell off (for the 2nd time) and busted his eyebrow open. Then Ben, Sarah and I tried to determine whether or not we needed to go in for stitches. Ultimately, we decided to doctor it up ourselves was worth dodging the Saturday evening visit to an unknown hospital in Alexandria, VA with a boy who is not a good patient.

7. Waking up the next morning to find Jack's face plastered with dried blood because he rolled on his wound in the middle of the night.

8. Patching him up and then heading to the zoo via metro. Hiking uphill to the zoo, downhill through the zoo, uphill back to the zoo entrance (this one was murder), and back downhill to the metro. Lots of heat, humidity and sweating.

9. And, last but not least, forgetting to change Anna Scott's diaper when we got to the car and realizing she peed all through her clothes and car seat as we were driving back home through Gettysburg. Nice.

As you can see, we had a great time! Seriously, we had a good time. It's just that we realized how hard it is to vacation with kids. Especially in DC with a 2 and 3 year old. Probably not the smartest itinerary.

Please read my friend Sarah's account of her visit with us here.