No Juice ... But Guns?

If you have not heard this story ... it is truly sad. An 88 year-old gets in with a .22 rifle (by the way a convicted felon served prison time from '83 - '89 ... how does he get a gun?) and shoots a security officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Sadly, Stephen dies and James von Brunn is still alive as of this morning.

What scares me is to think that I was in this museum recently with family and friends. We could not get juice in a sponge bob cup in the museum but, how does a .22 rifle get in?

Thank heavens not more people were hurt in this story. The museum is closed today in honor of Stephen Tyrone Johns.

Thursday's DC Tour

Thursday morning started VERY early for us. We left the house around 6 am so that we could be down at the Capitol by 9 am. We took the metro down to the East Capitol stop and made our way over to the visitors center to pick up our tickets. We had a few challenges along the way with finding the NEW visitors center and getting our reserved tickets but in the end it all worked out. After the tour at the Capitol we took the underground tunnel over to the Library of Congress and walked around the public areas there. I did ask one of the workers how many people came to the library and asked to see the "Book of Presidents" from National Treasure! She gave a small laugh and said they had a few requests! Afterwards we walked and walked and walked and made our way to Air & Space Museum for lunch and a quick tour .... the White House ... the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, a glance over at the Korean Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, back past the Washington Monument and back to the Smithsonian metro stop. We walked so much .... we all decided we would have made lousy pioneers! Last summer my camera died as we entered the Capitol and again this year the same thing. We found batteries once we were at the Lincoln Memorial but Angela's camera held up until the Lincoln. So I'm sure we'll be sharing photo's but, after a long day of walking we came home, ate some leftovers and watched National Treasure .... which Mark pointed out is not a true historical movie but still fun to watch after seeing so many sights first hand!

Washington Monument

Nurses / Vietnam

Vietnam Memorial Wall

Lincoln Memorial

Enjoying some ice cream!

First shote before the camera died - Rotunda ceiling - Capitol.

National Zoo Day

Wednesday was our trip to the National Zoo. We went via the metro and kids loved taking the metro or "train" and had a great time exploring! Here are just a few shots from the day!

I can't remember exactly why Max is pouting - no doubt because we were leaving the zoo!

Cherry Blossoms!

Where have we been this past week you wonder? Well, Angela (Scott's wife) came for Spring break from Ohio with their kids, Makenah, Madison & Dalton! Truly, the question is where haven't we been to! This past Sunday, we made our way down to Washington with the goal of getting to the Jefferson to see the last peak day for the cherry blossoms! It was a long fun day and just about 1 million people had the same idea! Great minds think alike! Enjoy the photos!

View of the Washington Monument / Cherry Blossoms Jefferson

Cherry Blossoms as we got closer to the Jefferson.

Our goal to reach the Jefferson.

Just a few other people decided to visit too!

We stopped along the way to take some fun photo's! Max (3) & Mark (??)

Justin (12)

The family!

Dalton (9) Makenah (15) Madisen (12)

The cute kids!

Once we finally arrived, guess who had the best seat?

Cousin Kiley's Visit Update

Today I took the disk I had in my camera when it died to Costco to see if I could get any pictures off of it. And, happily I was able to get 30 pictures. Hooray! Here are some of the highlights of our days in DC.



Kiley waiting in line for our tickets to the capitol. We had to wait about 90 minutes for them. But luckily Kiley had her phone to text her friends with and her ipod to keep her spirits up!

Max waiting patiently and eating teddy grahams.

Washington Capitol Summer 2008

View from Capitol - Our house is 85 miles West - do you see it in the horizon?

Hooray - no more waiting in line!

The Rotunda's ceiling inside the Capitol.

Max wondering ... how much longer in the heat?

Max giving up a final scream, Kiley enduring to the end. I liked this shot because of the flag in the background. At this point, I had to leave the tour and Kiley finished on her own. We had to park on a meter when we were waiting for our tickets and I was sure that we would be ticketed and towed if I was not back within the 3 hour limit. Kiley kept saying to me, I'm sure it will be ok we'll only be 15 minutes late. But, I decided that I knew the DC Metro better than she and decided to make a run for it. Afterall, who wants to be stuck in DC with no car, a 2 year old who had to throw away all his snacks and water prior to entering the Capitol and who had to wake up at 5:30 am in order for us to get downtown to stand in line along with a niece who would not have enjoyed going to find the blackhole in DC where cars are towed to? Luckily, I made it back to the car to put more money in the meter, find a bathroom for both Max & I and purchase a much needed Diet Coke for myself and juice for the kids.

This same day, after recovering from my 2 mile jog back to the car with Max and the stroller(which produced blisters even with sneakers on) we were able to see The Holocaust Museum and the Jefferson Memorial. We ended up putting the car in a garage and we walked and walked and walked ... but it was all worth it! Kiley enjoyed seeing the sights and hopefully she'll come visit us again soon!