Smithsonian day trip

At least once a month we spend a weekend afternoon exploring the DC area.  Last weekend we ended up at the natural history museum after driving around for over an hour (apparently the Adams Morgan neighborhood is NOT kid-friendly).  We've never taken the kids to one of the Smithsonian museums in DC before, always assuming that they weren't old enough.  Yes we definitely spent a good chunk of time familiarizing ourselves with the restrooms and cafe, but for the majority of our afternoon we ran from exhibit to exhibit oooing and aahhhing.  I was truly surprised that it went so well!

Claire was deathly afraid of the live butterfly garden.  Of course she gave no hint at this until she walked into the greenhouse with me.  Then it was "Waaaaah Mommy I scared Mommy NO NO NO!" over and over again for 5 minutes.  I walked her through a breathing exercise and she managed to relax enough so she was comfortably clinging to me and burrowing her face in my coat only 80% of the time.  She was even ok when one butterfly landed on my head.  I prayed that none would land on HER and fortunately we escaped without that happening. 

Tyler's favorite part was probably the people-watching at the cafe.  He also enjoyed the sparkly Hope Diamond, but was sadly deprived of a chance to slobber all over it.

You see who he got his dimples from?

I think it's funny there's an elephant's rear in the background, not to mention that Claire's got food in her mouth.

Tyer gets his photo with the better side of the elephant:

Claire took a picture of Daddy:

I should do a whole blog post of Claire's photos.  She LOVES taking pictures and they are so funny to see!  Maybe next time...