USS Barry

We took a tour of the USS Barry a Navy Destroyer this afternoon, the kids enjoyed the unstructuredness of it. After exploring the ship we went across the street to another museum, it was fun but the kids mostly just played with the guns...

Kenneth and I and the really big ship.

All the cousins on a really big cannon, on shore.

Kenneth on deck

Abby on deck.

Hazel at the Helm.

Kenneth cracked the code and managed to break into this safe on board.

Hazel and all the kids loved turning all the dials and controls...

The bunks for the enlisted men.

Sydney checking out the mess hall. Hey what's for lunch?

Fort-ified

Today we went out to old Fort Washington. The kids loved the freedom to explore and run free!

Wednesday

MONSTER OF A DAY!!!
Kenneth, Paul (his brother), Christian, and Truman went really early to wait outside the Washington Monument to get us 15 tickets to go up to the top. The ticket window opened at 8:30AM and they were in line before 7AM. They did get us tickets, Hooray! Then Julie (Paul's wife) and I brought up the rest of the kids and we were in the Natural History Museum at 10AM when it opened. We saw a lot of cool stuff until the time for our tickets at the Washington Monument, we went up and saw its cool tallness from inside. I would have liked to walk down the stairs and see all the engravings on the insides of the walls, but it is not allowed, bummer. We had a picnic lunch and went in for round 2 in the Natural History Museum. We divided up into groups, it was a fun change and I think I saw more exhibits. Nate Hazel and I really enjoyed the insect zoo, and the mammal exhibit. I thought the exhibit about forensic anthropology was fascinating and Nate and Hazel were really good while we looked at it. Then we had a picnic dinner and ran over to the Air and Space Museum by way of a sculpture garden. Kenneth took our pictures with our favorite piece, I chose a Rodin. Then we watched Night at the Museum 2 in the Air and Space Museum IMAX. It was great!!!

Air and Space

Tuesday morning we went to the National Air and Space Museum. The best part was after the kids walked through the whole space craft section one of the girls asked "when will we see a real rocket?". "Ummm look around." I think that everything was so big that it didn't register. The other thing that was fun was that the kids (and the Dads) got to do a flight simulator of the Wright Brothers plane.

Battle of Bull Run

Today we went to Manassas Virginia to the site of the Battle of Bull Run. The visitor center had one of those relief maps that has lights embedded to show the locations on the map. There was a narration that went with it and it did a great job of explaining the battle and how it changed the civil war. They also had some neat cannons. I went into the gift shop, one of the things that they were selling was a certificate and all the military records on your ancestor who fought in the civil war, so I had them look up my one ancestor that I knew of and all the info will be mailed to me. I am excited to know more about him. There were also a couple of buildings from that time period. The stone house has cannon balls embeded in it. It was a fun place to visit.

American History Museum

Today was our first day in Washington D.C. We rode the Metro into town, saw the Washington Monument from the ground, took a tour of the Treasury to see money being made, and then went to the American History Museum. At the museum we saw "The Star Spangled Banner", the ruby slippers, Kermit the frog, a fun exhibit on Transportation and also an exhibit about Abraham Lincoln. It was a great day.

Palmyra

Sunday morning we went to church at the Palmyra ward. It was a nice meeting. Then we drove the 1/2 mile down the road to the Sacred Grove. There was a beautiful path to walk along, and we all soaked in the immense reverence of standing in the place where Joseph saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. It was wonderful to walk and quietly talk to my boys about their feelings of the last week. At the end of the trail is a small grove with benches where the kids spread out and sat with paper and pen to record their feelings about the Savior. We all except Hazel) would have been content to just sit in that grove all day and feel Heaven close around us.

We did have to leave though and we walked to the Smith Family homes and took a couple of pictures.