Capturing Memories

"In America, there are two classes of travel: First class, and with children." -- Robert Benchley

I saw this quote and laughed because it's true.  Last week KK and I went to Virginia.  We left June 18th and didn't come back until the 25th.  The GPS says it's about a 9 hour drive, we made it there in 11.  Traveling with a child, by myself, proved to be more difficult than I thought.  I left at 5:30am and KK stayed awake the WHOLE time...after 2 hours in the car we were playing the, "when are we there yet," game.  It was rough, but we made it. 

Once there, we settled down for a bit and went with Grandma Lisa to Zumba.  KK had been stuck in the car all day and needed to use some energy.  He LOVED Zumba and wants to come with me next time I go.  After Zumba we took a shower, ate tacos, and went to bed.

Tuesday June 19
Today we woke up late and Grandma Lisa made KK eggs for breakfast and I was happily surprised when KK brought a plate of eggs to me (I was still in bed).  It made me smile to have eggs made for me...it was a great way to start the morning.   We took our time getting ready for the day.  Once ready, we went to where Lisa works.  She wanted to show off KK, she figured since she talks about him all of the time she should probably bring him by for her co-wrokers to meet.  The last time they've seen him, he was 5 months old!  KK got lots of hugs and became VERY shy...the best part of his day?  All of the suckers!  Lisa works at a bank and everyone gave him suckers.  Matter-of-fact, I still have some of the suckers in my purse!  Once the running around was done, we came home.  KK and Lisa played outside.  I brought his bike on this trip and he showed Grandma how he can ride a 2-wheeler!  I, went and took a 4 hour nap!  4 HOURS!  I was tired.  We ate left-overs and planned our day for tomorrow and then went to bed

Wednesday June 20
Today we went to Washington DC. We met Pop pop (Ed) at his work first so that he could park the car in the garage. He needed to get back to work so Lisa, KK, and I took the metro to The National Zoo. KK LOVED the metro! His favorite part was standing and holding onto the bar while the train was moving.  

The longest escalator I've ever seen

The train was coming!

The Zoo was a lot of fun. We saw a ton of animals. We were able to hear a lion roar, which was awesome! KK loved all of the animals but was excited to see the pandas. Once we got to the pandas, though, he didn't seems as excited. It was so hot and humid. We kept ourselves hydrated and the mist stations helped. Lisa's soda exploded all over me...that was unexpected lol. We were able to see all sorts of different animals.  

He loves that thing

Did I mention that it was HOT!?

See the ape in the glass. It was so cute

We got some relief from the heat inside

My handsome boy!

I love him!

He did not want to get near this!

After the zoo, we went to The Museum of Natural History. Again, KK was able to ride the Metro:

At the museum we saw a bunch of animals that no longer are living. KK loved the Wooly Mammoth. When we were in the insect exhibit he had a bloody nose out of nowhere. So we took care of that and proceeded to the rest of the areas. 

We walked all over and I saw this couple with very bright hair and decided to take their picture. 

I liked looking at the hope diamond but KK didn't want anything to do with it. So all I got was a simple picture. 

Also in the basement of the museum there are birds native to the DC area. KK saw this owl and said, "Hedwig!" He really is my son. I had to get his picture next to the "Harry Potter" owl. 

After the museum we decided to go to Chipotle.  KK loved the quesadilla and had 2!  He was a hungry boy.  After dinner we went home and relaxed because the next two days were going to be filled with more great adventures. 

Thursday June 21
Today we woke up and no one was home. Lisa and KK went to purchase sand buckets. Ed went for a run. Have I mentioned that he runs...A LOT? He just recently finished a 50 mile marathon a couple weeks ago. Once everyone was home we packed up in the car to go to Virginia Beach. I had packed everything of KK's and mine the night before. He was very excited. I was very tired because I had a hard time falling alseep the night before. I had stayed up watching Harry Potter and reading Wicked. Once we were packed up we headed off for Virginia Beach.  These are some goofy photos we took while driving.

Eventually KK fell asleep and missed the tunnel that we drove through that goes underneath the water!  Once we reached our destination, we checked into the hotel then got ready to go to the beach.  KK was still tired but still very very excited!  This picture pretty much sums up how KK felt about the ocean.  He didn't want to leave!  We had to explain to him that we would be back the next day. 

 Once back at the hotel we all took a shower and pretty much brought the beach back with us. I haf so much sand in crevices it was awful. But after the shower I felt MUCH better. Wendy's was our stop for dinner. The we went back to the hotel to ger some rest for the next day.

Pose for me how much you like the beach

Friday June 22
Today we ate breakfast in the lobby of the hotel.  KK only wanted the yogurt and hard boiled eggs (white part only).  We packed up, checked out, and went back to the beach.  I went shopping for a while and bought sunglasses, a bag, boogie board, couple of shirts, and hats.  Once I came back from shopping it was lunch time for KK.  I ate McDonalds and had to wait to go back in the water.  He didn't want to wait after he saw that boogie board.  I wish that I had gotten more pictures of him on the boogie board, but honestly we were playing in the water and having so much fun that I didn't even think about pictures.  While Grandma Lisa and KK were having fun in the water I was sitting in our spots and in the corner of my eye I thought I saw lightening, but it was so bright and sunny out that I thought it was in my head until I heard the thunder and I saw KK just jump out of that water and come running.  He was out of there and getting everything ready to pack up.  He HATES storms.  "Ok, it's time to pack up...let's go to the car...the storm is coming, let's go"  He was ready to go, the only problem was that Ed decided to go running and we had no way of reaching him and we had so much STUFF (including my shopping) with us that it would make carrying diffucult.  But the lifeguards told us that they were closing the beach so Lisa and I had to try carrying everything, which we were able to manage.  The storm had come in fast because the wind was starting to blow and we just figured that Ed would realize that we were at the car, so while we waited we packed up so once he got there we could just hit the road.  I helped KK change into clean clothes and I tried getting all the sand I could off of him.  KK was a little better once we got to the car but he was still worried about Pop pop.  The ipad helped to distract him until Ed showed up and we were able to leave before the storm really hit.  We made it to the highway and the storm came, which meant that we had to go slower and therefore it was going to take longer in the car to reach the house.  KK was kind of getting restless and I let him peel my sunburned skin. 

Once he was done peeling my skin he was all tuckered out.  He didn't have much of a head rest so I kind of made one out of my ball of yarn.  He slept almost the entire way back...which, of course, made falling asleep difficult.

Saturday June 23
This is my message from my facebook status, which summed up the day: Home Monday...it's been fun but I'm excited to be home too. Today we ate at IHOP (since we don't have one close by) and saw Madagascar 3. Caleb also played a little bit of baseball with Grandma and Pop Pop. Highlight of the day...when we went to 7-11 to get a freezy and Caleb totally drop his and it splashed EVERYWHERE...floor, cupboard doors, counter, everywhere....I wanted to die!

Sunday June 24
Woke up around 5am to start the trip home.  I packed everything up in the car last night and all I needed to do was fill up the cooler, get KK buckled in, and make sure I didn't forget anything.  KK was still very tired, which was to my advantage.  I set him up with pillows on all sides of him and he slept 2 1/2 hours.  I was able to make some great time.  Going home was MUCH better than leaving home.  We only took a couple breaks to stretch our legs and eat some snacks.  KK and I had some good conversations...and we saw 'polar bear cows' (all white cows).  We traveled through Virginia, Maryland, Wes Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.  We stopped in Columbus and got a hotel on our way home because Monday I volunteered to help out at the Bishop's Storehouse.  The hotel had a huge king's size bed.  I was so excited bcause KK is THE BIGGEST bed-hog and let's just say that getting a good night's sleep with him in the bed is nearly impossible because he moves around so much...he also kicks off the covers.  So when I saw the king's size bed I was stoked.  KK wanted to have dinner at Golden Corral.  It was pretty good...I loved the sweet rolls.  We came home and swam in the pool for a while, took a shower, and got ready for bed.  KK fell asleep fast buct I couldn't get to sleep until about 2am!  That was 22 hours awake!  Plus I needed to be at the storehouse at 7!  So eventually I did fall asleep.

Monday June 25
Luckily the hotel had a hot breakfast for us.  We had eggs and bagels we washed it down with cranberry juice.  We worked hard at the storehouse labeling the orders and even shopping for the orders.  Once 9am came around there were tons of people there to help.  KK was getting restless and by 12 he was running around the store and the manager asked me if I could control him more so I decided it was time for us to leave.  There were only 11 more orders left.  We got home...can I just tell you how GOOD it felt to be home!?  We got home just in time for Mr H.'s lunch break.  He came home to see us and he didn't want to go back to work, unfortunatley he did (and he had night classes too so we didn't see him again until 9am).  KK and I spent most of the day at the pool and it was wonderful.