last days of summer

Our family just got home from a wonderful trip to Washington, DC, and Upstate New York. Living here in the Midwest has made it so much easier to travel to all the places we've wanted to take our kids. Nine states in 10 days--awesome!!! My only complaint would have to be all the toll roads. I really, really do NOT like toll roads.

 Vietnam Memorial

We toured the Smithsonian Museums and Galleries, which are all FREE! We gasped when we saw this!!! My girls and I have always loved Degas' Dancer sculptures and his paintings of ballerinas.

 

We loved seeing Seurat's pointillism up-close!

This is the kitchen of Julia Child. Her real kitchen was moved into the Smithsonian!!!

There are so many other things I'd love to share that we weren't allowed to take pictures of like the flag that flew over Ft. McHenry in 1814--our Star Spangled Banner, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Magna Carta. So incredible.

 Lincoln Memorial

The kids noticed that we've lived in the 3 states carved right over the doorway.

WWII Memorial