D.C. DAY 1

Remember the Griswold family road trip in National Lampoon's Vacation? Well, aside from evil Aunt Edna and the pea green station wagon, our recent road trip felt pretty similiar. We packed our minivan with plenty of movies, snacks and baby wipes and headed east to Washington D.C. and Virginia. My parents even joined us! And I'm telling you, my dad is CLARK GRISWOLD---TO A TEE!

Suprisingly, the twelve hour trek went by pretty fast. I mean yeah, we stopped a few times for a diaper change (believe me the floor of our car was a lot cleaner than some of the bathrooms I saw)



and stopped for a bite to eat.





And when all hell broke loose, we were never really that far from a McDonald's ice cream cone intervention



After arriving safely at our hotel, Bella immediately found a happy home for their entourage



and Mia felt it necessary to get buck naked and cover just her knee caps in a soft blankie. Charming.



Bella (or Cruise Director as we called her) knew the entire weekly itinerary and was worried that we weren't going to get a proper night's sleep before heading to the museum the next day. So she took matters into her own hands---or legs in this case.



Hilarious, huh? I love how her voice strains as she attempts a lateral lunge! This girl is so dramatic--it's no wonder she's my daughter.

After a much needed night's sleep, we woke bright eyed and ready for the museum. And not just any museum, the SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY--THE ONLY SUPER COOL YET FREE MUSEUM I KNOW!

We spent way too much time googling over the stuffed mammal section





I mean look at the size of this bear! That's crazy!



And out of the kindness of our hearts we also let them spend OVER AN HOUR in the discovery room where they got to touch and feel and explore...





Mia, shrugging off the posted age requirements decided she wanted to magnify a magnifying glass. Freakin' brilliant I say.



Across the table, Bella examined a snake Xray



Which, of course, peaked Mia's curiosity so she HAD to play with the light table TOO! Flipping through the Xray selection, she settled on this one.



I did a double take after snapping the picture. What the? Is that a? STAPLER?

Huh?

And following suit like I did with all the other slides and frankly feeling like a total idiot, I said to her, "and this my dear, is a..stapler."

Moving on.

Hey look! The girls found Nemo and Dori!



And I found a huge freakin' diamond. Um like, FOURTY FIVE CARATS HUGE! Check out the Hope diamond--



We ended the evening with some Mongolian BBQ where Mia got to fine tune her chop stick skills



Thoroughly exhausted, we made it back to the hotel. Day 1 of D.C. was a total blast! Stay tuned--day 2 consists of another FREE SMITHSONIAN EXCURSION! This time the mammals weren't so, well, stuffed.