Cousins

I was lucky to get my sister's kids and my kids together one afternoon and do a quick photo shoot.  The girls chose their favorite spot at mom's house, under the willow trees.  They want to plant a willow tree at our house some day.

I absolutly LOVE this picture!

Girls Only!  Jasmine, Maya, Kiera and Whitney

 

Cousins re-united.

One more time!

Let's not forget a shot of my sister, Michelle, and her kids.

Thanks for putting up with me!  I hope to do it again soon for Christmas portraits!

It's a Wild Ride

After visiting DC, we took the kids to Bush Gardens, Williamsburg for free thanks to Here's to the Heroes.  It's an organization that gives tickets to select amusements parks around the country to military members and their families.  We had an awesome time riding rides, hanging out and visiting European countries throughout the park.  The girls loved going on the roller coasters.  I loved the food and seeing them smile.  We stayed all day from opening to closing. We ended up leaving the park soaking wet from going on the Rapids and getting absolutely drenched.  Maybe we should have started on that ride first! 

This is just one of the rides they went on:

 

I didn't take my camera for fear that it would get wet or damaged.  So I only have this one lonely picture from my phone. 

At the end of the day, we got a hotel for the night to rest.  We had planned on going to Water Country USA but the weather turned terrible and spoiled our day.  We ended up driving back to NC in the pouring rain.

 

On our last day of vacation we took the kids to Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe.  It was awesome!  The kids tricked me into going on a slide that was totally in the dark.  I would have never gone on it if I knew how pitch black it was in there.  I didn't know if I was coming or going.  It was fun but I won't do that one again.  It was not my thing.

Washington D.C - the sites

We toured the city to see all the sites on the 4th of July!  What's more patriotic than that?

We saw Capitol Hill:

 The Washington Monument:

 1400 Pennsylvania Ave. aka The White House:

 Another shot of the Washington Monument:

 The Lincoln Memorial:



 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall:

 The Korean War Veterans Memorial:

 Washington Monument with Capital Hill in the background in the evening:

 Getting dark, waiting for the fireworks:

 4th of July Fireworks = awesome!

Arlington

We paid our respects at Arlington National Cemetery.

Bald eagles met you in the trees upon arrival to the cemetery.  They were beautiful.  It was amazing that they made the trees their home.

 The cemetery is beautiful and peaceful
. 



 The tombs go on and on.  It's heartbreaking as you walk through the grounds.

  

Everyone here has sacrificed their life for the freedom of our nation.

 John F. Kennedy, his wife and two children are buried here.  The eternal flame will never burn out. 

We were able to witness the changing of the guard.

It was sharp and beautiful.  The Tomb of the Unknowns is guarded by tomb guard sentinels 24 hours a day, everyday.  We also heard the 21-gun international salute at noon.

Faintly, you can see Capital Hill on the right, Washington Monument center left and Smithsonian Castle on the left from Arlington Cemetery.

The girls are decked out in red, white and blue.



I Wanna Fly

We checked out the National Air and Space Museum.

We saw planes from the military,

 to first flights,

 to fighters,

 to commercial airlines.

 It was fun to see all the different planes.  Kiera still has a place in her heart to learn to fly.  Hopefully she will take us all over the world one day...

 We stopped for an ice cream break to beat the heat.

 

Museum of American History

 We checked into the National Museum of American History.

 This museum was huge as well.  With 3 levels and 4 wings on each level, we didn't see everything.  We only looked through the military section of the museum.

The American flag met us as we entered the door.

 The Greensboro Woolsworth diner was set up in one section.

 Like I said, we only viewed the military portion of the museum.  Here we are learning about the Civil War.

 Part of the Berlin Wall that was torn down (we saw the actual gate in Berlin while we lived in Germany).

 Part of the World Trade Center.

I didn't take pictures of everything we saw.  There were tons of people and not much room to move around in.  We enjoyed it but I think Charlie would have loved to spend all day in there to read and study everything.