Recent update first then I will try to start in on the trip...

Wednesday...gymnastics... they go hand in hand now. Boy, Emma was excited to go back! Overall, it went very well. She played around on the beam before class began and was doing great. Was not always paying attention so she took a few spills... I think some of the spills were on purpose as well! Once class started she did good. We had some trouble with the bar but I think part of it was her still being sick and not being on the bar in a while. It was her turn and she would not do an exercise she has done many times, even with me near. Her next turn, it was a different exercise and she was doing great until the end when she broke out crying. The teacher said it was probably due to her two week break (since we were on vacation), but in addition to that, they had not done the bar the two weeks before so it was more like a month break. Next was the beam and she was not paying attention during her first turn. It was just walking forward and balancing on the beam and she did it but not like she usually does. The next turn was hopping on it, which is no problem for her and she did that great!

onto the trip... going to make this on the short side so that I get it done...

Do not remember days for some of it and not sure what happened when... we spent a total of two and 1/2 days doing tourist things in and near DC. One of our first nights there, Rick (my uncle) and Carol (my aunt) took all three of us on a night driving tour of DC. Was interesting to see by night. I am not sure when the last time I had been to DC was but it has been at least 10 years. Our full day in DC was Sunday. I remember this because we did not have to pay for parking at the metro. We took the metro in and went to the Air and Space Museum on the mall. We walked around for a few hours and Emma was pretty impressed with all the planes and rockets. She kept looking up and saying "planes" and "rockets." We grabbed lunch there before we went on our way and that was expensive! We then walked around the mall. It was time for Emma's nap and she finally went down for awhile as well walked. We stopped at the Washington Mounument and I was going to check on tickets but then realized we could not take the stroller up and I was not going to wake Emma up. I took quite a few pictures and we moved on to the WWII monument. Emma woke up at some point and we continued on our way towards Lincoln, stopping by the Vietnam Vetrans Memorial. We walked over the the Korean War Vetrans Memorial and then looked at Jefferson across the Tidal Basin and then walked by the DC World War Memorial which was tucked away hidden off the path. From there it was back to metro and back to my aunt and uncle's house which was home for the week.

A day or so later we did a quick two hour tour of Arlington National Cemetary. We bought tickets for the tourmobile which ended up being a waste since we only used them up to the first stop which was the Kennedy grave site. From there we walked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and waited for the changing of the guard. Intense ceremony. From there we walked over to the memorial for the Challenger and Columbia shuttles and then made our way back to the exit. Was hard to spend time there since we could not eat or drink inside and that is asking a lot of a 2 year old! We actually started the day with a stop at the park at the end of the runway at Reagan National Airport. That was amazing to be so close to seeing the planes take off. Emma was pretty excited once she got used to the noise! We finished the day with a drive up past Mt Vernon and then on home.

Coming soon... National Zoo and National Cathedral write-up

Other than a trip to Dave to Dulles (to see the other Air and Space Museum) on Friday, that was it for being tourists. Emma and Dave ended up pretty sick with head colds so we took it easy.

Emma loved visiting! Scoping out the house the first night she found the Christmas tree and the presents under it. Silly girl, points to them, smiles and says "Emma's!" Well... she was right for the most part! The amazing this is this was on Thursday evening and she left them alone until the following Sat afternoon (over a week!). She quickly learned the names of the cats... Snowy and Tiger... Snowy tolerated her pretty well but Tiger hid a lot. She still asks for them! My aunt found a stash of preschool wooden puzzles that Emma put to good use over the week.

I think that is a good place to stop. Will write more later about the purpose of the trip... my cousin's wedding!