Run With Me in Washington D.C.

There's nothing like an upcoming potentially-blogable event - our annual trip to the Porcupine Mountains - to get me to catch up on recent blog-worthy events...especially when you have this realization when your two youngest children are napping and dinner prep is done.

Whew. That sentence would make it seem as though I'm feeling long-winded, but I'm actually not. Which is probably for the best since I have to wake Peter and Cora in 20 minutes to go pick Louisa up from school.

So without further ado, the recent blog-able event: our fun trip to Washington D.C. Thankfully, we spent so much money on house-projects over the past year that we had enough airline miles to get the whole family to D.C. September 14-18 for the Navy-Air Force Half Marathon. Not that everyone had to come, but it's way more fun to run 13.1 miles when you know you have a cheering squad waiting for you at the finish line!

The race was humid (but not sunny), fun and a priceless memory for me and my dad to share. We're forever grateful to Nate and my mom for heading up the cheer-team. Peter rode the last couple hundred feet of the course on my shoulders and the girls almost jumped in too, but looked like they weren't sure it was actually allowed (or at least that was my interpretation).

Other than the race, we had almost four full days to enjoy D.C., which we packed with lots of walking, two trips to a wading pool/splash pad, some great restaurants, and of course a few Smithsonian stops. Louisa, my mom and I also made it down to Alexandria to visit our 2007-2008 stomping grounds, check out the art fair and look for deals at the Crate and Barrel outlet store.

Pajama airplane ride since our flight was delayed by 3.5 hours

Metro rides for a huge highlight for Peter and he still asks if we can go ride the train in Madison

Outside the Library of Congress

Inside the Library of Congress

Hanging out in the kids reading room, inside the Library of Congress

Yards Park has a great pool - only 12 inches deep, so perfect for kids

Just a sweet, happy kid

And an adventurous, daring kid. The one who hated swimming lessons has turned out to love swimming

Waiting for Mom and Papa to finish the race, while posing in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Cora at the base of the Washington Monument

Louisa supporting the Washington Monument

En route from the Metro to the Natural History Museum

"Hold hands!" was a common refrain with all the big-city walking. Apparently I thought it was more important to take a photo than enforce this with Cora 

The final stretch of the 1/2 marathon

Victory! And still smiling!

No surprise Peter fell in love with airplanes on this trip too. Pure fascination.