The Stewarts: Washington DC

I've always wanted to visit Washington DC. It has been on my bucket list for a couple of years now. So, when I saw the ticket prices had dropped, I immediately jumped on buying some. I hadn't really thought of how hard it would be to come home from Amsterdam the weekend prior but it ended up working out.

These kids love going on vacation. I really hope that whatever they want to be when they grow up pays alot so that they can be world travelers.

We have flown enough now that they know the drill and know what is expected from the. They are also getting older and are becoming a little more independent. With that said, they will fight and throw fits in public.

Sometimes they get squirmy and restless. It was a long flight but thankfully it was direct. I'm not about those flights with lay overs anymore. Ain't no body got time for that. I was able to keep most of the kids entertained all flight long. As always, it was a ton of work keeping everyone happy as everyone always wants to sit next to mom.

I love taking Annie's chair with us. When she is tired, I just put her in her chair and she takes a nap while I am hands free.

I was so worried they would come around and tell me to put her 5 point harness on but they left us alone. We got to Baltimore late. It was still another 1.5 hour drive to Washington. I was tired, it was late and the hustle of the kids made it super stressful getting of the plane. Lilah was being naughty so I let her have my phone so she could play games. Well, in true Lilah fashion, she must've dropped my phone somewhere between the seats. Mike and I decided to divide and conquer because it was late and we wanted to be on our way asap. I took Lilah and Annie while we waited for our gate checked stroller and David and Mike went to get our checked bag. I got off the airplane and reached for my phone and it was no where to be found. And ofcourse, it was on airplane mode so I couldn't use the Find My Phone feature on my watch or call it. I asked the girl at the counter to please go in the plane and look for it. She did. And came back saying there was nothing there. Great, I thought. It must've gotten stolen while I was messing with the kids. Now Mike was getting our bags but I wasn't sure where he was since I couldn't call him. We tried asking the girls in the front counter to see if they could do anything but they just called that initial girl and she told them it wasn't there. I tried calling security. They said they would send someone to look for it but when the guy got there, the plane had taken off to Puerto Rico. I told them to give us a call if they found anything but I figured maybe someone had snatched it.

So we decided to leave the airport after an hour of asking around and go pick up our car. By then it was about 1230AM. We got to the car rental place and they closed at 11PM! We still had another hour and a half drive and I thought I had paid for the car already. We kept going back and forth for about 30 minutes to see what were our options. At the end I thought oh well, if I have to pay for another car so be it. So, I purchased another rental car and we were finally on our way.

When we got to our AirBnB I realized it was on a very busy street with lots of bars! Also, it was so busy there was no parking to be found anywhere! Finally after about an hour of driving we found a parking garage tucked away close to our AirBnB and called it a day. Thankfully the Airbnb was great and we walked in with kids past the bars and went to bed.

The first day there I really wanted to visit a deaf ward. They have a large deaf community in Washington so after getting lost and going to the wrong church, we found one. And to our surprise again, there was no parking! It was so weird. Mike dropped us off at the front and he went to look for street parking while we went in. I LOVED the ward so much. The primary had about 12 children! They were all CODAs and Lilah was the only deaf girl there.

The singing time leader was amazing. They had enough kids to split up primary. I stayed with the kids and helped out in class. I was amazed at the literacy skills of the kids. Their ASL was amazing. The primary chorister said she used to not know ASL until she met her husband. I wish my ASL could be that good.

Even the building was beautiful. It was 3 stories (I found out there was some parking in the basement for the elderly) and then Sunday school was in the second story.

Oh how I wished we lived closer. I loved this ward so much!

After church, we decided to go to the national mall. Again traffic was a disaster, thankfully because it was the weekend it wasn't as terrible as it could've been.

The national mall was incredible. With the kids, I don't really have a chance to stop and read about the history of things but just the sight of the monuments was amazing.

The kids enjoyed getting to run around on the grass.

I told the kids if they smiled for the camera, that I would get them a treat, hehe.

Sad David.

Happy David.

Lilah always ready to pose for a picture.

The elevator at the Abraham Lincoln memorial was ancient.

It was so fun and amazing to finally see this in person.

It was really a beautiful sight.

I was so grateful that my mom watched my kids while we were in Amsterdam because this trip was much more exhausting and chaotic than the one from the week prior. But ofcourse, always worth it to take the kids.

The White House! I don't know why I thought it was so much different than in real life.

I loved the architecture in Washington. All of the buildings were grand and beautiful.

It started sprinkling a little while we were walking toward the town center. We decided to stop at a McDonald and buy the kids those treats that I had promised them. They kept insisting they wanted a treat from one of the many food trucks but man those were pricey!

Trying to keep these kids entertained and happy.

That night, we decided to take a detour and visit the Washington DC temple.

It was absolutely beautiful. It mirrored the marble brick from the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. I loved that!

I love making memories with my kids. Even when it's more exhausting and expensive than it would be if we left them at home. They're always worth it :)

Annie learning how to make silly faces.

I sure love them!

Haha Annie's face. I love these exhausting little minions so much!

We also got to go inside the visitor's center. It was newly renovated and super cute.

One of my favorite pictures :)

The visitor's center was super interactive for the kids.

Our Airbnb. The kids love staying in Airbnbs. They think it's the coolest.

The next day we visited Gallaudet University. An All ASL university.

It had that old Victorian vibe with old buildings that had been repurposed as a University.

I'm always trying to learn about deaf culture and teach Lilah everything I know. She is a little sponge and I feel bad that I don't know more ASL.

I have no idea what the future holds for her as a HOH girl. But I hope she is able to accomplish everything she sets her mind to because that girl is fearless.

This picture cracks me up. David mad in the background. Probably after Lilah stuck her tongue out at him or something.

They had a little ASL museum.

After Gallaudet University we visited the Museum of Science. This was easily one of my favorite museums I've ever visited. They had a tone of museums and apparently, they are all free.

When we got there, Mike took the elevator and we took the stairs because David wanted to go on the escalator. Well, Mike accidentally went up an extra floor and David and I waited and waited for him. I finally decided to call it quits and hoped we would run into him in the huge museum. Not having my phone this whole trip was a real pain in the butt. Especially for these types of situations where I had no way of contacting Mike. After about an hour of wondering/ looking for Mike, we finally found them.

The taxidermy was incredible!

I mean you could see every muscle. It was amazing.

It was hard to truly enjoy the museum because I was worried about not finding Mike. I thought about asking someone to use their phone but no one looked nice enough and I didn't want them to think I was a scammer or something. Because who goes across the country and loses their phone on an airplane. Oh yes, me.

We finally found Mike. We had circled around the main floor a couple of times in hopes of finding him. I really wanted to explore other floors but the time got away from us quickly and we decided to head over to see another museum.

The next museum we went to was the Museum of air and space.

Again, it was super fun and the kids had a great time going in the airplanes.

I wished we would've had time to visit more museums but the kids are hard and I'm scared of losing one or having them break something so two museums was perfect.