Could You, Would You, on a Train?

Being the mother of two under two for a few more days, I hereby give myself permission to post events terribly out of order. Otherwise I'll never catch up. So you'll have to wait longer to hear about our trip to Seattle, my brother's wedding, our trip to the beach, etc. Tonight I want to tell you about our trip to the National Aquarium on Tuesday.

My friend Betsy organized a trip to the National Aquarium in D.C., and the "easiest" way to get there was by Metro. I doubted that sincerely, but decided we'd give it a go. Neither of my kids had ever been on the Metro before, so I recruited the best mothers helper ever, 11-year-old Anna, and the four of us went on an adventure.

Here are photos of my kids on their first train ride:

The aquarium was pretty fun, and an added bonus is that the place was completely dark except for the exhibits, so Katie actually paid attention to some of the fish and animals. Then she completely melted down (did I mention she gets jealous sometimes when I'm holding Joshua?). Still, we were there a solid hour before we had to leave.

This was my favorite fish because it reminded me of an American flag:

Located between the Metro and the Aquarium is the National Museum of American History, which our architect friend Mike recently helped to redesign, so we made a brief stop there on our way home. From what I could see, the redesign is modern and gorgeous, and Katie was especially excited at the one exhibit we visited: Oscar the Grouch (aka "Ah-juice") and Kermit the Frog (aka "Frog")!

By the time we got back to the car, we had been on FIFTEEN elevator rides (it would have been 16 except I got impatient one time and just took Katie's stroller on the escalator instead) and all of us were totally wiped out. I lined up my exhausted kids in the back of the SUV for a joint diaper change:

and we headed home. That afternoon Katie slept for more than 3 1/2 hours, and even then I had to wake her up for dinner. That's double her normal nap. :-)