Friday Field Trip!

This past Friday we joined Jeremy on a trip to the Washington D.C. area. I had told the boys that while Jeremy was in his meetings, I would take them to the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in D.C. What I did NOT realize was that we were actually going to be in Virginia practically next door to Dulles Airport, which is not really THAT close to D.C. It was going to be a half-hour or so drive to a park and ride for the subway, then another half-hour ride on the subway to the mall. But I resolved to keep my promise. Then, while Jeremy was online looking something up at the hotel, he found out that there is another branch of the Air and Space Museum that is right next to Dulles Airport! Woohoo!! This was going to be MUCH easier!!

We got off to a late start...we had gotten to the hotel pretty late Thursday, and the boys were wired and took a while to get to sleep. Then Josiah was up a couple times in the night, and Jeremy got up really early to be at his meeting by 7, I think, which of course woke me up. I did finally go back to sleep, praying that the boys would sleep in! The older 2 woke up first, at around 8, and I tried to get them to play their gameboys quietly for a bit, but for them whispering sounds more like shouting with laryngitis...in other words they tried, but could not really be called "quiet" at all!

We finally got everyone up, dressed, ready to go and headed out! Here are the older 4 ready to check out the planes...


Joshua and Jonathan were particularly excited about seeing the Blackbird. Here they are reading about it and checking it out...


Not a great picture of the plane, but here is the Blackbird.


Jordan watching some little video or other...

The boys enjoyed using the interactive computers that were scattered among the exhibits.

On the upper level of the airplane hangar section...

Yes, Josiah was with us, too! Unfortunately since he's usually hanging out in the stroller, he doesn't make it into many of the pictures!

This plane is kind of hard to see, but it has a tiny cockpit area, two outlaying parts, then a huge span of really narrow wings. Jonathan, who seems to think that planes are only for war or something, remarked that this was a really cool plane because it is so skinny that it would be really hard for a bullet to hit it. That's my Jon Jon!

Jordan in front of the Concorde...

Jonathan, Jordan, and Joseph in front of some acrobatic-looking plane that was hanging with its nose straight up towars the ceiling...

We took a break for lunch. Conveniently, there is a McDonald's inside the museum. Believe it or not, my boys really like McDonald's. Here's Jordan about to dig in...note the expression of joy at getting his beloved Happy Meal...

Jonathan enjoying his meal as well...

Joey in a rare moment of quiet contemplation...

It's VERY important to get every last little bit of caramel sauce out of the container...otherwise we wouldn't have enough energy to wear Mom out for the rest of the afternoon, or have a cute little blob of caramel on the end of our nose...

It's also not enough to dip french fries in ketchup...one must stir...

Joshua being goofy...

My boys love to get these flattened penny souvenirs whenever I will let them, which unfortunately for them isn't very often. We had passed the machine on the way into the McDonald's, and in a moment of goodwill I decided to present them with 2 quarters and a penny each (for the 3 older ones, that is) at the end of lunch. They were so excited, until we got to the machine and noticed that the silly things cost 4 quarters here instead of the usual 2. Joshua and Jonathan impressed me by offering to pool their quarters right away...then I managed to scrounge up 2 more for Jordan. Whew! Everybody ended up happy! Here's Jordan about to crank out his penny...

Cranking...

Look what I got!

Jon spent some of his allowance on this plastic claw thingy...

After lunch and souvenir penny-making, we headed up to the observation tower. This was really cool...we had a 360 degree panoramic view of the area! We spent some time watching planes land at Dulles, and looking at the displays in the tower.

I enjoyed the view of the fall trees.

More trees, and Dulles just behind them...

Jonathan...

Joey's favorite part was the ladybugs. Yes, there were a ton of ladybugs crawling around on the outside of the windows. This tower was 7 stories up...I didn't realize that ladybugs flew that high. Here Joey points out a ladybug...

Joshua reading about airports...

One floor above the observation area was another area with this cool radar showing the planes coming in...the older boys enjoyed this...

Uh-oh! Josiah is hungry!

After feeding Josiah we headed to the space hangar. Here are the boys in front of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

Jordan in front of the space shuttle...

Joshua reading about some missiles...

The backside of the space shuttle. This thing was huge. I had no idea.

I'm not sure what this was, but the boys enjoyed it.

Jordan in front of some rockets...

This hall was full of missiles...right up Jon's alley.

Jordan...

The Enola Gay...

Joshua reading about the Enola Gay...this was another plane that was MUCH bigger than I imagined.

Outside the museum...

Joshua

Jonathan

The boys had a great time exploring the museum, and I feel like they learned a lot as well...a perfect combination for a field trip!