So Thankful for Downtime!

Ahhhh...I'm so happy for a little down time after the nonstop going we've been doing this summer.  I'm absolutely NOT complaining though!! Not at all...I am admittedly really tired, and my house is in desperate need of some extra attention, but this summer has been so much fun. Admittedly I am sick...I feel well and truly run down, but I will sleep as much as I need to and cherish the break.  I'll do a little catch up post this morning before I write a really important post.  One that I hope you take the time to truly think about and share.  It is something close and so dear to my heart...but first...a bit of a summer catch up.

After I picked up the kids from camp at the end of June,  the boys, two of my best friends daughters and I made the 23'ish hour drive back from Oklahoma to Virginia.  Our little group had such a great time singing and talking and just catching up. The boys and I have done road trips many, many times, but having the girls just gave  the trip a different dynamic, and it made the trip an absolute joy.  I would drive with that crew anywhere.  And Eli and his singing cracked us up! 

I can't even begin to talk about the joy we had from the rest of the crew. 😂

But anyway, we made it home and spent several days catching up on laundry, watching musicals and old movies, and then we hit up the Capitol for the Capitol 4th concert.  Admittedly it was the worst experience we have had at this concert so far, due to us having to be evacuated  due to weather, then when we got back to our spot we saw a lady had moved our things and then lied about it, so by that time the kids were begging to go home, so we did.  It was super disappointing, but we saw a lot of the preshow rehearsal, plus we got to hang out and enjoy  time together on the lawn of the Capitol, which is a neat experience in itself, especially for the girls who had never been, so I can't say it was a complete loss.  We did decide that we will never attempt to go if there is even a 10% chance if rain.  It simply isn't worth the risk.

Two days after that we took a really long day trip to Gettysburg. Oh how I love being so close to all of these historic places.  We did the movie at the museum, then saw the Cyclorama, went through the museum where we picked up a DVD of the driving tour through the battlefields, and then we took our time driving around seeing Little Roundtop, Devil's Den, going to the place where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.  And we ended the day doing a ghost hunting experience with EMF things and all kinds of neat equipment.  We all had a ball and I'd say it was probably one of the coolest things we did.

Photos of Gettysburg

 We ate dinner at an Underground Railroad stop.

And then after we recovered from that long day, we spent a day at museums...we spent time in my favorite two...the Natural History museum and the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  Two of the kiddos learned some sort of tribal song/chant/dance which was fun.  We saw Judy Garlands Ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, we watched a D-Day movie at the IMAX 3D and then took pictures with the original Batmobile.  After that, Norman met us after work and we had dinner at the best Mexican joint in DC.  It's called Tortilla Coast and it's right behind the Capitol.

Then we said our teary goodbyes and put our daughters who aren't our daughters on a plane.  Man it's gonna be a long time until Spring break or our next summer adventure.