Day 23 - Homeward Bound

Yesterday was day 23 of this great adventure, the day they returned home. We started the morning at our favorite breakfast restaurant.

Gathering all their clothes and souvenirs, finishing their laundry, fitting it all into their luggage and watching episodes of America's Got Talent with them occupied me the rest of the morning. Grandpa played cards with them too, but here they are all fascinated with the Zen Board I got out for them to see.

All too soon, it was time to go to the airport.

Aren't they just so adorable?!? Oh how we miss them!

They are not always so cooperative in front of the camera though. I'm posting this next shot taken at the Smithsonian's American Indian Museum as an example of the many 'duck face' shots I have gotten the last three weeks.

They finally talked Rich and I into making 'duck faces' too so that they could take this shot...

Cute huh? But then they said, "Now you're cool G'ma" because I'm frequently told that words I use are no longer cool and that my singing is definitely not cool, especially when I stand in the middle of a parking lot singing "It's a beautiful morning!" like I did before breakfast this morning...giggle!

After their flight took to the air, we returned home to a way-too-quiet house. We were watching the last few Mad Men episodes when Bella came out from under our bed and jumped onto the couch to sit on Dora. Cuteness abounds in our world!

Later I tried taking photos of the Super Moon. It was about too high in the sky, the sky was still cloudy and overcast, I could not capture what I actually saw, and the roof next door is in my first few shots so they're not great but will remind me of that magnificent sight.

Lovin' Life ~~ Yet Missin' Our Grands

Day 22 - Home & The Park

Yes, I do realize that I slipped behind for a couple of days. Day 22 was June 22nd but I wanted to spend all the time I could with the kids their last couple of days here...along with doing like 8,000 loads of laundry...giggle! Even though I had packed away the swim bag and we were all so careful not to talk about swimming on Saturday, still it rained.

We all just lounged around all morning. Dora was around, following everyone in turn, but Bella spent a lot of time under our bed, coming out occasionally to snuggle up to Jackson...only Jackson.

Dylan and Shelby were the last to go to bed the night before, playing an online game 'til around midnight I'm told. On this game they built and hosted a singing competition that got them a high rating, I can't explain because I don't understand, but they were pretty proud of it. They played it together the next morning too.

Finally we all got ready and went to Chili's for an early birthday celebration meal for Dylan, since that is one of his favorite restaurants.

Since it was cloudy and cool, but not raining, at Shelby's urging we stopped at their favorite local park. We all love this park for its great array of equipment.

We call this one the treadwheel and they have a blast on it...it is their favorite piece of playground equipment anywhere.

And there's more, much more...

When we got back home, I finished printing and assembling the Trip Journals that I had secretly kept as we traveled. They were all really excited to get them, such sweet kids!

And I must share this photo too. Dylan was using one of those utensils to cut his apple into slices. He was having trouble because the apple was so crooked. We slice a bit off the bottom to level it and look what we got...Mickey Mouse!

What fun we have, even when doing so much of nothing special!

Lovin' Life ~~ With Our Grands

Days 20 and 21 - Our House

Yes, we made it safely home yesterday just a little past noon. Unloading the RV goes much faster with the kids' help but it's still a lot of work for all of us. Rich was tired; Maryland to our house in a day and a half involves some long hours behind the wheel. On this trip he drove slightly over 2,200 miles just in the RV, not counting all the miles he drove in the car when we were sightseeing. The most shocking expenditure was the $287.55 we paid in tolls! I don't know why, but that just blows my mind.

After we entered Illinois it was another hour's drive to our home.

I wish I had taken a photo of the huge piles of laundry we unloaded but I have most of it done now. Today we were back to doing what we do...having a great time! We were at the theater this morning for the first showing of Monsters University which we all LOVED! The MU campus shared characteristics with Harvard and including students rubbing the foot of a statue! So cool since we were just at Harvard.

Don't miss seeing how these two became best friends and got to work on the Scare Floor!

We had planned to swim after the movie but...surprise...it rained, really rained, with some thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure. We've decided that if we don't say the word 's---' maybe we can trick the weather into being sunny tomorrow. Every time we have planned to 's---' it has rained.

Since Shelby especially likes to shop at Meijer, because they have cute shoes and clothes that can't be found in AZ, we went there after the movie. We also needed a few groceries for dinner. While there, G'pa bought a chain to make Shelby a necklace with a Niagara Falls souvenir purchased for that purpose...cute!

And the boys had football practice in the sports clothing section...they practice football wherever they are, with or without a ball. As you'll see, they did find one on a shelf there.

After dinner we went to Marianne's house to hear about her trip to Poland and to bring the girls home. They were pretty excited to see us when we got there. After a while they pretty much ignored us, like always!

Marianne always finds the coolest things to give the kids and today was no exception. These red, white, & blue glasses with flashing lights were a huge hit. Just look at them doing duck faces in her mirror with the glasses flashing.

 

Lovin' Life ~~ Havin' Fun

Day 19 - Travel Day

We have so many memories of so many special places this trip! Today we left College Park, MD by 7:30 with all the kids still sleeping...another great benefit of RVing.

Where Maryland meets Pennsylvania both state lines skirt along the border of West Virginia to the south. The Potomac River separates MD from WV there. We took a brief detour into West Virginia for a late breakfast and break. Now the kids have experienced 26 states plus the District of Columbia!

The drive through Pennsylvania was beautiful and lushly green. It was a perfect driving day so we kept on to Toledo rather than stop for night in Sandusky, OH as originally planned. Putting those 465 miles behind us today will leave us a reasonable drive home tomorrow.

Lovin' Life ~~ Traveling With Our Grands

Day 18 - A Day of Rest

Today was exactly what we had planned...except for the rain that fell all day which kept us from the two...count them one, two...fantastic side-by-side huge swimming pools here and the miniature golf course too, okay, so maybe not exactly what we had planned. We had planned on doing all those things today, making it just a 'take it easy and get organized for the road' kind of day after all the walking and sightseeing we have been doing. You see, we leave here tomorrow morning for the drive back to Illinois.

While listening to the rain, quite a lovely sound on the roof of the motorhome, we read.

We played Farkle and Rummikub. Some of the day was spent on our computers and other electronic entertainments too. Some of us didn't even take a shower until 6:00 p.m. so just put on a clean gown and called it a day...no, that's not a confession...giggle

Except for Shelby's disappointment that we didn't get to swim, we all agreed that this was a great day and just what we needed after all the excitement of these past weeks!

Lovin' Life ~~ Relaxing Together

Day 17 - D.C. Smithsonian Museums

It's late and we are all so tired. We walked a lot again today. If you're following along, grab your map. Again today we rode the Metro into the city, getting off across from the Archives on 7th St. where we got on the Old Town Trolley again. It took us past Union Station and around the Capitol complex before we got off at Independence Ave and 12th St SW. We walked to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing ticket booth on 15th St just to find out that most tours were booked so we got tickets for the 6:30 tour.

Then we walked all the way back to the Jefferson Dr entrance to the Smithsonian Castle where we took a break for drinks.

After a rest we left The Castle on the Independence Ave side. Here Rich is showing our grands how to read a sundial.

From the street, I took this photo of the Parterre, or ornamental garden, with the Castle at the back of the garden...beautiful and quietly peaceful.

A tour guide had said that the best cafe in town was inside the Smithsonian's American Indian Museum so we walked east along Independence Ave. The food was fabulous and the interior space was just what we needed.

It was so hot and humid today that it was nearly unbearable so this large, circular, stunningly beautiful space was perfect for the kids to run off some steam after our typical late lunch.

We had heard that the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum is the most popular of all, so we walked back to it along Independence Ave.

This building is enormous and contains informative displays as well as original planes, jets, rockets, space modules, etc etc.

Now we were running out of time so we walked up 7th St to Madison then west to the Smithsonian's Museum of American History. Along the way we stopped for...

another shot of the Capitol from the National Mall.

A peek inside the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden

These two magnificent pieces of petrified wood from Holbrook, AZ in front of the Smithsonian's  National Museum of Natural History.

I neglected to get this picture of the kids yesterday when we checked out the Star Spangled Banner at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History.

But the main reason we were back at this museum today was for Shelby to see the actual Ruby Slippers that Dorothy wore in the original Wizard of Oz. She was so thrilled!

In addition to other exhibits that the kids were amazed by, this huge doll house was interesting to Shelby and Dylan. They were trying to find all 25 of the pets inside this huge doll house.

We would have loved to be able to spend more time in all the museums we visited today, and there are many more we didn't even get to step inside. But, we had an appointment at 6:30 so had to walk from there back down to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing...and then it rained!

We finally found shelter at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, by then it was pouring and we were all soaked to the skin.

We were drenched when we made it to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing for our tour. It was worth it though because all three of the kids were absolutely enthralled watching money being manufactured.

After our tour we walked back up 15th St to Independence Ave where we flagged a cab for a ride back to the Metro station on 7th & D Sts. Even though we were all wearing wet clothes, our grands just had to get one last splash of the world's oceans before riding the escalator down to the train.

Dylan LOVES standing on the train.

And here we have two typical D.C. commuters...giggle!

Lovin' Life ~~ At the End of Another Perfect Day