Life with the Grimme's: 2 kids, 2 beds, 2 adults and 1 hotel room

This week we were excited to tag along with Billy to the nation's capitol while attended and spoke at a conference just outside the city. It was a quick trip and I was a little anxious about traveling with both kids, not to mention all of us sharing one tiny hotel room..but I'm so glad we did!

Thanks to a double stroller, child-friendly public transportation & beautiful weather we had ourselves a fun little mini-vacation. And there happened to be a Starbucks connected to our hotel which didn't hurt at all ;)

On the first day Luke, Everett & I hopped on the metro and went to the Museum of Natural History which Luke loved. His threshold for things like this is about an hour so we stayed put on the first floor and looked at all the mammals in various regions. It was very crowded but very cool. We walked around outside for a bit and stopped at a local vendor to pick up a hot dog lunch to enjoy on the National Mall. The weather was perfect and I just so happened to have a picnic blanket with us so we sat outside and enjoyed a relaxing lunch just the 3 of us. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Union Station to pick up a few "treats" for daddy and Luke to share when Billy was finished with work. Luke loved picking out cupcakes - M&M ones of course - and talked about sharing them with daddy for the next 5 hours. Day two involved another trip on the metro to the Woodley Park Zoo. I must say I was a little disappointed but Luke enjoyed being outside and seeing a few animals. Several exhibits were indoors and would not allow strollers and of the outdoor exhibits there were only 4 that actually had animals in them. I can't complain too much, since it was free, but I think we'll stick to the Asheboro Zoo in North Carolina. On the way back to the metro from the zoo we saw OBAMA and his motorcade!!! I couldn't believe it and I thought it might be a fluke but sure enough, I checked online and he was exactly where we saw him earlier in the day. Crazy. Each day we made it back to the hotel around 2:00 just in time for both boys to take a nap and somehow, both of my boys slept for a good 2 hours. I have no idea how this happened, and I now realize that our 2 year old has been fooling us into thinking that he is a picky sleeper. We were all in one room, Everett crying some and Luke able to see all that was going on around him yet he managed to go to sleep wonderfully both for naps and bedtime. I'm amazed. For the down time we had in the hotel I brought things from home that I knew would occupy Luke for large (20 minutes or so) chunks of time... such as children's scissors and paper (this boy loves to cut), his "school book" - I'll post about this another day, his preschool leap pad with a few of his favorite books, and an easter egg game I made for him a few weeks ago. Thankfully he didn't get too restless while we were there and we all thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Unfortunately Billy had to work the entire time but I'm thankful he brought us with him. It was nice spending time with him in the evenings instead of at home by ourselves. Thanks for having us, babe :)

Here are a few snap shots from our trip!