Leah's DC Trip 2024

Two years ago, we started the tradition of taking each kid on their own one-on-one trip to Washington DC in 8th grade. We are so glad we did, because getting this special time with just ONE kid is awesome...especially at a point in life where we feel like we get less and less time with our kiddos with every passing year.

Leah's trip started with a super early morning flight. We all took a short nap on the plane and were ready for a full day of fun. We flew into Baltimore and rented a car (which was practically the size of a clown car, but we made it work). We drove towards DC and made a stop at Arlington National Cemetery. We watched the changing of the guards and, on our way back to the exit, we got to observe a funeral procession in progress. After we left Arlington, we headed down to Mt. Vernon for the afternoon. We made our way back to DC to drop off the rental car and checked into our cute, little AirBnB. We made dinner and then ventured out one more time to visit the National Portrait Gallery. Everyone was nice and tired, so we called it a night pretty early and rested up for another busy day!

Day two started with a visit to Ford's Theater. After that, we headed over to the National Archives. Our next visit was a tour of the US Capitol. As we were headed out, we got stopped by some workers who allowed us to head up to the House side of the building to observe the vote that was currently happening. Leah was intrigued because part of the vote involved the banning of TikTok! We made it right up to the House doors and the vote ended. We were told that the vote would then be moving over to the Senate side, so we went over that way and waited for quite awhile before a politician came in and made a motion to move the vote to Tuesday. It was a bummer, but still cool to see that part of the Capitol building! After we left, we headed over to the Library of Congress and also made a quick pass by the Supreme Court. We then hopped on the Metro and headed out to the Pentagon to see the 9-11 Memorial. We came back to our place to eat and rest and then headed back to the National Mall to see some of the monuments at night.

Day three started with a trip to the National Zoo. Well, first we made a stop at Starbucks (Leah LOVED being treated to Starbucks every morning)! After the zoo, we headed back into the city and made our way to the White House. Along the way, we saw the WWI Memorial. After visiting the White House Visitor Center and walking around the entire perimeter of the property, we walked over to Black Lives Matter Plaza. After a quick lunch break, we made our way back to the mall area and visited several museums (Natural History, American History, and Holocaust). We finished up the day by renting bikes because our feet were definitely feeling the effects of three straight days of walking. We rode around to check out more monuments and then headed back to our place for dinner. We treated ourselves to ice cream and played cards before zonking out and resting up for our final day.

On our last day, we packed up and headed out early to go back to Arlington to see the Women's War Memorial. Then we made our way over to the National Botanic Gardens, the Air and Space Museum, and the Museum of African American History. We wish we had more time to spend there, but we had to make sure we had enough time to hop on the Metro and head to the airport. 

We truly loved getting to spend four days with just Leah! There was so much fun crammed into a long weekend and so many lifelong memories were made :)

Florida 2024

The yearly spring break trip to Florida is definitely one that we look forward to ALL year long. After loooooong, cold, dreary winters, it is so nice to get to spend a week in the warmth and sunshine of Florida. This year's trip came at the tail end of a super busy and exhausting week, so I think we all appreciated it even more. We almost had a delay in our travel because Caleb was battling a BAD case of the flu (bad enough to land him in the ER three nights before we left). Thankfully, he was just barely good enough to make the long trip down and by about 48 hours into the trip, he was much better!

Our first day was lovely and then we had two days that were a bit cooler with some clouds and rain. We made the most of it, though, and spent one afternoon visiting downtown Pensacola, which was really cool. We also went to a national seashore that had some cool hiking paths. We spent plenty of time just hanging out and playing games as well. Bad weather doesn't stop us from having a good time!

The last days of our trip were gorgeous and we spent lots of time outside. The beach was great. It did get a little crowded, which was annoying. Apparently, there is a tradition over Easter weekend for swarms of teens from Louisiana to come to the Pensacola Beach area. They rent houses, party all weekend, and turn an otherwise peaceful area into a big party scene. It wasn't the most enjoyable experience, but created plenty of teachable moments for our kids!

We absolutely loved our backyard and pool! It was a perfect place to hang all day and we definitely think this was our favorite house so far in Pensacola Beach. When we weren't at the beach or enjoying the backyard, we spent plenty of time hanging out in the big family room and kitchen. We watched lots of movies and LOTS of March Madness basketball. Our Illini were so fun to watch, but their final game was definitely a low point of our vacation!

All in all, it was another wonderful year! It's hard to believe that this tradition has been going since Caleb was 2 and Leah was a newborn. They've definitely grown up having a love for this trip and I hope we can continue the tradition for many more years to come.