Udvar-Hazy Wins

We decided to take the boys to one of the museums today.  Now let me tell you about me and museums, when I think about museums I think about dinosaur bones and animals, I think of mummy tombs and other fun stuff like that.  I unfortunately am surrounded by 3 boys who don't think the same way as me.  So when we listed off the different museums in the Smithsonian, I made sure to tell them about the dinosaur bones at the Natural History museum and about the first ladies dresses at the National History museum but Darren won them over with talk of planes and spaceships and other things Air Force and Army so we drove out to the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Air and Space Museum.

So packed up my camera bag and we headed out to play.  I got all excited when we went up to the observation deck and imagine my surprise when I clicked off the first picture and got the message "NO CARD".  UGH!  You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach, yep that's the one I got.  Well luckily I always carry my little point and shoot and we had some fun with that.  My new point and shoot has a tilt-shift feature and I have always wanted a tilt-shift lens.

My favorite thing in the museum was the Space Shuttle Discovery.  OMG it actually sent chills up my spine seeing it and knowing it has been in OUTER SPACE!!  I wanted to go to Space Camp really bad when I was little, I grew out of that but man it was so cool seeing that.  The boys loved seeing the SR-71 Blackbird.  We even looked underneath to try to find the decepticon symbol but there wasn't one.  I will say, this is one really nice museum.  They have so much room in there and even when it was packed I didn't feel like there were people on top of me and I hate crowds so that is a good thing.   We'll definitely go back again!

Iwo Jima Memorial

This not having furniture thing is starting to get rough on my bottom so today we finally just needed to get out of the house and do something but we didn't feel like being in the crowds of summer visitors in DC.  Darren told me to grab my camera and we decided to try to find the Iwo Jima Memorial again.  After two tries we finally found the turn to get into the parking lot and we walked around and checked out the memorial.  The clouds were so pretty because there was a storm rolling in.

This is one of my favorite parks in DC because it is so quiet and peaceful.  Tonight the campanile was tinkling in the background as we walked around.  The boys were excited to see the dome of the Capital Building, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial off in the distance.  After we finished up here it still wasn't raining so we headed off over the Memorial Bridge and drove through the National Mall area and told the boys about the different museums that we can see and saw the White House!  Maybe tomorrow we'll have another adventure.

The Olympics Start Tonight

Are you planning on watching the opening ceremony?  The boys and I are going to watch, I remember watching the Beijing opening ceremony 4 years ago with them and I am interested to see if London can top what Beijing did.  And all this secrecy about who will be carrying the torch, sadly I probably won't even know who it is because it will be some new star.

July is almost over and the kids will be starting school in a month.  I always feel bad for them when we have to move during the summer because they don't get to spend the time off with their friends doing all the stuff kids should do during the summer.  Instead they are stuck at the house with their mom.  Luckily they play really well together but I know for even them not having all their stuff and furniture is getting old.  Hopefully next week.

We did go out this week and buy school uniforms.  The boys have to wear uniforms at their new school and they are going to look so stinking cute on the first day of school!  Still need to go out and find leather shoes for both of them but we can hit Stride Rite or something like that and find some nice comfy shoes.

The kids are the only ones missing their friends.  I came across this picture again today and I miss my friends so much.  Hopefully one day we will see each other again and it won't just be instant messages on FaceBook.

I'm feeling crafty.

I really wish my furniture would show up.  I'm back in the states and have visited many craft stores and played on Pinterest long enough.  I want to play!  I want to be crafty!  So far, I've played with cross stitch.  I found these really cute Star Wars patterns from weelittlestitches on Etsy.  I bought all the Star Wars ones because I thought they would be really cute framed up in the boys' room.  But now that we are out of the hotel I have found that cross stitching isn't as comfortable when you don't have a comfortable seat.  :(

We as of yesterday we are a two car family again.  We drove down to Norfolk/Portsmouth and picked up Darren's little Escape.  It crossed the ocean and the country and doesn't have any more dings in it then it did before it got on the ship.  I feel pretty lucky because some of our friends haven't gotten as lucky.  We got a call from the shipper bringing our stuff up from storage in Texas and it left Texas on Tuesday but won't be here until August 1st.  I was really hoping he would drive like the wind and it would get up here before the weekend.  

Well at least I have a car and can go drool at Michael's again today while I wait for my furniture to get here.

Back in the USA

I guess I've been back for just over a month now but it has been a busy busy month.  I just finally looked at my blog and realized that it has been neglected for long enough.  We have moved into our new house (it still isn't a home yet because none of my stuff has made it from Korea yet - we'll maybe call it a home once I have my bed again) and I finally have cable and internet again.  Getting cable and internet was an experience, after 2 years of "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" cable and internet I was completely shocked at all the choices I could get for cable.  I know have more TV channels than I think we will be able to watch in our two years here in DC and internet that is so fast I think my emails are sending before I'm done typing!  LOL!!  But it is nice to be connected again and also to get up and watch some TV while eating my breakfast.

We got the boys registered for school and ran out and bought them both uniforms because they get to wear uniforms at this school.  This weekend I have a full weekend of volunteer training so that I can volunteer at their school this year.  It will be nice to meet some other adults.  I think that is the worst part of moving.  I feel so lonely here because I don't know anyone and it is so hard to meet new people.  I did join a gym but with us being a one car family right now it hasn't really been on my list of things to do but I will get back to hitting the gym regularly again once we get the other car back.  

I can't wait to get our house all settled and start scrapping and sewing again.  I miss being crafty and didn't have that much space or time to do it regularly when we lived in our apartment in Korea.  I will have a larger space to work with here and time too if I don't let myself get talked into too many things!

Well enjoy your summer, wish I was still in Hawaii.  I don't know if I want Darren stationed there but it was awesome to visit.  We had so much fun at the beach and I actually snorkeled!  Time to start cleaning the house so that everything is ready when the transportation gods decide to let our stuff arrive!!