Museums, Metros, and More

Sorry we have not posted for a while - no we are not on strike, we just didn't want to bore you with our seemingly ordinary lives. Really, we have not done anything too exciting lately, but it's been great. Sometimes, routine things can feel good. I think we are finally starting to feel like D.C. is our home and having a few weekends in a row now where we haven't done much other than clean, do laundry, go grocery shopping, and hang out with the Sunbeams has helped it feel that way. Favorite quote from one of our Sunbeams? We were having a lesson on being grateful and presenting the kids with riddles of things we should be thankful for. We said, "it's something you need to bathe and swim," and he quickly rose his hand and with pride said, "floaties."

Congratulations to Geoff for finishing his writing class! Because he didn't have a paper to write over the weekend, we did get to go out for a little longer than just dinner. We spent a couple of hours at the National Building Museum. If you're like me, you didn't even know such a place existed. I thought it would be full of blueprints from famous buildings or something but it was actually really neat. We got there a couple hours before closing on Saturday night and were able to see most of the exhibits. My favorite was an exhibit called "Washington: Symbol and City," which showcased all the symbols in Washington such as the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, The Jefferson Memorial, etc. The exhibit also showed how and why row housing became so popular, how the metro system was built, and how the layout of the city has changed over the years. It was pretty interesting and good for me to learn a little bit more about the city I am now living in. Geoff's favorite exhibit was "David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture." This was a fairly small exhibit, but Geoff loved it because of the "sketch it yourself" stations where anyone can sit down and with the provided pad and pencil, sketch a piece of architecture. Geoff quickly sketched a bridge and fell in love with his sketch so much that he insisted we tear the paper out of the book and carry the sketch all the way home with us. This is a picture of his 30-second sketch. (You may need to click on it to actually see the drawing, it is a suspension bridge if you can't tell) "Really Geoff - what are you going to do with this when we get home?" And for the record, he did throw it away when we got home. The other picture is us at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial with the National Building Museum behind us. Pretty cool building, huh? It was built by an architect just after the civil war. The facade is supposed to look just like some famous Roman Palace. Anyway, it was a fun outing for us and we actually learned a few things along the way.

We can't believe Turkey Day is this week. We will be thinking of all of you this week and missing you lots. We hope you all enjoy the week and take some time off work to relax and stuff yourselves silly with some delicious food. Loves.