Our trip to Washington DC Part 3: Mount Vernon and Gettysburg

 Hi all! This is Libby. So, here we go again on the seemingly unending stream of posts. Ugh. I can't wait until we can post about other things again. Well, I best start. So, early in the morning, we drove to Mount Vernon. This is the outside. Mom commented that she thought it would be bigger. We took a tour of the house first, but  they didn't allow pictures on the inside.

 Next we went to see Washington's tomb.

 We passed by this ewe on the trail. It was enclosed, don't worry.

 Marie-Grace, Jewel and I walking along the trail. I commented to Marie-Grace that Jewel's outfit didn't look like the outfit of a super shy person. 

 This was one of the slave cabins. In this picture you can see how gorgeous the fall colors were then.

Next, we went to the cool gardens.

 Marie-Grace loved taking pictures of the flowers in the gardens.

 This is the smithy. When the guy pounded the plate-thing with that little hammer, it was SOOOOOO loud! We all covered our ears, even Jewel, who had so far been acting far to shy to do anything!

 The next day, we left Washington DC and traveled to Gettysburg. First we watched the cyclorama, telling about the battle of Gettysburg. You can look HERE to find out more about that.

 Then we looked around the museum. This was an interment something like a trumpet, but the horn part would go back over your shoulder so the soldiers marching behind you could hear the music you were playing.

 As you can see, here is the Gettysburg address embedded in a rock.

 In the gift shop, we bought a CD that guided us to different sites of the battlefield, telling us the history of the different sites as we got there.

This was one of the sites were there was a little tower. We stopped and played there for a pretty long while. Well, I better be going. 

Have you ever been to Gettysburg or Mont Vernon?

More of our time in Washington DC

Good day, pleasant readers! This is Marie-Grace. As promised, I am here to tell you more about our Washington DC trip beginning on October 29.

 That rainy day we went to the Federal Mint and the National Museum of Natural History. At the Federal Mint they did not allow pictures, but at the Museum we took a great many pictures! Here are some of them. 1: The famous stuffed elephant named Henry. 2: The famous Hope Diamond. 3: A diamond necklace. 4: A great lump of rose quartz. 5: Stuffed Spider monkey mother and baby. 6: An actual Egyptian mummy. Libby was quite impressed. 7: A stuffed ghost crab. 8: Pieces of a meteorite that fell on Arizona. 9: A stuffed Grizzly bear.

 The next day we left early for our tour of the Capitol. 1: The Capitol. They needed to do some repairs on the dome. They informed us that they should be done in time for the next inauguration. 2:The inside of the dome. 3:A beautiful chandelier inside. 4: the lovely tiled floor. 5:The original Wright Flyer at the Air and Space museum. 6: Another model at the Air and Space museum ( I don't remember what of). 7; Libby rushing past paintings at the art museum across from the Air and Space museum. 8: Myself lingering a long while at the same paintings. 9: Many famous paintings were there, this painting of George Washington being one of them. 10: One of my favorite paintings there by Frederic Edwin Church called El Rio de Loz (The river of Light). 11: Libby looking at the famous "Little Dancer"  statue. She didn't think much of it. 12: The impressive-looking outside of the art museum. 13:People inside the art gallery in the Capitol.

 On Halloween Day, we 1:first shared our lunch with an inquisitive squirrel. 2: Went to see  the outside of the White House, being that we were unable to obtain tickets to the inside. 3: Went to the international spy museum. This is the inside of the elevator. 4: The History of spies. 5; The secret identity I chose while there. If you want to learn more about the Spy Museum, click HERE. 6: Next we went to Ford's Theater. 7: I don't think she found it as interesting as I did. 8: Next we went across the street to the house Lincoln died in. This is part of a huge pile of books that were all written about Lincoln.

Then we rushed home because we were meeting Jewel and her former foster parents. We were quite excited. She came, and Libby immediately plopped down with her two dogs, Cookie dough and Jackson. I held out my hand. "Hello, Jewel. I'm Marie-Grace. What a lovely outfit." Jewel looked at down at her feet and fingered her scarf. "Um, hi. she said, then rushed over to say good bye to her former foster parents. Standing up, Libby whispered: "What was that? Her other foster parents never mentioned extra extreme shyness." I laughed. "She'll probably get used to us in a couple of days." I whispered back.

Have you ever had a foster child?

Our Trip Part 2: Our first day in Washington DC

 Hi all! This is Libby. So Marie and I have finished our Christmas break, and are going back to telling you all about our trip. We are sorry we are taking such a toads long time to "tell you all about it", but oh well, we're doing it now right? So anyway, the day after the last day we posted about (see HERE) we drove to Washington DC and got settled in with some relatives. The next morning we drove around almost till lunch looking for parking. Finally we found a small, free, parking lot over near the Jefferson memorial, right next to the river. We ate lunch there, watching all the planes come in ( by the way, if you have ever been to Washington DC you will know what I'm talking about. Planes always coming in, at this really constant rate like they are coming in then taking right back off again, just to come down yet again! I mean, goodness!) But anyway, going on.

 Here is a picture Marie took of one of the waterfalls in the FDR memorial. Isn't it pretty? I love waterfalls. So, we went here first. And I liked the waterfalls.

 And here, is a picture of Marie and I in front of one of the pools in the Korean War Veterans Memorial. I wanted to take dip in the pool but Dad said no.

 Next we went to the Lincoln memorial. I was so excited. It's super exciting for me to be at a place you have heard about and seen pictures of all your life. It looks almost like it does on the penny except you can barely see the Lincoln statue inside ( unlike on the penny) and of course, all the people. 

 It was a great, big, solemn feeling place inside. There was a little bookstore that I hadn't known about and Marie-Grace bought a postcard for her travel journal in it.

 Marie and I in front of the reflecting pool.

 On our way to the Washington monument, we stopped at this pool and watched the funny geese. We also met a girl named Isabelle who was very pretty and had cute pink highlights.

 As well as the pond, we also quickly stopped at the World War Two Memorial. It was really cool looking, but we didn't stay long. We were impatient to get to the Washington Monument.

 So we climbed all the way up there and when at the base, bent our necks almost at a right angle to see to the top. One of my main disappointments of the trip for me was that we were not able to get tickets to climb to the top. But, oh well.

 While we were still at the base of the Washington Monument, we saw a this helicopter come up. From the place it rose from, Dad guessed it came straight from the White House helipad. Is that cool or what?

 Since there was time before we needed to go to the car, we decided we would go to the National Museum of American History. It wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be, but I think we missed a lot of stuff, like the original ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. I did like seeing the first lady's dresses though. That red one belonged to Mamie Eisenhower.

 On our way back to the car we stopped at the Jefferson memorial. It was really pretty but not especially memorable.

 That day was super memorable though. I love vacation.

Where do you like to take vacation?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Marie and I had a fab Christmas!

 As is our tradition, we went down to our Grandmother's house for Christmas. It was decorated quite extensively.

 The Walkers came too, bringing with them another adopted girl from England named Sarah Wakestand.

 My favorite gift was a watch given to me by the Walkers. The amusing thing was, that our family also gave Addy a watch!

 My favorite gift was Veggie Tale's "Lord of the Beans". We watched it to end out our night, and by the end of the movie, we were all laughing! The next day we came back home.

 Yesterday, from 6:00 to about 9:30, we had a fabsome New Year's Eve costume party. This picture is of signs that say Happy New Year in lots of different languages.

 There was lots of FOOD and games.............

.............and a costume contest! I was dressed up as a pajama fashionista in the new PJs I got for Christmas. Jewel wasn't sure what she was. At first she was going to be a gypsy, but then we thought she looked more like a Hispanics girl or a pirate queen. She never really decided. And I was a flower nymph.

What is your favorite way to celebrate Christmas and New Year's?

Our Trip Part 1: Virginia

Good day, pleasant readers! This is Marie-Grace. As we promised, I am giving an update on what we did on our trip. I am sorry it is late,  but we (all except Father and Jewel) have been rather sick, and are just getting over it.

 On the first day (October 20) we drove for half the day and reached this lovely house. We took this picture the next morning.

The next night we reached this house in Lexington, KY. This was my favorite house that we stayed in on our trip.

 An interesting fact: I learned while we were here that Lexington is the World's horse capitol or something of that sort and for that reason, the Queen of England keeps many of her horses here. This is one of the pens that is behind their house. The horses were not out at the time, which highly disappointed Libby, who would have loved to say the she had seen the Queen of England's horses!

That night, we reached the house of one of Mother's old friends who lived in Gloucester, Virginia. She did have two girls who became our friends, but they asked not to put any pictures of them on our blog. That night we stayed up talking until nearly midnight. The next day we went to the Nauticus museum and the battleship Wisconsin. Unforgettably, our camera died the minute we reached the museum. Our father took this picture of the battleship. If you want to find out more about this museum, you can go to their website. we have provided a link HERE.

The next day, we went to James town and Historic Jamestowne. I will explain the pictures starting from the picture in the upper left-hand corner and going counterclockwise. 1; This is the famous statue of John Smith at Historic Jamestowne. 2; A man dressed up at the weaponry in Jamestown settlement. 3: Myself scraping at a deer hide in the Indian village at Jamestown settlement. 4: A guard outside James fort. 5: Myself on board of one of the three ship replicas at Jamestown settlement. 6: A costumed man in James fort. 7: The inside of one of the Indian lodges. 8: Myself at the Indian village. 9: Libby sitting in one of the chairs in the officers house at James fort making a statement. 10: A cannon in James fort.

The next day we went to Yorktown, the Yorktown battle field, and Whitley's Peanut Factory. I will be explaining the pictures using the same method as before. 1: View of the farm at the Yorktown victory center. 2: Myself looking at a horn book in the little cabin at the farm. 3: Libby feeling a small pile of beans for no apparent reason. 4: A lady named Sally explaining medicine in that time. I found some of it rather ghastly, but interesting. 5: Some beams of sunlight breaking through the trees at the encampment. 6: Libby looking greedily at a huge lollipop in the gift shop at Yorktown. 7: Our tour guide at the Yorktown battle field, She kept us all interested, even though she talked for nearly an hour! 8: Libby and I at the Yorktown battlefield. 9: The inside of Whitley's Peanut Factory. Libby mentioned that she loved the samples. 
Well, I best be going. We will be telling you more about our trip soon, I'm sure.  Until then,
Have you ever been to any of the places we mentioned?

We're Back!

 Hi all! It's Libby. As some of you know, Our family has been vacationing in Washington DC for the last three weeks. It was totally awesome! As we have so many pictures to post and things to post about, Marie-Grace and I thought it would be best not to post them all at once but we will instead post them gradually, maybe one at a time, if our day was particularly full. We'll post again soon!