Traveling with four kids is a lot of work. For the most part it was a very enjoyable trip. We tried to limit the amount of TV watching to one movie a day so packing car friendly activities was crucial to every one's sanity.
Here Kate is sporting a "must have" in the car ~ plastic ( and stackable!!) art and craft desks. We got one for each of them and they were great!! From coloring to puzzles to playing bingo and serving as tables for meals. They were truly one of the most important pieces of luggage on this trip. They fit right over Ben and Kate's booster seats, Will and Camryn's car seats were a little too wide for them, but if I put my seat all the way back it held Will's table in the perfect spot for him. We managed to wedge Camryn's in just right a few times, but luckily for us she was quite content with a bag of Goldfish.
The hardest part about traveling with four kids is having four kids. Never do they want to, or need to, do the same thing at the same time. Camryn will just nod off to sleep after being fussy for an hour when inevitably someone will HAVE to go pee. Jon will slow the car down enough for me and the little rascal to jump out in a McDonald's parking lot while he circles trying to keep Camryn from waking. By the time Will has fallen asleep Camryn is up and needs a diaper change, someone else is starving and now another one HAS to pee. I spent most of the car ride turned around tending to one need or another. It was exhausting, but worth it.
We stayed on 14th street, just a block from the White House. It was great being walking distance from everything. After a couple days in the car we were more than willing to forgo our seatbelts for running shoes! Our first stop was the White House, of course. The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't get a personal tour from our current President, but had fun counting the secret service men hiding all over the property. I think Katie's last count was 13.
I now regret not telling the secret service that we did indeed have a meeting with President Obama. I hear they aren't really good about knowing who should be coming and going these days.
An added bonus was getting to spend the day with Matt and Beth who just happen to live in DC. We met them at the Washington Monument and made our way over to the Air + Space Museum. Will and Katie enjoyed all the seeing and touching and watching, but Ben could have spent the next year of his life reading every plaque and notation and studying different types of flight and experimenting with aerodynamics. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We left Air + Space to head onto Natural History, after a quick stop over at the carousel. Here the kids gawked at dinosaurs, plants, animals rocks and gems. It was a fun filled but tiring day!
As we walked back to the hotel Kate says to me "Mommy, I like city livin'!" Me too Kate, me too.
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