Fall Break pt. 1

For Fall Break we headed to Virginia and Washington D.C. I've never been to D.C. so I was excited to go. I wasn't so excited about spending 11 hours in the car with 5 kids but everyone survived. We drove to my sister's in Virginia on Sunday and then headed to D.C. on Monday and stayed there until Wednesday. On Monday we decided to see all of the monuments. It was a little chilly but the kids did pretty good considering how much we walked.

This is an underwater tunnel near my sister's that I hate driving in.

Quinn "holding" the Washington Monument

Riley at the FDR Monument

FDR Monument
When we got to this monument we entered at the back of it which is a wall and some bathrooms. At first we thought that was the monument but as we walked more we realized it was actually a pretty big monument that spanned FDR's three terms as president.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument

In front of Lincoln Monument. Liam spent most of his time in the stroller. Luckily, he was a pretty good sport about it.

World War II Monument

Jefferson Monument.

See Rock City





 

A couple of Saturdays ago Rock City had a scout day, which meant all the kids were free, so we decided to go. Riley is doing Daisy scouts. She didn't want to keep her smock on because it looks like an apron. I think we got one picture of her in it. Doug and I have never been to Rock City so we weren't sure what to expect. It was little difficult with Liam but we survived. It was pretty fun. There is a pretty cool swing bridge. The kids weren't too sure about it at first and Doug had to carry Liam, which made me nervous. I tried to take a picture while I was on it but I was afraid I'd drop my phone.



I have no idea what the boys are doing.

Turtle Rock

Taking a break

I think this is Fat Man Squeeze

Liam trying to escape

Can you see 7 states?

If it looks like a Duck...

Uncle Jeff, Aunt Nicole and cousin Jack visited with us this summer and we went on a Duck Tour of the Chattanooga waterfront.  We got a close up view of the Tennessee River - the Ducks are amphibious vehicles that were used during the D-Day invasion of Normandy.  After the tour, we went to Coolidge Park and played in the water fountains.  We had a good time and some of us got sunburned worse than the others...

This was our Duck.  It is named Daffy.

This is the aquarium.

This is the walking bridge - one of my favorite parts of downtown.

The Hunter art muesem.  Tasha and I visited it the day before.

The kids got to steer for a little bit.  Aiden liked the horn and Will turned us toward the cliffs.

OK - so this picture was taken in 2005 when we vacationed in Chattanooga.  I wanted to recreate it, but I got the twins switched around.  Oh well.

Will and Aiden Turn 8

Will and Aiden had an exciting birthday.  They turned 8, and in the Church or Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, that means that they are old enough to be baptized.  The baptism was held on July 14th.  We were able to visit with friends and family that we hadn't seen in a while.  The boys were happy to be baptized!

Grandpa Denton and Paw-Paw

Quinn is 10!

Hard to believe, but our oldest is a decade old.  Quinn had a good birthday this year.  He had a party with all of his friends from church and they had a clue hunt to find a treasure.  It was fun watching them try to figure out the clues and it was hard to keep up with them once they figured one out.  They had to play games before they could read some of the clues.  They had a great time!

Quinn and his donut cake.

Pizza time!  The first clue was under one of the boxes.

The boys had to pop balloons to find their next clue.

This clue was a real puzzler.

There was a clue buried in the LEGO bucket.

The boys had to play ring toss to read one of the clues.

Chasen reads a clue.

This clue was taped to the garage door - they had to lower the door to find it.

This clue tested their cub scout abilities.  It was hidden on the flag.

On the hunt!

The boys putting their heads together.

The "treasure" was hidden in the washing machine.