Our Happy Family: The start of our summer vacation

To thank Alexander's friends for coming to his birthday party, we made this in the driveway. They thought it was cute. We gave a picture to each of his friends.

The boys and I went to the farmer's market on our town square mid June. Near there, our town recently put in a splash pad by the town hall. We did not come prepared with swim suits. So, they were trying to dodge the fountains. Eventually, though, they were soaked.

You might wonder why Alexander has long sleeves on in the middle of summer. Well, that's because he has an independent mind. He wanted to wear his Spider Man shirt, despite the weather. At least he was cool after running through the water.

On June 22nd, we set out for a 3 and a half month trek around the country (the eastern half, anyway. We stopped the first night just south of Washington DC. We brought our pop-up camper so that it would be cheaper to stay at all these places we wanted to see along our journey. Also, it gave nice cool place for our dogs to rest while we were out seeing the sites (yes, it has an air conditioner).

We set out the next day on the DC Metro. Glenn liked to watch out the window. But Alexander commented on everything he saw. They loved it!

We had planned to walk on the National Mall in the morning while it was cool. But it was raining. So, we went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. They loved seeing all the different aircraft, although they didn't stay long enough in one place so that Bob and I could read about them.

After we left the museum, the weather had cleared up. So, we walked the length of the National Mall to get go the Lincoln Memorial. It's a long walk, and it was hot! But Bob and I enjoyed it. :)

The Washington Monument is still covered by scaffolding due to the earthquake.

The Lincoln Memorial steps

View from the Lincoln Memorial.

The boys found the DC squirrels to be very friendly. They didn't move out of your way when you walk down the sidewalk. We saw one squirrel eating a peanut butter cracker. I had to make sure Alexander didn't touch it while watching it. They also commented on how much meatier they are than our FL squirrels.

We walked back to the Metro (which was almost all the way back to the museum). We got ice cream on the way back, just to cool off. Alexander's turned his mouth black!

The day after we were in DC, we went to CT. We spent about two weeks there. During the first week, we went to Bob's parents' house. Then we spent the second week at my parents'. We went to Ikea (had to with it only being a few minutes from Bob's parents' house).

We went camping in the middle of our stay in CT. We camped with my brother and his family and some friends. It was nice to just stay in one place camping for the sake of camping. The boys and their cousin made a sculpture out of wood.