Air and Space Museum

The kids requested a repeat visit to the Air and Space museum this year while on vacation.  This year I remembered to bring our current science museum membership card so we got in free which is always awesome. Granted, the guy at the admissions desk was a total dork. Seriously, don't tell a customer that they have too many kids even if you do think you are being funny. Because you are not. Trust me. (And yes, I do realize we were near many of our friends and family but we had sick kids almost every single day we were there so there would have been no way to fit in visits without getting someone sick.)

Alan and the older kids loved the museum and seeing all of the different planes and things.  Gabe kind of freaks out around open stairs and things so he refused to go up to the third floor so I took the younger 3 and hung out in the snack bar and gift shop until the rest of the family was done.

 

This museum is very awesome but I think it's the kind of place that would be better explored by Alan and the older kids alone simply because there wasn't too much to entertain the younger ones and so much that the older ones wanted to explore.

Beyond Bricks

One of the places we visited while on vacation was Beyond Bricks. This place is basically just a giant play space with nothing but LEGOs to play with. Which is frankly just totally cool.

At first, the older kids acted like we were slightly crazy for bringing them there but before long they were building up a storm.  For some reason they got on a Star Trek kick and started building Borg cubes and ships and such things.  Yes, they are weird.

Ellie managed to build this tower all by herself. Over her head and everything. She was so very proud of herself.

It turned out that poor Gabe was sick. We didn't realize it until we got there and he just curled up in a chair and feel asleep. I do feel badly that he missed out on the fun since he would have enjoyed it and I feel bad for not realizing the kids was sick but no one else was there to catch his germs at least.

Mini Golf

While on vacation, we took a few of the children mini golfing. I'm pretty sure this was the first time going for all of the children.  Some of the kids were sick and asleep in bed unfortunately.  But those of us who were able to get out, had a great time. A few folks managed to score a hole in one, Abby managed to knock her ball over the fence and shed and lose it in the bushes, Ellie and Robert got a big bored and lost interest but overall everyone had fun.

Yorktown Pictures

Another stop we made on our trip was a visit to the Yorktown Battlefield. It was a somewhat cold and windy day and for some reason half of our kids decided to leave their coats in the van. Don't ask. I don't understand.  So although we attempted to take the guided tour through the town, part way through we had to turn back so that we could fetch coats out of the van for the children.  We then did some exploring on our own.  The old battlefields often amaze me simply in terms of how much was accomplished using so little.  This one was no exception.

The obligatory picture of the kids gathered around a canon.  Don't know about your parents, but mine took quite a few pictures like this.

Gabe insisted on reading the map for us. Never mind that it was often upside down and that walking while map reading are a bit hard for a small child to manage simultaneously.

One of the man made redoubts.

Aboard one of the ships.

Virginia Air and Space Museum

If you know my boys and my husband, you know that this was one museum we absolutely had to visit. Airplanes always rate rather high on the cool factor for kids to begin with.  Add in a Dad who can explain so much about them to you and you have extra fun.  (Yes, Alan is one of those folks who watches movies and points out the inaccuracies in the planes being used to you. Yes, it totally ruins the movie for you at times but what can I say?)

This museum was definitely worth the visit but I do wish we'd found our most recent RMSC membership card because then it would have been much cheaper.  But I made a point of not focusing on the cost of things this year which led to a much more relaxing trip. Who would've thought?

This was much harder than it looked but Katie was trying to mimic the signals needed to tell a plane to take off from a carrier.

Doesn't Gabe look awesome flying that jet?

The little kids mostly enjoyed the Clifford play area.  They spent lots of time delivering mail and driving the boat. Gabe told us all to watch our for sea monsters.  Granted, I have no clue what Clifford has to do with airplanes but was happy to have a place to entertain the younger ones while Alan took the older ones around to explore the stuff they were interested in more in depth.

Williamsburg Pictures

Our goal for this last vacation was to mostly stay relaxed and not stick to a schedule. We were hoping to use the time to somewhat heal as a family and just reconnect after our last year. For the most part, we were rather successful.

Leatherworking at the MOMYS Meet-n-Greet

Making a Bookmark

Katie fell in love with the horses and now wants to move closer to Aunt Lisa so she can take riding lessons.

I will say that looking back on it, perhaps attending as part of a retreat run by a group of pretty much Evangelical Christians was perhaps not the best of ideas.  Yes, the kids loved the built in playmates.  We loved knowing that all the condos surrounding us were also filled to the brim with families with many young children so if the kids made some noise, we didn't have to worry. We loved the discount on the lodging and the plan of free activities if you wanted to participate.  But we only attended one day of planned activities before realizing that theologically we were not quite the in the right place for our family.  I'm not so into the patriarchal ideals that pretty much say the wife should not speak in a public gathering if the husband is present.  Gee, who would have thought? At the evening potluck/meet-n-greet activity, the guy in charge was asking each family (which translated to each husband because the wife should not speak) a rather personal get to know you kind of question.

Listening to the answers ahead of us, we knew we were the only Catholics hiding among this group of folks.  I have a feeling a few folks might have flipped out if they discovered that little fact or noticed our kids crossing themselves before prayers.  So after listening to the questions of when did you become a Christian and what Christian book would you suggest for this audience and who has been the biggest influence in your personal walk with Christ, Alan thought he had answers for whatever might be thrown at him.  Instead, he was asked what is your biggest fear.  Um, seriously this was the wrong question for us.  We both instantly felt like we'd had the wind knocked out of us.  I was about to jump in and give a slightly rude answer starting with "well, if you are going to ask such a personal question, I can give you the answer you don't want to hear and tell you why we are here in the first place" but Alan eventually answered instead. He said he thought about answering with the Borg but given that most of the folks were dressed in Colonial garb, he figured the Star Trek reference would be lost on them.  Sigh.  So overall we had a wonderful time though.

Love Kieran's expression

This could be very helpful at home

We spent two days at Colonial Williamsburg itself.  The first day the entire family went but on the second day I stayed back with the younger 3 so that the older 6 could get to everything they wanted to see. On that day, they met an interpreter who grew up telling her Mom that she wanted to be Felicity when she got older (from the American Girl collection).  Given that she is now spending her days working at Colonial Williamsburg dressed much like Felicity would be and spending lots of time standing out in the cold, she warned the children to be very careful about what they wished for.