The Smiths Take On Rolling Thunder!

How long does it take for something to become a tradition??? This is the third Memorial Day weekend that Larry has spent in VA with us! I think that counts :) Best laid plans went awry as Larry had planned to take an earlier than usual flight, but it got delayed :( Luckily (well, not so luckily for him), Josh was hanging out at work getting some things accomplished just waiting for Larry. He had plenty to do to keep him busy! Larry finally got in, and he and Josh picked up pizza on the way home--YUM!

Saturday morning Josh and Larry went golfing, and then they met Jackson and me for dinner at Red Robin--double yum :)

Reading with Uncle Larry, followed by daps to thank him for playing :)

We decided to make Sunday our In DC Day! We had SUCH a good time! Not that we haven't had a good time the other years, but this time we enjoyed ourselves all the way around. The first year Larry came out, I was about four months pregnant with Jackson and we were trying to see a few sights before heading to the Nats' stadium for a baseball game. Little did we know that Memorial Day is the same weekend as Rolling Thunder! Josh couldn't find a parking place, so he let Larry and me out to see a few things. Josh kept driving around, but we had a hard time meeting back up since I can barely navigate myself out of our neighborhood ;)

I don't actually remember any traffic snafus from last year, but this year we managed to do everything right! We headed out on the early side, leaving the house just after 9. Traffic was fine going into the city and we found ample parking right behind the Jefferson Memorial. We decided to walk over to Lincoln before heading into the American History Museum since it would only be getting hotter... Abe was doing just fine, and we had a great view of the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool. Everything looked very patriotic with lots of flags flying and pretty memorial flowers laid out. This was the first time Larry had been to the American History Museum since the renovation was finished, and he seemed impressed :) After the museum we had a picnic on the Mall and had fun people watching. The motorcycles were definitely in full force, but since we have gotten a great parking spot and hadn't had to fight them on the roads, we were able to just enjoy the sights. I know that sounds silly, but if you stop to think about what Memorial Day is about and the enormous number of bikers that gather to help remember all of the important things the men and women fighting for our country have done, it's pretty cool :)

(I know this isn't the best picture of any of us, but it was still kinda cute!)

Fist bumping Abe!

Enjoying the end of lunch: raisins!

We realized as we were finishing up lunch that the Rolling Thunder parade was headed right in the direction of our car. Hmmm... To kill some time we ducked into the Air and Space Museum for a bit. It had been a really long time since any of us had been in there, and it was pretty cool! Jackson fell asleep on the way over, but was awake to enjoy all of the airplanes by the time we were leaving :) We didn't really have any trouble walking back to our car and getting home (not without a stop to see Mr. Jefferson, of course!)

We were quite sticky and tired on the ride home. We all took some time to regroup once we got home, and then we headed out to Qdoba for dinner. This was Larry's first time, and he is definitely a fan! He said it's not his new favorite, but he did enjoy his steak quesadilla!


Larry's flight wasn't until Monday night, but we just hung around during the day. We went to Five Guys for lunch and then had a walk in the woods with Pax after Jackson's nap.