Spring is Sprung

I LOVE spring! Especially this year after such a long, cold, snowy winter! The only down side is that most of the plants all burst into bloom on the same day and they just as quickly lost their blooms in a wind storm. So we are having to be quick in our enjoyment of the season. 

Our Spring Break was last week and most of our activities were planned by my friend Holli (who is a good ole Southeast Idaho girl like me) and enjoyed with my friend Annie (not from Idaho, but Wyoming is close enough). We had a few adventures together and entertained our kids at the same time.

Spring Break Adventure #1

Marine Museum at Quantico

We heard this was really cool and have been wanting to visit it for a while. It is about an hour south and it is a great Saturday activity for anyone from the DC area (especially if you have boys in your family, big or small) A lot of the exhibits reminded me of the exhibits at the Imperial War Museum in London, very interactive. Of course there are a lot of guns and stuff, but also a lot of personal stuff. We really liked it. 

Spring Break Adventure #2

A Day in Baltimore

So we decided to head up to Baltimore to see Fort McHenry (Star Spangled Banner) and then hang out at the inner harbor for a while. Both of them were great! We haven't been to either in years, I think we went when we first moved here, but Trum was like 3 then so he doesn't exactly remember any of it. We went with Holli & Annie & various kids. The Fort was great! They have a fantastic presentation and at one point I got a little teary eyed. And of course we did the junior ranger program while we were there. We also ran into our friends the Bearmans which was a fun surprise!

Then we headed over to the harbor for some lunch and to walk around and see the sights. We ended up riding the carousel and going to a lighthouse where Annie & Holli re-enacted a scene from Pete's Dragon (Razzle Dazzle Day). It was a grand day!

Also during the week Trum took to wearing his Civil War Rebel hat around the house and one night I found him like this when I went to check on him. What a goof!

Spring Break Adventure #3 & #4

Luray Caverns and a hike in the Shenandoah

Holli's friend got a group together so that we could get group rate entrance fees to tour the caverns. It was great to be able to walk in past all of the people waiting in line. I felt SUPER special and cool. Plus some our friends the Clawsons ended up being a part of the group so we got to see them as well. The caverns are so awesome and we learned a lot!

This was my favorite part. It looks like a big cavern but it is really the ceiling reflected in a shallow pool of water.

 

After the tour of the caverns we let the kids do the ropes course. I was proud of Trum, he is scared of heights but he went for it and he did great!

We stayed at hotel that night and the kids swam like madmen in the pool and we had perhaps the slowest meal ever for dinner and enjoyed several episodes of Curb Appeal, then we packed up and headed out for our hike in the Shenandoah. The area was beautiful and we had great weather. We hiked until the youngest sat down in the trail and would go no further. It was a great time.

On our drive home we had one more mini adventure... we crossed the Potomac on the ferry. I thought it was cool anyway.