We5AmeriKings 2018: Day 4

Believe it or not, D.C. was the kids' choice for summer vacation. I'm not sure who got it in their head first, but all three of them decided we should visit and I just planned the trip around this request. I read all the blog posts about DC recommendations and the consistent voice told me to reserve a self-guided tour at the National Archives so we could beat the crowds. This was basically a fast-pass at Disney. We timed our train ride in just perfectly and arrived right as they were opening, walked right in and sat in awe of our nations founding documents. 

Kind of my favorite part of the whole morning was that we weren't allowed to take any pictures - I simply just enjoyed the time with them instead of taking pictures of them "enjoying time". What a concept! I can't really describe the feeling of standing around a document that is filled with so much meaning and significance. Overwhelmed. Grateful. Proud. And even sad that the intentions and meaning of all those words don't ring true for each of us. And hopeful that one day they will. 

As we were crossing back to our next stop I told the kids "Ok, when I say stop... turn and look at me and smile and then cross the street!" 

They thought this was the best thing ever!

We try to do at least one thing that each kid will LOVE when we go on vacations and we knew that the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum would be right up our budding artist's alley.

I didn't expect all of us to love it so much! They had this entire interactive exhibit that allowed the kids to create movies and their own silhouette portraits. We could have spend the entire afternoon in this one room and I think they would have been satisfied.  

We weaved our way in between exhibitions and headed to The Courtyard Cafe in between the two museums for lunch. Honestly, it was your typical overpriced "museum cafe" food, but we headed there for a much better reason than fine dining...

One of my oldest friend's lives in D.C. and I selfishly wanted to hug his neck and hear all about life as a newlywed!!

Pro tip: Take the time to see your people while on vacation - worth every single minute of our drive!

Once our bellies were full, we headed into the Portrait Gallery to oooohhhh and ahhhhhh over all sorts of art. I loved catching the kids take it all in...

This was hands down the favorite exhibit of the day. My crummy iphone pics clearly don't do it justice, but this sculpture was incredible. 

There was so much detail in every part of this masterpiece - your eyes were never bored no matter where you looked.  

I know the print is tiny, but if you can... take the time to read about the artist. This piece took 14 years to complete and he died the same year he was done. 

The kids LOVED these giant paintings that would easily take up an entire wall in their rooms. Emmy was especially excited since her bestie, Anna, had just painted the Grand Canyon in art class, declaring that she (Anna) could paint these, too!

And then we made our way into the President's Gallery. This painting of George Washington was commissioned in the 1700s!!! Y'all. THAT IS INSANE!

We of course HAD to go see the two newest additions and regardless of whether or not you loved their politics, these portraits are breathtaking. His is especially vibrant and modern and represents him so well. 

The kids LOVED it!

Ryan was partial to this rendering of JFK...

Bill was the winner for the kids. I mean, they went nuts over this - they thought his was "super creative" and loved the abstract vibe from all the shapes and colors that made up his portrait. 

If you are in DC. those two museums are a must-see. They are located close to the Archives which made for an easy morning for our crew. After a quick snack, we headed across the street to the highly recommended and anticipated.... SPY MUSEUM!

As a note, this is NOT part of the Smithsonian, so there was a cost associated with our entry, but the man working the desk decided that the girls were "so tiny" and let them in for free. I did not argue with him. Ha!

We loved every single thing about this museum. You can select a "secret identity" when you enter the exhibit and use that identity to answer questions as you walk throughout. The kids got to crawl through air ducts to test their ability to stay silent, practice breaking codes, follow clues, and identify persons of interest. 

All of us had a blast walking around, learning tricks of the trade and becoming honorary spies. They even had a special James Bond exhibit that had the movie buff in me extremely excited. 

Would absolutely recommend this as a stop for anyone - so much fun for the adults as well as the kids!

And just like that, day four was complete. We couldn't wait to hop on that train and head back "home" to eat, swim and rest up for what was next.... 

And for your viewing pleasure.... 

Doing Disney...

At this point, I feel like I have been planning for our trip to Disney World forever. And in some ways, I have. We grew up a "Disney family"... not just the animated classics that most people know and love but we also watched the original Mickey Mouse cartoons, the Mickey Mouse Club (original and 90s version), and other not-so-famous Disney movies. We had CDs and games and just basically loved all things Disney.

So, I have always dreamed of the day when I'd get to take my family to Disney World. I mean... DISNEY WORLD. Y'all. It is THE most magical place on earth! We knew we wanted the kids to be old enough to make it through long days but young enough to still really love the magic of it all. This was a difficult balancing act because they also needed to be tall enough to ride the rides! HA!

We decided that Christmas 2017 was going to be the year and I made my first purchase for the trip, well....

Haha - I didn't realize it was that long ago until I looked it up for this post. Even I'm impressed! Little by little we (and by we, I clearly mean me and Gigi) have been collecting goodies and making purchases so that when the big day arrived, we (and by we, I clearly mean me and Ryan) wouldn't have to trade an actual arm and a leg to get alllll the things together.  We had the big reveal last weekend and lots of you asked me about the bags and dresses I posted so I wanted to share those two things before we leave! 

I loved the idea of the kids having their own travel bags for the trip.  The ones we got were a special listing on Jane.com, but here's a darling one I found on Etsy.

Santa's elves made the girls princess dresses a few years ago for Christmas. The dresses have become tunics but they love to play in them and I love that they are durable, comfortable and cute! I loved them so much that I ordered three more a year later! WhimsicalWende was easy to work with and I highly recommend this sweet little shop!

I also scored a TON of Disney shirts at Target!

Minnie Mouse /  Boys Mickey Mouse / Blue Mickey and Friends / Donald Duck / 

Hakuna Matata* / Squad Goals 

The best thing we did to prep for this magical vacation is to utilize the service of a Disney planner. Cindy had nothing but awesome things to say about the planner they worked with, so I hopped on the train and used the same person. Amanda has been a dream!! She is super patient, answers all 10000 of my questions, responds quickly and kept things simple and organized. Can't recommend her highly enough! You can email her or check out her Facebook page! Tell her I sent you! :)

That's it - we are packed, ready and counting down the hours until we depart for Orlando! The kids have made lists of the rides they want to ride, the characters they want to meet and things they want to see. (Seriously, it has a key and everything - I've never been prouder.) Christmas is coming early and I simply can't wait!

Linking up  with Andrea, Erika, and Narci  today... 

PS - This post contained affiliate links - thanks so much for reading and supporting my blog!

Road home from Chicago (Day 5)...

On the road again.... just can't wait to get on the road again...

This should totally be our theme song. We began our trek home on day 5 with a quick little trip to St. Louis for the night. We were dressed, packed and on the road by 8am!

Road trip pro tip: Pack food for meals. We brought enough for picnic lunches and tons of snacks which helped us stay on track for time and saved us tons of money. Our kids are super easy to please and major highways and interstates have awesome rest stops. We took advantage and made this part of our trip and it worked so well for us.

We rolled into St. Louis around 1:30pm to the most awesome sight... 

We didn't have anything planned for this day because I honestly wasn't sure how early we would actually leave. My favorite thing to do is really just ask the locals what the best places are to see and the hotel staff said, "You HAVE to take them to City Museum!!" Now, I had heard about the Magic House and really thought we would take them there but since the staff was so adamant, we switched our plans and I am SO SO SO glad we did. 

I'm pretty sure that this was the coolest place I've ever been [notice I didn't say the coolest "kids place" I've ever been - everyone has fun here.] I loved that the kids didn't feel like they had to go from exhibit to exhibit like at a traditional museum. City Museum is basically one giant indoor cave-like playground with slides and shoots and places to explore. One you make it all the way down into these hidden caves you can climb up ten stories to ride a slide back down. 

You can buy tickets to get roof access and ride a ferris wheel on top but we opted to skip that since we had just been at Navy Pier and they weren't sure if the ferris wheel was running at the moment. I can't even begin to do this place justice, y'all. Click here to watch a video and read all about the how and why - the whole thing is created from reclaimed materials - it's just amazing!

They have giant ball pits outside which sounds horrific in Texas but was perfect in St. Louis. They are set under these massive trees and the cool breeze made it the perfect setting for the kids to play. And bonus: they served beer. Beer. Beer at a "kids" place that clearly isn't just for kids. 

We stayed until they closed but the kids could have lasted much longer! Seriously, if you are near or around or passing through any where close to St. Louis - make this a planned stop! I'd suggest closed-toed shoes and pants or shorts (I was in a dress and not one to miss out on the fun, let's just say some people probably got a good show that day). (Sorry, Dad).

Next stop....

We clearly couldn't be in St. Louis without seeing the Arch - we did not take the tram up for a few reasons: 

1. The next available tickets were for 10pm

2. Radley's stomach had been queasy all day and well, that didn't sound fun

3. We had just been to the top of Sears/Willis Tower with a much cooler view

4. None of us really wanted to

(Is that awful?)

We made up for it by taking lots of pictures.

Lots and lots and lots of pictures.

Y'all. Don't you think my family would realize that by now I KNOW how to take a good picture. Well, they learned the hard way. I tried to explain that the further away from the arch we got, the easier it would be to get us AND the arch in the picture. 

Lessons learned.

(Confession: I was the one that forgot the selfie stick. SMH).

I mean, I would have gone even further.

We headed toward the hotel on search of dinner and lo and behold...

THE PERFECT PICTURE SPOT.

They weren't up for another selfie so I had to settle for these cute pics instead.

;)

We passed some carriage drivers and started talking to them and once again I asked where they recommended we eat dinner and without hesitation he said, "Bailey's Range."

Needless to say, we were all fans of that recommendation. In fact, we were all fans of St. Louis - so much so, that we decided to stay an extra night so we could enjoy the next day and not be so rushed to get through the zoo.... 

Road to Chicago (Day 3)...

Chicago is definitely our kind of town! Sun, breeze, no humidity - we may never leave. We are early risers but most of the things that we want to do don't open until 10am, so we headed straight to Maggie Daley Park on Monday and basically had the entire place to ourselves. 

If I had a couple million to spare, I would build this exact park in College Station. We all had so much fun climbing, sliding, and running around!

We wasted money on a played a round of putt putt and decided that unless the putt putt course is LEGENDARY then we'd probably not do that on vacation anymore. But let me tell ya, the "please please please please please" "can we can we can we can we" of little kids is hard to resist. 

Maggie Daley and Millenium Park are connected with this awesome boardwalk that gives you amazing views of the Chicago skyline. I mean, I feel like you can't even photoshop a day that beautiful.

And this is what happens when you ask strangers to take your picture. Two of them actually because I didn't like the first one at all. My poor family. And yes, we have a selfie stick, I just keep forgetting it. My bad.

Editors note: We are the most basic family ever because I most certainly bought the boys those Cubs shirts for our trip. (Extra note: we really do love the Cubs, not just because they won.)

When in Chicago...

Landry and Emmy have been in to taking pictures - this one is definitely a framer.

We tried to convince the kids that no one knows how or why The Bean is here. I don't think we did a good job of convincing them that aliens put it here.

Mom takes a picture - waits for a clear moment and snaps 1000.

Stranger takes a picture - ALL OF THE PEOPLE ARE IN  IT!

;)

My little beans  in front of the bean!

We did a quick change at the hotel because it warmed up quickly and headed to Navy Pier for lunch and an afternoon of fun.

I'm not sure if Landry had to pee or just thought this pose was awesome. 

And look - we were there too! (Thanks for the angled shot, Rad -HA!)

Finally - a stranger that took a great picture!

This is a new ferris wheel with lots of upgrades including the gondola type seating. 

Rad and Ryan took a ride on the swings but we couldn't convince the girls so I sat this one out and I'm so glad I did because I feel like I nailed this shot!

We headed to the water taxis for our last stop of the day.

I think I finally agree that they may look a like. 

We headed to the former tallest building in the world - Sears/Willis Tower. Can I make a confession - I had no idea that Sears Tower was named because it was the HQ of Sears. As in the retail giant. Y'all. How clueless am I? And how crazy is it that Sears was once that big of a retailer!?!? It recently had a name change because the new largest tenants are the Willis Company. I don't think I like that.

The lighting was perfect for pictures. 

;)

After three super looooonnnggg days the kids were exhausted. Landry fell asleep at dinner and missed out on the pizza. We called it an early night and all fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the bed!