Airplanes and Shuttles and Missiles, Oh My!

The next adventure on our  Very American Vacation was the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum.  In case you were wondering, it was very cool.  There was approximately 2 million airplanes, 600 helicopters, 300,000 missiles and a huge space shuttle.  Okay, there wasn't that much stuff, but it was close.  There was SO much to see.  Henry loved it! 

Oh, he's SO casual.

An airplane.  Jet?  Whichever.

Wyatt. 

This was also a fun day for him.  He played "I will take my shoe off and toss it over yonder and mommy will go get it and put it back on.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat."

A huge engine or something rather.

In case you didn't know, Transformers was filmed in this particular Air & Space Museum, and Henry watched that scene about 24 times. 

Woosh!

Neeeeeeeeeeoooooo!

ROAR!

I have nothing clever for this one.

Candycane, anyone?

The Space Shuttle.

While this was definitely cool for H-dawg to see, I was able to "Meh" at it because I grew up where the space shuttles actually launch from and have seen about a zillion take off.

(I have been told I am prone to exaggeration)

Teeny tiny Henry and BIG, MIGHTY SPACE SHUTTLE.

Weeeee! 

Yeah right.  Can you even imagine going into outer space, let alone LEAVING THE SHUTTLE ON A LITTLE BOX THING WITH SOME BUTTONS ON IT TO GO FLOATING AROUND?  I am sorry to my relatives reading this, but I believe that is a for sure poop-your-pants moment.

Lots of interactive stuff, which is a 4 year old's best friend.

But wait!  There's more, there's more!  We'll see when I have another free 15 minutes to continue sharing our journey...

Our Very American Vacation

In November, we were incredibly blessed to be able to visit Jim's sister and brother-in-law in their brand new home in Maryland.  Jim's parents were also there so they got to share our kids for one entire week.  Ha!  Anyhow, they live in an incredible area.  So much history is just right there!  We only saw a teeny, tiny percentage and we got to see a lot.  Such fun!  Now we can't wait to go back and explore more and more.  And more.  And again.

The next week, I got to take the kids (BY MYSELF!!!) to Orlando to visit with my family.  Also, much fun was had.  Do you see what I mean about American?  How can you get more American than the DC area and Disney World?  I'm just sayin'.

So.  I will try to get a lot of what we did on here in pics.  They might not seem too exciting to you, but we had a blast, the kids (namely Henry) had a blast and being with family is always a treat.

Our first adventure:

The Naval Academy at Annapolis

The Naval Academy Chapel

There were lots of really cool statues.  Here is one:

Henry enjoyed the space stuff.  Jim enjoyed rear-end shots.  Thanks, babe!

I had no idea there were so many different types of naval uniforms.

Gorgeous, cold, gorgeous day!

Did I mention it was chilly?

The Naval Academy Ram

So many incredible things to read

So many cannons to sit on...

Lots and lots of miniature ships to see!  Many of the ships were made out of bone by prisoners of war and were amazing.

To be continued...

I'm sensing a trend here...

Once again, the dream of that "Perfect Christmas Picture" was foiled.  You know - the one son who smiles on command and yells "CHEEEEESE" anytime he sees anything slightly resembling a camera - WILL. NOT. SMILE.

So, because I am incredibly easy-going and have a super sense of humor about such things, this was the picture on our Christmas cards this year:

Because what says Merry Christmas more than brothers strangling each other??

Did I mention that I printed these the week of Christmas and somehow managed to get most of them out a few days before the big day?  If I forgot you, please forgive me.  My brain can only handle so much these days.  Especially when it has been exhausted by the efforts put forth for these next charming photographs.

  Please enjoy the Marr Christmas Cards that Weren't 2010!

This is about when we let Wyatt have a blankie break:

 

Trying something else...

So that's a no, then.

I have approximately 10 blog posts to catch up on, so here's to a great first blogging month of 2011! 
Happy New Year!