DC 2016: Day 1 (Mount Vernon)

We spent the first half of spring break in our nation's capitol! Gene was there for work last week, so the boys and I joined him on Thursday afternoon for five days of exploring and sightseeing. 

I surprised the boys with new books in their backpacks, which they started reading as soon as we got to the airport.

We arrived in DC late in the afternoon on Thursday and didn't do anything but eat dinner at the hotel and collapse in bed.

Friday was a beautiful sunny day, so we moved things around on our itinerary and headed to Virginia to visit Mount Vernon. 

Henry and his class studied George Washington in depth last month, so we couldn't skip Washington's home. We rode the Metro to the end of the line in Alexandria, and then took an Uber to Mount Vernon.

Our boys are enthralled with spies, so we downloaded Mount Vernon's Agent 711 app to our phones. During the Revolutionary War, Washington was quite the spymaster, and Agent 711 was his code name in the Culper Spy Ring. The app took us on a Revolutionary spy adventure to decode messages and solve puzzles.

 

We toured the mansion and saw the bed where Washington died before exploring the grounds a bit.

 

By this point, we all needed lunch, so we grabbed a bite to eat at the food court before visiting the museum and education center. 

Washington had notoriously bad teeth, and by the time he became president, he had only one tooth remaining. This full set of dentures, made of ivory and led, is on display in the education center.

We also visited Washington's tomb,

and saw Washington's personal flag.

Our last stop was the slave memorial and burial ground. 

We had a phenomenal visit to Mount Vernon and all learned so much more about our founding father.

After returning to DC and spending some downtime in our hotel, we walked down to see the White House,

and then ended the day with a delicious dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill.

A Weekend Adventure: Cub Scout Campout at Lake Livingston State Park

We spent last weekend in the Piney Woods of East Texas with all our Cub Scout friends. It was a glorious weekend that was just perfect for camping.

We got to Lake Livingston State Park around 1pm and immediately sat down for lunch. After the opening flag ceremony and a few rounds of tug-of-war,

Gene and the boys got their fishing rods ready. 

And then we hiked down to the fishing pier!

 

Nothing was biting! We tried again Sunday morning with chicken livers, and Gene had lots of nibbles but didn't catch anything. It was beautiful and peaceful nevertheless.

Saturday ended with dinner and s'mores,

followed by the campfire program. Henry's den put on an original skit about a mummy that was cute and funny and fulfilled the last Wolf adventure. And since we always help retire old, worn-out flags at our campfire program, Will helped prepare one of the flags for retirement.  

This was the sunset from just beyond our campsite. 

What a beautiful place to spend a weekend!

Name That Book

One of Will's extracurricular activities this year is the Name That Book club, and it has been such a big part of our year so far that it deserves its own post! The club members read 30 books (the 20 Bluebonnet titles and 10 others), meet weekly to discuss the books, and then try out to make the team in December. In the spring, practices are twice a week for team members, and it culminates in competition at the end of February/early March. The six team members compete against other HISD schools and are given a quote from a book, and then have 45 seconds to discuss and "name that book!" It's a really fun program for kids who love to read, but it's a tremendous amount of work and takes a lot of dedication to read and reread those 30 books!

Will made the team for the second year in a row, and I have been incredibly lucky to work with our school librarian and another mom to help coach the team. These kids all love to read and it's so fun to work with a group of kids who talk about books constantly. 

Our preliminary competition was Wednesday morning. Last year, we didn't make it past the preliminaries, so our fingers were crossed this time around.

Ready to go!

Our team did a fantastic job and won the preliminary competition against four other schools.

After prelims, the kids enjoyed lunch on the library's courtyard.

And then it was off to finals on Friday!

There were ten schools in the finals; they had all won their preliminary competitions and these kiddos knew the 30 books inside out. Competition was intense! Our team was flawless through the first four rounds and then missed a couple of quotes in the very last round. They ended up coming in second (after a sudden death elimination) and we could not have been more proud of them. They worked SO hard!

The trophy will be added to the collection in the school library.

After competition, the kids and coaches celebrated with lunch out at Little Matt's. 

Winning second place was amazing, but what's even better is that the kids don't want the book club to end now that competition is over. Our librarian has decided to keep the club going and we'll start reading new books and discussing them after spring break. What a wonderful way to encourage a love of books and a community of readers! 

A Saturday Adventure: The Brazos Valley

Saturday was a gorgeous spring-like day in southeast Texas, so after a visit to the farmers market, we loaded up the car and headed out of town. Our first stop was Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site in Anderson. The inn, originally constructed by Henry Fanthrop as a single-room cabin in 1834, was located on a well-traveled highway at the crossroads of two mail routes. The inn did brisk business for over thirty years.  

Henry Fanthorp's branding iron

Fanthorp was appointed postmaster in 1835 and ran the post office from a small room at the side of the inn.

 The stagecoach brought travelers and mail to the inn.

Fanthorp Inn is only open on weekends, but we had a free guided tour led by a very knowledgeable park ranger. The tour was a treat and Fanthorp Inn is definitely worth a stop if you're in the Brazos Valley!

After lunch, we headed into College Station to visit the George Bush Library and Museum. The primary reason for our visit was to see The National Parks Photography Project exhibit, which is only on display there for a few more weeks. 2016 is the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service, and the exhibit combines two of my favorite things: photography and the great outdoors. 

The exhibit includes one iconic black and white photograph (by photographer Mark Burns) from each of our 59 national parks, as well as some works by early painters and photographers. The kids have (so far) only visited one national park (Mesa Verde) but they sure enjoyed finding that photograph and remembering the visit. We definitely need to plan more trips to our national parks with the boys. The photography is stunning and the exhibit is well worth checking out if you're in College Station before March 21! 

After viewing the photographs, we toured the rest of the presidential library, which was really well done with a lot for the kids to read, see and learn. It was less political than I would have guessed, and we all enjoyed our visit. 

The Secret Service

The UN

 

The CIA

Being president is tough!

A replica of the Oval Office

The Berlin Wall

The Gulf War 

Cut-outs, always! 

Will insisted on a serious face for Mount Rushmore

From starting the day in the 1830s to ending it with the Gulf War, I'd say our adventure covered quite a bit of history. As always, I'm so thankful for my intrepid family for indulging me in all my adventures!