Teacher Work Day

Friday was a teacher work day.  Oh, and so was Thursday.  And Wednesday was a half day.  Oh, and so was Tuesday.  And tomorrow we have no school.  When you add in the two snow days we've had and look at the forecast for this week, you should probably be asking yourself if the kids go to school at all in January.

No, no they don't.

But this did give us the opportunity to go somewhere in DC on Friday that I have been wanting to take the boys for a while but it isn't open on the weekends: The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  Or, in other words, the place where they make the MONEY.

It is a pretty high tech operation.  Which naturally meant that we weren't allowed to take any pictures.  The U.S. Government tends to get kind of antsy about that kind of stuff.  We did, however, spend some quality time in the gift shop (the boys still have Christmas money burning in their little pockets) and if you look carefully at the following pictures you can see Josh hugging holding his money (just printed on the outside skin) football that he bought.

After looking at the money, we headed west to see some of the monuments.  And after the harrowing drive into DC (okay, not really all that bad but I hate driving into DC and am positive that it ages me about 15 years every time I do it - which is not often), we had to make good use of a sunny winter day.

First up: Washington Monument (a.k.a. the giant pencil) which is still undergoing post-earthquake work.

Next:  The WWII memorial where the boys posed next to a sculpture of soldiers working on airplanes (like Grandpa Roberts did in WWII) and next to one of soldiers jumping out of an airplane (like Uncle Doug and Aunt Rachel did in the not too distant past).

My Virginia boys!

Then: The Korean War Memorial.

And finally:  Lincoln.  We totally forgot that Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. day and so were a little surprised at first to find the place packed and some school kids rehearsing.  I can only assume there is some sort of event going down on Monday, but in the mean time Michael took a minute behind the pulpit.

It was all very fun and driving wasn't as bad as I thought until I got off at our normal exit off of 66 and we spent 10 minutes just getting off the highway.  But the boys did beautifully.  I am more and more grateful all the time for them all being older and our ability to go do outings like this where everyone can walk and take care of themselves (mostly anyway - they still think of me as their sherpa).