Bassett's come to DC

I love that picture. Can't beat a four-year-olds curiosity.
We had to take Matt, Laura, and then their little family of four to the Smithsonian Zoo. I say this a lot, but I really think it has to be the best zoo in the world. I rarely feel bad for the animals, their life spaces just seem like such real habitats. Cost is free. Everything about it is just so great.
The giant pandas are definitely the highlight though. We were able to see all three of them, but watching this guy dig his breakfast pears out of a block of ice was the best part. In an earlier post you saw him eating the pear. I seriously love how well the Smithsonian researchers take care of these endangered animals. I've loved Panda bears since I was little and my grandma brought me home a panda bear Chinese style dress. I'm excited Max has fallen in love with them too now. He was such a trooper at the zoo. One down side to the animals extra large and real living spaces is that there is a lot of zoo walking. But it didn't stop him from wanting to swim when we got back to Lizzie's house. I think swimming with him and Ava was my favorite part of the whole trip.
I took my Dad, Matt, and Laura on the bike tour of the monuments. This year I was able to add the Pentagon 9/11 memorial to the stops. That was fun, I always love showing people DC.

The next morning I took Max to my neighborhood fire station while all the adults recouped from the long day before. He loved it, it was so fun to watch his scared little face staring at all the fireman tools. On the way home he kept telling me that was "the awesomest!" But still not as awesome as the Zoo. Oh, and of course he brought his Tai Panda on the station tour with him. Sadly, no pictures of it, actually good thing since I was in my serang and a tri-T-shirt with no bra.
We had to go to the Dinosaur museum. The kids loved it. Ava's favorite part of the Natural history museum (free as well) was the replica of a giant whale. She loved it. Matt and I loved that when she saw a replica shark she squirmed "Uh shark, Ava run for her life." Quoting Grandma from watching Little Mermaid earlier that morning.
Max of course loved the Grizzly and Polar Bears. I'm just sad that picture couldn't come out better. I had to play with the shadows and colors to make it even that visible.The smithsonian really has so much for kids of all ages. There was even this movie all about evolution that Max loved. I loved that he couldn't fully understand it, I buy evolution to an extent. But God is the great scientest.
So some how Matt and I were tricked into taking the kids to the kid friendly museums (Natural History and Air and Space) while Dad and Laura toured the Holocaust Museum. They made us all want to go to that one, well maybe not the kids, but all the adults. Mom napped and shopped and Ben was at work. So it really was just me and Matt with the kids all day. It was a blast, especially for me, but Matt told Max they were going to have to get even with Laura. It was pretty funny.

Oh, and DC isn't DC in the summertime if the day doesn't start out sunny and hot and turn into big old rainstorms. I should have known, did my training in Malaysia teach me nothing? Well, between our two museum stops with the kids we got caught in about three big rain storms. I think Max and Ava loved running in the rain with Dad and Aunt Lizzie more than the museums themselves. We did pretty good to wait it out under trees along the mall without getting too soaked.