The Holidays in Downtown D.C.

Some of you may know this about me, but others of you don't, so I will tell you I LOVE planning trips/ vacations. I get super excited about planning the "perfect" (LOL, it rarely/never happens, but I keep trying) trip for my family to enjoy!

I had super ambitious plans for our family's time with Leigha while she was visiting.  I had dreams of us going to at least three amazing destinations for day-trips: Hersheyworld, PA, Annapolis, Baltimore, and/or D.C.  Yes, I realize, I am nearly insane, but my family was spared from enduring my ambitious itinerary, because I was feeling under the weather nearly the entire time my little sis was visiting.  

It was a still a great week, it consisted of us going to SAM's for grocery shopping and lunch, game night with the Pull's (that was super awesome, we had Trisha's delicious home-made pizza), Montgomery Mall for Family Fun Day with Chick-Fil-A, and Cheeburger Cheeburger for dinner one night. Overall, it was a "lower-key" week but my sis enjoyed it and was just happy to be with us!

Also, I am happy to say, the day finally came for one of my many day-trip "dreams" to come to fruition on Friday, the eve of New Year's Eve!  Brad took off a day of work and we travelled down to D.C. on the Metro for a day of adventures.  

All the girls outside the entrance to the US Botanical Gardens.

As you can see from Leigha's tongue sticking out, she could hardly contain her excitement! 

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A beautiful photo of Jillian with her Aunt Leigha in our nation's capital.

A Holmes family photo inside the gardens before seeing the "seasonal decorations"!

"During the holiday season, the U.S. Botanic Garden presents "Season’s Greenings", a unique exhibit featuring model trains and incredible replicas of Washington, DC's most famous buildings and monuments.... The exhibit is truly amazing with all of the buildings made of real plant materials! Adults and children will be fascinated by this special Christmas-time treat in the nation's capital."

Anna and Daddy enjoying the trains around the Christmas tree! 

Brad and I with the plant made Capital Building.

Leigha with the Smithsonian castle

"The dome of the replica of the Jefferson Memorial is made from a dried gourd."

"If you look inside the Lincoln Memorial, you'll even see a statue of Abraham Lincoln."

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The "Season’s Greenings" Christmas display at the U.S. Botanic Garden was expanded for 2009 to include an amazing replica of the White House highlighting the Obama children's swing set and Michelle Obama's Garden."

All six of us enjoyed the gardens immensely, and we hope some year to get to see all the trains on exhibit. So we'll definitely be back!

Then, we went to the Modern Art Museum, the Hirshhorn.

This oil paint on canvas is entitled "Landscape with Poodle" (1955-56) by Jean Dubuffet.  Do you see it?  This one was actually one of my more favorites. :-)

(Somehow, whenever my sister Leigha is visiting, it seems that we end up going to a modern art museum. While Brad, Jillian, and I were living in Cambridge, Leigha came for a visit over the holidays.  One of her days with us, Leigha and I spent a day/night in London just the two of us, and we saw the Tate Modern.

Our favorite "art" at the Tate was the white room with crumbled pieces of white paper with black writing on it glued to the wall.  It was INTENSE ; especially because only four to five people were able to view "the art" at a time and there was a guard assigned to the room.  :-) I am not serious about it being "intense", BUT it was a memorable experience to share with my little sister.) 

After the Hirshhorn, we made our way to the Smithsonian Castle, the first museum in the Smithsonian complex. Leigha had read on-line about it's architecture and wanted to experience it for herself.  There wasn't much to be seen inside but as to be expected it was a beautiful "castle".

"The Castle" History According to Wiki

"The Castle was the first Smithsonian building, begun in 1847 by architect James Renwick, Jr., whose other works include St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, also in Washington D.C. Renwick was selected by a unanimous vote following a design competition in 1846. A cardboard model of Renwick's successful design survives. Renwick was assisted by Robert Mills, particularly in the internal arrangement of the building.

Initially intended to be built in white marble, then in yellow sandstone, the architect and committee finally settled on red Seneca sandstone from the vicinity of Seneca Creek in Montgomery County, Maryland. The sandstone was substantially less expensive than granite or marble, and while initially easy to work, was found to harden to a satisfactory degree on exposure to the elements. The East Wing was completed in 1849 and occupied by Secretary Joseph Henryand his family. The West Wing was completed later the same year. A structural collapse of partly completed work in 1850 raised questions of workmanship and resulted in a change to fireproof construction. The exterior was completed in 1851. By 1852 Renwick's work was completed and he withdrew from further participation. Gilbert Cameron took over responsibility for interior work, and all work was finally completed in 1855. "

After the castle, we briefly visited the The National Museum of African Museum of Art while Brad ran back to the Botanical Gardens to pick up the van and save the little ones the long walk! 

We had nearly perfect timing with Daddy, and the girls were happily greeted with Christmas tree peeps!

Yummy!

While we were driving up from DC, we stopped at the National Zoo for their Christmas Lights.  We lucked out and got an awesome parking spot about 10 minutes to sundown.

Jillian was so excited, that she grabbed her Santa Hat from the car and wore it.  We got the hat during the Washingtonian Rio 2011 Christmas Tree Lighting Event earlier in the month.  While there, each girl got to paint a Christmas Tree Ornament.  :-)

Because I didn't blog about this earlier, and I want to capture this memory, here are the ornaments.  From left to right, the artists are: Jillian, Faith and Anna (with help from Mommy).

The lights were fantastic, the weather was beautiful, and it was the perfect night to enjoy Zoolights as a family!

The stars hanging from the trees were beautiful.

Here they had a small light show timed with music.  

We discovered most of our animal friends in the indoor exhibits...here was a gorilla enjoying eating some grass!

We walked all the way from the back entrance to the front entrance of the zoo!!! 

It was an awesome day, but we were all started to get a little tired.  Here Leigha and Jillian are taking a little break after walking through the whole zoo on top of all the walking downtown.  

Meanwhile, Faith was enjoying the comforts of the stroller pushed by me (but a little later she traded with her big sis to give her a break too!). 

We only had one last thing on our agenda and that was to see a 'panda show'.  Jillian and Faith loved this bear who got in a over-sized snow-globe and danced to music.  Mommy and Daddy were a little less entertained but enjoyed a good laugh!  :-)

We had a great time at the zoo and enjoyed our special, day-trip downtown with Aunt Leigha.