Thanksgiving: part 3

The day after Thanksgiving was a BEAUTIFUL (albeit breezy) day, so we headed out to see the sights! And by "sights," I obviously mean the National Mall (not to be confused with a shopping mall) and all the classics (Washington monument, etc.). Brad drove the bulk of our crew in the van, and I took Claire and Aunt Sue via metro (partly because we wouldn't all fit in the van and partly because Aunt Sue had never ridden the metro before!).

We got out at Federal Triangle and had a really lovely walk to meet up with everyone.

Can't get over this tree.

Meeting up with the crew (Smithsonian castle in the background)

Then a little pivot and you get the Washington monument in the background

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I probably have upwards of 100 pictures of the Washington monument from over the course of our time in the District. It was just so striking every time I saw it. Which was often.

I believe this was the point at which Tim convinced Claire that the police would come nab them if they touched the monument. She believes that to this very day.

So, you can also see the White House from this side of the Washington monument, but I don't think I snapped any pictures of it. This is also the point in our trek where we burned through round one of snacks for the little people.

If you walk in a line from the Washington monument toward the Lincoln memorial, you come to the WW II memorial, which I really really love. It's designed so thoughtfully and has so much to look at and think about.

Memorial to the battles fought over the Atlantic.

And the opposite side commemorates the battles fought over the Pacific.

Our family of little women loves this quote.

Wall of stars representing lives lost

From the WW II memorial, you walk the length of the reflecting pool to get to the Lincoln memorial. It was really beautiful with all of the trees changing colors, although these pictures don't do them full justice.

Brynn is holding Barbara's hand here. So sweet.

When we got to the Lincoln memorial, we found someone to take a good group picture for us and then everyone sort of split up to wander around. Brad, Brynn, and I just sort of hung out by the reflecting pool because taking the stroller up is a whole thing, and Brynn was tired and cranky. Just wasn't worth it.

Just to the side of the Lincoln memorial is the Korean War memorial, so we took a little walk over to the side and briefly stopped to see it before heading back to the van/metro (everyone was getting a taddy bit hungry and some of the littles were a taddy bit tired.

On the way back home, we took Auntie Jenna on the metro, as she had also not visited DC before.

I really love the views coming out of our metro station.

These two are cute, too.

The day after Thanksgiving is the first day of Zoo Lights at the National Zoo, so after an afternoon of resting and snacking, we loaded up and headed to the Zoo! With, seemingly, the rest of the District, Maryland, and Virginia (the DMV, if you will). It was PACKED. And yet, still so fun.

There were "raining" lights above our heads, and Claire was mesmerized.

Took this one in honor of my Kiwi friend, Deb. The zoo was full of lit animal outlines like this kiwi bird, as well as 3D animals and "moving" scenes, like jumping tigers. We returned several times to see everything.

Not exactly Bei Bei, but this panda was a big hit anyway.

Our day was suuuuuper full. Tim and Jenna were fighting colds, we had eating and napping schedules for little people to keep in mind, and it was fairly blustery, but we squeezed as much as we could out of our day and now have super fun memories to look back on. I don't regret it for a second.

Still a little more Thanksgiving Weekend to come. Spoiler: Auburn beat Alabama, and it was a GREAT day!