Inauguration

The morning after we our beach day was President Obama's inauguration for his second term.  We decided since we lived in DC now we shouldn't miss the opportunity to go see it and take part!

Avery had to take Goofy with us on the Metro so he could see the ceremony too 

We had no problem getting down there, there were no delays of any kind!  Once there, we walked out to the National Mall where there was quite the party atmosphere!  Volunteers were everywhere giving directions and answering questions, and even giving high fives to everyone thanking them for coming.  We ended up on the Mall right behind the CNN and CBS booths!

We kept getting closer and closer, that silver haired guy is Anderson Cooper, he kept turning around and waving at us, neat!

Even the broadcasters were taking personal cell phone shots of the crowd:

They handed out flags, and Avery was very patriotic waving it strongly!

They also were handing out stickers and Avery said we needed to put them on our heads, he he

The crowd grew large and the Capitol building looked neat all decked out for the ceremony

View from 1 mile away:

They had gigantic screens up and down the Mall with giant speakers so you could see and hear exactly what was going on:

We met so many people from all over the place.  A nice lady (a teacher too), drove from Milwaukee just for this event was kind enough to take these nice family shots for us:

 After awhile, Avery looked over and saw the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and said "I don't want to see the President anymore, I want to see dinosaurs!"  What a smart kid.  We are very fortunate to have lots and lots of museums, many of them free.  The Natural History museum is one of our favorites.  Avery got to see all kinds of giant dinosaur skeletons and even called them out "triceratops!" "T rex!" "Brontosaurus!"

Then we went back outside to see the parade (which starts with the president going from the Capitol back to the White House, followed by bands and floats.  The line to get in was really backed up due to the Secret Service checkpoint, but Avery was a good sport waiting it out and enjoying the neat architecture around us

Eventually we realized the pace of the line moving forward would put us into the parade when it was halfway over.  (Guess you need to get to the that early!).  So we took the Metro home, and that's when we hit delays we didn't have on the way down.  The line just to get down into the Metro station was a 30-45 minutes long, but we made it eventually and watch the rest of the parade at home comfortably on the couch.

Snow! Sort of...

After a relatively mild and calm first half of winter, things have gotten wacky.  The same week we hit 70 degrees we also had our first snow "storm".  It was less than 1/2 inch but whitened things up a bit

Within the last 2 weeks span we've had 4 snowfalls of less than half an inch each, (which melt within hours) and two stretches of back-to-back days around 70 degrees.  Roller coaster weather after such a calm first half of winter!

Rehoboth Beach DE

During a warm weekend this winter we headed out the to beach for a nice full day trip.  Rehoboth Delaware is about 130 miles from our house and we covered the distance in about 2 hours and 5 minutes.  (Not bad, although in the summer during peak beach season we're guessing the traffic might make it a slower drive, we'll see during the summer when school's out!)

It was Avery's first time to Delaware too, another state!

Avery loved playing in the sand, barefoot, can you believe this is January??

She also "skiied" down the little sand slope, her shovels were her ski poles.  Nice tuck form!

Colleen went for one of her marathon training runs along the boardwalk and up into a State park with some nice trails nearby (more on that below)

After her run we saw more of the town by the beach which has some really cute stretches

We went to a bakery called Cake Break on the beach where Avery got to make (decorate actually) her own cupcake, with a little help from daddy so the pan didn't fill up with sprinkles!

And we had some coffee at a nearby cafe too (again, tank tops in January, can you believe what a nice weekend it was?)

Then we had some yummy fish tacos at a great restaurant called FINS and enjoyed some nice food and drink.

Notice all the Mickey characters?  Well the outlet mall there had a Disney store with a going out of business sale, so we stocked up so Avery is ready for our trip to Disney World in late February!

Then we went up to see the State park that Colleen found on her run.  It is called Cape Henlopen park and has some great crushed rock trails through the salt marshes and maritime forests

Avery checked out an interpretive sign about the ecology and wildlife

There is a lookout platform that looks out over one of the marshes towards the ocean.  Avery loved running up and down it and checking out the view from high up.

There are also big towers that were once lookout locations from WWII for spotting German U-boats that people can now climb.  They are over by the beach and we didn't get to them.  Next time maybe!

We only had hit a mile of the trail, but the map shows it going all the way up to the town of Lewes with maybe 10-20 miles of similar trails.  We are definitely going to keep it in mind for a future day trip and long run!

After that, we went just a few miles south to where the land resembles a mini-Outer Banks like NC.  There is a narrow strip of land with the beach on one side and the sound on the other side.  So one can watch the sun rise over the ocean, and 200 feet away see the sun set over the sound 12 hours later.  We sat and watched the sun set

Minnie Mouse enjoyed it too:

A great day and warm weather that started to cool quickly the next day for the inauguration!

National Aquarium and father-daughter day

Today Jim had the day off and Colleen worked (as a substitute teacher in a kindergarten class at a school near us).  Jim took Avery downtown to the National Aquarium.  On the Metro ride down Avery pretended to be like the commuters and read the paper on the train, she looked so sophisticated

And even struggled at the crossword section

At the aquarium she loved the alligators...we had to go to that exhibit about 3 or 4 times and spend lots of time just sitting watching them sit or swim around!  She especially loved the baby gators:

Of course she saw a little platform and made it into her stage and she sang the Baby Beluga song at the top of her lungs!

Then we walked out to the National Mall and Avery played near the base of the Washington Monument