Miller Vacation to DC

This year the Miller's decided to head to Washington, D.C. for a family vacation. It was a short drive for Jer, Emily, Maddie, and Aidan from Virginia. Kandy, Amanda, and Corinne decided to fly from St. Louis. We, however, decided to do what we do best - road trip. We left at about 4:00ish from St. Jospeh. Notice Finn is in his pajamas in the pic below. The plan was to get through a few hours while Finn was awake and then get a few more in as he slept in the car. Of course, he decided not to sleep at all in the car. He stayed awake until well after 11 when we finally stopped somewhere on the east side of Ohio. I had bought a bag full of fairly cheap toys that I kept hidden from Finn and slowly pulled them out as he got restless. Of course, I had to make these toys last the entire way to DC and home again so at times I improvised. At some point I let him play with our camera, which he's done a million times, but this time - he broke it. So all I have are pics from my phone of our trip until I download the pics Amanda sent me.

Off we go. Only 12 some hours to go...

The first night we had dinner and then headed for the pool. Finn was a little leary at first and just watched his cousins from the perimeter of the pool.

Finally, he decided to join dad.

Swimming with the cousins.

Day #2 we were headed to the zoo. I believe this is Finn's first subway ride.

We made it to The National Zoo. It was HOT and we walked a TON (which was true for every day of this vacation). It was a great zoo and Finn was pretty interested in most of the animals.

He was pooped at the end of the day and fell asleep as we headed back to the hotel.

Day #3 we headed out to see the monuments and spend time at the Natural History Museum. There's the capitol in the background.

180 turn and there's the Washington Monument in the background.

So, here we are at the Natural History Museum. There are huge dinosaur fossils everywhere. Just to the left of this little wall that juts out is a mastadon. And here is Finn fascinated with the EXIT sign. He sat and looked at this longer than anything else. He then started pointing them out throughout the rest of the museum.

After a picnic lunch on the Mall, we headed off to see more memorials. Here we are at the WWII monument. We also walked through the Vietnam War Memorial. I didn't take any pictures there because it seemed to be much more somber and solemn.

And there's the Lincoln Memorial.

Finn's first cab ride. I have no idea if this is legal. I know it's not safe, but there was no way I was going to make it back to the hotel on foot so we decided to get a cab back. Finn loved it. He must have felt so free. I on the other hand was worried about the strap strangling him if we got into an accident.

Of course, we can't go on vacation without heading to a baseball game. We spent Father's Day at the Nationals game. They were playing the White Sox. It was the hottest day yet and we had great seats - that were also right in the sun.

The ushers at the stadium were so nice. I took Finn to the top of the section to stand in the shade and the usher told me to feel free to sit in any empty seat in the shade. We ended sitting up there most of the game. Here are my favorite boys singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Getting ready for our last dinner in DC. He's so proud of how cute he is!