Top of the Monument

Two months ago, when I got tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument, I had no idea that hundreds of thousands of other people would be there too. Everywhere you looked people just kept coming. Politics aside, it was a sea of people decked out in the red, white and blue, and we were right there in the middle of them. It certainly made for an interesting morning with better than average people-watching. We even got to hear "mama-grizzly" herself . . . all of which was lost on Finn because he was concentrating on getting to the top of the monument. The park ranger gave some pretty interesting factoids about the monument itself, or so I was told . . . none of which I heard because I was too busy trying to explain to Finn why he had to wait his turn. I mean, all of his tv shows are "on demand" why can't life be on demand too??

After much waiting around, we finally made it and were awarded with some pretty amazing views!

Lincoln Memorial from the ground

Lincoln Memorial from the sky

(those are people, not ants!)

Finn can party with the best of the tea-partiers

(showing his South Carolina pride)

Big and bigger

We had perfect weather, clear blue skies

Finn just can't keep his eyes off of it

White House in the foreground

National Mall leading to the capitol

The US Capitol with RFK stadium in the background

Monkeying around

Making our way down

(only 2 flights of stairs, and one long elevator ride)

Big visits DC

Big claimed he wanted to drive Lily all the way to DC in order to save us the trip, but we know the real truth. He just wanted some time with the Finnster. And we were happy to give it to him. Not only did he bring Lily, but presents for Finn, in the form of a garbage truck, a massive (personalized) dump truck and a tool box, filled with all kinds of goodies, including a miner's headlamp, which is a flashlight that you wear on your head, a must-have accessory. Finn wore it for two days straight, even to dinner . . . around his neck. I will get pictures and post because words don't do this image justice.

Big hadn't been to DC in a while, so we showed him the sights. Day one we hit the mall, the capitol, a farmer's market, Natural History Museum and American History Museum. We ended the day with dinner at Finn's favorite spot, Tackle Box, and a trip to the playground.

Day two, was a visit to the TOP of the Washington Monument and rallying with the tea party, what?? Stay tuned.

Who knew there was a corn field in the middle of DC?

USDA Farmer's Market

With lots of fresh fruits and veggies around, what did we end up with?

KETTLE CORN!

A slight detour: the carousel

Finn talked Big into riding the teacups . . . sucker!

Big and Finn (and kettle corn) at the capitol

Big and Finn (and kettle corn) in front of Washington Monument

Big and Finn . . . and kettle corn

Getting in touch with their "artsy" side

Sculpture Gardens, National Gallery of Art

Lily's Home!

As many of you know, our beloved Lily has been "vacationing" with my parents in Piedmont for the past year. It was so hard to leave her, but I knew she would enjoy some time spent in the great outdoors, swimming, fishing, riding in the jeep, and cavorting with Peyton and Scuba. I think she spent 99.9% of her time in the water. Big and Baa took such good care of her that I don't think she missed me at all. But, when my parents decided to move to Baton Rouge, Lily's "vacation" came to an end.

Big graciously volunteered to drive Lily up to DC and we couldn't wait to see them both. We missed Lily and are happy that she is home, just in time to celebrate her 9th birthday in a few weeks.

Finn agreed to let "faux" Lily go back with Big, in exchange for real Lily

But when the time came, he couldn't go through with it and now BOTH Lily's live with us

We welcomed Lily home in style

Best buddies

Lily said she would post some "vacation" pictures soon!

Myrtle Beach

That's right, why go all the way to the Bahamas, when there's Myrtle Beach right here on the east coast! In all honestly, the 24 hours after discovering that my passport had expired were pretty tense around the Lyles house until we came up with plan B. I was mainly disappointed for Finn. We had been talking about the Bahamas for nearly two months, so I hated breaking the news to him. I should have know that to a toddler, a beach is a beach, is a beach, is a beach. We only missed one day of our vacation and were able to rebook flights and a nice little condo at Kingston Plantation, where Mark used to vacation as a kid. Hilton was so understanding and didn't charge us for canceling our reservation on such short notice.

The best part about the entire trip was when we emerged from the plane in Myrtle Beach. It had started to rain and as I carried Finn across the tarmac into the airport, he looked around and said, "oohh, Mama, I like the Bahamas!"

We ended up having a great time and by the end of the trip were able to laugh about the whole thing. Still laughing about our "Bahama vacation" now. Ask Finn about the "Bahamas" and he said it was "great." Mimi and Bop came down and spent the weekend and took Finn on a special date. We had plenty of good beach days and spent lots of time at the water park. We ended the week with some putt-putt golf and a trip to the carnival, which I could have done without on account of the motion sickness.

A good time was had by all.

Mimi and Bop pay us a special visit

Hmmm, what happens when I pull this string?

Oh

Digging in the sand

Running head first into the ocean

Whoopsie

Having so much fun

Where did Finn go?

Golf lessons from Dad

Hole in Two

Taking a spin on the carousel

Someone looks happy and someone not so much

Guess who didn't enjoy the "crazy caterpillar"

Captain Finn

Yay Bahamas/Myrtle Beach

Here are a few more pictures:

Myrtle Beach August 2010