Southern Charm in Maryland.

Henry woke up the day after Valentine's Day with a severe stomachache.  I blame it partly on his eating too much candy the day before and partly on the excitement that his friends were coming!  He got a morning off of school, but by 11am, I could tell he was feeling better and I shipped him out with the promise that no one was going to get here before he got home from school.

 And did they ever arrive!  Miss Kerri and Miss Juliet were brave enough to pack 4 boys between the ages of 3 and 6 into a car and make the 10 hour drive up.  Were they ever glad to see each other!  When they called to tell us they were getting close, we ran down to the front steps and waiting for them to come.  I wish I'd had a camera to record the yelling, screaming, and embracing when they pulled up.  If you need a refresher, from the bottom left, there's Christopher, James, Andy, Brandon, Henry, John, June, and JoJo.  The gang is back together.

 The boys wanted a full DC experience.  Too bad it wasn't 50 degrees and sunny like Friday.  We forgot how gentile our southern friends are and I think we almost froze them to death dragging them out on the mall on a mid 30s day.  

 John and James had 5 major sites they had to see.  The Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, White House and Capitol.  We managed to knock them all out.  

 The weather was pretty crummy all weekend, which was too bad, because I really think the kids would have just preferred an open field to run around in.

 That includes the biggest kid in the group- Brandon.

 The big boys were all running ahead so we played a fun game in the World War II Memorial- Find the State.  Here's South Carolina.  I hope it wasn't too disrespectful, but there weren't many people there.  

 The boys wanted to walk right by the reflecting pool.  Which, at this time of year, is a TERRIBLE idea.  I've never seen so many geese in my life.  And with geese come the less savory aspects of their existence- tons of poop.  I never knew how long a walk it was down the pool.  Henry declared that the geese were incredibly disrespectful not only to tourists, but to President Lincoln himself.

 Finally, we made it to the Lincoln Memorial.  The boys charged up while waited down with the stroller.  By the way, Miss Juliet, awesome job on the orange coats.  There's no losing those kids.

 Georgie threw a fit once she spotted the boys because she wanted to be up top with the boys.  But she wouldn't climb the stairs to get to them, so Henry ran down to help her up.  

 What a great big brother.  And what a tantrum-prone little girl.  I'm hoping it's the age and not the fact that we've spoiled her into a complete brat.  We've been trying to put our foot down on her tantrums lately.  But she has learned a thing or two from June and is stubborn and loud.

 And down comes the rest of the crew.  Once we made it to the Lincoln Memorial, the boys declared they had enough of the cold weather and wanted to go inside.  Sorry guys, it's a long walk back to the Smithsonians from the Lincoln Memorial.

 But they were troopers and held out.  We stuffed the little ones in strollers with their blankies (really the only way to travel with Jo).  Finally, we made it to the Post Office Tower for lunch and stuffed the kids full of pizza, peanut butter and granola bars.  The best part was that we were cleaning up our tables, a family approached us and asked if they could have them when we were done.  We looked up and it was the boys' friend Anna S. from preschool!  She was up in DC for the weekend with her family!  Small world.  

 After lunch and a short side trip where I made the older boys climb all the stairs up to the top of the Post Office Tower, we all met up at the Natural History Museum, where I made a promise to myself.  I will never visit the Natural History Museum on a Saturday again.  What a mad house.  We split up into groups of no larger than 4 and tried to see a few things.  June insisted on seeing the Ocean exhibits.

They only had a few fish tanks, but it makes me think it June would be at a fun age to go to a real aquarium.  (Put it on your list, Grandma and Grandpa.)

 If you weren't in a small group exploring the museum, you were at the meeting point guarding strollers and various sleeping children.  

Or being goofy and demanding that your picture be taken.

We sent papa off after the van, so we wouldn't have to walk all the way back and the older boys hatched a plan to take the metro home.  I volunteered and we made our way slowly across the mall to the metro stop.  

 Henry took really pride on his local knowledge.  I'm sure he's reassuring John and saying something like "Just stay by me.  I'm a metro pro.  I know just how to get us home."   

 We stopped to gawk at the carousel, but thankfully I didn't have any cash and could be talked into buying the $4 tickets.

 When we got on the train, James instantly forgot his previous woes and declared that this was the best trip ever.

 Even better- we had to make a transfer, then rode the bus home from the metro station.  The boys were pumped.  

On Sunday, we visited the big Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum.  I forgot my camera, but just know the kids favorite part was the open corner where they just ran around like crazy people.  Like I said, all we really needed was a field.  

  The moms took a night out without kids (thanks papa) and the kids had been systematically denied ice cream at a Ben and Jerry's and McDonald's, so we stopped and picked up some cones for them.

 Christopher is 3 now and is no longer afraid of Brandon or his beard.  We realized that Jo and Christopher will be in kindergarten together in a few years.  Hopefully by the time they're 5, it won't seem like such a big age gap, but at 2, 9 months is a world apart.

It was pretty chaotic (and we weren't even the ones who had to spend 20 hours in a car), but I think all the kids were happy to see each other.  Only 5 more month til we're back in Clemson!