{Museum fun}

As I mentioned yesterday, we also went to two museums when we went to the DC area for our all things boy weekend. I'll tell ya, the museums in our nation's capitol are amazing. Since my sister does live there, I've had the opportunity to go to quite a few---and many of them more than once. None were better than the two we visited on this trip. We first went to the National Air & Space Museum Annex near Dulles airport. WOW----it's HUGE! And it has SO much cool stuff. The museum is free---most of them in the area are---but this one has a $15 parking fee. My cool Dave Ramseyfied friend found out that if you go after 4pm, the parking is free! So after we went to the Brick Fair we headed to the museum and walked in at 4:05 for nothing!

This plane was enormous--of course, the boys recognized it and called it by name---this is the SR-71, but you knew that, right? 

Isn't that amazing? And yes, those are REAL PLANES hanging from the ceiling--not models! Here are a few more  pictures of things this museum has--

ummmm, yeah, Apollo Command module---very cool

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? THEEEEEEEEE Enola Gay--

what a great history lesson---and the boys didn't even know they were learning!

What the boys enjoyed most was this flight simulator---they were practicing here to go into the simulator and fight the enemy! They turned themselves upside down over and over once they were in there---they SO enjoyed it! TOTALLY worth the money!

This is what they looked like right after the ride!

SOOOOOO fun!

On Sunday we headed to the National US Marine Corps museum---best.museum.ever.....it truly is the best museum I've been to in years. We ended up staying there for HOURS--

I had admired this building from I-95 for years and never knew what it was--it's reminescent of the flag raisers at Iwo Jima.

Justin & Joshua in front of Iron Mike

Some of the exhibits we saw while we were there--the entire history of the Corp is in the museum organized through the conflicts and wars they have served in---really fascinating.

The boys were able to go into the shooting range and fire an M-4 they had made into laser guns---

Then they were given a print out of their shots---Joshua was labeled "Marksman"--he was excited about that!

In the Making Marines exhibit, there was a backpack that was the weight that marines have to wear/carry/run in---it's on the floor when you enter and you are encouraged to put it on and try to stand with it---it's REALLY heavy--- The boys were glad just to get it off the floor and on their backs!

This collage shows different "costumes" you can don when you enter to see what the marines wore over the years in existence.

Before we left we went to the bookstore--the boys found some fun items and I had to take their picture in front of this amazing Lego display---it's the Iwo Jima monument in legos---WOW! We'd come full circle----legos legos legos~

 And here we are on the way home--decked out in Marine shirts and dogtags!

What an amazing weekend! Thanks so much to Susan and Justin for inviting us to be part of this fabulous birthday adventure! It was awesome!