We took our annual-ish trip to Washington DC to see the girls’ aunt Cindy and uncle Tim.  First a few photos…

And a few highlights…

• After meeting Tim & Cindy for dinner on the first night, once we were back in our rental car, Molly asked, “Who were those people?”
• We visited the Spy Museum, which was very cool.  Claire was a little freaked out that spies are real and kept asking if they are good guys or bad guys.  The answer: both, but even bad ones leave kids and normal people alone.  Molly liked to push whatever buttons she could find, climb stuff, and watch the James Bond video over and over.
• Molly was wondering why we sold our car at the Austin airpot, bought a new one at the DC airport, then bought our old one back when we cam back to Austin.
• We also got to see the Lincoln Memorial, which was Claire’s first choice of sights to see in DC.  She had learned a lot about Lincoln in school and also from talking about history with me and Kit.  Plus, and perhaps most importantly, the Lincoln statue was a featured hero in the movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
• We also walked by the White House, but the girls were too hot and tired to enjoy it or even really notice it.
• Over the course of the 2-day, 3-night trip, we also saw our friend Andrea in Silver Spring, Tim’s and Cindy’s friends near Mt. Vernon, and met our other friends at a Whole Foods in DC.
• We saw the official National Mall fireworks out the car window as we drove home from Mt. Vernon.  What could be more American?
• At one point, Claire was in tears asking us to slow things down, as she was getting tired of “freaking around”.
• Molly was wondering if it was “still America” when we got back to Austin.  It did seem like a lot of trouble to go on that airplane for a long flight and still be in the same country, I guess.  We would later decypher the “still America” thing meant the 4th of July holiday.
• The day after we got home, the girls were tired and grumpy, but at least they saved it for after the trip.