Nathan's big trip

As soon as the Abbotts drove away in their moving truck this summer, Nathan has talked about going to see them in their new house in Virginia. So just before Thanksgiving, Nathan and I made the trip to see them. He has missed his friend Andrew so much and as soon as we arrived, it was like they had never been apart.
We had to do some sightseeing while we were there. On the day after we arrived, we made our big outing to DC. We started off for our tour of the Washington Monument. It was so cold and windy waiting in line that the kids (and ladies) huddled out of the wind next to the building while Ed waited in line. We took the elevator ride up to the top and enjoyed great views of the city.
After that, we made the short (but cold) trek to the Smithsonian museums of American History and Natural History. It was the grand re-opening of the American History museum so there was special entertainment. The boys were especially excited to see the setup from R2D2 builders club - a bunch of grown men who, just for fun, build full scale working models of droids. Other highlights were the hands-on invention exhibit, the mammal exhibit, the dinosaurs, and the bug zoo.

The next day, we let the boys play all morning, and then went for a drive through the countryside and an afternoon hike at the Red Rock Wilderness Overlook Park that has great hiking trails overlooking the Potomac. We brought along a few letterboxing clues and after much searching Ed finally found one.

On our last day, we headed to the Air & Space Museum next to the Dulles Airport. The place is huge with a Space Shuttle and more planes than you can count.

Nathan says this is the saddest picture because it is just before we said goodbye to Andrew.This was Nathan's first plane ride ever, when asked what he thought about it, he gave it a big "Thumbs up!"