Mt Vernon

Today we decided to go down to Mt Vernon. Neither Jesse nor I had ever been there, so we thought we ought to go. We got a bit of a later start than we wanted to, and Graham didn't nap on the way down like he should have, so that made things a little hairy at times, but all in all, it was a good trip.

We got down there at about 1, and went straight to the mansion. And by straight to the mansion, I mean straight to the line to get into the mansion. We waited in line for about an hour and a half, but the kids were allowed to run around a bit, and that helped. When we finally got up to the house, Graham was pretty much tired of the whole thing. We put him on the monkey leash, but he didn't like being held back from rushing up to touch all of the centuries old furniture. But we made it through. By the time we were done with the house, he just about lost it. So we went and ate lunch, and after that things were a little happier. The big mistake that we made was that we didn't bring the double jogger stroller. That would have made a world of difference. Instead we had Graham in the backpack carrier, and wow! He's heavy! I think he gained like 30 lbs from the time we got there to the time we left. It was probably all rocks in his pockets and shoes. :)

This is the back yard overlooking the Potomac River.
Anyway, we walked around the grounds for a while, and saw the tomb of Washington and his wife. We walked all the way down to the river, and looked out on the water for a bit. But Nate got really really tired. He was such a trooper, and I'm so proud of him for walking so much. As were were headed out, Graham tripped and fell. Not so unusual, it was probably the millionth time that day, but this time he started to bleed pretty bad, so we were right near a gift shop, so we stopped in and asked if they had any bandaids, and they did have a little first aid kit, so we got him bandaged up, but he was pretty sad. So we just went home. As Jesse went to get us some more water, Graham passed the time splashing in a puddle out front. It was probably his favorite part of the day. It was all fun and games until he fell down, and got really wet. Of course he didn't mind, but the I had to carry him back to the car. So by the end of the day, we were all exhausted, and of course, the kids ended up sleeping in the car on the way home. Here's hoping that they sleep in tomorrow morning.