DC Trip

Last week we took a short but very sweet to Washington DC to take Parker to the Wiggles concert.  We left Miss Audrey at home with my mom and sister so that we could put all of our focus on our sweet little man for a change.  We definitely missed her, though!  I knew she was in good hands, so I didn't worry about her at all.  

We left Monday morning and stopped at the outlets in Williamsburg to look at just a few stores.  When traveling with two boys, you can only stay for so long!  Then we hopped back in the car to continue toward DC.  We were SO fortunate that we did not get stuck in any major traffic.  Parker decided this leg of the trip would be a great time to nap...

Such a sweetheart. 

We stopped at Ryan's new favorite store, Wegmans, so that he could show me all the reasons he's in love with the place.  It's basically a grocery store, but it's huge and they have tons of different fresh-type departments.  I really did like it and wish we had one here.  I'm sure we will one day!  

We were having dinner with Chris and Molly at their house, so we drove from Wegman's to there and stayed for a couple of hours to have dinner and socialize.  Parker had a great time and enjoyed seeing them.  He loves them!  

Playing with Molly's Tiger hat.  He was so excited to ROAR his way through their whole apartment.  I'm sure their neighbors really appreciated that. We need to find some of these hats--apparently they're only $1!

Truthfully, he spent most of his time doing this.  Watching TV on their comfy couch made him happy.  He got to watch Curious George, which we have never watched before.  It worked out great! 

Once we finished our lovely dinner, we headed to the hotel to wind down and get to bed for the evening.  Parker was so funny because he said he didn't want to sleep in the hotel bed and wanted to go home to go to sleep.  We eventually lured him into the bed with the iPad.  Works every time! 

We finally went to sleep at about 9:30.  It wasn't my best night of sleep, but I'm used to that.  It was pretty sweet because Parker was snuggled up next to me all night.  I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy having him sleep with us every now and then.  It's very sweet and nice to have him there.  

When we woke up the next morning, we walked to a local crepe restaurant to have breakfast.  Ryan and I shared an egg, cheese and ham crepe and a fresh apple crepe, and Parker had about two bites of a Nutella and banana crepe.  They were SO GOOD and I wish there was a local place for us to enjoy these as a special breakfast every now and then.  

Parker and the ah-mazing crepe he didn't want to eat!  Haha.  

After breakfast, we walked to the closest Metro station so we could ride to the zoo.  The metro ride was not super exciting for Parker--he was in the stroller and couldn't really see anything.  

On the long escalator...going up!

We walked the uphill walk to the zoo but stopped at the Starbucks across the street for a cold treat--even though it was pretty cold outside.  

The zoo in DC was soooo much better than our zoo.  It's bigger, the landscaping is way more beautiful, and most importantly--it's FREE!  To me it's almost worth the drive since our local zoo is about $40 for our little family.  Parker did about half of it in the stroller and the rest on foot.  Most of the animals were actually "out", which was nice.  The only thing we didn't see were giraffes because they don't have them there.  Of course, he asked several times about when we would see the giraffes.  Distraction is often our best friend! 

I think he was checking out some ducks.  

My happy boy!

Flamingo watching. 

This was supporting a large walkway.  He said, "Look--a big X!"

My boys watching the elephants. 

We could have stayed at the zoo longer, but we had to leave at about noon so we could get back to the hotel for me to pump, us to have lunch, and then get to the concert by 2:30.  We had a delicious lunch at Five Guys and got to the concert about 15 minutes early.  

We didn't tell Parker about the Wiggles at all until we were inside and heard their music playing.  We figured any amount of time we gave him wouldn't mean anything (in terms of the concert being a week away of two days away or anything like that).  Also, we knew there was a chance he would throw a fit and say that he didn't want to go see them.  He changes his mind about stuff all the time.  

The best picture I could get with my boy!

A little dancing.  Seriously--very little.  I think he was just too tired and overwhelmed by the whole thing to really enjoy it.  He hardly sang at all, didn't really do many of the motions, and just looked super tired the whole time.  

Clearly, we need to discuss appropriate concert behavior.  

When we left the concert, we had to walk back to our hotel to get in the car and get going!  He fell asleep almost instantly and slept for a little over two hours.  

It was truly such a fun trip, and it felt so good to give Parker some individual attention again.  We were happy to get back to our house with Sissy and our own beds, though!  We're already looking forward to our next trip, whenever that may be.