You can't see them in this picture, they're just too tiny...
But if you stand still and hold out a finger they'll land on your finger tip and blink...
In that magical spot on the banks of the Potomac my kids saw fireflies for the first time.
Silly I know, but we don't have fireflies in Utah. Josh wanted to take one home as a pet, but thought better of it in the end.
We stayed another hour just playing with the lightning bugs...
On our first day in Washington DC we walked and walked and walked from one monument to the next. We saw FDR Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Korean War Veterans Memorial
And the Washington Monument
All of which were incredible.
I learned so much in just the few short hours we were there that night. I felt proud to live in such a cool country and grateful to the founding fathers for sticking to the nearly impossible task of insisting on a sovereign country. And certainly grateful to the men and women that served in the military and fought in wars to protect the country that our founding fathers worked so hard to secure.
It was just so cool to be there.
After our trekking, admiring, and just being together we headed back to the car
where something magical happened...
in this little grove of trees on the banks of the Potomac River...
I'm going to keep you guessing... till tomorrow
Man have we got stories to tell...
I do suppose that is the point of family vacations and especially road trips, to make stories to tell for years to come.
Stories like... "Do you remember when we left Suzie at the gas station in Wahoo, Nebraska? And we didn't even notice she was missing for 3 hours, that was a hoot!"
Of course I am not famous for my telling of such stories, I am famous for my inability to remember what the heck happened 5 minutes ago. I know my older brother remembers more of my life than I do... but I am also certain most of it is either fabricated, embellished, or at minimum exaggerated. Usually his recollections of my childhood don't even ring a bell.
But I digress...
We made a multitude of great memories on this East Coast Odyssey ... but just one that I think will stand the test of time of Milne Family Road Trip History.
One little cutie pie baby turned one year old on this crazy adventure. Really it hadn't occurred to me that we wouldn't be back for his birthday... we'd only planned to be gone for two weeks, tops. Somehow we managed to turn it into a 3 week affair. So little Christopher got to have an impromptu party on the road...
In Walcott, Iowa...
In a truck stop...
Not just any truck stop mind you... America's Largest Truck Stop
(We did not see the 4" ratchet... thought Dairy Queen is relevant to the story)
Waiting out a tornado... yes people, a tornado. I grew up in Colorado and afternoon tornado warnings were a fairly regular thing. But I tell you what, Iowa has got Colorado beat. I have never in my life seen a storm like this before. (and for the record, if I never see one again that will be just fine.)
This was the front egde of it, as we were driving into it... on purpose. It looked like a tidal wave about to crash right over the great state of Iowa and wash us all the way back to Indiana (also a lovely state.)
It turned from day to night in 3 miles, from 85 degrees to 60 degrees in 3 minutes, and dry to "turn the faucet off" in 3 seconds. America's biggest truck stop was certainly our next stop. We raced the 20 feet from the car to the front entrance and still ended up looking like wet cats.
So, what I'm saying is, it was an intimidating experience.
It was the kind of thing that might have been considered an exciting adventure before I had kids. But now, with three babies in tow, I was scoping out the best place to hide should we hear what sounds like a freight train passing through the living room.
Thank goodness it never came to that. The sky boiled and rolled and dumped rain for a couple of hours until finally it seemed like the real danger had passed. So what did we do?
Well, we bought a couple of packs of Hostess Cupcakes, a candle from the Dairy Queen and had ourselves a little birthday party.
Now how many people can say they had there first birthday party, waiting out a tornado, in the U.S. of A's biggest truck stop?
Probably just one is what I'm thinking.
