The Young and the Restless

Mt. Vernon

268. That's how many pictures I have from our trip.  And what a trip it was.  We left Maddox in the capable hands of my little sister, Julene (he had so much fun with her that he didn't even have time to miss us) and took Kylie and Jayden to Washington DC and New York for spring break.  We were gone 7 days, visited 6 different states and walked more miles in one week than I have in the past month.  We missed our NaNa and I felt guilty for leaving him when he came down with pnemonia the day before we left, but there is no way we could have done this trip with a 2 year old in tow (arriving in Baltimore at 1:30 AM after a long flight and a long day confirmed this).  It was also so nice just being able to spend time with the older kids, Maddox requires so much of our attention so it was good for us to be able to spoil Kylie and Jayden with our attention for a change.  The next day we slept in then went to Mt. Vernon, Virginia, the home of George Washington.  Not only was it fascinating, but it was so huge, like a mini village and so gorgeous.  So peaceful and so serene.

Kylie was very preoccupied with the slave house.  We had some interesting and good conversations with the kids about slavery.  They've learned a little bit about it in school, but to be there and get some real insight into what kind of lives they lived was really eye opening to them.  Jayden is also preoccupied with African American people in general.  I had to give him a little prep talk before we left on our trip to let him know that there will be a lot of black people on the east coast and that he shouldn't stare or point at them.  I don't know if that was a very good idea since every time he saw a black person he would whisper to me things like, "mom, I didn't point or stare, but that guy is REALLY black".

We all know George Washington was a fearless General and amazing President, but I had no idea he was such a successful farmer and business man too. Georgio was quite a multi tasker, who knew.

The grave of George and Martha.  Pretty cool to be only feet away from the body of the first president of the U.S., kinda creepy too.

The family crypt. Ewww.  Not sure why they were so determined to try and break in.

I didn't realize Jayden had such an obsession for maps until this trip.  I can't even count how many times he ran into glass doors, people, golf carts, posts and walls because he was too preoccupied reading his map.

Kylie wanted to leave her mark with a cartwheel every where we went.  From Mt. Vernon to the monuments, to the statue of liberty and everywhere in between.  I drew the line at the subways though, her hands were not getting anywhere near those nasty floors.

I'm going to bore you with more facts: the house looks like it is made of stone, but really it is just wood that is cut to look like stone then they mixed sand in with the paint.  The pioneer of the faux finish.  Photography wasn't allowed in the house, but it was beautiful inside and filled with cool artifacts, even the bed that he died on (once again, equally cool and creepy).  They had a museum filled with more cool stuff also, like his dentures, sword, uniform and part of the famous cherry tree trunk.  I never considered myself a history buff, but after visiting this place it made me want to go home and research everything I could about the revolutionary war and George Washington (like did you know he didn't have any kids? Martha was married before and had children but they never had kids together, so he doesn't have any real descendants).  I'm such a nerd.

The burly, hairy chested man wasn't too interesting to look at, but the kids were fascinated with how they made nails back then.  Jayden is begging me to let him try it at home.

No wonder George retired here. I think I could too.