Lincoln, Spies and Turkey Oh My!

We got a fantastic treat for Thanksgiving,

 as my Mom, Dad, little sister and nephew came to visit us here in D.C.!

We had a jam packed week, and had oh so much fun. We purposely waited to go see many of the "sites" again since being back here until they came. That way we didn't get too burned out on being tourists! There were several things that we had never seen yet, even living here last time. It was fun to have something new and different to do for everyone. This time top on our list was to finally go to Ford's Theater, and the Petersen House across the street where Lincoln died. We decided to get a babysitter for this for Ronan and Miles, since it was much more of a guided tour /ranger talk type thing. I'm so glad we did, as it was fantastic and Porter is finally at the age where he is really starting to enjoy learning about history. (The special "kids" audio tour that he got to listen to, didn't hurt either)

Here is the crew sitting in the balcony-steps away from Lincoln's box seats

Porter and I in front of the Presidential Box 

(view from the opposite side of the balcony)

Before we entered the theater, we toured the museum that is

 next to it and learned tons of interesting facts from our audio tours!

 I love that these have much more of a "cell phone" theme, than the "headphone" look.

Across the street we toured the Petersen house where Lincoln died.

It was much smaller than I had imagined. Much of the furniture are just period antiques,

 but the bed behind the glass here is "THE" bed. 

It was a very somber experience to think of such an

 important moment in history happening right there.

It was well worth the trip, and I'm so glad we finally went to see it. 

Incredibly interesting, and made me even more grateful that our country was blessed

 to have such a President as Abraham Lincoln. 

(K,D, and Porter in front of Ford's Theater-albeit in the shadows)

Then of course we had to do all the regular sightseeing

A highlight for everyone was going to the International Spy Museum. We have never been, and it was a blast! It had tons of cool, unique and even kind of creepy stuff; and a whole dedicated section to tons of James Bond movie artifacts! (Including multiple cars- needless to say, the boys LOVED those!)

The thing about the spy museum, was that there were no pictures allowed. Booo.. Thus, this is the only, and pretty blurry picture of my sister and nephew outside to prove that we went! 

Grandpa was a sport and took these three to the National Zoo on

 Thanksgiving Day while the rest of us stayed home to cook! 

I had no idea how many sites were still open on Thanksgiving! 

Noah once again rocked the Turkey, this year it was so moist and juicy that when he went to pick it up the meat came right off the bone! It was  SO YUMMY!

The spread was terrific, and pretty darn awesome considering we going "Oakwood Style"

The table settings- 

And the fam-

Look how many people we fit around that little Oakwood table!

After Turkey Dinner we also took a moonlight tour of the rest of the monuments

My sister and the boys at the Vietnam Memorial

Grandpa and Porter at the Lincoln

We also hit multiple museums, the National Archives, Chinatown, Mt. Vernon and the tree lighting in Old Town Alexandria. None of which I have any pictures. They were all fantastic though, rest assured. It was so fun to have everyone out and being with our family to kick off the Holiday Season!

To finish off the weekend right, after my family left we were thrilled to get a short visit from some of good friends from our days in Michigan! We loved getting to catch up for a few hours and the kids, as you can tell had a great time playing together!! 

It was a wonderful week. Full of family, friends, food and fun. Can't complain about that!