DC Weekend: millions of puppets and butt fighting

A big thanks to the Hahn family for letting us stay with them over the weekend.  When I mentioned to Beth back at the end of the summer that I was thinking taking a Saturday day trip to do Air and Space with Ben, she immediately said make it an overnight trip.

Ben and I headed out Saturday morning on the Metro with the intention of doing one museum then meeting up with Beth, William, and Seth later in the afternoon on the Mall.  It was cold and windy and by we had walked to the Capitol, Ben was spent and wanted to be inside.

Beth took us on the driving tour of the monuments and the White House. We spent the rest of the afternoon letting the boys play.  I was so happy that Ben's behavior was spectacular all weekend.  Even when he was cold, he was agreeable and excited to be doing something new.  Go Ben!

I think he told me, "this is the best day ever" at least 8-9 times while in the museum.  I let him decide what we saw and when to leave.  His favorite was any and all exhibits that had something he could manipulate.  He declined to do the flight simulator but did want to watch the video explaining how it worked for a good 15 minutes.

When we left we came came upon two guys with puppets that were talking to each other crossing the street WITH the puppets.  Ben was the first to give them the WTF look with me soon to follow as we stumbled upon the Million Puppet March.

*Note* We saw maybe 30 total puppets, so I have to ask if they exceeded their expectations just a bit

Once back at the Hahn home the boys played lots of educational games  lots of cars crashes and watched some really bad shows.  Several Ben has already asked to put in our Netflix queue.  Ben bestowed his knowledge of the "butt fight", something that obviously my after school care $ is going to help endow.

Sorry Beth, I'll see your awful movie FRED and raise you a butt fight.  At least Ben didn't show them "tackle down" or "bull tag" as well.

Best of all was simply getting to hang out with Beth and talk, for uninterrupted stretches about our kids, parenting struggles, the upcoming election as well as her inside thoughts on the Senate.
Beth, you have a totally cool job.  I'm so jealous.

Ben asked before we left if we could go back to the Lincoln Memorial, or as he in is 6 year old speak, "Giant Mr. Lincoln's house."  So we headed back into town and walked over.  He thought it was really cool.

We wrapped up the morning by sitting on the steps looking out over the Mall and talking about favorite things seen.  It may have been the calmest, most focused I've seen him in months and definitely something to remember when the days are tough.

Thanks Beth and your generous family for opening your home to us.  We hope to come back again to do more museums and to share more inappropriate boy games.