Congratulations to Edith, who won second place in a community archery tournament this weekend! Of the eight participants, I think she was both the shortest and the youngest, and I know the winner was 16 years old to her 10.
This is her second trophy in as many tournaments this school year, and she keeps getting better. There were four rounds, and this was just one — obviously she was aiming at the bottom left:
She was thrilled!
So I skipped a few weeks writing about April's long weekend in Washington, D.C., but here it is -- our whirlwind tour of a few of the Smithsonian museums!
After about eight hours of touring the monuments followed by a food truck lunch, it was 3 p.m. Many of the Smithsonian museums close around 5:30 p.m., but they are free so we felt no qualms about popping in one to check it out. So on Easter Day we checked out the National Museum of Natural History. We only stayed about an hour. It was fine but extremely crowded.
The next day we headed to the American History museum just after breakfast. We spent much longer than I expected there -- about four hours, including lunch. Highlights included the flag that inspired the Star-Spangled Banner, along with a display of dresses worn by First Ladies.
The Air and Space Museum was one of the few (or only, I'm not sure) museums that required a timed ticket. Unfortunately by the time I got around to claiming them a few weeks before we left, only 3 p.m. was left. It ended up being plenty of time, probably because half of the museum was closed for renovations. The highlight there included seeing the real Wright Flyer -- a must as an Ohioan! Paul and Atticus especially enjoyed the space exhibits.
Not a museum of course, but we followed them up that day with a walk around the Capital Building and a glimpse of the Supreme Court building behind it.
The next morning we dropped off our luggage to our car and walked the few blocks to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. We viewed the Presidential portraits and a sampling of all others.
Worn out after a busy 4 1/2 days, we were in the car heading home by 1:30 p.m. What a wonderful few days! It was the trip I remembered taking to D.C. as a kid, and I hope our own kids got just as much out of it.
Saturday was a special day in our family, and for Atticus especially. He received his First Communion! We celebrated at home with family after a special mass for our church's second graders.
