Here’s the whole story from start to finish. First, let me just say that the pictures turned out pretty crappy. That is because I didn’t bring the good camera but used a disposible waterproof one. I did what I could in photoshop, but they still kinda stink. Which, as you can imagine, has really made me unhappy. Oh well, at least there is some documentation of the trip. All details are included so when we go again next year, I will remember what we did this year which seemed to work well.

We went on a Tuesday (which we decided is THE day to go) and had great weather. Left the house at 8:30am and hit hardly any traffic on the way there. Arrived just after 10am (which is the time the park opened). We had purchased tickets the night before online and also booked dinner reservations online to dine with the characters. The line getting in was still really long and moved really slowly, even with the pre-purchased tickets. Anyway, got in finally and went to the back lockers with no line. Changed Timmy and hit the ‘rides’. He had a blast in all that water!!! The big boys rode the little rapids and Timmy was supposedly the right height to ride too, but he had to ride on his own. It didn’t happen. He’s still too little. The lines were pretty short for everything, except the character meetings, but we skipped that since we figured we would just see them at dinner. Headed over to the ‘lazy river’ ride. Now, when the boys were little (just about 2) and we went to Sesame Place for the first time, we went on this ride (where the adults sit in an inner tube and the kids sit on their laps and you just float down this river with the current) and the boys FREAKED OUT. Timmy loved it and put on the life vest without protest. And this time the big boys loved it too. Daddy had fun pushing them into the waterfalls along the river. I got John good a few times too. Luckily, I had Timmy with me so he couldn’t retaliate!

Saw a show with Abby Cadaby, Cookie, Elmo, Zoe, Rosita. Went out to the car for our cooler lunch from home, sat in the a/c and watched some of ToyStory on the car’s DVD player. That was a good break. Timmy napped for a bit and I MADE the big boys go on a few of the bigger rides. Aren’t I the meanest mommy ever!!??  They were so nervous, but really stepped up. And, of course, ended up loving it. Patrick even volunteered to go on by himself. Jack came off hanging his head on the first one, but after a closer look I realized he was just trying to hide his smile cause he spent so much time complaining and worrying on the line he didn’t want to admit he actually liked it. But he did.

Hit a few more pools and rides, including another run on the lazy river which was everyone’s favorite. Then it was time for dinner with the characters. Very cute and surprisingly the food was fairly edible at the buffet. Timmy was very excited to see and hug all his favorite characters, and I even got the big boys to take some pix with the Sesame Street guys. The guys all caught the parade after dinner while I hit the giftshop. We watched Timmy dance in the "street" to the sesame music, just like the boys did on their first trip. That was cool. Hit the bathrooms and the road by 8pm and we were home around 9:30pm. Everyone in bed by 10pm, except me of course, but I did go to bed before 12 which is a big deal.

All in all, a great day. I think John even had fun (well, as much fun as John has). Here are some of the pix as promised.

The Lincoln Memorial from across the reflecting pool. The White House from far away with a really good zoom lens. More tommorrow, gotta go to bed!

We’re baaaack! Came back early this afternoon to beat the shore traffic. All in all the drive both ways was not bad at all. I drove down with the boys (John was already in Baltimore) with 2 DVD players, 2 gameboys, and about 15 movies. And can I just say how much I love my minivan with the Navigation system? That car does everything except drive for you.

When we arrived in Baltimore, we went over to Inner Harbor for lunch and visited the Constellation (according to Timmy "a pirate ship"-the boys are below with their best pirate faces) and the submarine "Tursk". The submarine was so cool, but very claustrophobic and smelly. But I got some good pictures! Then it was time for the  boys to take off for the Orioles game with John and Grandma and Grandpa. I had a nice dinner date with Timmy in the hotel restaurant. The next morning, everyone including Timmy slept in so we got a late start to DC. But once we checked into the Alexandria hotel, we hopped on the Metro and went to the Mall to see "stuff". We started at the WWII monument (pretty, but not emotionally effective), the Washington Monument (had to see it from the ground as all the tickets were sold out for the top). Then we moved on to the Vietnam Wall, which was so moving and emotional and upsetting and beautiful. Grandpa was especially moved since he served in Vietnam. Even I cried! Grandpa bought the boys some pins from his outfit in Vietnam-they all really liked that. We moved on past the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Monument. Grandpa of course had history lessons for each of the monuments, which they ate up! Grandpa had them counting the steps up to the Lincoln monument (there are 50-1 for each state), and doing math figuring out 4 score & 7 years, and then what year Lincoln made the Gettysburg Address based on that. They were loving it! We checked out the medals on display and Grandpa told the boys which ones he had and what the others meant. Timmy napped during most of the Mall, which is really for the best because he would have been either bored or running. We all shuffled back to the Metro where Grandpa continued to fight with the MetroCard machine and ended up with about $30 in cards. He and that machine DID NOT get along! We met N&C for dinner in Old Town which was so nice. We had made plans to take a walking Ghost tour that night, but we were all so walked out, we couldn’t make it. Timmy even had a melt down after dinner, he was so done! So that was our trip from start to end. All of the pictures are in an album on the left side. Just click and look if you’d like. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.