Smithsonian, Naturally

We arrived at M's parents' house in Virginia just outside D.C. late on the Sunday before Christmas.  We spent Monday just recovering and hanging out.  Then on Tuesday we decided to take advantage of some Smithsonian fabulousness.  Part #1 of the fun was riding the train:

I love the DC Metro.  The kids thought riding ANY train was pretty exciting.

 

Claire and Scott enjoying the view.

Poor Kate.  The view from her stroller wasn't so great:

We went to the Natural History Smithsonian.  And really the whole point of the visit was, of course, to see this:

 

 It was pretty much four year old boy heaven.

Although really, who could help but be impressed by this?

Let's not kid our selves.  Everyone thought it was pretty cool, not just Scott.

 

But only Scott was so excited he looked liked his eyes were going to pop out of his head from the effort of trying to take it all in at once.

It's also fun to go to a museum where your four year old is the most knowledgable member of the family on the subject.  He made a good tour guide.

Or at least he was very good at correcting us when we called fossils by the wrong name.

...and roaring.  He's VERY good at dinosaur roars.

We also got lucky because we went to the museum on a Tuesday, and it turns out the Butterfly Pavilion happens to be free on Tuesdays.  And not very crowded a couple days before Christmas.

 

Scott was the only one of the kids who was old/brave enough to hold the butterfly one of the docents put onto a paintbrush.

We had an absolutely fabulous time even though we only saw a small fraction of what was there.