Papa and Patty's Big Date

I hope you are sitting down! I don't know what the shock of seeing two blog posts from me in one week might do to you! :)

Patty and Ashley had a "Big Date" on September 13th. Patty had been looking forward to it as soon as mama and papa started talking about it. What was her big date with papa, you ask? Well... what gets Patty excited?

A. Elmo
B. Big Bird
C. Cookie Monster
D. Grover
E. All of the Above.


If you guessed "E" you would be totally correct (all the rest you'd just be 25% correct, lol!) Yep, Patty and Papa went to see the Sesame Street Live Performance of "Elmo's Green Thumb" at the 1st Mariner Arena and Baltimore.











Patty had an absolute blast! :) Papa really treated her while they were there! :) She got Dippin Dots -


and french fries. Papa even let her pick out ONE thing from the "Elmo Store". She chose a ball (what could be better for Patty than a ball with the entire Sesame Street gang on it? Not much!)
You can see it in this picture:


It's at Patty's eye level off to the right. She just loves that ball.

On the way home, Patty fell asleep. Ashley called me and said, wanna go for a drive? I said sure! :) Just let me get dressed! (HAHA - It was a lazy day for me since Patty was gone!) I went downstairs and joined them in the car. We ended up driving to D.C. and walked the National Mall. I, of course, left the camera in the car (which was at the Park and Ride as we took the Metro in to save on parking headaches!) Once out of the Smithsonian Metro Exit we sat on the National Mall and ate our Sub Sandwiches (which we had brought with us). Patty had devoured all the Potato chips on the Metro, and so, being full she decided to run around and explore! That definitely made for a quick lunch! From there we went to the Capital and back. We stopped at the Capital Gardens. A beautiful sight to behold. As we continued on to the Capital, what passed us but a group of tourists on Segway's (the scooter that you stand up and ride on!) I hadn't seen any group like that before and thought "how lazy", however, after walking up and up and up to the Capital Building, I started thinking how smart, lol! :) On the way back from the Capital Building we started passing some of the Smithsonian Buildings (we decided to walk down the opposite side of the National Mall). And, remember when I couldn't find the Museum of Natural History? Yep, there it was - in plain sight! :) How silly am I? VERY! :) We only had a few minutes before it closed, but Patty loved the massive elephant in the main entry and the dinosaurs off to the right. Of course, I loved the ice cold water I forced Ashley to go buy (Yes, we had brought water bottles with us, but who knew 3 bottles of water weren't going to be enough to ward off our thirst?!?!) (darn humidity and heat!!)

Well, I'm gonna go now - things to do and couches to rest on! :)

Love you all and miss you all very much!! :) Take Care!!

Another day, another adventure!
Thanks for reading!
The Matteson's

Well, here we are in September. The air is crisp and cool at night and the days are beautiful (getting into the mid 70's during the day). I am so waiting for the colors to start changing. Ever since living in Illinois Fall has been my favorite season (followed closely by my least favorite season - winter) Patty and mama are getting lots of walking time in while we still can. We've had lots of fun this month so far (papa, too!). I love living within walking distance of so many shopping centers. We are 100 yards from our village center (it's an East Coast thing). About 3/4 of a mile from the Target shopping center (which also has a Toys 'R Us among many different shopping options) and another 1/2 mile further is the Wal Mart Shopping Center (again with many other shopping options)

Ashley was working for a week in Virginia (in one of the cities that is considered a D.C. suburb) a couple weeks ago. On the first day, he took Patty and myself to tour the afternoon in D.C. while he was working. We had a blast!! And, for once, Patty was worn out!! YEAH!!! :)

Patty had her first "Metro" ride. That is the train that runs metro D.C. (all us insiders, call it the Metro! lol) Here she is "holding on" to the railing.

She loved the ride there, the ride back, well THAT was entirely another story (more about that later!) Our first stop was quite unexpected. As we got off at our stop, I turned the wrong way and instead of heading for the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, we ended up heading towards the Washington Monument. On our way there, I spotted the United States Holocaust Museum. We (actually, I) decided to go in and see what there was to see. No pictures are allowed, and honestly, it is something you have to see for yourself to understand the immensity of it. One of the exhibit was thousands of SHOES that had survived one of the incinerators. The museum was laid out from beginning to end of the entire holocaust. What an extremely moving museum. Next time, though, Patty isn't going with me (yes, there will be a next time! Even in the 1 1/2 I spent there I didn't get to take in NEARLY what there was to see). Before you enter the elevators to go to the exhibit, you are given a "passport". Inside you read about someone who went through the holocaust. Some of them survived, others didn't. It makes the whole museum more meaningful.

After the Holocaust museum Patty and I kept wandering towards the Washington Monument. Instead of stopping there, I just snapped a couple of pictures:

Our next stop was the World War II Memorial. It is located just west of the Washington Monument. It was quite amazing. There were even some WWII Vets there telling about their experiences. Absolutely loved it.

Our next stop was the Jefferson Memorial. It is probably about a 3/4 of a mile walk from the WWII Memorial. Before we'd even crossed one street, Patty was asleep. She had been fighting it for awhile, so I was glad she finally succombed. I remembered why I don't like umbrella strollers. Patty's head was in a forward position for most of the time. I even tried making her a make shift pillow to help, but it kept falling out of place with every jostle of the stroller, so she finally ended up like this:

Of course, we had a great view from where I propped her up to sleep. The Potomac and Jefferson Memorial. :) Loved it. After Patty's hour long nap, we finished our trip to the Jefferson Memorial. However, she was having none of having to sit in the stroller anymore, so she ended up pushing the stroller!

I think Patty's favorite part of the day was the Jefferson Memorial. And, no, she doesn't know anything about Jefferson, but boy did she have fun at his memorial. This was her favorite part:

Yep, you guessed it. The stairs. And, when I say stairs, I don't mean a piddly 10 or 12 stairs. There are probably a total of 60 steps. Imagine having a toddler who ONLY wants to go up and down these steps while the adult gets stuck carrying the stroller and tote up and down each time. Fun stuff!! NOT!!! :) All in all I think we went up and down the steps probably a half dozen times. Her next favorite thing were the benches, but Patty, she took the benches to a whole new level, jumping up, walking across, and jumping down than running (faster than mama could get to her) to the next one and starting all over! ARGH!! Toddlers!!

Of course, by the time we got on the Metro to go back to Virginia (where Ash was picking us up at) It was the "commuting hour". The Metro was sooo packed that Patty had to sit on my lap, because everyone was crammed in like sardines with no place to move. Talk about an interesting ride (especially with a toddler who was sooooo cranky! I ended up singing to her just so she would calm down!)

As you can (hopefully) tell from the pictures both Patty and myself had a blast and can't wait to go back again and visit more places (who knew there was SO MUCH FREE stuff to do in D.C.!) Our next stop will likely be an extended visit to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum (which we ended up finding on our last trip to D.C. which we took with Papa).

Have a Great Night Everyone! :) We Miss and Love you all out there!! :) :) :)

Don't forget to let us know what is going on in all of your lives!! :)

Another day, another adventure!
Thanks for reading!
The Matteson's