Our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in Washington, DC

Today I decided to take the kids on a spur-of-the-moment trip to Washington, DC.  I knew it was going to be hot, I knew the kids would probably be cranky, but I figured instead of being hot and cranky at home, we'd make the one hour drive and be hot and cranky in the Nation's Capital.  While we did enjoy some parts of our day, we decided that the adjectives Alexander used to describe his day also applied to our trip.

Doesn't look so bad here, but keep reading.

That's right, the car thermometer was reading 103!!  (it actually reached 104 several times, but not when I had my camera out).  With the humidity, I heard the heat index was up around 112!
 

 
But, Laura, you say, your kids look fine in front of the White House and at the American History Museum.  That's right, but you must remember, I had all three of my kids with me.  My oldest daughter was whining so much about the heat and how much her brother and sister were bothering her, that she wouldn't even get in the pictures and was stomping around behind me for each of these shots. 

Plus, I wasn't able to take pictures of myself constantly trying to separate them all while walking down the street or through a museum.  I only have two hands but I have three kids.  That means one kid is always next to another and that's cause for poking, annoying noise-making, flip flop-stepping, or other behaviors that need to be tattled about.

As we left the Museum of American History to head back to the car, we felt a few drops of rain.  As soon as we walked another block, the gusty winds, thunder, lightening and torrential downpours started.   We were soaked within minutes, but at that point, we just decided to keep walking.  My son and youngest daughter were frightened by the lightning and thunder and wanted to move quickly, my oldest was complaining about how much her flip flops were hurting her (which I'd told her not to wear in the first place) and wanted us to move more slowly.

Yup, that's right.  After enduring brutally hot temperatures, unending bickering and whining, and torrential rain, we reach our van to find a $50 parking ticket.  Apparently, in my excitement to finally find a parking spot after circling the Mall for a half hour, I neglected to thoroughly read the sign that stated you couldn't stay parked there between 4-6pm.  My only consolation is that they hadn't towed my car yet (there was a box marked on the ticket that said "towing requested") and all the museums are free, so I hadn't spent a lot of money already.

Looking at the bright side, the trip wasn't a total bust...

The kids enjoyed some yummy ice cream 

in the Museum of American History

Notice how they're all smiles after Mommy drops $14 on ice creams!

 They liked seeing the many historical artifacts

and even trying out a fountain pen and ink.

And we all thought the 

Bureau of Engraving and Printing 

was really interesting 

 (but I'll be doing a whole separate post on that!)

Have you ever had a trip like this?  One bad thing after another, 
but you'd do it all over again (and you do!)