Taking the "Olders" to DC

Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving we headed to DC to see some sights, while trying not to freeze too much!  It was a bit cold, but with our hat, coats and gloves we seemed to warm up with all the walking we did around the National Mall.  We parked near the White House and walked over to it first, then headed past the Washington Monument, up to the WWII monument, walked past the reflection pool to the Korean War Memorial and to the Lincoln Memorial and finally to see the Vietnam Memorial.  After all the war memorials, we went over to the Smithsonian American History Muesuem.   The first day in DC was quite a full day!!!  While we covered lots of ground there was still so much to see, so the next day we headed back over to the city where had a very somber and eye opening experience at the Holocaust Museum.  This is one place that I would like to visit again...there was so much to see and read, and honestly, one can only handle processing so much utter human destruction at once.  After spending a couple of hours in the Holocaust Museum, we walked over to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum for a short visit before heading home.

Thanksgiving 2013

 Thanksgiving this year was quite special!  We had a very full house with ALL the kids coming into town to celebrate together. The 5 Walden kids were all underneath the same roof for more than an hour for the first time ever!  Ed was over the moon happy!  As a family we were able to bond and get to know each other better!  The "olders" all flew in on Thanksgiving Day and they stayed for 5 night, leaving on Nico's birthday.  Since they flew in on Thanksgiving Day, we cooked, ate and celebrated the next day!  We started the day off with a great walk on the trail behind our house, just to show the "olders" the area we live in...I think they were surprised that Ed and I being such city people, were living far out in a small beach town.  After lots of cooking and eating the yummy food, we decorated the Christmas tree and then played cards!  Playing cards is a tradition in the Walden family and for those 5 days, countless hands of Texas Hold'em, Polish Rummy, and Crazy 8s were played!  Such great bonding time!