Well let me begin by saying that these purple shoes did some major treking today. We walked a lot and the weather was great with a slight breeze that was just enough to keep us cool and the warm sun shinning bright. I wonder how many of you are reading this....I hope some of you are. This trip is truly amazing and I am so excited (as are they) for the students who are getting to "live out" this opportunity to visit their nation's capital. Our morning started at 8:30 Am with a wonderful breakfast down in the hotel lobby full of eggs, waffles, fruit, oatmel, and a whole lot of other things that I cannot wait to try till in the morning or...just a few hours. Ha! After breakfast we headed to get some great pictures in "the mall" area of the Capital and the Washington monument thus followed by a great game of "President and Vice President Tag" which I made up on the spot with some extra free time we had this morning...so fun! "The Mall" area is full of tents and such for "Earth Week" so we have had a good time looking at some neat sculptures and such that wouldn't normally be there. We then headed to the Smithsonian museums and had SO much fun. I must say that my favorite was an exhibit titled "Dresses of the First Lady" that showcased Innagural attire that the First Ladies have worn as well as their accessories. Very neat! I would be lying if I didn't add that the "Star Spangled Banner" exhibit, Hope Diamond, and Julia Child's kitchen were not high in the runnings for favorite today as well. We had lunch in one of the large cafe's in the Natural History museum and I must say my turkey sandwhich there with a olive tapenade and fresh mozzerella has been my favorite meal thus far. Yum! Next, we headed back to the hotel (and trust me by this time our feet were t-i-r-ed...TIRED! So, we freshened up for dinner and headed to the Capitol Bistro (I think?) and were able to order off of the menu whatever our little hearts...excuse me, hungry tummies desired. A lot of us had the fajita bar in which a chef grilled us our fajitas with all the trimmings....not to mention a fabulous salad bar in which a lot of the kids got a great helping of veggies! Yum, again! We headed back to the fabulous Residence Inn Marriott to write in our journals and then down to the pool for about an hour. The kids loved it! My group and I headed back to the room for some oreos and milk before showers, our tradition of wathcing the Discovery channel, and bed. Yes, I still hear them awake. Oh, goodness! Our night tour of the U.S. Capitol got postponed because Louie Gohmert had to attend a funneral so we rescheduled for tomorrow evening. Yea! I am really looking forward to this! The kids are doing great...Matt, Ian, and Maddie were two that I noticed that were totally into every aspect of the museums, thus loving to ask question and linger just a little longer than some of the others. It was wonderful. Ramsey is full of life and excitement as always and Savannah, Ella, and Virginia are very much into taking pictures and letting us all know of any interesting fact that they learned during the day. I love it! They are so fun! Tomorrow mornning our way up call is for 5:45 AM and I have set 2 alarms to ensure that we will be up and ready down in the lobby for breakfast at 6:30 AM. Whew, if any of you know how much I love mornings, or my lack of love for mornings would be proud to know that I am making it and each afternoon Doreathea makes sure to have 2 packets of coffee by the coffee maker so I can make it extra strong in the mornings. Tomorrow should be our coolest day here and currently we are looking at a chance of rain, but nothing this group cannot handle. I promise. Each and every one of them are amazing. This is such a strong community filled with love and adventure. Well, I am off to bed as the whispers in the other room have died down and my eyes are getting a little (ok, a lot) ready to close. Here are a few shots from our day...in order this time. Oh, and as for the purple shoes....the have experienced so much with me today, were so light and comfortable and have some amazing stories to tell. Goodnight from D.C.

Ella checking out Washington Monument early this morning. If I could put a caption with this picture it would be..."Look guys, I see the Washington Monument. Do you guys see it?"

The boys in the "Dresses of the First Lady" Exhibit. They were so great while I relished in th

dresses for just a few minutes and even added a few comments such as,"Look at that necklace!" or "I think it was strategic planning when they desired her dresss to sparkle when it hit the lights." This was great! We got to see Martha Washington's dress today, too.

This was a highlight.

The kids favorite quote when seeing these shoes, "Reagan, I don't think we are in Texas anymore." In this same exhibit were things like the first Kermit the Frog, Apollo's speed skates, an olympic torch, and some costumes from "The Lion King." Very cool!


A hands on appraoch to the printing press. We each got to do it and take one home for our scrapbooks. It took a lot of work to make our print on one small paper.

Dinosaurs. Yup, very cool and very big. The guys really liked this stop in my group and were full of questions....and some pretty great comments.

A sloth and in the bottom of the picture you can see an armadillo. Look at it compared to the size of the armadillos we see today. Big difference, don't you think?

My group for Tuesday, April 20th at the Museum of Natural History.

The Hope Diamond. Wow! I don't even know what to say. I thought it would be big but have been repeatedly reminded that is the color of the diamond and not the size. This was hard to see because it was full of people at all times but it rotates and we waited our turn to get a look at this beautiful diamond. Wow!

My wedding ring. See it fits on my finger perfectly! Please forward this to my future husband.

My diamond ring again...just in case "he" needs to see it from a different point of view.

We ended our day at the Air and Space Museum with looking at the Wright Brothers Exhibit in which we were reminded that we can do anything we dream or set our minds to with patience, passion, and a whole lot of hard work.

Keep on treking purple shoes. Good night!