Spontaneity (with a little pre-planning)

Back when Wayne and I were newly married, we were spontaneous.


For example, one time, on a whim on a Friday night, we left Virginia to drive to Maine for dinner. From the time we decided to make the trip (it was sort of a challenge between us, we both thought the other would come to their senses first) we had left in one hour, bags packed and ready for a road trip. We drove to Maine, ate a seafood dinner at the first seaside restaraunt we came to, turned the car around and returned home...all within 48 hours. And Wayne went to work the next day. Of course, gas prices were a bit cheaper then!



Another time we drove from Kansas to Texas for Easter weekend at the last minute because our original plans were cancelled. That time our car broke down, majorly, and we had to rent a Hertz moving van to get back home (we didn't have that much stuff, it was just cheapest one-way solution).



Then came kids.



Don't get me wrong, kids are great (usually), but they do throw a little wrench into "sponteneity." Now, if we want to go somewhere we have to pack toothbrushes times 5, diapers, toys and books for the car, snacks, etc., etc., etc. So our spontaneity has been sorely lacking these last 9 plus years.

This weekend we renewed our quest to be spontaneous! We decided on Friday night that we would take a daytrip to Washington D.C. to see the Museum of Natural History. We packed a diaper bag and several snacks and drinks. Unfortunatly we did not pack a map, figuring we had been to D.C. often enough that we did not need one. We didn't tell the kids we were going, but just woke them up Saturday and told them to get ready to go to "school" (since we homeschool we can define this quite broadly) They didn't guess what we were doing until we were all the way to D.C.

The reason we picked this particular trip was that we had watched "Night at the Museum" last weekend (a movie were the museum characters come to life after dark) and the kids were begging all week to go to a natural history museum...so we decided to strike while the iron was hot.

The trip was great, with the exception of some frustration finding a parking spot and getting lost several times in the process. Well, not exactly lost, just not quite where we wanted to be at that particular point in time.

We only got caught outside in one rainstorm...but you know who we are...







THE RAIN DANCERS!







Even Wayne joined in!






I chose to just watch from the bench under the trees and take pictures (I prefer staying dry when I can!)

The mall in D.C. was particularly busy with some sort of "festival of the book" with many tents set up, speakers, high security, etc. We just walked on past the festival on our way to the museum and only found out much later that we passed up many famous adult and children's author's who were in town for book signings and speeches. In fact, my most favorite author ever, Alexander McCall Smith, was there probably at the exact moment we were crossing the mall. Oh well...I guess stuff like that has to be planned.



The bonus for the day for us was meeting a family up near D.C. of a little baby boy who has recently been going through treatment for hepatoblastoma (the same cancer that Jedrek had). He happened to be in the hospital that was right on our way home, so we stopped in and got to meet them in person. They were super-nice and it was so nice to be able to offer hope and information to another family who is in a similar situation as us.