Trip to D.C. and Ice Skating for the First Time

I've been slacking a little on writing posts for my blog, but that should get better by next week hopefully! We have been a busy, busy family the last week or two with trips, parties and the kids activities starting again now that they are back to school! I've been reading about a lot of other people's purge the house party and today is the day that I start my purge party! I'm starting with paperwork...not fun, but very much needed!

Anyway, I wanted to show you some of our traditional Washington D.C. trip that we take every year after Christmas. It was so  much fun!!

We started off with going to see the Zoo Lights! It was free to get in but parking was $15 a car and spaces were somewhat hard to find.

They had lots of different light displays and the kids loved it! The keeper rooms were open so we were able to see the reptiles.

Amtrak had a train ride set up for children for $2 each, but we were too late getting there this year for my kids to ride and the line was really, really long!

They had a display where the lights were set to music and I think that was my favorite part...

It was cold but we had a great time and we will be going again next year for sure!

We stayed the night at the Latham Hotel in Georgetown (you can find really good prices on hotel stays if it is after Christmas but before New Years Eve.) We had two rooms, one for us and one for the kids. Ours was called the Carriage room and we could have fit all 8 of us in it with extra blankets and pillows!!

Of course, I forgot to take pictures before we messed up the room with all our crap belongings and essentials! It was really roomy :)

The next day we checked out of the hotel and walked through Georgetown to shop and see the sights!

We attempted to go Ice skating but, again, the lines were so long, we would of had to wait two hours to skate and it was too cold!

So, we did our favorite thing instead....we ate...

at 

the 

best

place

ever!

 We had never been here but I will be going back again! The food was a little pricey for being hamburgers, but they were so good...and the decor alone was something to see!!

Everyone was happy, full, and just a little tuckered out...

We did go see the Christmas tree at the Capitol the night before...the moment we got up next to it...they turned the lights off. I mean really? They couldn't wait five more minutes to turn them off? It was still fun though, the kids ran around the lawn and we took pictures with the Capitol behind us (those are on my daughter's camera...my battery died!)

On the way home we always stop at Maggie Moo's for Ice Cream and this year was no exception!

New Year's Day we took the kids to the Ice Skating Rink in Waldorf, MD and they had a blast! It was my little one's first time Ice Skating ever and they did surprisingly well!

It was a great start to the New Year!! I am really looking forward to 2011!!