It's a New Year! (Visiting the Renwick Gallery)

 It's 2016!  A fresh start and it feels good to leave 2015 behind.  It was a tough year and we are really looking forward to a year of changes and happiness!!  Mimi is visiting us this weekend and we thought we'd make a good start to the New Year by visiting the Renwick Gallery in DC this morning.  It was a great trip!  The exhibitions were breathtaking and it's a small museum so we were able to get through it all without any complaints or boredom.  Everyone seemed to have a good time!!  It's the first museum I've ever been to that had signs encouraging photography and even gave an instagram hashtag to post with - they they live streamed the photos on this monitor!  What a great idea!!!

This exhibit reminded me of an exhibit that we had visited at Cheekwood a few years ago!  It has GOT to be the same artist - unless there are two people doing very similar things with long sticks!!!

 Another beautiful exhibit with thousands of wires or maybe strings of rainbow colors!

 Piles of notecards!

 A view down the hall!

 A visual representation of the shock waves from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan - the colors changed and shifted, making it feel very different from minute to minute.

 Mimi and Emmy enjoying the exhibit

photo by Emmy:

 This sign does a better job explaining this exhibit than I could!

Photo by Aidan:

 Glass beads climbing the walls - Declan's favorite

 Tire rubber cut and riveted to itself

Photo by Aidan:

 falling sparkles!

The pink room with bugs covering the walls in patterns:

Photo by Aidan

 Selfies outside the White House

Here it is:

Declan trying to pretend he's not part of our family

Lunch at Cosi afterwards:

The United States Botanic Garden

 Declan and I went to the US Botanic Garden today with some other moms and kids from Stroller Strong.  It was a HOT and HUMID September day and there was no relief inside the garden!!  It was still really fun and we had a great time with all of the other mamas.  The gardens are beautiful but very different from when we went at Christmas, although it was empty and we got to enjoy the gardens without a lot of other people there!!

The Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America

 Today we went with Adrianne and her little boy to The Franciscan Monastery of The Holy Land in America.  It's in NE DC so the area that it's in isn't the greatest but the Monastery itself is beautiful and the parking is super easy!!  That counts for a lot here in Virginia!!  We spent about two hours walking around, enjoying the beautiful architecture and the amazing gardens!  I think we caught the flowers right at their peak - just at the end of the summer.  Although it is a quiet and peaceful place, the kids were able to run around a bit and make a fair amount of noise since there were very few people there. 
It was a fun outing and a definite repeat for when guests come to visit!!