Washington D.C. Getaway!

This past week, the hubby and I took a 4 1/2 day trip to our nations capitol, Washington D.C.  Kid free!  It was our first time away together with no children in 4 years!  We did a lot of sightseeing, hardly ever stopped going and I honestly thought my feet were going to fall off but it was SO worth it because I learned so much AND most importantly, we had a BLAST!  This is definitely the most photos I've ever put in a blog post but it was impossible to not put a big chunk of them in to give you a glimpse of our trip.

We started off day one when we arrived at the Holocaust Museum. Unable to take photos inside for obvious reasons but I'll simply say it was remarkably done.  I'm not a big history buff so I learned a lot here. 

Day 2-  Our first stop was the Capitol building. We were unable to visit the White House so this was our second option.

 
One of two of the Oklahoma statues in the Capitol.  This is Sequoya. The other is Will Rogers but he wasn't in a location we could spot on our tour.

Next was the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  REMARKABLE to say the least.  Had to get pictures next to these awesome lifelike animals for the girlies.

I was in front of the evolution exhibit.  We didn't waste any of our time there since it's clearly all false. =)  I came here to learn right?

I believe that was a dinosaur thigh.

Our last stop was the Pentagon Memorial.  This is the only area of the Pentagon that you can get photos of.

There is a whole story behind the positioning of everything in this Memorial.  It would take some time to describe so if interested, just ask me and I'd love to tell ya!

The area where the airplane flew into the Pentagon.

Day 3-  We went on our walking tour of the National Mall.  This is Washington Monument...obviously.

We got lucky and by chance President Obama happened to fly right over us and land at the White House while we were walking by on our tour.

One of our stops on our tour was also the WWII Memorial.  Wonderfully done.

In front of the reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

 Lincoln Memorial close up

Where Martin Luther King stood when he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Looking at on the area he would have seen that day.

Korean War Memorial

The National Cathedral. Breathtaking.

We were there to visit our wonderful friends Joey and Emily too!

Day 4- Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

"Changing of the Guard."

Arlington National Cemetary

The overlook in front of Robert E. Lee's home (Arlington House)

Had to have my photo in front of the White House at least.

Where President Lincoln was shot.

Theodore Roosevelt Island.

Our last night farewell!  Many thanks to Joey and Emily for all your hospitality!!!

Preschool Day, Hooray!

It's "Preschool Day, Hooray!"  Title of this post comes from the book Kinsleigh's been wanting to read all week leading up to school starting back up today. And today was the first day of preschool for little miss Kyla girl EVER!  Boy did she get excited when I put her cute little backpack on her back.  Little did she know that I was about to take her somewhere and leave her for the entire day away from me. 

I can't believe I sent two girlies off to preschool today.  They are too stinkin adorable.

Kinsleigh loves sporting her backpack too.

It was exciting and sad bringing the girls to school today.  It was a big change from what we've been used to all summer just getting to hang out with one another all the time.  But I think deep down, Kinsleigh was ready to go back.  And Kyla obviously had no clue what was going on but she will soon have it all figured out and grow to love school too I'm sure.  I did shed a few tears when I dropped my "baby" baby off in her class. First time is tough and I don't know what I'm going to do this first semester as a stay at home mom, not working, and my kids are at school two days a week!  Weird! Come on Pinterest projects?!

Breather

I received an awaited answer to prayer today.  I don't even know if it will be permanent or if it was a today only thing.  But the fact that it was answered for now is good enough for me and all the motivation I need to keep going.  Now I can take a breather.

As many of you know, we started Occupational Therapy with Kinsleigh back at the end of May.  Since then, not much has happened.  She has never grown particularly found of the place and it's always a struggle to get her to go.  Her anxiety gets extremely high on our way there in the car and intense once we arrive.  It's also taken her some time to warm up to her therapist.

So today, started like every other "therapy day."  We had to roll out of bed and immediately get dressed to go (not lucky for us, our appointments are 8am Fridays and it takes us 25 min to get there.)  She complained about going, didn't want to get her clothes on, shed a few tears, clung to me and hung her head when we walked in the door, told me she was tired and wanted to go home.  Then her therapist came out to get her and she perked right up.  I mean, jumped out of her seat, followed right along with her into the "therapy room" and talked her little ear off.  She then proceeded to go in and try many new things.  Didn't whine about it, maybe hesitant a few times, but didn't put up one fight! Brave (by her standards) all the way!  And the best part was she was able to get in with another girl to play a game together to practice those social skills with strangers.  No prob. there!  Just a considerate, play right along sweetie.  The therapist and I were able to see some big time progress today for the first time and we all left with huge smiles on our faces.  I don't know if this will be a turning point and things will continue to go more smoothly from here or not, but it sure brightened my day!  God knows just how to throw these sorts of days in there just when I need 'em!  So thank you Father, and forgive me for when I put up a fight that they don't happen "enough."

Happy 4th!!!

We're pretty hard core here at the Kahlich household with our sparklers and roman candles.

Kyla thought they were drumsticks!

This was as close as I could get them to the sparklers at first

Experiencing them a little more "pre lit"

Helping Daddy

"Hey this is kind of fun."

I'm literally chasing her with a sparkler.  Something's wrong with this picture. 

"Yeah Mommy, I think I'll give it a try now."

And what do you know?  It is fun!!!

And she ended up not wanting to put them down!  Now it's party time! 

"I get happy when I light fireworks!" -Kinsleigh's words exactly...