When we moved to Virginia last year we got to be a little closer to some of our friends from Hawaii. The Chapmans live 20 miles south of us, and the Cranes live in Southern Maryland, so we've been able to get together with these two families a few times over the past few months.
So while it's sometimes hard to move so much in the military, at least a lot of our friends are moving too, and there's a chance that someday we could end up together again!
At the end of February we able to enjoy another get-together; this one organized by the Whitakers, who were coming down to visit from Maine. Jen homeschools her kids, and they had spent some time recently studying about the Terra Cotta Warriors in China. So they timed their visit to coincide with the National Geographic Museum's exhibit of the Warriors in DC. We all decided to buy tickets and go together.
First we met up with everyone at the Air and Space Museum and the kids spent some time playing. We had just been there, but our kids seemed to have more fun this time. The place was almost deserted, so maybe that helped!
The Terra Cotta Warriors were really interesting to see, but maybe not the best idea for the kids. Between four families, we had 15 kids. Wow.
The exhibit was very crowded, and there wasn't much to see. There were maybe 20 warriors, and the rest of the exhibit was filled with artifacts that had been found with them.
The idea of it was really interesting to me. The Emperor who unified China around 200 BC had the warriors built, as well as copies of almost everything used in everyday life. The thought was that when he died, he would be able to take all of these things into the next life with him. So he would have his big army and everything he needed to rule there.
I wish I had been able to read and look at things more, but with the crowd and my four kids to oversee, it just wasn't possible. Cayden read a little and enjoyed looking, but our younger ones were hopeless. Most of the kids just wanted to touch everything and play on the ropes.
Highly discouraged by the museum guards, in case you were wondering.
We also were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibit. I'm not sure if its because the artifacts may be ruined with exposure to bright flashes, or if it was a request from China that they couldn't be photographed... Either way, we only were able to take a picture of an exact reproduction of a warrior at the end.
And at least Ashton got to climb on that one...
Since the all the kids thought the exhibit was boring, they found their own fun playing around in the photo booth and gift shop at the end. No surprise there, I suppose.
This was a fun game: let's see how many kids we can cram into a photo booth!
We did have a fun few days visiting with our friends from Hawaii, but next time I think we'll leave out the kid UN-friendly museums!
Lillian is still talking about the 'fun' museum and the 'boring' museum.
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