Private Firehouse Tour

The other day we stopped by the fire house to schedule a tour. You see, I have been trying to call them but they never answer the phone, so we thought we would stop in. Calder has been asking for a tour for a month or so. He was so excited when they asked if he wanted a tour right then. Fireman Jeff showed us around. The firehouse is brand new and very nice. Calder got to sit in the fire truck and turn on the lights and siren. He loved it. Don't let the pictures fool you, he was having a blast. 

Oh and I forgot to mention he wanted to dress up like Cowboy Woody that day.

#72 Washington Wizards Game

 I took the car in to get an oil change and some routine maintenance at the dealership on Wednesday and they happened to be giving out tickets for the Washington Wizard's game on Saturday. I took three in hopes that Jason could come. Thankfully he made it! We met at the Verizon Center and enjoyed a good chunk of the game. Our seats were higher up but not at the very top, so that was nice.

 Calder loved getting a giant pretzel and the mascot. He laughed every time the mascot came out.

 At first, Calder was a little scared because it was loud and he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be watching. He caught on pretty quickly.

This was the first time I have taken Calder on the Metro without his stroller. He was so excited and felt like a big boy. Oh and we picked up this brand new backpack at the thrift store this week. He has wanted to take it everywhere.

#67 Visit the Audubon Naturalist Society

On Saturday we went to the Audubon Society for a hike. It was a lot of fun although, it was a rather quick trip. I think it will be much more beautiful in the Spring and Fall. We'll be going back for sure. Calder loved having the place to himself and hitting leaves with various sticks he found. We tried to find the turtles they told us to watch out for but couldn't seem to locate any of them. Maybe in a few months we will.

#51 Ice Skating

There is an indoor skating rink about 3 miles from our house and on Fridays they do toddler and parent time for $3.50! That includes skate rental for both of us. It was awesome. I haven't been ice skating in about 10 years and it was Calder's first time. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be much help but it was fine and Calder didn't really need much help anyway. 

Many of the other parents were surprised that he was so good and so little. They almost didn't believe it was his first time. He is dying to go back and keeps asking if we can take daddy or some friends next time.

He liked to chase the other kids around the rink. Some of them thought it was fun and some weren't too thrilled. As you'll see in the video below. 

#14 The Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Calder and I had an awesome tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on Monday. I honestly think this is one of the best things we've done in DC. It was short (30 minutes start to finish) and Calder loved it. He was fascinated the whole way through and wants to do it again. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures on the tour so this is the one picture we got in the lobby. The sign says One Million Dollars in ten dollar notes. During the tour we saw a sign in the printing area that said "How do you think I feel, I print my lifetime salary in just a few minutes".  I thought it was clever.

A few interesting facts, in case you don't get to take the tour yourself. 95% of the money printed is to replace worn out money. 4% of the money they print is a mistake and gets incinerated in the basement. And if you happen to have a bill with a star at the end of the serial number instead of a letter, it means there was a mistake while printing a sheet of bills and they had to substitute it with star notes.

To the Park WITH DADDY!

 It was so nice to have nice weather so we could go to the park but it was even better could go with us last weekend. Calder was especially thrilled that Jason rode the motorcycle while he was in the sidecar. I'm sure Jason will love that I posted this picture. If our blog goes private next week, you'll know why.

 We dug.

We climbed and we had so much fun!