Washington, D.C. - The Rest

What a great trip! We love hanging out with my brother-in-law and his family. They have two little boys that are just older, and younger, than G-Man. They hang out as a little club. There are laughs, screams, giggles and some tears (when the wrestling gets carried away). Overall, it's just so fun to watch the three of them enjoy each other. It's something that I hope will continue for years and years to come.

On day 3, we had an awesome time at the beach, near Annapolis, Maryland. There's a beach there called Sandy Point State Park. Here's a shot of G-Man with his "boys":

Sippin' on a cold juice...just me, and my boys...

Most of us don't spend a lot of time in the sun...so we blind folks with the milky nature of our skin. However, we had a blast building sand castles - and, according to one of my nephews - sand volcanoes:

My brother-in-law, his oldest boy, G-Man and I

After the beach, we strolled around downtown Annapolis. It was gorgeous. It's the capital of Maryland, and a well-maintained city-center. The nearby Naval Academy also had an impressive campus:

The next day was the Fourth of July. Go America!!! We decided to really do it right - we went down near the Washington Monument and found a place along Constitution Ave. to watch the big parade. We found a spot right near the street, that let us see the whole thing. Here's a shot of the street, near where we were stationed:

Being tall, I was able to put G-Man up on my shoulders, so he could see everything. He had a BLAST! He loved the marching bands, the floats, the balloons...all of it:

There's a band, Daddy!!

One of the many military formations

We spent the rest of the day around the Washington Mall, walking near the Smithsonian Institution. They had a Folklife Festival going - with demonstrations of several world cultures. By that evening, we decided to camp out near the base of the Washington Monument...to watch the fireworks! We had to get there early, as almost a million people have the same idea that we had:

This was early...before the crowds really started to arrive...

We had plenty of fun, playing on the grass. We tried to keep the kids from running into the people sitting near us. That sort of worked ; ) G-Man had fun with his cousins:

Wifey and my little "ham" G-Man

As the sun started to go down, we took one last picture in front of the Washington Monument, settling in before the fireworks:

The fireworks were astounding...the kind that you feel in your chest, when the sound of the explosion reaches you. By the end of the night, the boys were sleepy and we enjoyed another patriotic celebration of our nation's birthday.

In honor of the Fourth, my sister-in-law made a very patriotic dessert. In her family, this is called a "fruit pizza". I don't care what you call it...it's just good. I hope you're jealous...you should be: