Washington, DC

Tomorrow Mark, Anthony, Benjamin and I head to Washington, DC for Anthony's wish trip through Kids Wish Network. Nana, Grandpa, Maw Maw and Paw Paw will join us there, too!

I want to lay out our itinerary here, so that you can follow along on our trip. There will be lots of links for you to click on and see what we'll be up to! As I can, I'll post pictures, too. It's going to be a whirlwind trip, so I may not get a chance to blog until our return on Sunday.

We will fly from the New Orleans airport to Atlanta and then connect to DC. There, a limousine will be waiting to take us to the Marriott Wyndham hotel. We will check in and immediately hand Ben over to the grandparents so that Mark, Anthony and I can dine (at 8:00pm!) at Chef Geoff's Downtown.

Friday morning, we head to the Smithsonian for a tour of the dinosaur bones! I believe it will be a private tour; hopefully Anthony will get to meet a paleontologist. We'll spend the morning there (and search the museum over for pieces to make a dinosaur costume for Halloween).

After lunch somewhere, we'll head to the National Zoo for a private tour. We were asked if Anthony prefers "big, furry animals" or reptiles. Of course I said, "Big, furry animals"! So there must be something special going on there.

Friday we will all eat at Morton's of Chicago (which Anthony finds hilarious since we'll be in Washington, DC and NOT in Chicago).

Saturday morning we will get a private tour of the Air and Space Museum. If no dino costume was procured Friday, I'm hoping to convince Anthony he wants to be an astronaut or pilot. That should be easy to make, right?

Saturday afternoon is free and we're hoping to spend it with a couple we met in January at our friends Chris and Alissa's wedding. Susan and Peter have a young daughter, and they live in the DC area. We're hoping they can help us do something fun - even if it's just hanging out!

Saturday night's dining adventure is at Bluepoint Restaurant. Since our party is large, the manager has arranged for us to have a private dining room with a large, flat screen TV to entertain the kids. The itinerary says that the chef has "something special set up for Anthony". I can't wait to see what it is!!

Sunday morning another limousine will arrive at the hotel to bring us back to the airport.

I am so excited about this trip! I can't thank Vanessa, our Wish Coordinator at Kids Wish Network enough for her involvement and hard work. This has been a beautiful experience so far, and I know it's going to be even more special once we're in DC. If you are looking for a place to give a charitable donation, Kids Wish Network would be a great one!

Stay tuned for pictures!