After our picnic at Plaza De Pigeon, we headed over to the National Naval Aviation Museum.  This place is always a hit on a hot day (it's always a hit on a cold day, too, but I particularly enjoy it when it's hot outside because they keep it nice and cool in there and when you walk it, it's like a blast of instant refreshment). 

In the center of the musuem, they've always had a play area for the kids with a few wooden planes and a couple of lego-like things.  The girls always enjoy it for a few minutes; then, they're off to explore the other parts of the musuem.  This summer, though, the museum has added a huge indoor play structure that's shaped like a ship.  It's so cool - it has stairs, two slides, a sliding pole and even an American flag to raise and lower.  This was the first time that any of the girls had played on it.  They had a blast!  I did, too, because I got to chill out and relax, sitting in one of the chairs surrounding the play ship. 



After about 45 minutes of playing, we went and watched a short film and then headed up to  play on the planes.  Here's Abigail trying to move an F-14 with just her thumb and index finger.  "Get back plane!  Get back!"  It didn't work.  I find it somewhat comforting that a toddler can't move one of our country's fighter jets with just her hand, don't you?




And, umm, you should be scared of the following picture.  Very scared....



This would be Emmie and Gracie sitting in the same F-14.  The thought of the two of them flying a plane together should be terrifying to the free world.  We call them the Twisted Sisters.  They are only one year and ten days apart in age and alternately fight with each other like cats and dogs or love each other with wild abandon.  Their judgement when the two of them are together is.....well, shall we just say lacking?  If the two of them were to fly a plane together, I'm convinced one of two things would happen.  They would get in a huge fight over who got to control which instruments and would crash the thing into the ocean (but not before they both ejected, still arguing over whose parachute was bigger) or, perhaps even scarier, they would work together and come up with some nefarious plane, like stealing a plane and flying it to Build-A-Bear or maybe the library.  You never really know with these two!

Every time we've been to the museum in the last two years, Ruby has asked about the Flight Adventure Deck exhibit.  It looks really cool, but it's not open to the public.  You can only be admitted to that section as part of a tour.  Well, this year when we walked past, I saw that a tour was starting at 4:00 p.m.   It was about 3:55, so I asked Ruby if she wanted to go on the tour and see the exhibit.  We went to the waiting area - we were the only ones there.  The tour guide walked in and looked around at the girls.  He looked at me a bit sheepishly and asked, "Did you want a tour?"  The girls and I all nodded.  He spoke to me and said "Normally, the tour is only open to people who are older than ten."  I told him I understood but that Ruby had been eyeing the exhibit for two years.  He said, "Well, if she's been waiting that long, we'll do it!  I'll just show them an abbreviated version if that's okay."  Fine by me....

So, Paul, the Naval Aviator turned guide gave us a personal tour of the history of flight.  He did a fantastic job of taking the normally very technical information (Boyle's and Newton's laws and the dynamics of air movement) and explaining it in a way that if the girls didn't at least completely understand, they did find interesting.  Gracie was most fascinated with the fact that she weighs more on Jupiter than she does on Earth and that she weighs less on the Moon.  By the end, they were all four getting a bit antsy, but I was very proud of how well all four of them behaved.

By the time the tour was over, it was close to closing time and everyone was starting to head out of the musuem.  As we exited, the girls asked if they could go play on the bronze statues at the entrance.  I let them and laughed at their silliness.  They ran back and forth between the three statues, hugging them and shouting, "Hi, Brother!  Hi Father!"  (Gracie kept shouting, "Hi Ancestor!").  There was a lady sitting on the bench laughing at them, obviously delighted by their enthusiasm.  The four of them together always garner a lot of attention.  I know that most people assume that all four of them are mine and half of them probably think I'm crazy, but most people just smile and say, "What beautiful girls!"  When we were walking into the musuem, the three big girls were holding hands and Abigail was riding in the stroller and a woman stopped me and said, "Where's your camera? You need a picture of all of you together!"  I pulled my camera out and let her snap one...