Air and Space Museum

One of many highlights of our trip to Virginia last weekend was getting to take Finley to the National Air and Space Museum with my dad.  A giant hanger full of flying contraptions, what more could a little boy ask for?  

Wide open room to run and no real direction that you have to go, that worked just perfectly for the four of us.  Finley took a few breaks in the stroller, but in general loved wandering around looking at everything.

With all the running around, a snack break was needed and Finley found his own seat.

After walking around most of the main level (including views of the space shuttle!!), we took the elevator up to the control tower to see if any planes were coming to land at nearby Dulles airport.

After about ten minutes, the first plane finally came into view.

And then it was nonstop action, plane after plane after plane!

Here are Finley and my dad, waving at the landing plane's pilot.

Finley was so thrilled at seeing these planes, that he couldn't help but get his peers excited about them, too.  This little girl got quite an earful as Finley yelled, "Look, grill, a plane over there!"  (For those that don't know, Finley can't quite say girl so grill is a suitable replacement in his eyes.)  He basically shrieked this and the poor thing probably missed the airplane due to our son's distracting tone!

I think we were up there for quite a while, but in the essence of time headed back down.  We popped into the gift shop and walked out with a little model of the Discovery Shuttle (at one point, Finley had about 6 shuttles lined up in the "parking lot" of the "airport," so I was happy he was willing to leave with just one!).

It was a wonderful morning and I suspect this time next year, we could go back and have a totally different experience with our little aerospace engineer.