I have some favorite days in my life I can point to. Days where the whole thing was just awesome from start to finish. There was the time we drove through Alaska and stopped to feed moose and race dog sleds. There was that day in Honduras when we fed monkeys and snorkled. There was the day we saw the sunrise on the east coast of Florida, and set on the west coast of Florida all in the same day. There was the Leap Day at Disney. And now, add to that list the Easter Egg Roll. It was just an amazing day from start to finish.
Let's rewind for a bit, I know I told you all about how we got invited before, but in case you need a recap, last year when we celebrated all the president's birthdays, we sent our birthday cards for Barack Obama off to the White House, just like we sent all the living president's birthday cards. We got a package back, and were pretty excited about it. And then we went on with our life.
A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from the Director of Student Correspondence at the White House asking me to give her a call. If you know me (and my social anxiety), I was apprehensive, but I made the call. They had pulled our letters aside and wanted to invite us to the Easter Egg Roll. Of course I accepted, because you guys, it's the Easter Egg Roll! On the White House lawn! In Washington D.C! Ordinarily, you have to throw your name into a lottery system, and then you either get lucky or not- but we didn't even enter the lottery, we just got a personal invite. How cool is that?
Anyway, the Easter Egg Roll is divided into two hour long groups. Every two hours they clear the lawn and start again. When we got our time I was a little worried- because we were in the very first time slot, from 7:30AM to 9:30AM. If you know my boys, you know it's hard to get them up before noon. So, we started adjusting sleep schedules the week before we left (and getting up early for the airport the day we left helped too). I was emailed the info, and our arrival time was 6:45 AM.
So here we are, on Monday morning at the metro at 6:15 AM. It was cold, and it was rainy, but we were excited!
When we got to the entry point, there was quite a line. But, they hadn't even started people through the security line queue, so the line is a little deceiving.
We had gotten there about five minutes before our arrival time, and that really was the sweet spot, because 10 minutes later the line behind us was crazy long.
About 7:15 they let us go through security, run by the Secret Service. Then our tickets were scanned (we did get to keep them, which I was excited about!), and we were given wristbands with our group on them.
Then they put you in smaller lines. We were in the second smaller line, and they release those lines one at a time to avoid a mad dash of people onto the White House lawn.
As you pass through the welcome banner, music is blaring, and there were dancers and volunteers welcoming you. They are also handing out packets for kids 13 and younger (Peyton was lucky- he just made the cut for everything!)
Inside the packet you get an official Easter Egg Roll program, a commemorative ticket, a packet of seeds and some recipes. (Asa was really excited about his White House seeds, I almost can't believe he hasn't planted them yet!)
There is also a program for your group letting you know which events will be happening during your time.
Your line is then guided up around the gates of the south lawn, and through the gates.
The rain was off and on during our group- though luckily never a downpour, so forgive the rain drops in some of my pictures. Just inside the gates there were a huge conglomerate of news trucks, along with huge flower displays and a list of all the events/things to do.
We made a bee line up to the White House for a picture. It's actually even closer than it looks! We were right there. The Easter Egg roll is like a little pop up craft/food/activity fair. There's all kinds of stations of various things to do, and it's all made so much cooler because you're just hanging out on the White House lawn. You can't really ask for a cooler backdrop.
Because we were just the second little mini group allowed in, there was hardly anyone on the grounds when we first got there, and we decided the line for the egg roll might get long, so we should do that first.
We didn't even have to wait. And as a bonus, there was nobody in line behind us, so it made for nice pictures. Peyton and Hayden grabbed their wooden spoons and rolled the eggs from the start to the finish.
Fun fact: They use real eggs, and the kids really beat the crap right out of them. I couldn't decide if I should video or take pictures, but I decided I might want to frame one of these, so I went with the picture.
After our egg rolling was done, we headed over for some food and drinks. They had water, powerade and juice boxes to choose from.
They also had a really great breakfast yogurt bar. We picked a yogurt, and then you could top it with any topping you could think of- they even had honey for drizzling.
There was also a noodles and company tent, and lemonade, so we had a little sample of all of that. Obviously, the First Lady is super focused on healthy living- eating good whole foods, exercising, all of that- and the Easter Egg Roll really showcased that, but it a good, fun way. (I mean did you see that yogurt bar? It was incredible!)
There was also a gardening booth, where Hayden even built a homemade bug catcher.
The First Lady's garden is also out there, and you guys- there's a Thomas Jefferson quote out there. Love that.
What's Easter without some egg dying? They had a station for that too.
There's quite a few different photo ops set up to take your picture. We opted not to wait in the Easter Bunny line, but I loved the frame. We're going to have to enlarge and frame that one for sure.
I had heard that the Washington National President's might be there, and I was giddy at the prospect! But we were there almost an hour before we spotted George Washington on stage dancing with Washington Redskin, Ryan Kerrigan.
And once we spotted the first one, you just had to look around to see all their heads above the crowd. We chased them all down for pictures. And they were all so awesome, they were just as excited as I was. We got Abe first.
Then we spotted Teddy doing yoga.
And of course we had to do some yoga with Teddy!
We found Thomas Jefferson, and he even photobombed Calib and Asa.
The Washington Nationals Eagle photobombed our picture with Taft.
His jersey says Bill!
And we tracked down George to complete our collection of president's pictures.
Over at Story reading time, we caught a glimpse of Shaq reading Green Eggs and Ham. He's seriously gigantic.
While we were standing there we got a call from Mandi, the Director of Student Correspondence at the White House. She was calling to see if we would give our permission to share the boys letters on social media. She said if they used them, they would send us the link!
Well, they did share it on their tumblr page, so here's the email and the link, along with what I copied and pasted from the page.
Good morning!
We hope you and your family had a wonderful time at the event yesterday! Your husband had asked me to send along the link if the White House posted your letter online, and I wanted to let you know that the White House did share your letter on it’s tumblr site and you can view your letter here:
Mandy
Let’s celebrate! We’re welcoming 35,000 people to join the First Family on the South Lawn today for the 138th annual Easter Egg Roll. Every year, the Easter Egg Roll has shown how President Obama and the First Lady are opening the People’s House up to everyone no matter your race, your religion, or the composition of your families.
Follow along all day to meet some of the letter writers and their families who are joining us for today’s Easter Egg Roll from across the country. We’re kicking off with letters from Corinne and her sons Calib, Peyton, and Hayden who sent President Obama birthday cards last summer.
There were a couple of areas to play various sports too, including a 'Play 60' zone, like a mini training course for football players. The boys ran that- but I took video instead of pictures. (That's just us waiting in line).
We did run into some other characters. There was Elmo and Cookie Monster.
And the stormtroopers and Darth Vader.
And smokey the bear!
The whole thing is just made so cool by the fact that you're spending your morning on the White House lawn. I mean, who gets to do that? I took so many pictures. I just couldn't resist!
It is worth noting, it was cold. And rainy. But, that's ok. We didn't let it dampen our spirits.
With about ten minutes left in our time, there was all kinds of commotion up on the porch, and everyone thought maybe the Obama's would come out.
Unfortunately, they didn't (I heard they were out for the second group). But, Abe and Taft gave us all a good show rolling eggs and stealing crates full of them.
Your two hours goes by very quickly, although you do have plenty of time to do everything. (Although we didn't wait in line to do the Easter Egg Hunt). When it's time to go, an announcement comes on, and everyone makes their way to the exit. But on the way out, you're given all kinds of treats.
They were giving out hard boiled eggs on sticks!
And, for the one sugary treat that passed by Michelle Obama, peeps!
Then, all the kids get their free wooden eggs. We might have bent the rules a bit to get Calib one too.
Although you can buy some at the exit too. So we picked some up for family and friends. Afterward, we made our way around to the front of the White House for a picture.
Sadly, you used to be able to go right up to the fence, but now there's another make shift fence to keep you even further away. But, that's ok, I hang out at the White House. I'm cool like that.
We decided to make reservations for brunch after our Easter Egg roll at a place just a few blocks away called Founding Farmers.
They had beignets! With dipping sauces! (The caramel and chocolate were good, but the raspberry was amazing!) It was light and fluffy, and served in this brown paper bag that made it even more awesome.
Plus we had a press pot to warm us up!
Everything is farm to table, and tastes fresh and delicious. A couple of us got the founding farmer breakfast complete with eggs, a bread, a meat, and a choice of side. Hayden got a waffle and Calib got stuffed french toast.
And look at Hayden's presidential plate!
By the time we were done with breakfast, the sun was out, and we had a nice little walk to the metro.
The metro, by the way, is really promoting the Race for the White House show we love here!
The day was still young, so we were headed out to go to the zoo.
The National Zoo is awesome, and free!
But, it was also pretty crowded. That was par for the course, but I guess that's whats happens when you travel over Easter weekend.
We were all pretty excited to see the panda, but they were nowhere to be seen at first.
Eventually we located one! And inside we saw a few more, including a baby!
We were there on a good day though, there were tons of booths set up for arts and crafts and extra learning experiences. We even got to make buttons at one of the tents. Peyton, Asa and I decided on making 'Vote 4' buttons. I went with Polk, Asa went with Millard Fillmore, and Peyton went with McKinley.
The pandas are awesome, and a huge draw, but it's not my favorite thing at the National Zoo. That goes to the small mammal house. I want every single animal in here.
Especially the northern treeshaw. I need one of these.
We made our way to the monkey/gorilla house and got treated to a monkey eating his own backwash off the window.
And we were hoping for some free range monkey action, but nobody seemed in the mood.
We came across a tent with Ben's Chili Bowl nachos, and decided to give those a try, since it saved us a trip on the metro going out to Ben's chili bowl. They were good, but a little too spicy for me.
And f course on the way out we had to stop by the gift shop. I was the only one who got anything though. I picked a magnet with a bottle opener on it, so the boys could open their rootbeer from Monticello.
After the zoo we hopped on the metro and headed over to the Natural history museum. It's another one of our favorites, and going there after the long day we already had might have been pushing the boys a little too far, but they did good! We got to see the mummies, and the dinos (the ones on display anyway, that wing STILL isn't open), the Hope diamond, and everything inbetween.
It was nearing dinner time, so we hopped back on the metro, and on our walk back to the hotel we stopped by Potbellies for some sandwiches to take back to our room.
Asa and I split a sandwich, hoping to go out to the Fish Market a little later, but the boys were happy just to be back and have full tummies. Plus they got their rootbeer open!
Our feet were all pretty tired, but they were also pretty soaked. We all had pruned toes!
After relaxing, and doing Facetime with mom and grandma to tell them about our day, Asa and I decided on a quick date night activity. Just outside our hotel was a D.C. bike share, so we rented some bikes and rode down to the Fish Market.
It was nearing closing time, but there was still plenty to choose from.
This place is a dock, and all the places selling food are actually floating. It's a sight to be seen. You can either get fish and crab to take home to cook, or they'll cook it there for you.
We decided on some soup to go, and tied it to the front of my bike, and then we were off.
Not too far away is the Jefferson memorial, and I had really wanted to see the monuments at night. We decided it'd be a perfect place to eat our soup.
So we found a spot on the steps, a nice platform, and there we sat enjoying the view sharing our soup. It was the perfect end to an awesome day.
After we finished our soup, we got back on our bikes and rode around the tidal basin, past the cherry blossoms and the Washington monument, and back down to the hotel along a pretty deserted national mall.
The boys were good while we were gone, so we ordered them a few snacks from the hotel, and we all watched some basketball. (Speaking of which, I still have to figure out who won march madness here!) I really couldn't have asked for a better day. It was so much fun, and is going up there in the top few of my lifetime.
Next Up: One more day in D.C.
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