For the love of chapstick

We had two pairs of visitors this summer. First my parents came from Iowa to see our new home in Maryland and check out the highlights of Washington, D.C. Our daylong trip on the hottest day of the week (nearly 100 degrees combined with unbearable humidity) began with a tour of the U.S. Capitol.

Then we went on to the Library of Congress, where Olivia practices her fishy faces while her grandparents admire the architecture of the building and a special display on early maps of the United States.

We continued our walking tour of D.C. by passing the U.S. Supreme Court's building, stops at the National Museum of American History (where the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner can be viewed), the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, White House, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, and the National Archives. There we waited in line trapped between two school groups of eighth graders to see the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. One of the key things we learned from this day in Washington, D.C. is that 90 percent of 8th graders come to Washington, D.C. on some kind of school trip and 90 percent of them were in the city the same day as us.

We also discovered on this day that Olivia loves to put chapstick on her lips. And she isn't opposed to slathering it on her hands and checks. Chapstick is her new security blanket. It keeps her busy. It keeps her quiet. And it keeps the group sane during a daylong tour of Washington, D.C.

Here is Olivia and her chapstick, she calls "lips" during our day in Gettysburg.

The day started with heat and ended with rain and hail. We walked more than 7.5 miles in that one day. I took a total of seven pictures that day.