The Adventures of Reyna: NDSC 40th Convention

A trip to Washington, D.C. was planned as a vacation/educational experience.
And boy was it :)
The trip started with a bang in the form of a 3 hr layover. We had planned on flying at midnight, so the whole car ride to San Francisco we kept Omar awake in the hopes of having him sleep the entire flight. That PLAN was ruined with the flight being delayed. So when we finally boarded the plane close to 3am. Both Omar and Reyna had fallen asleep before boarding. Of course boarding had to wake up Omar who continued to cry for what felt like the first hr of a 6hr flight. I'm sure it wasn't that long, but it sure felt like it to us. Reyna was an angel, she slept the entire time. In Milwaukee there was a 1hr delay, but the flight from there to D.C. was even better, Omar was only uncomfortable for a short time.

We finally made it, to the humidity of Washington, D.C. Upon picking up our luggage and trying to figure out how to get to the metro we met a older couple who had a daughter in her 20's who was headed to the same hotel for the same convention. The metro reminded me of SF BART, which made things easier to navigate. Unfortunately we were traveling in the 4pm rush hour with 2 kids, a double stroller and 2 rolling suitcases. Now that was fun, but we finally made it to the hotel and when we left the metro station we were right in front of our hotel. It couldn't get any better than that.

We checked in and got our room, our initial room was too hard to get into with a double stroller so we got upgraded to a suite. It was just the right size for all the stuff we had.

The convention was great, emotional for me at times but we walked away with an abundance of knowledge. I think the emotion came from seeing all those beautiful children and young adults with DS and everything that they had accomplished. For example during the banquet a news station was recognized for their outstanding story about a young man who owns his own restaurant in New Mexico with the help of his parents. That award was a tear jerker for sure, it made me realize even more that Reyna could truly accomplish anything she wanted with the support of her family.

While in Washington, D.C. Reyna mastered sitting and also going from laying to sitting. She is growing up so fast.

Then of course you can't be in Washington, D.C. without sight-seeing, so we spent three and a half days. We were able to go to the American Indian Museum and National History Museum in one day as well as spending half a day at the National Zoo, all of which were free. Omar's favorite was the National History Museum because of all the animals of course. On our 2nd full day we went to Arlington Cemetery and that was a somber day as there was a burial procession/ceremony while we were there. It was amazing to learn that they do 20-30 of those a day. We of course had to see President Kennedy's eternal flame and the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Our 3rd and final day sight-seeing was touring the National Mall, we saw everything and when I say that I mean it the only things we didn't see were the Capital as well as Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Roosevelt Memorial. It was so much to take in and I was glad the kids did good.