Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

After visiting the National Archives, we walked over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  I absolutely love how close everything is in the National Mall.  You can walk from place to place & there's TONS to see.  I'm glad my 6 kids are natural travelers/walkers.  Even my 2 year old was able to walk a couple miles without complaining.

We originally didn't plan on visiting the Natural History Museum, but it was RIGHT THERE so we thought, "why not?"  We didn't see EVERYTHING (it could take days), but we skimmed through pieces we wanted to see & the kids ended up loving it.

Craiger & a Totem Pole

Craiger kept saying
"Dumb Dumb want some Gum Gum?"
(from the movie "Night at the Museum")

The kids loved all the large animals around the big open areas of the museum.  I still can't believe how massive these buildings are.  Thank heavens we didn't lose any of our kids inside.  We'd never find them.

The boys' favorite place was the dinosaurs. . . surprise, surprise.  They can never get enough dinosaurs.

Trek was particularly fascinated with this monstrous thing.  It was a giant sloth of sorts.  It was HUGE. I always pictured sloths to be small & wimpy like Sid from "Ice Age," but not this guy.  I wouldn't want to run into him in real life for sure.

Manny from "Ice Age"

As for me, I couldn't wait to get to the gemstone portion of the museum.  I love pretty & sparkly things & boy was this a treat.  They had the

HOPE DIAMOND

on display.  It's the largest blue diamond in the world.  It was GORGEOUS in person.  Pictures just don't do it justice.

One wing of the museum was dedicated to the largest gemstone collection in the world.  There were crowns, necklaces, rings, you name it.  It was spectacular to see in person.

We spent about an hour and a half in the museum & then headed on to our next Smithsonian.  It was a lot of fun.  I'm glad we decided to stop & see a little inside even though it wasn't in our original plans.