The best treat of the year – so far! - was when Allen and Jocelyn emailed to say they’d purchased tickets for themselves and Sawyer to visit Washington, D.C.! Waa-hoo! They finally arrived last week and we spent 3 ½ fun-filled days together touring my adopted hometown. 
After a drop-off of luggage at my house, our first stop was for lunch at the best Mexican place in town, Rio Grande, where Sawyer regaled the manager with his latest joke:“Hey!”
“Hey, what?”
“Nothing.”
It gets a laugh every time.
He managed to scarf down his lunch, including sucking down a healthy portion of salsa, and then set off chasing birds throughout the patio.
We made our first official tourist stop at the Lincoln Memorial and National Mall. I gave Sawyer a penny and told him that if he could find the building on the penny, he could keep the coin. When we arrived at the base of the Memorial, Sawyer finally made the connection and was quite pleased with himself!
Sawyer at the foot of the Reflecting Pool
We walked down the length of the Reflecting Pool, pausing to watch the geese fly in and out of the Pool, and then walked all around the World War II Memorial. Of course Sawyer made a bee-line to the huge pool in the center and almost made it in before I caught up to him. 
He and I splashed in the water and then splashed each other, before making our way over to Tidal Basin, where he, Susan and I played a quick game of hide-and-seek. 
Leave it to Susan, she found some pretty good hiding spots that delighted Sawyer!
We then walked around Tidal Basin and finally through the Roosevelt Memorial. I have to give a lot of credit to the little guy. We toured for about 2 ½ hours and he walked the entire time. 
The next day, we set off for the National Zoo, which I thought was a bit of a dud, but Sawyer seemed to enjoy it. His Dad kept making the most authentic sounding gorilla and elephant noises, which amused our family, but practically terrified all of the other kids around us! 
Checking out a family of elephants from Dad’s shoulders.
It was hard to catch a glimpse of the pandas through all of the bamboo and tourists, but we finally got a peek. 
Here’s a tigress.On Saturday, Allen, Sawyer and I were up early, so we headed off to Einstein’s Bagels to give Susan and Jocelyn so quiet time to sleep. We had a great time having breakfast and then I surprised Sawyer by taking him to my neighborhood fire house, where the truck was out of the garage and a fireman was busy washing it and re-coiling the hoses.
Sawyer was totally enthralled….until he was done, and then we left. 
Joc and Susan were finally ready to rally, so we all headed to the Metro for Sawyer’s big ride on the train. He’d been waiting for his train ride anxiously, so when we finally got on board the Metro, he ran to a window seat and got ready. Once we got going, I told him that we were riding the train underground, but that if he counted to three and blew really hard, he would make the train go outside.
Sure enough, he and I counted to three, blew really hard and that popped out over the Potomac River. You would have thought I was the most magical aunt on Earth with the look of surprise he gave me. 
The one tourist attraction Sawyer was most excited to see was the Air & Space Museum, so we finally hit it on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, we were there right when he usually naps, so he wasn’t his super perky self, but he rallied and seemed to enjoy a lot of the museum. 
Allen showed him the airplanes hanging from the ceiling…
..the inside of a space rocket…
…the outside of a rocket booster….
…the inside of an airplane…
…and the outside of a lunar module. Quite a tour for a tired three-year old! 
Once we were ready to leave, we headed to the National Mall side of the museum, where I did my darndest to get a picture of Sawyer in front of the museum….…but he was having none of it.Two minutes later, I knew why. Poor guy was d-o-n-e!
On Saturday night, I treated Allen and Jocelyn to a date night at the Mayflower Hotel sans their son. Susan and I took Sawyer to Ted’s Montana Grill, where he normally chows down on an entire bowl of mac-n-cheese, but not on our night! Not so much as a bite, the little stinker.
Afterward, we came back to my house, pulled out the sleeper sofa and huddled in for a slumber party. We put on the movie Cars and he explained every scene to Susan and me. It’s clearly his favorite movie and he loved telling the two of us about the characters and how they’re all friends. So cute! In the middle of the movie, he turned to me and asked, “Where’s my totcorn?”
Five minutes later, he had an enormous bowl of popcorn on his lap that he wasn’t interested in sharing with his two aunties!Sunday morning began with Sawyer sitting up in bed, asking for a quesadilla. He quietly sat on my lap and started to wake up and when he realized it wasn’t his mother holding him, all hell broke loose. “I want my Mommy!” alternated with “I want my Daddy!” Oy vey.
After 5 minutes of wailing and attempting to keep it semi quiet so Susan could still sleep in the basement, I figured the hell with it. She was auntie too and could step into this nightmare with me. After a few minutes of serious crocodile tears, we realized the best course of action was avoidance. She and I started talking about how much we loved Cars and wouldn’t it be fun to watch it again, so downstairs we went to crawl back into bed. Not one to let a Cars party go on without him, Master Sawyer was back in the auntie business within a minute. Phew!
We watched a big chunk of the movie before getting Sawyer excited for his next adventure. Home Depot!
Sawyer found drills, saws, screwdrivers, hammers, tape measures and other tools that struck his fancy!
The best treat was discovering a forklift that Aunt Susie described in great detail. Who knew that Aunt Susie knew so much about forklifts! A Home Depot employee came over to use the forklift to lower a pallet of wood, which kept the little guy enthralled for 15 minutes! Hurray for Home Depot!Of course, as soon as we got back in the car, it was a reprisal of “I want my Mommy / Daddy.” Apparently, aunties are only so interesting for so long!
After some quick packing back at the house and a final goodbye to his toy tent…
…we were off to National Airport for a sad goodbye. It was a short trip, but so fun to have Al, Joc and Sawyer come to DC