Happy Presidents' Day!

Our company is gone, and we had a good weekend. Unfortunately, they left behind the present of some germs (they came sick), so now we are pretty much all feeling under the weather with some kind of head cold that is also in the chest. But we were all feeling pretty good this morning, so we decided to go to Mount Vernon (sorry there's no link--I don't feel like doing it). There, in honor of George Washington's birthday, admission was free today. Normally it would cost our family maybe $27 to go. Of course, all the rest of the population of D.C. went to day too, since it was an unseasonably warm day. As we drove in at about 12:30, we could see several spaces in the parking lots because people had already started leaving, but the lot entrances were all blocked up by orange cones. We drove down to the overflow lots, a couple miles away, where they had shuttles to bus you in. This seemed like a real hassle, so we decided to try again in the main lots. We could see available parking spaces as we drove by, so when we got near the entrance to the lot, Bob carefully drove between 2 cones, although he knocked one over. This of course led to a great surge of cars following Bob's brave lead, and by the time we had gotten all the boys out of the car, a police car drove up to put back the cones. But not before a lot of other cars found spaces! What a hero! And by the end of the day, we were so glad that we were parked close by and didn't have to wait in a huge line to board the shuttle bus. Anyway, inside the grounds, the line for the tour of the actual house was a mile long, so we quickly decided we weren't interested in that. No strollers were allowed in there either, so it wasn't much of a disappointment. Instead we wandered around the grounds, examing the large (3 seater!) outdoor privy, the kitchen gardens, the 16-sided barn that Washington invented for threshing wheat, and several pens with animals in them (sheep, a turkey, cows, etc.). This was much more interesting for the boys, and they had a good time, although Nathan's toe was still bothering him. At least it didn't start bleeding again! About halfway through our walking, I started feeling a terrible headache, and Bob said he had one too. We were all coughing at that point too, so we hurried up and went home. After naptime, Jonathan and Caleb were both running fevers, and now Nathan is as well. Bob and I were also feverish, and I imagine Luke is now too. We are all off to bed now, and I guess we won't be going to homeschool co-op tomorrow. I know Bob is planning on staying home from work tomorrow unless he has a miraculous recovery tonight. Bob's mom is also sick, so please be praying for her. We had a good time with them this weekend, and I would hate her to have bad associations of our house because she got sick here.