Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum

After days cooped up inside due to winter weather, 

we were all starting to feel a bit like this...

So we decided we really needed to get out of the house today. Since we all woke up (too) early, and it's still too cold to do anything outside, it was the perfect opportunity to spend a morning exploring the Udvar-Hazy Center, part of the National Air and Space Museum that's housed out by Dulles airport.  It's two huge airplane hangars full of airplanes, helicopters, and even Space Shuttle Discovery.  

Malcolm is currently obsessed with airplanes.  He still loves trains, cars, and trucks, but lately from the moment he gets up until the moment he goes to sleep (clutching several airplanes in his hands), all he wants is for someone to "play airplanes with me!"  He's watched the movie Planes so many times I noticed he's started to memorize parts of it.  So we knew he would love this place, but I honestly don't know when the last time I saw him so excited.  He was in heaven!  And Lucinda, Matt and I had a blast too.  

When we got there, we were so excited that the very first airplane we saw was this Navy Corsair.  For our little family, this was like seeing a celebrity!  Why, you might ask, was this so exciting?  Malcolm's favorite plane from the movie Planes is Skipper, and this plane looked exactly like Skipper!  He and Lucinda both ran up shouting "it's Skipper! it's Skipper!"  And Malcolm told Skipper his name and wouldn't leave at the end of our visit until we made one final stop so he could say goodbye to Skipper.  I think we would have been less excited to see an actual celebrity. (sidenote to self: watch less Planes).

Malcolm took the lead and raced down the ramp to see the rest of the planes, which were almost as exciting as the Skipper sighting.

Malcolm and Lucinda waited patiently in line for a chance to "fly" a Cessna airplane.

They loved these little double chairs that were built into the railing throughout the museum, and kept sitting in them and shouting "cheese!" so I could take their picture with the airplanes they liked.

Malcolm said that Skipper and the space shuttle were his favorite.  Lucinda, in typical quirky Lucinda fashion, declared this old Federal Express plane her favorite. 

Matt and I thought the space shuttle was really cool.  They moved Discovery here last year when they retired the shuttle.  Up close, the material it's made from is really strange looking, and the giant engines are amazing.

The great thing about Udvar-Hazy is that unlike many of the Smithsonian museums that can be crowded and a bit cramped, especially on the weekends, there's room to run around here and be super excited about seeing all these airplanes up close.