It’s been a month of reflection, learning and emotional feelings for our family. We set out on GUBxploring and it was just as I imagined + a few tears.
As a parent, we want our kids to be better, smarter, and to still know where they came from. My parent’s never let me forget my roots and as a parent to bicultural kids I feel it’s my obligation and desire for them to know what their roots are even if I may not be as familiar with half of them.
GUBxploring was our chance to be hands on for the kids to see great things and for us to build memories and we did just that.
I want to share a few of my favorite pictures for our time Exploring the Memorials and Monuments. Here is the GUB family GUBxploring DC!
I dreamt of this exact photo and when I was able to capture it my heart felt big. My husband was so proud to share this with our kids because as he says “it isn’t like we have something in our culture to go back on to visit and call ours. Now we do and this is ours”
The Martin Luther King Jr Memorial is beautiful quiet with some water noises from the water close by. It’s a place that means so much to our family for a man that did so much for our nation.
Once we explained where we were and I explained to the kids everything we had learned in books they knew this place was important. I will treasure the pictures forever!
Little Man has just learned to read and during our trip with all the quotes on the back marble wall he began to find his site words. I, The, to, Can, were a few of the ones he was able to read from this quote.
We did a lot of walking and we talked about the marches that took place in DC in this area and how everyone wanted change and the people came together with MLK. We stood with the Washington Monument in the back this was another important moment.
As we arrived from the long walk along side the empty reflection pool the kids darted up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial. They’ve seen this place before. They kept stopping and looking back to make sure dad and I were coming. It felt like a long climb to see Lincoln but we made it!
The kids asked questions about the man in the chair and we discussed and learned more about the memorial from a ranger!
On the way down from the climb we looked out and saw the amazing view where MLK gave his speech. I was speechless.
Lastly we visited the Veteran’s Memorial. Having a veteran in our family, the Hubs, I knew this was important to show the kids. While the hubs was never put on land or in direct danger. I wanted the kids to see just how important this was to everyone who was there and how the soldiers statues each had a story of its own. We are lucky hubs only served during war zone waters and not our of them. I can’t imagine what the families of these soldiers who were listed along the back wall feel or felt.
This spoke volumes to our family. Freedom is not free interpret it in any situation as you’d like in our hearts we know that our service people are still in danger putting themselves at risk we are constantly at a lost in some way. Families missing members while they are away keeping us secure or casualties.
This was a perfect reminder on how my kids Black History and freedom came with a price I am glad times have changed and I can share this with our kids.
If you missed the GUBxploring vlog from our day check it out!
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