Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Thanksgiving-ish

One of the souvenirs we brought back for the kids from DC was some corn on the cob you put in the microwave (the whole cob) and the seeds pop off into popcorn. We thought that would be fun to try, so try we did!


 It may not have been the best tasting popcorn in the world but it was fun!
 The day after we got back, Rachel had "Colonial Days" at school and I had signed up to help as the photographer. It actually was a lot of fun and I'm glad I was able to be there. William didn't mind being my helper either.

 This was the exact moment that Rachel, in an attempt to lift William up to get a picture, dropped him and he smacked his chin on the gallows. That was a fun few  minutes after that.


 Not that I'm biased or anything....but Rach was by far the cutest colonial girl there.


On Thanksgiving morning Trav and Josh woke up at the crack of dawn to do their annual fishing trip.
 They caught a "big" one!
Our Thankful Turkey had some fancy feathers this year. I don't know how he managed to grow them like that!


Rachel also started indoor soccer for the first time ever! They struggled for the first few games but by the end of the season they were doing SO much better! I'm so proud of her and how much she improved....and that they kept going back and getting in there despite how much they lost.

Here's cute Will "watching" one of Rach's games.
We didn't hesitate to get the tree up this year right after Thanksgiving. It's good I have so many helpers.


 And daddy too...




 I like the look of confidence Trav has for Kate being able to put the star on the tree.


 Rach has got the cooking bug....or should I say "brownie bug" and will make us some brownies if she feels like it. It's a heavenly thing! Will likes to be her helper too.
 Josh is a sweetheart, I mean....totally manly sweetheart....and will still read to Kate. I love how he just takes care of everyone.
 Even if he doesn't always want to get his picture taken. Don't let him fool you....He's a sweetheart.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

DC!!

Oh. My. Goodness! When Trav told me a few weeks ago that he was going to Washington DC for a work conference I didn't even hesitate to say I was going with him. We somehow worked it all out to have the kids looked after and we were able to go for a whole week! No kids! I'm still totally shocked that we were able to pull this thing off, but I'm also really glad we did. Trav had never been there before and I went many many years (like 15) ago with my parents so it's not like it was fresh on my mind. I cannot thank friends and family enough for letting this happen!!I have about a million pictures, so this is my gift to you. 
(I'm totally kidding) Okay, here we go!

 So to start things off we went to the airport. Go figure. As we were waiting to board the plane I said, "Wait, is that....?"
 Yep. Mitt Romney (who I am a big fan) was on our flight! I knew this was a good sign for a great trip! We flew, we ate peanuts, drank cranberry juice, it was a great flight. By the time we got checked into our hotel it was starting to get dark so we were able to go explore the monuments at night. It was gorgeous!!!

 This is the Vietnam Memorial.  We came the day after Labor Day so there were flowers EVERYWHERE. It was really cool. There also was a group of old guys with hats that said "veterans" on it just chillin' by the memorial. It really makes you so patriotic to be there and see the names of so many that sacrificed for our freedom. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

 We took about a billion pictures of the Washington Monument because it is so cool. The pictures just don't do it justice....like...at all. It's SO big!!

 Here's Lincoln.




 We then made the LONG journey over to FDR.
 Trav got in the unemployment line.
 Wait...somebody butted in line!
 I do look sad to be there.
 
We made it all the way over to Jefferson! It was beautiful too!
The next day we woke up (2 hours earlier than normal) and hoofed it up to the capital for our tour. Our hotel was on the opposite side of the mall...which is about a 2 mile trek. A Utah intern gave us an awesome private tour of the capital! It really was so cool and I'm so glad we booked it though our senators office and not one of the huge tours they have there. Very cool!

 Unfortunately, they are fixing the dome so the whole thing was covered in scaffolding on the outside, and on the inside we only got to see the tippy top because it was covered with a tarp.
 Luckily, we had some great recommendations of yummy restaurants so we hopped up to eat at the Good Stuff Eatery. Mmmmmm. Toasted Marshmallow shakes.....

After the capital, we hoofed it down for our white house tour. We had to go through mega security, and even be sniffed by a dog! It was pretty crazy. But it was neat to be able to be in the white house.

 Awww....Trav looks like an angel!

 Then we went over to the American History Museum. There is SO much to see there. You seriously can't see it all. We did get to see Kermit the Frog (among a few other things)


We need more pictures of the Washington Monument. It's so pretty!

 It's also useful too. I used it as a wind blocker when it got cold that night.


 We were seriously SO tired by the end of this day. I really didn't know if we'd be able to survive any more! Trav already had blisters on his feet and I could barely walk out of sheer exhaustion. We needed to lay down for a bit.

 At least the view was nice!


 As we were walking up to another awesome restaurant for dinner I noticed that their crosswalk countdown signs would start counting at the most random numbers. It was hilarious! (Okay, Trav didn't think it was THAT funny, but it totally was). My goal was to get a picture of one of the really long ones. This one was 61, but some would start at 43, 63, 55, and on the really big road we got like 15. Who plans that?
We found out that night that there were bombings in Paris and threats to bomb DC as well. We were in the white house when this was happening! In. the. white. house! (While Obama was there, I might add). Not the safest place in the country by any means. Thankfully we were/are safe. Security was definitely bumped up after that. There were policemen everywhere.

 Even though we could barely walk the next day, we hobbled out to go see the Natural History Museum. Again....way too much to see, but it was totally awesome.




I stopped to take a picture of the white house right as a UPS truck drove by.
 This is what I meant to get....

We, the Pizza.
 We also did the Air and Space Museum this day. We were hobbling by the end!


 This is Amelia Earharts plane! So cool!




 We moved to a new hotel tonight...the one the company payed for. It was over at National Harbor. The traffic was insane and our poor uber driver was cussing, swerving, cutting in....I'm just grateful we made it there in one piece!

We thought the evacuation map was funny. We are out in the middle of nowhere! That's helpful....
 Upon further inspection we did notice where the star actually was. Why didn't they just put an arrow? Whatever.

On Sunday we were able to go to church which was amazing. We went back to the mall to take a quick picture of the white house. (Trav's co-worker wanted to get a picture of it.) Then it was over to the Holocaust museum. W.O.W. So powerful.

 We walked around national harbor that night. It's kind of a fun, little place. Little did we know, the night we got there was the big Christmas tree lighting. So we got to see the cool tree.
 Trav, catching up on some work in our fancy hotel.
 While Trav was in meetings on Monday and Tuesday I was able to go hang out with my old college roommate, Felicia. It was SO good to see her and so fun to hang out with her for 2 days! We weren't super close and were only roommates for 1 semester but she moved out there last year and when she found out we were coming she said she'd be my tour guide. I am so indebted to her. It was so much fun and plus, I didn't have to cruise DC alone which I was really scared about.

The first day we went to Freidricksburg. It's a cool Civil war town where you can drive through the battlefields.
 We also went up the the cemetery which was really cool. There were so many graves that had unknown soldiers so it would just have a number of how many bodies were buried there. 5, 7, 9. It was so interesting.

 There was a little cemetery inside the big cemetery and this was part of the wall that got hit by a cannonball during the civil war.
 Bullet-holes were on the other side.

 There was a little house that was caught in the crossfire of a battle that was still there. You can look through the windows to see what damage had been done.
 I told Felicia I could see her reflection in the window. Ha ha!
 They had this huge ferris wheel right by our hotel that Trav had fun taking pictures of and changing the settings on.





 The next day Felicia (and Carter) and I went to Mt. Vernon, which was George Washington's house. The George Washington. That's so weird! When I told people I was going to DC most of them said, "Are you going to Mt.Vernon? That's my favorite!" I was so curious to see what all the hype was for.

Here's cute Felicia and cute Carter.
 And here's Mt.Vernon!
 It actually really was cool. He was such a cool guy and I loved learning more about him. The grounds there are absolutely gorgeous and I could totally move in. I guess I see what the hype was all about.
 They actually have it as a working home like it was 'back in the day.' The blacksmith shop is still functional and they use it daily.
 These are the slave quarters. Yes, he had lots of slaves.
 This is the other end of the room where the slaves did their cooking and cleaning.
 I thought this was hilarious. When George didn't want to take the big fancy carriage, he'd take the convertible. (aka, chair on a cart)
 This is his tomb.
 You could look across the Potomac and see Fort Washington.
 Here's a slave house of those that worked down in the gardens.

 We went back to see all the monuments (again) and all the flags were at half mast for the people of Paris.


The next day we went to see the Pentagon and the September 11 Memorial they had there.


 Then we hopped over to Arlington cemetery. SO amazing! It is very humbling to see. The graves seem to go on forever.


 We watched the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Such a reverent, sacred place.
 Iwo Jima.

 We even became pros at the metro. Sometimes we felt like we were entering a spaceship.
 
The last day we had there we went to see Ford's Theater. It's still an actual working theater, they just have Lincoln's box marked off. It was actually really cool to see (especially after reading 'Killing Lincoln.")


 We then ate at Lincoln's waffle house across the street, then walked through Chinatown.
 It was a rainy day, we were so tired and ready to just come home, so we wandered a little bit but nothing too huge.

 We had a good flight home and were even on the same flight as our friend, Jess, from back home. They barely let me on the flight with my Civil war souvenir bullets and had to search my luggage. I swear the flight home was like 10 hours long...at least it felt like it! It was a great trip but it was so good to be home and see the kids. I missed them!! I think they missed us too.

Thanks for letting me tag along on your trip, Trav. :) I love DC.