More DC

Day 2 in DC was much more relaxing than day 1.

Sara and I slept in, actually Sara did. I seem to be unable to sleep in so I just read a book until she woke up!

We got our running clothes on and took the Metro over to the National Mall to run. These are our views from our run.






We had a great time!

We also went around the White House again.



We did a little shopping and then went back to the hotel to get ready for the big wedding.

The whole purpose of this trip was to attend Sara's friend's wedding.

It was held at the St. Regis hotel a block from the White House. It was a beautiful wedding! Alaina (Sara's friend) looked beautiful too. Here they are together.



That was all we did on day 2.

Day 3.
This morning we worked out in the fitness center at the hotel, then cleaned up and headed into DC again.

We had planned to visit the Smithsonian museums, Holocaust Memorial, and the National Archives.

On a whim we decided to go to the top of the Postal Museum. Since the Washington Monument is closed the tower on the Postal Museum is the highest point in town.

This is looking right down Pennsylvania Ave to the Capital.



The Washington Monument.



We saw the Hope Diamond in the Natural History Museum.



We saw a huge stuffed elephant that I knew Tyler would love!




We went through two museums and then discovered that we were very tired and very tired of walking. We were running out of steam!

We were unable to see the Holocaust museum so we headed to the Archives for our last stop.

We saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights. They were amazing to see.

We finished our DC experience with a nice lunch/dinner in town and caught the Metro back to our hotel.

Here is a view of escalators to and from the Metro by our hotel. I'm not sure it really captures how long and steep they are but they are long and steep!



We affectionally called it the cliffs of insanity (from The Princess Bride)!

We stepped all the way up two times and it was not easy!

We've had a great time on our trip. We'll both be flying home separately tomorrow morning.:(

I've loved being able to spend this time with Sara. I hope I can be more like my little sister someday!

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Washington DC day 1

Sara and I got up early today and took the Metro into DC. We took a trolley tour to see all the sights. We quickly realized that we would never get to see everything in one day!

We went to the White House first.









Next we went to the National Zoo and saw the Panda.



Isn't it cute!!

After the zoo we decided to walk to the National Cathedral. It was a beautiful walk through a great neighborhood. We stopped to take a picture of the cherry blossoms.



We were a little late for peak cherry blossoms but still enjoyed the ones that were still around!

The Cathedral was impressive.







Next we jumped on the trolley and headed out to the Lincoln Memorial. It is probably my favorite memorial.




This is a shot looking from the Lincoln Memorial out at the Washington Monument. The reflection pool is under construction. :(




The next stop was Arlington Cemetery. We loved the amazing rows of headstones, the Kennedy flame, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.



Did I mention that Sara got pooped on by a bird? Notice that it is on her nose too!



Although she looks like she's laughing, she isn't! I am laughing while taking the picture though!

More great blossoms.



We ended the day with a lot of walking!

We saw the Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, WWII Memorial, MLK Memorial, Washington Monument (seen here).



The walking continued through the National Mall to the Capitol Building.



After the Capitol we walked to the Union Station, ate dinner, had ice cream, and caught the Metro back to our hotel.

It was a long day!! We had a great time exploring DC and taking in all of the amazing sights!

Now we are sitting in the hotel with our throbbing feet elevated!

I can't wait to see what fun we'll have tomorrow!

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Pride

Look at this beauty!

I am so proud of myself! I made this fantastic banana-coconut bread with lime glaze. I got the recipe from Our Best Bites blog. I would highly recommend it!


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Testing. . . Testing

This post is a test run to see if my new blogging app will work.

I looked through my photo's tonight and found about 500 photo's similar to this one! That scary looking child in the middle really is Abby!

Does anyone else have this problem?



Here are a few more gems.








Here's a change of pace. Gotta love the 20 pictures of this megazord!




What did my kids do for fun before we had an iPad?

Winter!

On March 2nd winter finally arrived!

We have had the best winter I can remember. It's been snow free with very mild temperatures. Did I mention it's been the best winter?

As nice as it's been, it was nice to get a good dumping of snow finally. I even had a thought of keeping the kids home from school and taking them sledding. Then I came to my senses and sent them off to school!

After the kids were off, Lu and I had the task of shoveling all the snow! It was heavy and severely drifted in some spots. I got a little done and then was saved by my neighbor with a snow blower. I was so grateful for the help!

Here is Lu "helping" me with the shoveling.

Lu is eating the snow here. It also shows how high the snow piled up!

The nice thing about this snow storm is that it looks like winter today but a few days from now it'll be spring-like again. I love it!

Recent Happenings

I haven't been keeping up on the blog very well lately. Here are a few of the things that have been going on this past month.

Abby got glasses a month or so ago. She LOVED them for the first 2 weeks and now I have to remind her often to put them on. I think she looks cute in them.

Our ward had a great Blue and Gold Banquet. It was our first year attending it because of past scheduling conflicts so I don't have anything to compare it to but I thought it was pretty great. There was a nice dinner, a cake decorating contest, and best of all a magician!

Can you tell that the kids were completely mesmerized?

Alex even got the chance to go up and assist the magician.

Have I ever mentioned how much Abby like to play with Ferby(our dog)? She loves to sleep with him and dress him up with dolls clothes and bows in his hair. She also likes to put him in our play shopping cart and push him around the house. Today she topped it all.

The best thing about this picture is the contrast in facial expressions. Abby is so proud of herself and loving the new idea. Ferby looks less than excited. It was pretty funny.

Those are a few of the happenings around our house this past month.