D.C.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to make the 4 hour trip to Washington D.C.!!!!! Our stake was setting up a stake temple trip, so my mind got going...How fun would it be to drive up the night before, get a hotel, meet up with our dearest of friends from college Ellen and Kevin from Philly, and party all weekend?? We decided that it was SUCH a good idea, that it's exactly what we ended up doing! And let me tell you, we had a freakin, fraggin blast!!!!

We left Friday after Eric got out of class, around 330, and made it there around 8. So we decided to go swimming in our hotels pool, which ended up being FREEZING cold. I was bummed about that because I knew Olivia would love it, (and she did for the little time we were there, her poor chin was chattering the entire time!) and we couldn't stay. :(

The next day we woke up super early and raced to make it to the TEMPLE! Which is where we met up with Ellen and Kevin! WHo, so kindly, watched Olivia for us so we could go! I can't remember the last time we did a session together so that was GREAT. We ended up being 1 minute late for the 8 o'clock session so we had to wait a half hour for the next one. But it was a GORGEOUS temple!!! Absolutely amazing! After the temple we grabbed Ellen and Kevin and ventured to Downtown D.C.!! Eric has never been to D.C., and I have once when I was 13, so it was such a fun "first" for us! We walked around a lot, we saw some of the monuments but didn't really have the chance to get up close to some of them because we wanted to go to the Holocaust museum before it closed. And the Holocaust museum was AMAZING. Very sombering, and I am still angry about some of the things I learned there, but such a good experience and something I think all Americans should see!Next we went to the Air and Space Museum! It was really cool! All of the museums there had so much cool information posted everywhere that you could stay there for HOURS learning about all of it, but with a 1 yr old, it gets kinda hard. Don't get me wrong, Olivia was quite the trooper and we are really proud of how she handled the trip.

Call me a nerd, but I really enjoyed seeing the plane that Amelia Earhart flew, because it's the plane that they fly in Night at the Museum 2!

After that, Ellen and Kevin had to leave and we tried to go to Arlington National Cemetary, but it was closed. So we went to go get some dinner and went back to the hotel to put Olivia down.

The next morning, Sunday, Eric, Olivia, and I ventured back into Downtown to go and see more of the monuments and memorials which was a BLAST! First we went to go see the Lincoln Memorial, and saw the Vietnam War Memorial on the way! The Lincoln Memorial is breathtaking, and very grand! And the Vietnam was amazing, all those names on the wall, wow. This trip really made me thank Heavenly Father for all the Veteran's and the people who have served our Country and who gave their lives for it. We wouldn't be who we are today without their ultimate sacrifice. The trip also just took us back to "home," seeing all the monuments of our Fore-Fathers and what they meant this Country to be.

Then we hit the Korean War Memorial, The World War 2 Memorial, and the White House!

Then, we went to the Museum of American History, which was probably my favorite museum! I freakin saw fonzie's jacket! And Dorothy's ruby red slippers!! Which, interesting fact, did you know that her slippers were originally silver, but were changed to the ruby tecnicolor to show up against the yellow brick road for the film? It thought that was cool. And they also had there all the first ladie's inaugural dresses which were STUNNING! We also saw Abraham Lincoln's suit, his top hat, and his death mask! It was crazy, like you were looking right at him!

Then we went to the Museum of Natural History which is where all the dinosaur bones and the hope diamond is!...As well as all the other JAW DROPPING jewelery of all time!

Then we ran down the the front of the Capital Building to get a better picture, Then we went to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights! That was an Amazing experience!

Lastly, on our way back home, we got to stop by Arlington National Cemetary which was AWESOME! We weren't expecting to, so it was a real treat! We ended up taking the tour of it, which told us all the cool facts of the cemetary, it took us to J.F.K's grave, to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, and we also got to see the changing of the guard!

After that we went home, but got lost, and got to see the Air Force Monument and the Pentagon!(from our car) So it was a nice "detour".

But Whew! Sunday was a packed FULL day! And it was such a fun weekend! It was great quality time with eachother and so much fun to experience new things together. We love that we live so close to D.C...well, somewhat. There's really only 3 things we didn't do that we want to, which is go see the Thomas Jefferson Monument, The Rose Garden Tour, and we also want to someday get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. But it was such a fun trip! I will always remember it!