Our Nation's Capital

If you had noticed that I hadn't blogged for a while, you probably guessed it...we were on a trip!

We have been wanting to go on a trip to Washington D.C. since, well since Jonas and I met pretty much! That was 11 years ago. Jonas served his mission in the D.C./Maryland area and I lived in the D.C./Virginia area until I was 10. It took us a while to get there but we finally made it! It almost didn't happen, we had to cross several hurdles before the trip including me getting sick the night before (yuck!) but I am so glad that we went.
I made these little journals for the kids so that they could draw pictures of where we went. (Well Jasmine drew pictures of ponies, houses and footsteps instead.)

I flew with the handy back support pillow that Jonas bought me and it was a lifesaver (I used it in the car, everywhere!) but we left in the airport on the way home so I didn't have it coming home so that was a bummer.

Here are some highlights. We left on Friday morning, we got in after the red eye flight and went straight to the National Mall. We were seriously giddy with excitement! Driving by the Washington Monument for the first time brought back so many memories for both of us.

We parked at Union Station and walked across the street to the National Postal Museum which I had never been too.

It was cool and the kids got to make a postcard to send to anyone.
Then we walked up to Capital Hill and Jonas made friends with this guard (of course!) that got us tickets to tour where the house of representatives meet. That was very cool. We sat right under the logo for the state of Louisiana and Shayden recognized it from a report that he had done. There was so much symbolism in that building, in all of the murals, sculptures, etc.


Then we walked down in the deathly heat to the Air and Space Museum, but not before scarfing down a yummy hot dog from a hot dog stand.

This memory comes straight out of my childhood!

The Air and Space Museum was having a special "Mars Day" so they had extra activities. (It pays to research a vacation). The kids got to decorate a mars rover.

It's awesome because I have so many memories of coming here as a child. Amazingly, my parents used to let my brother and I (he was about 12 and I was 8) ride the Metro alone and go spend the day at the Mall. I can't believe we used to do that but we never had any problems, of course that was also a long time ago. It's funny how even the smell of a certain place can trigger nostalgia.

I read somewhere that at the cafe in the museum they had space related toys in the Mcdonalds kids meals, so we had the kids eat there so they could also have a souvenir.

After that Jonas and Shayden both hiked back to the car, and Jasmine and I stayed behind and visited the Botanical Gardens (Leah, you should be proud ;)

We headed to where we were staying which was at my cousin's home in the Virginia area.

That night we had a nice time visiting with her and my aunt and uncle, and had Chinese takeout.

Saturday we left way later than we intended to and we took the Metro in to the city. But there was some mechanical problem so the trip took like double the time. By the time we walked to the White house it was like 1pm!

The kids were not too thrilled about the White House, it could have had something to do with day 2 of walking in 100+ degree weather.

Next we walked over to the White House Visitor's Center. It was really like a museum for the White House, which was cool since we didn't get to tour it. This was another first for me.

Shayden did like taking a picture and talking to the Secret Service Agent outside the gate.

Good thing I have a husband who is not afraid to talk to anyone. The man gave them each a little SS pin.

Earlier we bought stuff for a picnic so we plopped down on the lawn and ate our lunch.

And we got a little visitor who wanted in on the action too.

I think he took advantage of us.

Our last tourist stop was the museum of Natural History but we were really short on time at that point so we didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked. But really, how much is enough time in a Museum that enormous? It was awesome because Shay is totally at an age where he could have literally looked at each exhibit and been happy there all day. I would have LOVED to just follow him around instead of us hurrying him, but oh well.

R, you are going to have to devote A LOT of time to these museums!

I can never get good pictures by the elephant. For some reason it didn't smell the same either, which was kind of a bummer.

We got to see the beautiful Hope Diamond. I can't believe it originally weighed 45 carats!

From there we were off to Maryland, to stay the night with a lady that Jonas baptized 13 years ago! Crazy. She was so welcoming it was wonderful. We met her at a park in Germantown where they were doing a summer concert in the park. Jasmine had fun dancing.

Btw, this is the most pictures that anyone will ever see of Jasmine in shorts and sneakers. She's all about dresses and skirts!

Here they are together, it was such a sweet reunion.

That day we went to church and just pretty much just hung out. We went to a single's ward with Victoria, the girl above, and that was pretty funny let me tell you! Later we did go get ice cream and walk along this pretty lake trail.

That night we drove back to my cousin Zaidy's house in Virginia. We tried to get a good glimpse of the temple but weren't able to see it that well. I wasn't able to get a good picture either.

The next day was our last one and we took off back to downtown, determined to make the most of it. But in turned out to be quite the adventure.

First of all, we get to the Arlington Cementary, and the first thing that happens is just as we are walking in is that Jasmine get's stung by a wasp! She was in so much pain it was so sad. So we went back inside and asked for a first aid kit and instead they called an ambulance! The paramedics came in, with the firefighters and the stretcher, ready to take her to the hospital if needed! I guess they felt like they needed to do this for liability purposes. And since she is so little and had never been stung before, they wanted to make sure she didn't have a reaction. Luckily we didn't have to pay for this since we live in this wonderful country. Jasmine was very shy but she let them do what they had to do, and she was very brave while they got the stinger out, she didn't even cry, the poor thing. She was pretty traumitized though, but that only lasted a few minutes. After that, we were able to enjoy the scene.

The coolest part of course was the changing of the guards ceremony and watching how serious they took this responsability.

Our next stop was the Lincoln Memorial, which Shayden had been very excited to see.

He learned a lot about Abraham Lincoln in Kindergarten and it stuck with him.

And we got to show him the place where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech:

The funniest thing though, by the time we got up there we were all so heat exhausted, I took some pictures of Shayden by the statue,

and then a few minutes later he fell asleep just like this:

poor guy, he was such a trooper, and even carried his backpack with him everywhere.

Once he was awake though, he was back to his normal, silly self.

And so was Jasmine,

After being pooped from walking in the heat, we gratefully landed on a patch of grass right by the Potomac River. You can see the Washington Bridge through the trees. It was beautiful.

This time we shared our picnic with some ducks.

After that we decided to go to the National Archives to see the Constitution and Declaration of Independance. We had to wait in line to get in the building and then to enter the exhibit, but it was pretty cool to see. Shayden said he thought that the real Constitution has been lost or thrown out to sea, so he was relieved to know it was safe and sound.

This was our very last stop of the day but when we left we were shocked to see that

our car was towed!!! The sign was really confusing and Jonas had accidentally parked in a tow zone! So that was not good. Jonas had to take a taxi to go get it, but it turned out to be pretty close and we didn't have to pay to take our car out, but now we have a lovely ticket.

There were a couple of good things that came out of that though.

The kids and I got to visit these pretty fountains.

The sign says "No Wading Allowed"

But this was the scene all around:

So I decided to let peer pressure rule, besides, it was a welcomed distraction. :)

And we also got to spend just a little more time in the Museum of Natural History, buy a couple more souvenirs, including the flattened pennies that I always get for the kids but had forgotten to.

Turns out my phone didn't have reception so Jonas was driving around looking for us forever once he got the car, but once we finally reunited we headed to my aunt and uncle's house for a barbeque.

Here is Zaidy with little baby Zoe, isn't she cute:

and my aunt and uncle:

We had some crazy adventures in flying on the way home, as our flight was delayed 4 hours! But we made it and we had a very fun time!