The District

This is a tale of us going to DC.

Rob travels for work every month and this month he went to D.C. 

D.C. just so happens to be one of my very favorite places on earth. For lots of reasons. 1. I love my country. 2. I love the history and preserved strength of our country that is in the capital. 3. I love the east coast seasons and the wonderful colors of fall that we just don't experience in any degree here in Utah. 4. The diversity is so fantastic. 5. The city is so beautiful. Mainly the northern parts. Southern can get a bit rough. :) 6. That's where I served my mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, so it's like home!

Here is a long recap of our adventures via silly and not really distinguishable pictures.

Adelheid at 6am Monday morning. My heart is breaking as I take this picture cause she has no idea that her parents are leaving her in the care of multiple family members for the next three days. Turns out, she didn't mind! Woohoo!

Just arrived at the airport 8am. Had some Cinnabons and just played with the iPad. 

In the rental car! What adventures. This was annoying because the lovely gps took about 30 minutes before realizing where we were. What a silly device. We got a Chevy Aveo. 

We get to the hotel and immediately notice a Cheesecake Factory is directly across from our room on the other side of the courtyard. So, what do you do?

Eat there of course!! We ate food and then shared the White Chocolate Red Velvet Cheesecake. Pretty spectacular. 

There were a few malls near our hotel. One had a movie theater. So we went and saw Puss'n Boots. We are big Shrek fans so it was pretty great. Our kids pack of popcorn, treat and drink. 

Movie love.

The next day, after work, we hopped on the meto and went to the city. This is Rob's first experience on an underground train. This is his metro face.

Rob is a hat collector. He loves to buy local baseball team hats where ever he travels. So we were on a mission to find a good hat store that sold official MLB baseball caps to get Rob a Washington Nationals hat. Our first stop was Union Station. It's a fun mall/transient place.

We found this awesome podium there. Rob has big plans for this country. Although all the cameras and microphones and news reporters kinda made him nervous.

I had a french companion who taught me the beauty of french pastries. In the Union Station there is Au Bon Pain, a french pastry and other yummy foods place. So we had to indulge. Sweet Cream Cheese Danish and a Chocolate Croissant. Bon Appitite!

  

There is also pigeons in this mall. This guy came over to have some of my french pastry, which I absolutely did not share.

 Back on the metro to the National Mall!

  

We sorta got off too early and ended up walking miles in the wrong direction. We did get to see some fun and interesting things. This is the house where Abraham Lincoln died. They brought him here after he was shot. Pretty neat.

After we walked till our feet came off just to get there, we finally saw the Capital. Do you see it? There?

We hit up the National Museum of Natural History before it closed.

Rob and I both actually have a terrible fear of bears. It's kind of hindering. We didn't even camp last summer, partly because we are so terrified. I know, we need help. (Especially because we both love camping so dang much!)

Rob loves dinosaurs. In fact, you can ask him to spell any dinosaur name and he will, on the spot. And he'll get it right every time. He's something of a genius.

However, genius or not, he's obsessed with creepy things. I was pretty much gagging the whole time we were in the insect part of the museum. He loved it.

Can you tell what this is? It's a leaf bug! 

Beautiful Washington Monument at sunset.

After the 18 mile walk to the Lincoln Memorial, Rob didn't have the stamina to walk back down the stairs. Yes, he slid on his bum down them instead.

We hailed a taxi to take us the mile from the Lincoln to Jefferson Memorial because it was dark, late, and we were exhausted. This is my very favorite memorial, so we HAD to go.

  
Sometimes, christian people worry that the nation is going to take God out of everything; out of the Pledge of Allegiance; out of the schools; off of the dollar... etc. But when I'm here, reading the things Jefferson penned, that are now engraved in marble in our Nations capital, I can't help but know that no one could ever remove God from those walls. It's the only place in the whole city that makes me cry.


After walking 16.5 miles back to the Smithsonian metro station, we were left with stubs instead of feet.


The next day, after work, we went to the National Zoo. One huge, awesome, free zoo.

Rob was so excited to go to the part of the zoo where you get to see bugs. He couldn't wait to see the tarantulas. I was devastated...

The colors in the east are amazing. Zoo Love.

Pink Flamingos! They deserve to be in this post. They were all sleeping on one leg with their heads curved around until we walked up and every single one of them lifted their heads and stared at us at the same time. It was awesome.

Only because Rob had to use the bathroom every 20 minutes.

Who knew elephants could text?!

Later we dressed up and went to this interesting diner called 'The American Diner' which had no one speaking English as their first language. But that's ok.

They did have this quarter machine directly in front of our table that creeped Rob out a bit....

Then... my favorite part. We went to the temple. I served about 1/3 of my mission at the visitor center there so this was Really like home. I loved it.

Blurry Temple Love.

And then we went home. Remember this picture?

Ya.... happened again.

This time we took it to our room and we had Caramel Apple Struesal and Pecan Caramel Turtle. GAH!

Packed our bags and the next day, we had tons of time before our flight. So we went to a mall in Virginia that had a Lids so Rob could get his hat. But we still had way to much time... so we ended up doing the only thing there was too do and spent an hour buying new phones to play with...... oops!

We even got cheesy little covers. And PS, this is our first time ever having a data plan. How lame are we?! Even my mom has had a data plan and smart phone way before me. So it was an expensive but necessary catch up. :) 

Also, see Rob's new hat?

Well, we finally made it home. We were so excited to see Adelheid. She had a wonderful time with all her cousins. Thanks so much Shanna and TJ, Mom and Erica for your help!

Wonder where the next adventure will be?!