Washington D.C.

Our family arrived home at 8:30 this morning from our 10 day family vacation in Washington D.C. We had a great time!! We packed so much in in our short time. Here are a couple of pics of all the fun we had.

the boys together


Avery


Isaac


Proud Papa Jonathan


Proud Mama Julie



Joe's oldest brother Jonathan and his wife Julie live 5 minutes outside d.c. and were blessing their sweet twins last Sunday. Avery and Isaac. We were so fortunate to be able to meet our sweet... and very cute! nephews. They will be 3 months next week.

One night we went to D.C. to see the buildings lit up. The temperature was perfect, and the buildings looked amazing! We went with Joe's Brothers Jonathan and Jake and Julie's oldest brother Randy. We walked the mall from the Washington monument to the white house, we walked thru the natl world war II memorial, down the reflective pool, up the stairs to the Lincoln memorial, back down thru the Vietnam Memorial Wall and back to our car. We even got to see a police escort into the white house of a foreign dignitary. It was really really neat, and all three boys were great sports!!





We spent a lot of time with a good friend of joe's (from the mission),brett, and his wonderful family. It's always nice to have friends with children that your children like to play with. It makes getting together so much more fun!! Brett's family has 3 girls and 1 boy (Joli, Genevieve, Jillian & Baby Jacob). They insisted we stayed with them. At first lucas said... I don't want to play with girl toys, but once we got there and he found the wii and other cool "neutral" games the girls had we never heard another word or sound about being bored.

We went to a pumpkin patch

We went out to eat. (that's always a task with so many children)

Joli and Lucas being silly

Carter was happy as long as he got to drink a real treat (lemonade, mmmm)

Jonathan took Tuesday off and was our own personal tour guide. We went to see the Declaration of Independence and Constitution

We went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (The American History one was closed =( )



Arlington Natl Cemetery and watched the changing of the gaurd, at the tomb of the unknown soldier.


and jfk's tomb


a word to the wise... WEAR COMFORTABLE WALKING SHOES!!! The path is long and uphill! Again, the boys were great sports!


Joe also has a sister, Sarah, that lives in Baltimore. (The Fox Family Joined us Too!) We spent the day in downtown Baltimore at the National Aquarium and ESPN Zone. Later that day we met up with Sarah's husband will and grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner.




On our last day we went to the Dept of Treasury and watched how money was made. Very interesting. Did you know they are open 24/7 and print $700million a day!? We went to the Smithsonian Natl Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. There, we got to see an actual NASA Space Ship, Go up into a Control Tower to watch the planes swoop in and saw the actual plane that dropped the atomic bomb. The boys loved it!





We also stopped at Gravelly Point on the Patomic River where you can watch the planes take off and land 100ft above your head. It's an amazing experience and one of the highlights of the trip.




You'll notice a few extra pictures of lucas smiling close up. Joe was wiggling Lucas' front tooth and let Lucas pull it. His mouth is full of loose teeth, some adult teeth, and missing gaps. He has lost 4 teeth to date and has two more that are loose. They say the earlier a baby gets teeth the sooner they begin to loose them. He got his first two teeth at 2 months and began to loose them fairly young so I'd say that fact seems to be true! =)




Our trip went well. We had a blast. As an adult and watching the history that has taken place in my life and watching a father serve our country I can't help but have a very strong since of pride for this amazing land we live in! We closed by filling our last day (yesterday) to the brim with tours, laughing with friends and family and a "last supper". Joe and I found that driving long distances with little ones is earier while they are sleeping.. so we loaded up the mini and left last night at 9 and drove all thru the night. We did 900 miles in 11.5 hours. Needless to say... we were exhausted this morning. But Baby Brett was great... he had bfast ready for our boys and took over so joe and I could get a couple of hours of sleep... So now here i am living off of 3 hours of sleep in 36 hours... AND I'M BLOGGING!!!
GOOD NIGHT!!!!