Spring Vacation to Washington D.C.

We had so much fun on our trip to Washington D.C. We are so glad that we went and had the opportunity to spend some time with our family as well. It started on Thursday when we left for the two day drive! Yes, you read that right, we took three children on a 16 hour road trip! In our defense we originally thought it was only going to be 12 hours, but when we printed out the map from map quest turns out it really was 16! But what the hey, the trip was already planned and we were going! Not going to lie, the drive was no fun, we did turn Jack forward(he had just turned one and he does weigh 20 lbs) and that helped. We tried to play lots of games and stop as much as we could. Below is a very fuzzy picture of Jack playing peek a boo with me. So we finally arrived on Friday night around 6 I believe, we met everyone at a mall close to the place we were going to stay. It was great to see everyone, Cristy and Nathaniel we have not seen since their wedding and Poteets not since we moved. It was great to see the little boys, we have missed them so much! We lived by them for four years and saw them nearly everyday and it had been close to a year! It was a great reunion. Maddie and Georgey were shy for maybe minute and than it was as no time had passed.
We got to our cabin, three bedrooms, one room for each family, with Rach on the couch in the living room. Rach came for the first weekend we were there, a great friend who lives in the area, who we really do not get to see enough! The cabin was great, it had a fireplace, which was perfect for putting on nightly "shows". It was adorable! There were also many nights of freeze tag ( thank you uncle Nathaniel, Maddie LOVED that)

Saturday we all slept in after so much travel, bought some groceries and planned the week. That evening we did go to the Kennedy Center. They had a pretty cool display, some Arabian theme I think, anyways it was neat to look around. Below is a picture taken from the outside over looking the river.

Three cute kids getting ready to enjoy a movie that was played on the ceiling. The effects were cool, the story a little boring for the kids. The eventually lost interest in that.

They also had a big Arabian bed, the kids pretty much just jumped all over that thing. I thought this was a cute picture.


Here they are in front of a performing stage, apparently they have shows going on all the time there. There was a musical group of some sort while we were there.

After the Kennedy Center we went to Union Station to look around and to have some dinner. I have to say that Maddie, Georgey and Cristy were always together this entire trip. I am so happy that my kids have such a fun aunt. Here they are going up and down the circular staircase.

A shot of the clock.

I love how Maddie is all leaning in on Georgey, she is such a girl!

A family shot inside Union Station

On Sunday we went to church with Cristy and Nathaniel (they had a very beautiful ward building, very unique) and than we went to see the National archives. They do not allow flash photography, so I really do not have any good shots, and this one is very out of focus, but it proves we really saw the Constitution.

A picture of Maddie running up the stairs outside the building, she is just like Rocky right??(Never have seen that movie)

A picture of the kids interacting with the museum.

The National Archives building.

Following that we went and saw the D.C. Temple and visitors center, I though we had pictures of that, but alas, we do not, maybe some one else does. We saw the Joseph Smith movie and Da met a distant relative who was there on a mission! Crazy, apparently his uncle's brother! After that we went back to the cabin and celebrated Rach's birthday! Happy Birthday Rach! Our family loves you! And we had some very delicious chocolate cake!

Monday we headed out for some more sights. We stopped by the Iwo Jima, it was pretty amazing.

A big group shot, we really did not get enough of these. Actually I have found I am missing lots of key and important shots, if I get some from everyone else, I will try to add them.

Following Iwo Jima we headed to Arlington cemetery. Below is a picture of the eternal flame(I think that is what it is called) Kennedy and his wife are buried there.

A girl shot in the Arlington cemetery.

We were able to see the changing of the guard for the unknown soldiers.( I should mention that we had to practically sprint to get there in time, I was a little sore the next day seems I was pushing the stroller) I enjoyed that very much. In the picture below you can see the soldiers doing this heel click, part of the ceremony. Afterwards, Maddie and Georgey were playing guards and totally doing that. It was so cute.

A picture of the tomb of the unknown soldiers.

Afterwards we went to Alexandria, a small old town in Virginia, it was very quaint with the old cobble sidewalks and buildings. We also walked down to the water, some cute pictures of Sadie, Maddie and Georgey.

That night Cristy and Nathaniel babysat all 5 children and let Da and I and Mandy and George go out on a date! It was great and all had fun. Da and I did a little shopping and had dinner in a great restaurant.

On Tuesday we got up so very early because we had a tour of the white house! I do not have any pictures because they do not allow you to bring in camera's. However, I may acquire one since mandy did sneak one or two with her cell phone, if I get it from her, I may add it. And sadly, I don't know why, but we did not take any of the outside from a distance! I guess it was one of those that Da and I both thought the other had done it. Anyways the tour was very cool, although Maddie and Sadie were a little confused, they kept asking where the prophet was! :)

Afterwards, Poteets had to find a Doctor for Georgey(ear infection) and Cristy took us to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. The kids enjoyed it very much and I found it interesting.

Poor Jack, we just tuckered him out during this week, he did not have one scheduled nap and he was such a trooper. He is crashed out in the pack in this picture.

They had a Cessna airplane for the kids to try out.

Jack practicing his walking with Aunt Cristy.

I actually took this picture for you Dave Huisman! This is the actual real first airplane to ever fly, how cool is that?

The girls having fun

The next day we went to the Mall to see some of the memorials and monuments. Below is a picture of part of the Korean memorial. I like the picture of Cris, she looks cute, I might add Da took it.

Another great shot by Da, I look like a total dork, but it is a good shot of the memorial

A family picture of us at the Lincoln memorial.

This is the world war II memorial, it is new, built in the last couple of year.I really liked it, it represented each state. Us in front of Mississippi.

Washington Monument.

A group shot in front of the washington monument.

The FDR memorial, I thought this was a cute picture of maddie and georgey, they wanted to know all about his wheelchair. And than they took turns hoping on his lap!

For some reason this is the only picture I have of the Jefferson memorial. Cristy was running the kids around.

We then had a tour of the capitol. It was pretty cool to see, but I will admit I was a little disappointed in our tour guide, I feel he could of been a bit more informative, but hey whatever!

All the kids waiting outside for our tour to begin, they are not all looking, but hey, they are all in it!

A statue of Brigham Young! Inside the capitol they have a statue of a person who influenced each state, and Brigham Young is it for Utah.

The mural on the ceiling in the dome, it was really beautiful, the picture does not do it justice.

That night, Mandy and I were able to hit some outlet malls, which were great! I love shopping with Mandy because she has considerable better taste than me and I can use all the help that I can get! Especially now that I am in my 30's!

On Thursday, we forgot our camera! Awful, but we went to the Natural History museum, which was so neat! The kids absolutley loved that. They had some many life sized animals, including dinosaurs! Hopefully I can add some pictures from that.

Following we had dinner at The Cheesecake factory with Nathaniel's family. It was nice to spend some time with them and get to know them better. And, I had the best cheesecake I have ever had( Liz's toffee cheesecake is right up there though).

After dinner, Cristy and Nathaniel got to pretend they had three kids because they took our van with all our kids, we took there car and went to the Temple and did some sealings. I loved it, the first time for me since my own! The bad news was that when we came out of the Temple we realized that Da had locked the keys in the car! So, cristy and Nathaniel had to drive to their house to get their spare key and than come to us at the Temple. No fun for them, thanks guys, and sorry again! Although, I guess Mandy and George had fun with our girls that night, they said it was like old times!

Well, the next day we packed it up and headed for home. It was hard to say good-bye, many tears were shed. Once we got going, Sadie asked how long it was going to take to get home and I said, two days just like it took to get here. She than said kind of softly, " Oh, I hate that" Poor thing, usually hate is a word I try to discourage, but Da and I could not help but laugh. We totally understood. Anyways, we survived the trip home, all was well.