Washington DC

Sorry it has taken forever to post the rest of our trip. Every spare minute I had, I used to work on finishing our 2008 blog book. Yes, I know...I am a year behind. But it should arrive by Christmas and then I will have to start turning our 2009 blog entries into a new book. It is a great way to record what our family is up to, since I don't keep a regular journal. Anyway, here is the rest of our DC trip.

Day 1-Wednesday, Nov. 25:After we went to Gettysburg, PA Tom and I drove down to Washington DC. Our good friends the Luke and Marin Coltrin who are also MBA students in our ward, drove down to DC from a roadtrip through NY. It was so fun to meet up with them. We all stayed in a hotel just blocks from the National Mall. The first day, we decided to head to Georgetown. We shopped the quaint streets and toured the campus. Then we stopped by Georgetown Cupcake to get a delicious snack. We had to wait about 30 minutes in line, but it was well worth it. They were amazing. Then we walked to the White House. We took pictures in front and then went to the Visitor's Center. Afterwards, Luke and Marin headed back to the hotel to put James down, and Tom and I walked along the National Mall and then visited the American Indian Museum. Then we met back up with the Coltrins for dinner at our hotel. We stayed at a Marriott Residence and they had a Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel. It ended up being our only Thanksgiving dinner so we were glad we got it for free:)

Luke, James, Ainsley and Tom-it was the babies' first subway ride

Georgetown University

Marin and James while we were shopping in Georgetown. We hit our favorite store...H&M

Waiting in line for cupcakes

I had red velvet and Tom had Banana Chocolate-Yum!

After we toured Georgetown, we walked all the way to the White House. It was quite a walk and both babies fell asleep.

Our family in front of the White House...Ainsley is still sleeping

She finally woke up right before we left

Walking along the National Mall

Day 2, Thursday Nov. 26: Since it was Thanksgiving Day, most places were closed in DC. We were able to visit the Smithsonian museums though. I would have thought that they would be empty on a national holiday, but we were wrong. They were packed. First we went to the National Gallery of Art. Then we walked down to the American History Museum. This museum has been completely renovated since the last time I was in DC (only 2 years ago). It was so much different. We saw a lot of interesting things including the First Lady's Ball gowns, Julia Child's kitchen, pop culture memorabilia such as the Ruby Red slippers and Kermit the Frog. We also toured a Lincoln Exhibit, Americans at War Exhibit, Transportation Exhibit, etc. We were a little disappointed that we didn't see the Nauvoo Sun Stone that used to be at the museum...we don't know if it was there and we just missed it, or if it is no longer on display. After touring the museums, we ate dinner at the American Indian museum. Then we went to see some of the National Monuments at night. We went to the new Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. It is located right along the water and you can see the Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington monuments lit up across the river. It was beautiful. Then Tom and I drove to the Lincoln Memorial.

Ainsley at the National Gallery. We have a copy of this Monet painting hanging in our living room, so I had to get a photo

I had to snap this pic of Tom because he drove a mini van that looked just like this one in high school

Julia Child's kitchen

For all you "Lost Symbol" fans....here is George Washington with the "Hand of Mysteries" pointing up

Marin and I at the Franklin D. Roosevelt monument.
From the FDR memorial, we had a great view of the Jefferson Monument across the water

Day 3, Friday Nov. 27-The next morning, we got up early and walked up to the United States Capitol Building. We met our Luke and Marin there and went on a tour of the building. We saw the new visitor's entrance, the Rotunda, and the Hall of Statues. The tour doesn't take you through any of the House chambers anymore. My good friend Lesly had let me borrow her copy of "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. I read it aloud to Tom all the way to DC. So the whole time we were at the Capitol, we kept joking around pointing out all of the things that Dan Brown had talked about in the novel. After we visited the Capitol, we walked to "Old Ebbit's Grille" for lunch. It was delicious. Then Tom and I went to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutuion. I was suprised at how faded the Declaration was. It is sad, the signatures are almost completly gone. Afterward, we met up with the Coltrins again at "Good Stuff Eatery" a hamburger joint owned by a Top Chef contestant, Chef Spike. We had to wait forever because they mixed up our order but the food was delicious. We are still talking about that marshmallow shake...yum!

A capitol police officer gave Ainsley this nifty badge...she was a Capitol police officer for the day:)

We bought Ainsley a little American Flag. She waved it so proudly the whole time, it was pretty cute

The Constitution

Ainsley feeding herself some yogurt back at the hotel

Ainsley loved the sliding doors of the hotel closet. She played with them the entire trip. She would get inside the closet and close them, then open them to peek out to see if we had noticed that she was hiding.

Day 4, Saturday Nov. 28-On our way back to Indiana, we decided to stop at Mount Vernon, Virginia. This was George Washington's home and plantation. It was beautiful. They had it all decorated for Christmas. We walked around the grounds and watched a documentary before visiting the mansion. The tour through the mansion was special because they let us tour the third floor which is only open during December. We got to see the bedroom that Martha lived in after George died. The home was huge. It has an amzing view of the Potamac river out the front. After visiting Mount Vernon, we drove to Columbus, Ohio for the night. Then we woke up early and drove the rest of the way home. It was an amazing trip. We feel so lucky to have been able to visit so many different places since moving to Indiana.

Mount Vernon

This is actually the front of the house. It overlooks the beautiful Potamac river

The view of the river