Washington D.C. Third Post

I think you need a vacation day just to blog about vacations!

Sunday, 9/13 was just relaxing family time. We attended my parent's ward where I bumped into a girl from my BYU ward sophomore year. In fact, she is the one who lent my parents a pack 'n' play so we wouldn't have to take one on the plane in addition to car seats, etc. It's a small world after all. In the evening we went to the D.C. temple visitor center and walked around. I think it's important for little ones to have these experiences but it definitely changes the experience for the adult. Max loved the statue of Christ but after we took some pictures by it, he discovered it would be a great platform for jumping. Okay, quick, onto the next thing. Phew. :) Wiggly Max even took pictures with Grandma and Grandpa.


Monday was so much fun and the highlight was seeing a former roommate of mine (I like how she said "former, not old" on her blog!) Kathleen is one of the sweetest people ever and I wish that we lived closer. She has 3 beautiful girls but 2 were at school so they made video messages to say hi to us. Kathleen, her youngest joined our family and Alan at Mt. Vernon. It was really beautiful, however you can't take pictures inside so Tony took a lot of pictures of the out buildings. I was impressed that the key to the Bastille hung in Washington's home. I took this little excerpt from a website: "Give me leave, my dear General to present you with a picture of the Bastille, just as it looked a few days after I had ordered its demolition,- with the main key of the fortress of despotism. It is a tribute, which I owe, as a son to my adoptive father, as an Aide - de - Camp to my General, as a Missionary of liberty to its Patriarch." –Marquis de Lafayette. The key is to the west portal of the Bastille, long used as a political prison, in France. When the Paris prison was stormed, it marked the beginning of the French Revolution. The Marquis de Lafayette, who had served under Washington in the Revolutionary War, sent the key to Washington in 1790.

After Mt. Vernon we took a long drive to help the littles nap. We stopped by Old Town Alexandria and took pictures on the shore of the Potomac and of an old cobblestone street. We then drove to Arlington National Cemetery where Alan was nice enough to watch the kiddos (still sleeping) while Tony and I went to see the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. It was really amazing. I'll get the video in here later. We also saw Robert Kennedy and President Kennedy's graves. That night we went out to dinner with Tony's Uncle Randy, Aunt Jenny and cousin Ethan who are fabulous. They also took us to see the Iwo Jima War Memorial which is huge and impressive and we got to see their fun apartment in Crystal City. Crystal City and Pentagon City are two areas just packed with apartment buildings. Mostly Pentagon employees like Randy live there. They had a great view. We had so much fun that we made plans to hang out Thursday night as well.