I Love Washington DC

Last weekend we took a last minute trip to Washington DC. When we found out my mom and younger brother and sister were going, we decided we'd make the 5 1/2 hour drive down to see them and to do some sightseeing. I'm so glad we went. I'm not sure if it was the hustle and bustle of a big city or the history or spending time with family or being on vacation, but I absolutely loved DC!

We headed down after Andrew got off work on Friday and got in around midnight. On Saturday we met up with my family and went to the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum.

My little brother plays the trombone so I snapped this picture of him...

I think Amy is Eleanor's favorite aunt....

My sister Jessica also flew down to visit DC with us. Here we are at the Smithsonian...

Next we went to the Air and Space Museum. Jacob rode the simulator ride, which was probably the highlight of his trip. He loved it!


Unless my family was around, Eleanor spent a lot of time in her stroller. She was really good. I think she really liked seeing lots of new things and having a constant change of scenery.

On our way back to the metro we passed by the White House.



Here's Andrew and Eleanor before boarding the metro. I really liked riding the metro, I think every city should have one!

On Saturday night I met up with my BFF Jessica Peters who lives down there and we went to Cheesecake Factory.

On Sunday we went to the National Art Gallery.
Eleanor got to hang out with her cherub friends.

You can kind of see Eleanor's new tooth in this picture.


The weather was absolutely beautiful! We really enjoyed spending time outside and relaxing by the fountains.

Later that afternoon we went to Mount Vernon. This was probably one of my favorite things we did. It was really interesting to learn a little more about George Washington and his estate was so beautiful.

Eleanor got to meet Martha Washington...



Wouldn't you love to have a porch like this to sit on everyday and look out at the water. So peaceful.




Here's Jacob with some goats.

They had the most awesome gardens.



Amy, my mom, and Jacob...


Jessica and my mom...




On Monday Andrew, Eleanor, and I walked from the Smithsonian down to the Lincoln Memorial. Here are some of the things we saw along the way...
First we saw the Washington Monument

Next we saw the WWII Memorial


Next we passed the reflecting pool

Then we saw the Korean War Memorial. They had all these statues of soldiers in the shape of a "V" for victory.

We also saw the Vietnam War Memorial. I couldn't believe how long the wall was with names of those who died! It was very sobering to see all of the war memorials.

We finally made it to the Lincoln Memorial.

Here's the view from the other end of the reflecting pool looking back to the Washington Monument

Well after walking the almost 1.5 miles to get to the Lincoln Memorial we were exhausted and didn't really want to walk back so we walked over to this little bus stop to see how much it would cost to take a little bus to the other side of the National Mall to meet up with my family at the Capitol Building for a tour. Well after seeing the price for that particular tour bus was $27 I was like, no way Andrew let's just start walking. So I turned around and started walking. Well I guess some man had overheard us and he handed Andrew a $50 bill! I kind of just wanted to keep the money and still walk, but that man would see us not getting on the bus. So we hopped on and road up to the Capitol Building. Tour buses are the way to do Washington DC! We got this little blue ticket that let us get on and off all day. It also included a tour of Arlington Cemetery. So we were able to do a lot of things we probably wouldn't have otherwise. Thank you man in the green shirt!

Needless to say we made it in time for our tour of the Capitol Building. We watched a great little video about the founding of our country and politics then we went on a tour.

Inside

Every state picks two people they want to have statues of inside of the Capitol Building.
Utah picked Brigham Young as one of theirs.

Outside the Capitol Building

West side

East side

Supreme Court Building

After our tour of the Capitol Building we hopped back on our tour bus and headed down to Arlington Cemetery. On the way we passed the Jefferson Memorial.

The entrance to Arlington Cemetery


Eleanor even got a good little nap on the tour bus

Changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier


This cute little face is probably why the man gave us $50 bucks to ride the bus





There were so many tombstones!

After Arlington Cemetery we went to Union Station


Then it was back on the metro to get to our car and then back to Ohio. We had an awesome trip. Thanks for letting us tag along, mom!

cute little quirks

Eleanor has lots of little quirks. She is so funny to watch. Lately she has been making a strange little face accompanied by some weird little sniffing thing.



Also, she can often be found in this pose.

We saw an otter at the Smithsonian that resembles her. What do you think?

And when you put that funny little face and pose together, you get this...

Another one of her quirks (which is not a new development) is that she moves all over her crib at night.
We put her down at 6:30...

Which is immediately followed by this...


About an hour later...

Around 10:30...

And then all the way to the other side of the crib is how I find her around 7:30 in the morning...

We sure love our little otter pop!

Rib Cook-Off

We saw an advertisement for an annual Memorial Day rib cook-off in Cleveland, so since ribs are Andrew's favorite food we decided to go check it out on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and it was great to get some sunshine. Eleanor was loving being outside.

There were like 10 different rib cookers to choose from. We weren't sure which to pick, they all looked pretty good so we just went with the cheapest, and it was delicious!

We parked by the Quicken Loans Arena. Andrew was excited to see this billboard of Lebron James in person. He's been a big Cavaliers fan since we've moved to Ohio.

In other news, Eleanor is all over the place. She's recently discovered the kitchen and thinks it's the greatest thing ever. She gets so excited. Here's a little video of her first day scooting over to the kitchen.

She's also learned how to blow bubbles, I guess you could call it. I came downstairs after switching a load of laundry to find her doing this. Now she does it all the time on her books.

She is 7 months now and I CAN'T believe how much she is changing. It is so fun to watch her grow!

Cincinnappy and other happenings

First was Mother's Day. Here I am with my little cutie after church. What a special day to celebrate how blessed I feel to be a mother!
I love this little girl!

Reading my mother's day card from Andrew.

Next came some aerobic activity for Eleanor. Andrew snapped her onesie over her little pants and I couldn't help but find a headband and snap some shots.




Then there was Cincinnapy. Last week Andrew, Eleanor and I went down to Cincinnati for me to go to Time Out for Women. We stayed at my sister Jessica's house, which is always a treat. Her kids love to play with Eleanor. I think they are generally more excited to see Eleanor than me and Andrew. Well, I think Ethan likes having me there because I play Super Nintendo with him. On Thursday we were looking for something free and fun to do so Andrew found a butterfly exhibit to go to. It was at the Krohn Conservatory. The butterfly exhibit was 6 bucks a person, so we passed on that and just wandered around the free conservatory. It was really pretty. In an effort to try and be like my sister Emily, I took some pictures of all the pretty plants and flowers.





Doesn't this lady's hair look like the spanish moss?? hahaha

Back at my sister's house, Grace was having a ball with Eleanor.

On Friday and Saturday I went to Time Out for Women, which was really good. If it is coming to a city near you, you should totally go. It was nice to have a "time out" and be spiritually uplifted. I went with 4 other girls from my ward, so it was also fun to hang out with them and have a girls trip. We also went to the Gap Clearance Center, not just your typical Gap outlet. I don't think there was anything there over $9.99. I got this cute shirt for Eleanor for $1.99. Cute, huh?


The only downside of the trip was that Eleanor was getting her first tooth, so she was a little out of it. This next picture pretty much sums up the last couple of days as her tooth has been popping up.

She's just kind of been out of it. I finally went and got some teething tablets today so she can sleep better. They seem to be working pretty well!

Here she is having a freezie pop to ease some of the pain :)

I'm in trouble

Ok, so I discovered a very delicious caramel popcorn recipe. You may or may not know, but I LOVE caramel popcorn. I don't think I ever visited University Mall while I was in Provo without stopping by Popcorn Popping and getting some caramel popcorn. I tried some caramel popcorn at the mall here, but it was stale and really didn't have much flavor. So tonight I found a recipe at allrecipes that had 5 stars so I tried it. I too give it 5 stars. It is delicious!!

Andrew loves regular popcorn so last year I got him a popcorn maker for his birthday so we always have popcorn seeds in the house. The only other thing the recipe calls for that you might not always have is corn syrup and brown sugar. So the reason this could be dangerous is because I always have the ingredients so anytime I have a sweet tooth, caramel popcorn will be calling my name! Also it calls for a lot of butter. I'll have to give myself a limit on how many times a week I make this. :)

Here's the recipe...
-1/2 cup butter
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup corn syrup
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-10 cups popped popcorn (about 1/2 cup popcorn kernels if you're popping them)

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn in a 9x13 dish, stirring to coat. Don't forget to grease the pan. The caramel WILL stick to the pan.
2. Bake in preheated oven at 250 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes, for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

And ENJOY!!

Families can be together forever

Ok, so I just stole this picture off of my little sister Laura's blog. I just can't stop looking at it! It is so hard to believe that these are my four younger siblings! It's weird to think of them all as being grown up. I can't believe my "baby brother" Jacob is 12 years old now! Laura and Freddie are in New Orleans visiting so they were able to go with him to his first visit to the temple in Baton Rouge. What a special experience! I wish I could have been there.
(AMY, JACOB, LAURA, FREDDIE)

I am so thankful for temples and the opportunity I have to be sealed to my family! I love my family and I know that we can be together forever!

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

Especially since tomorrow is mother's day and I have to give a talk at church about it, I've been thinking about how much my mom means to me. She is such an amazing example and I am so glad she had the faith and courage to join the church when she was 19 years old! Look at what's come from that one decision!

(LAURA AMY JACOB MOM
EMILY FREDDIE JESSICA ME)

Thanks for everything you've taught me by not only your words, but also your actions! I love you mom!

We have a scootie bug

So this week Eleanor has turned into a little scootie bug. She's really making her way around. I got this video of her yesterday. She is getting better and better everyday. It makes me kind of nervous, because she is a busy little girl. She is already reaching up for the wall outlets! Yikes, I better get some of those outlet cover things.


Here's another video of Eleanor "eating" a biter biscuit. She still doesn't have any teeth, but she certainly likes to chew on things. I got a really funny video of her reaction to me taking the little biscuit away, but it accidentally got erased. So I tried to duplicate it. It's not quite as good but still pretty funny.

In other Eleanor news...
-She has discovered her tongue and likes to stick it out.
-She LOVES green apples. I think she could suck on one all day.
-The other night she fell asleep like this with her foot in the slats.

You may have noticed, but our blog posts our primarily about Eleanor. I've decided I should probably post more about me and Andrew, so here goes.

Andrew has had finals all week. His last one is tomorrow morning. Woohoo! He is feeling pretty good about them so far, so we'll see how he feels when grades come out. He'll start his internship on Monday so he's excited not to have to think about school for a good 3 1/2 months.

Well I got bangs a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty sure bangs are not for me. It kind of reminded me of how Kate Hudson looked with bangs if you saw Bride Wars...not so great. So I've just been wearing them to the side.

So on Monday I went to pick up some prints from Eleanor's 6 month portrait session and I really wasn't very happy with them. I mean, I should probably realize I get what I paid for, 7.99 at J.C. Penney's, but I really think I could do a better job if I had a nicer camera. So when I got home I started contemplating what it would take to get a nice DSLR camera. I decided I would save 20 bucks a month and in about 2 years I would have enough to buy something like a Canon Rebel or Nikon d60. Sounds good, right? Well fast forward to my eye doctor's appointment on Thursday when I went to pay for my exam and 2 boxes of contacts. After paying I soon realized that I would put that 20 bucks a month towards LASIK instead of a camera. Forking out half the amount of a new DSLR camera was pretty sickening! And to think that I will need 2 more boxes of contacts in 6 months, and then 2 more boxes 6 months after that and so on and so on. My camera I have now is fine, so instead my new goal is LASIK. At 20 bucks a month that should take me about 10-15 years. Maybe once Andrew is done with school we can up the investment to 50 bucks a month.