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!