six girls and their favorite guy: Washington D.C.

When Shane told me he had a small job to do in the DC Temple, I jumped at the chance to take our girls to brush up on their US history.

We have never taken any of them before.

Well once Lydia went with us... she was three months old, pretty sure she doesn't remember much. haha

My first thought was to take the two oldest since they haven't been yet.

But then we had JUST taken them on the cruise, and I was sure that wouldn't go over real well with their younger sisters.

So... we decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to take Kenna.

It was pretty last minute and we booked flights with skymiles and told her about it only a week before.

My goodness, Kenna was SOOOO excited about it.

Like I couldn't have dreamt that she would be any more excited.

She felt like a million bucks and was so happy that she was going to be able to spend a few days with just her parents. (I guess we are just that cool. :))

Jadyn and Lydia were not as ecstatic about the idea.

Jadyn let me know when we got home that for her and Lydia's trip we were taking them to Hawaii, like in a month. hahahaha

Sorry Jadyn... but NO.

We had a connection in Denver and for the second leg we all had to sit alone, in middle seats.

I'm not one for chatting to strangers on planes.

I'd prefer to just keep to myself in those situations.

But I sat down next to a super friendly lady.

We were talking about politics and then somehow it switched to religion, she's Lutheran and she asked me...

"What does your Church believe in that is different than mine."

I froze for a second.

Never in all my life have I alone talked to someone directly about my beliefs.

I have taught countless lessons about missionary work, even gave one to my sweet beehives a few weeks before and now here I was.

I definitely had a great story to share with them in my next lesson!

For the next 3.5 hours I talked to her about what I believe.

She learned about my religion and I learned about hers.

We covered a LOT of topics, I overwhelmed her, she told me so.

But then she said something that I will never forget.

She said, "I grew up with Mormons, I wonder why none of them ever told me any of this stuff. That's strange don't you think?"

I kind of felt like I'd been punched in the gut.

Like that comment was meant just for me and I knew it, and why hadn't I tried harder to share what I believe with others?
But that I day I did, and I strengthened my testimony while doing it.

Needless to say the trip was already worth it for me before we even landed in DC!

We found our hotel in Crystal City, got all situated and prepared for a busy day the next morning.

We started with Church at the Capitol Hill Ward.

It was the most different sacrament meeting I have ever been to. haha

It was Testimony meeting and there were some "unique" testimonies born.

Several from non-member visitors. Each testimony was started out with "Good Morning Church" then everyone would repeat "Good Morning." It must be DC's equivalent to "Aloha". haha

The rest of that day we walked approximately 25,000 steps.

We were exhausted by the end.

We toured Ford's Theater & the Peterson house

Visited a couple Smithsonian's.

The American History and Natural History Museums.

Of course we spent a lot of time exploring the National Mall.

Saw the Washington Monument.

(Unfortunately the elevator is being repaired for the next couple years).

Kenna spotted the White House.

Gosh she's cute! And she was about the sweetest most easy going little tourist ever!
Her only wish was that we had been able to schedule a White House tour.
We needed two weeks to do that, and the trip was too spontaneous! ;)

We saw the World War I & II Memorials.

The Vietnam Memorial.

I love this picture, this is Shane in action.

Dropping "Ni Hao" and a bunch of other stuff gets him a whole audience of Chinese tourists.

And I don't think anything makes him happier than that!

:):):):):):):)

Shane's new "friend" REALLY wanted a picture with Kenna, Kenna was a little weirded out. haha

The Lincoln Memorial.

The Korean War Memorial.

We saw a million squirrels around the Mall.

Views of the Capitol Building at night.

Then a walk over to the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House.

By this point we were starving and our feet hurt pretty bad. haha

So after dinner and a shake @ the Shake Shack.

And this is for Lisa... we had to "vulture" for a table almost as bad as we had to in New York a few years back. ;)

We grabbed a churro for a second dessert... just because we figured all those steps warranted it.:)

Then we hurried to our car because we were FROZEN.

But not before Shane ran right into a "revolving door".

Except it wasn't the opening to the door he just smacked right into the glass on the side of the revolving door with his head.

Kenna and I thought it was hilarious. We could not stop laughing about it for days.

Shane obviously takes life too serious because he did not laugh with us.

And that was funny stuff!

;););)

The next morning Shane headed out early to the DC Temple in Bethesada .

Kenna and I got up and headed to the Metro.

Crystal City where we stayed is crazy, there are block and blocks of underground shops, restaraunts and tunnels so we never even had to go outside to get to the metro.

We headed straight for the Bureau of Printing & Engraving.

Well I say straight but I got a little turned around and got us off at the Metro a stop or two early.

Then apparently took some wrong advice from someone on the way to go... and we walked about 1/2 hour out of the way.

Kenna was just her happy self and didn't seem to care one bit.

Thanks Kenna, you make it easy to travel with!

We loved the tour here.

One of our favorite stops for sure!

We walked over to the Jefferson Memorial from there.

Then on to the Holocaust Museum.

We had gone for a bit the day before but didn't have a chance to finish.

Such a memorable experience to witness those atrocities.

Earlier that day we were still laughing about Shane and the revolving door incident from the night before so when I read a sign that said something about a peep hole in one of the doors to the gas chamber... and I didn't see the glass six inches in front of said door....

So I went in to look fast and my nose pounded into the glass at a rapid rate of speed.

It's not like this particular museum is a laughing place, but my nose hurt so bad I couldn't see straight and I was sure it was bleeding and broken. So I grabbed on to Kenna who was trying not to bust up. And me too through my tears.

I'm not sure if anyone saw but it would have been quite a site.

So both Shane and I had great glass stories from this trip. haha

Just writing this makes me laugh out loud about those two incidents! hahahaha

We picked up a National parks book that had been suggested to us,

Wish we had got it the day before so we didn't have to do backtracking to get the stamps. haha But Kenna was happy, so I obliged.

Next the two of us went ice skating in the National Sculpture Garden park in front of the National Archives.

My feet hurt so bad from all the walking, so I didn't last too long. But we had fun for a bit. :)

Shane met up with us here after he had finished his job.

We grabbed some lunch and then headed to the National Archives.

We were ready for more adventures that day but everything closes @ 5 so we called it an early day.

The next morning was wet + cold.

So Arlington was wet and cold haha

We had an appointment for a tour of the Capitol Building with Congressman Bishop's Office and we had planned to ride the Metro, but we didn't have time.

So we drove.

Bad idea.
There was NO WHERE to park.

Shane dropped us off and then had to park 2 miles away and run back in the pouring rain halfway through the tour. Then had to put more money in the meter after the Capitol tour so another run back and forth.

He was sore the next day.

And not particularly happy.