We had a youth temple trip scheduled on the 29th of December. Randy was in charge of it, so we decided to take all the kids and stay the night. With ALL the traveling Randy is doing, we had a free night in a Marriott, so we took advantage of it. We LOVE DC. This is certainly a benefit of living in the East. We are only three hours from DC, so we love to make the trip there. I watched a lot of kids in the Visitor Center while the youth and their parents did baptisms. We had so much fun watching the movies and looking at all the nativity scenes from all over the world. My kids got to hang out with their friends from the ward, so that was an added bonus. I love the spirit in the Visitors Center and TJ loved doing baptisms. We went to a bookstore close to the temple. It's a miniture Deseret Book and I almost cried when I walked inside. It made me feel so close to home! You don't realize how much you miss Deseret Book until you are thousands of miles away! That night we went to the zoo for the zoo lights. We took the Metro in to downtown DC and I honestly think that is the kids favorite part! After the zoo lights, we came back and drove back to the temple to see the lights at the temple. They were absolutely breaktaking. The pictures don't do it justice. I LOVED it and as tired and worn out as the kids were, they were such great sports to get out and walk around. As long as we were in the car.....I convinced Randy to drive into downtown DC to the White House so I could see the National Tree! It's a good thing that he loves me so much, because I could tell by the look on his face, he wasn't too excited! Even though all the kids were asleep, I got out and took a picture. I kept telling Randy that this was a ONCE in a LIFETIMe opportunity! I have to admit that as it took SOOOO long to get back to our hotel, I wondered if it was worth it, but now I realize that it was!
The girls on the Metro and part of TJ's face!
The kids at the zoo! It was so much fun, but Tylee said she did entirely too much walking!
It's hard to see our family, but we are there! I LOVED these lights!
The next day we took the Metro again and went to the Capital. It was amazing! There is so much history there. We loved it! We also went to the Botanic Gardens. They have miniture monuments, White House, and other historic buildings made out of trees and plants. It is crazy! We loved being in DC and had a great time being together as a family.
This is the rotunda of the Capital. The painting is absolutely breathtaking!
This is a statue of Philo Farnsworth thats in the capital. My Mom is a Farnsworth and 2nd cousins to Philo. Randy was pretty upset though because his plaque says that he is from Utah. If you know anything about Philo, he was from Idaho and went to Rigby High School. The guy at the Capital said that lots of people come through there and tell them that Philo is NOT from Utah, but Idaho! I guess we weren't the first people to notice!
This is at the Botanic Gardens. This whole thing is made out of twigs, sticks and parts of plants. If you couldn't tell, it's the Eifel Tower!
Tylee posing as only Tylee can in front of the Washington Monument!
Tay in front of the White House. We loved our trip to DC!
