Washington DC

This has taken me way too long. We {David} took over 700 pictures. I took out duplicates and random ones, and narrowed it down to 250. Not to mention the space on our computer got to low and so I had to clean it up. It was all just a daunting task. So here I am. Finally.

David's sister Kristen and her family just moved to Maryland and we were lucky enough to go out there for a week to visit. My little brother Stephen actually lives in DC...but he was still home in California and we missed him being there by a few days. We spent most of our time in DC, and then spend the last couple days in Philadelphia.

One of the best parts was getting to see Lily and Gunnar:

We made a couple stops at some famous must try restaurants. There was Ben's Chili Bowl for hot dogs in DC. While in Philadelphia, we went to Geno's and Pats for Philly Cheese Steaks. They are right across the street from each other and big competitors. So we all had some of both. If I remember right, we like the Philly Cheese Steak with Cheese Whiz from Pats, and the cheese fries from Geno's. Or maybe it was the other way around. Shoot.


One of the best things we did was the Segway tour of Washington DC. It was challenging at first getting used to riding one, but after about 30 minutes I was wishing we used these for everyday travel! I would definitely recommend this if you are going to visit DC. We were able to see so much on our 3 hour adventure. Plus, you get to wear an awesome helmet.

This is one of my favorite picture. It just makes me laugh. David was taking silly pictures and I just thought it turned out cool.

Some of our stops included the White House, Capitol Building, Library of Congress, Newseum, Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art...and everything in between. We all got our Library of Congress Reader cards and we were able to go to the reading room. They also have a rare books room where David and I got to look at a first edition Book of Mormon, Times and Seasons, and The Book of Commandments. The Book of Commandments was the original Doctrine and Covenants. There are only a few that remain after the mob burned down W.W.Phelps' printing press and few copies were saved by some women who hid the copies under the dresses and ran out. We actually got to hold them and look at them for as long as we wanted. Here are some pictures of the inside of the building:


Here we are in front of the Wright Brothers original airplane at the Smithsonian. There is also one of David in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall.

We also took a little trip to Mount Vernon {Where George Washington lived}


While we were there we had the opportunity to go to the Washington DC Temple. It was a beautiful temple and it is always neat to visit new ones.

The last part of our visit was not as fun for me. The morning we left for Philadelphia was when I stated having kidney stone pain. We first stopped in Gettysburg and then made our way to Hershey. The next day they drove around Philadelphia and went to see the Liberty Bell.


Also, while we were there David turned 26!


We really had a great time. So thank you Kristen and Aaron for letting us visit. We really appreciate you showing us around, getting tickets for tours, getting babysitters, feeding us, making that yummy cake, letting us stay at your cute place and picking us up from the Metro station! We hope to see you again soon!