Dinner at the Hotel - Mon. Feb. 16

We tried to be up and at 'em but we were just too jet lagged - 3 hours difference really takes a toll. But once we were on the move - we didn't stop - and our first Smithsonian Monday "morning" was The National Air and Space Museum.

This place is sooooo cool!!!


...all things to do with Australia...

Evan playing on a flight simulator - but he was disappointed - it wouldn't let you crash

Heat sensitive sensor picture

Claire with Orville and Wilbur Wright



Claire's favorite exhibit - the pandas in the gift shop

Yep - it's the Starship Enterprise - but it was in the basement gift shop...

Cool spire sculpture thing in front of Air and Space Museum

On to The National Gallery of Art

Such as the days when we learned our classical music from Bugs Bunny and Merri Melodies, we are now learning our art history from Food Network. Before we left on the trip we saw a Challenge where the cake builders had to incorporate a sculpture into their design - two of the sculptures used - Rodin's The Thinker and Degas' the Little Dancer. And to our pleasant surprise what did we see when we entered our first gallery -

Rodin's The Thinker

Degas' The Little Dancer (there were two!)

Seeing as we were in the sculpture galleries first, that meant Evan had to say "We're just looking at a bunch of naked people..." But we moved along... at different speeds

My family waiting patiently for me - I moved a little slower than they did in the museums



Claire and Evan took many pictures of the art - here are a couple favorites

Claire's picks - Fragonard's A Young Girl Reading

Pietro Magni's the Reading Girl

Evan's picks - Jacques-Louis David's The Emperor Napoleon

Chalice from the Middle Ages


Or as Evan would say "A Fancy Cup"

Tired people

To the Capitol! I tell ya - we had to take a picture everytime we saw it


Another sight we had to take a picture of everytime we saw it

Back of the Capitol (there was a sharp shooter walking around there, but I don't think you can see her/him)

The Library of Congress Jefferson Building

The Supreme Court Building

A pretty sunset for our walk back to the hotel

After walking all day - we were so tired. We had sweet and sour chicken for dinner provided by the hotel (they provided breakfast and dinner Mon-Wed). Then we went up to our room. It was around 6:30/7:00ish. The kids and I sat down on the couch and didn't move, watching Wrecreation Nation - and Greg rested on the bed and fell asleep! Noooooo - we're in DC - we need to be up and moving! At 9:00 Greg got his second wind and we went out for a drive - we went looking for the White House, and the free parking lots we read about in a magazine. We located the lots, and decided we'd start our day there Tuesday - close to the Jefferson Memorial.

Dinner in our Room - Sun. Feb. 15

Sunday morning we went to church at the Capitol Hill Ward. Claire and Evan met teenage pages during Sunday School. We were surprised pages could be so young. One of the YW reported how she cast her senator's vote for the stimilus package. It was all very exciting to Claire - running around DC doing "real" political business, studying in the Library of Congress - it all sounded very appealing to her. After church we went back to the hotel to eat our tasty TV dinner type food, change, and head out to see the National Mall and the war memorials in the mall.
The Washington Monument


A good reminder for everyone

The World War II Memorial



The Atlantic Side

The Pacific Side

In honor of Grandpa Alan

The Korean War Memorial



Can you see Evan taking the picture?


We notice all things to do with Australia (Australia is first in the list of allies)

Look close - these are paratroopers - again, in honor of Grandpa Alan

The Vietnam War Memorial


The Lincoln Memorial - Evan referred to it as Abe's House

The National Mall from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial



After our visit to the memorials, we headed back to our hotel to eat dinner - raviolis and some other "things". We changed back to our Sunday clothes to make our way to the Washington DC Temple to attend a fireside at the visitor's center given by temple president Elder Tingey and his wife - the theme "Why I Believe." It was a missionary fireside. The visitor center has a large amphitheater. It was filled with missionaries, new members and various others (like ourselves). I think they have this type of fireside often. A brand new member offered the prayer. Two new members bore their testimonies, and then the other new members were invited to introduce themselves from their seats saying when they were baptized and what ward they attended. There were many. And then Elder and Sister Tingey spoke. It was a great! fireside. I'm so glad we learned about it - in the Capitol Hill Ward Bulletin.

Dinner in DC

We had dinner in the Washington DC area 6 nights in a row. Yep - we went to Washington DC for the kids' winter break - Sat Feb 14 - Friday Feb 20. It was a great trip! We have so many pictures. I just told Ryan via IM that I think we have over 1000 pictures - that's with two cameras and two cell phones. And I'm pretty sure there really is only about 20 different pictures, we all just took a ton of pictures of the same things over and over again. But - we will look through and post some of our favorites.