First Christmas in D.C.

 

The National Zoo Lights were wonderful

 

 

The Washington DC temple is even more exciting and beautiful at night

 

Inside Gaylord Hotel at the National Harbor

The Tree at the National Harbor-it was amazing! It changed colors every few seconds.

 

Next year we hope to visit the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House.

 

Wish we could have been with family with all that was going on. Thank goodness for FaceTime/ Skype!

Thanksgiving and Zoo Lights

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with our friends.

 

We ended the weekend at the National Zoo ZooLights, and it was awesome.

 

 

And they had trains set up with a Thomas train, and that made little Al very happy.

 

 

Zebra Lights

And the night ended with a dancing Panda bear in a gigantic snow globe, of course.

 

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy

Wow. Hurricane Sandy. It is amazing that weather forecasters were warning us for many days before the storm (Frankenstorm) came.

We had school and work cancelled...and the Governor of Maryland scared many into staying in their homes by saying people are going to die in this storm. Sadly, many people did.

We had LOTS of rain, and enormous amounts of wind.

Now, it is time to clean up the mess. Luckily, no trees fell on our car like last time. We are feeling pretty blessed.

The National Zoo-a fun place to visit!

We are F.O.N.Z.

{Friends Of the National Zoo}

 

Zebras

 

Our friend, the giant panda, Tian Tian. His wife panda had a baby panda the night before

(Sadly, the panda cub died).

He was hiding from the paparazzi that surrounded the zoo, so it was only natural that we try to snap a photo too.

 

 

 

Tortoises.

As Al said, Baby, Mama, Dada.

We are big fans of the zoo. It is FREE to get in, you just have to pay to get there, or pay to park once you are there.

We live by the coolest park

It has the tallest yellow slides

a funky green and blue pyramid to climb on

 

 

and camels 

and woodchips-I love wood chip parks.

 

And it makes my kids {and myself} happy.

Summer Boredom?

We are blessed to have a witty 5-year old in our family, who doesn't let us get too bored.

She has a few ideas on what to do when you are bored

( ♫ There's 104 days of summer vacation
And school comes along just to end it
So the annual problem for our generation
Is finding a good way to spend it♫)

Here is what you need:

 

• a ball
• some pennies
• some kids
• some time

Game 1: Put pennies on your arm and walk across the room-see if you can keep them balanced. Whoever has the most, wins. (Change up how pennies are placed for varieties sake)

Game 2: Put pennies in between your toes and walk across the room. This one can get some giggles. Feel free to try in between more than just 2 toes...tonight was our first night, so we will try more next time.

Game 3: Stack the Pennies (self-explanatory-if you need an explanation, don't be shy)



Game 4: Balance the ball on your head and walk around-don't let the ball fall!

Game 5: Hot potato: Use the same ball used in Game 4 (or a bean bag works too) throw from one person to another because it is a "hot potato"- the idea is to get rid of it. Usually, you have music and someone turning it on and off, but primary and nursery songs sung by the children (or adults) work as well if that is not an option

Other Games include

• Hide and Seek
• Ring around the Rosie
• Duck Duck Goose
• Tag (make sure you have plenty of space)

I hope these ideas will help your family not get the Summer Boredom Bug.

(Disclaimer: All ideas came straight from my daughter. Also, Netflix helps kill the boredom too)

 



The Nationals Baseball Game

Ben and I got tickets to a Nationals Game. An hour before the game it was raining/thundering/lightning like crazy, so I figured they would cancel...not so. The field was clear and perfect.

We invited our next-door neighbors to go along and found a babysitter for the kids. Our neighbors both grew up in DC, so they gave us the scoop on everything DC and baseball.

I have no pictures of the metro ride home...just imagine being "packed in like sardines," or if you want to go there, it was tight like unto a dish. 

Oh, and they won 4-3.

Trip to the Museum

Grandma Margaret brought my nieces out for a visit. Many hours of traveling with 2 little girls, but it was super fun to see them and we were so glad!

This meant a fashion show, trips to the park, outing to the movies (Madagascar 3) AND a pizza party, all squished into 36ish hours.

Mom got to stay a little longer, so we took Grandma to downtown DC to visit the sites. We had a lot of fun!

Ever heard of the Hope Diamond? Wondered what it looks like 2 feet away? Well, wonder no more! And enjoy the imperfections of taking pictures with an ipod.

It was really pretty.

 K's favorite display, the butterfly

 This large elephant greets you in the lobby

Pretty photography-Japanese Maple Tree (description in picture below)

Ginormous snake!!!

The Storm-kicked out of the house for 5 days!

It was a dark and dreary Friday night in Maryland.

It had been an unbelievably record breaking hot and humid day (record 101, temperature was 104!)

With all of this heat, who would have thought there would be a storm that would displace so many?

{Looking out the window...rain, thunder, lightning}

{The next morning-our van got hammered by falling tree branches}

{We couldn't quite get to the garage, which is more of a shed}

{The trash and recycling spewed about}

It was so crazy! Luckily the kids slept through it. Power lines were almost literally wrapped around our car, scary! We cleaned up the mess and left to a friend's since our electricity (specifically air conditioning!) was out. It took 5 days to get it back on!

A Morning at the Beach

3 days after we got here we got invited to go to the beach for our ward's annual School's Out Celebration.

So we crossed this lovely bridge (and I drove on the Beltway for the first time) and ended up at the beach of the Chesapeake Bay.

It's hard to tell from this picture but the sand is almost orange.

The kids built sand castles and buried treasure (rocks).

It had rained the day before so the water was a smidge cold, but bearable.

And we ended the trip at the playground.

1st Metro Adventure and the White House

We made our first DC Metro trip.

The kids lasted a few hours, maybe more like an hour and a half, but we got to see this beautiful building.

The White house

The Drive

Let me start by saying my kids have now been in more states than I ever had.

They win that contest.

I love K's map:

the states we moved from. It starts from one to 50.

(now that she is so well-traveled she thinks we are going to live in every state, cute)

We were in the car for about 46 hours, 5 travel days, 12 states, and 3 time zone changes.

(Arizona, New Mexico, Texas. Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland if you were curious.) 

 

We stayed with Ben's sister and family (Kaytie, she rocks!) and Ben's Aunt and Uncle in St. Louis.

We also stayed in hotels 2 nights which the kids loved.

Something about swimming in a heated indoor pool and a breakfast buffet.

The double DVD player was great.

I think Ben had enough of Madagascar and "I like to Move it Move it," but all in all, the trip was great.

I had a bunch of coupons for FREE Mcdonald's drinks, so that was often our bathroom break:)

The most important part is that we made it to our new home.