Grandpa Races

My dad chose to visit us this weekend so he could run in the Army Ten Miler. It as a huge race, 30,000 runners. We took the metro in to the National Air and Space Museum where the race goes down the street towards the capital and then turns around at the National Museum of American Indian and goes back to the 395 and over the river to end at the Pentagon.

So were about at the 6 mile mark. Here is my dad (in the blue) running by. Looking good! This was still in the first 1,000 runners going by. The metro unfortunately was on the other side of the street. We were figuring we could just cross the street between runners and head back to the Pentagon, but we underestimated how thick 30,000 runners are. There was no getting across the street, especially with a stroller. We had to walk down the street to go around the race.

So we missed my dad at the finish line, but here he is at the Pentagon with his finishers coin.

Grandpa Sandberg Visits Day 2

On Friday we picked up my dad's running packet at the DC Armory and then headed over to the National Museum of the American Indian. This is probably my favorite museum because they occasionally do performances. Last weekend they were having the Ponca Festival and when we were there members of the Ponca Tribe from Nebraska were demonstrating the different dances they have.

I think this was Julia's first experience seeing Native American dancing and it was pretty entertaining to see her reaction to the dancing and drumming and costumes and yelling. She was afraid of one dancer who had his face painted and would hide in my lap every time he came around the circle. But she mostly thought it was cool how they dance and that they had a big drum like she has a drum.

For lunch we went to the museum's cafe where they serve Native food from North and South America. I had salmon, winter squash and wild rice salad. My dad had buffalo, winter squash, and potatoes.

Afterwards we walked across the street to the US Botanic Garden. For some reason Julia loved the First Ladies Water Fountain.

She spent 20 minutes like this, going around the fountain and laying down and looking at the water. I told her she couldn't touch the water, but she was happy just to look. I don't know why she loved it so much, she was just content to watch the water flowing and bubbling.

On the canopy walk in the Jungle room.

Watering the plants in the Children's Garden, another place we spent a lot of time at.

Pretty purple flowers.

The Julia-smile-for-the-camera smile. She loved this fountain as well.My favorite room was the Orchid room. It was gorgeous with so many flowering orchids.

Down on the Farm

There are quite a few little farms in Maryland and Virginia that do corn mazes and autumn festivals, so we decided to get into the fall spirit and go to one last Saturday while my dad was still here.

Julia the scarecrow.

Julia get's pumped up for the corn maze.

Believe it or not this was actually Robert's first ever corn maze experience. I don't know how he made it though college in Utah without ever going through one. I think he had fun memorizing the way out on the map and leading us straight through (but it still took a while since the path went through the entire maze and we let Julia choose the path a few times and lead us astray). The thing that made the biggest impression on Julia is the snake we saw on the trail right as we entered the maze. She still keeps talking about it.

My dad watches as Julia goes through the mini- hay bale maze. She actually seemed to get lost despite there only being one path to the center and then having to follow the same path back out.

Robert mines for gemstones. Julia got to pick them out of the pan once Robert found them and put them in her baggie.

Robert and Julia paint a pumpkin.

And wander through the pumpkin patch with the finished product.

Saying "Hi" (literally, she says "hi" to the animals.) to the alpacas.

We ambushed the tractor driver right off his break so there was no one else waiting for the ride and Julia got it all to herself. This was one of her favorite things about the day.

And in case you're curious this was Montpelier Farms in Maryland.

Grandpa Sandberg Visits Day 1

Well, first full day. After he flew in the day before we had dinner and then went to the park. The next day (Thursday) we took a nature walk on Teddy Roosevelt Island and then went to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm.

You may not be able to see it well, but that's a typical Julia-smile-for-the-camera silly smile.

The nature walk was a success. We saw deer (one right on the path who didn't want to move out of our way), ducks, caterpillars, squirrels, daddy long legs, and some turtles sunning themselves on a log in the river.

I don't think we have a picture of Teddy on our blog yet, so here he is. The whole island is suppose to be his memorial because he was such a fan of nature. I think he looks like a big bear in the middle of the woods.

View from the island.

Afterwards we went to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm in Mclean. I had never been there and thought it would be fun to check it out. We had a picnic lunch outside the farm before heading in. We found out that it's part of the National Park Service, but is privately run, but they still accept the National Park Pass, which we have, so it was free for us. The farm is suppose to represent what a typical farm would have looked like in 1771.

Checking out the pigs.

Saying hi to the turkeys.

Climbing the colonial fence.

It's easier with Grandpa's help.

The farm was pretty small so Julia walked most of the way, but she hitched a ride on the way back.

Sporting Events

Last weekend we went to the Air Force vs. Navy game at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Since they are both sporting events I'm also going to group in our latest baseball game in here too since it's been like a month since we went and I haven't blogged about it and don't really remember much about it anyway...

So, last month we went to a Dodgers vs Nationals game here in Washington DC.

Nationals mini-helmet (that was once full of ice-cream): check.

I'm starting to feel the crunch of getting things done here (i.e. sights visited) on the East Coast. We only have eight months until we move back to L.A., which may still sound like a lot, but we only have six months until the baby comes and I'm not counting on getting much done in the month and half we are still in DC after the baby is here (although that's baseball season and Robert insists we are travelling all over to get in more baseball games. I told him I think he may be going by himself, possibly with Julia) Plus, only five months if we want to travel to anywhere on the East Coast since you shouldn't travel the month before the baby comes. Then December is pretty much out with travelling to L.A. and Utah and our October is pretty booked. So that gives us November, January, and February to fit everything in.

Anyway, back to the game. Hmm, don't really remember much. We had great seats since Robert got the tickets from work. Julia sat through the entire game or played with the empty seats next to us. It was an overcast day, but thankfully only drizzled a little since we were bracing ourselves for sitting through a downpour. Don't remember who won, but I'll guess Dodgers because Robert was still in a good mood after the game.

Then yesterday we went to Julia's first football game. We bought the tickets months ago and it didn't even register that this was also going to be conference Saturday. So I have to admit, we did not watch conference yesterday. But we have it recorded, so hopefully we can get it all in segments this week.

We sat in the standing room only section, which is a section with no seats, just grass where you can spread out your blanket. Perfect for kids so Julia was pretty happy rolling around on the floor most of the game and clapping and cheering when everyone else did. It was also a rainy day, but it held off raining until the very last three minutes of the game. And then they went into overtime.

Julia spent overtime under my legs in a makshift tent made out of a Mickey Mouse poncho playing games on Robert's phone. The game was really exciting. Navy came back in the last minute to tie the game. Then got a touchdown in overtime, but missed their extra point because they got a penalty and had to move back 15 yards to kick the field goal. Then Air Force got a touchdown and got their extra point to win the game.

Afterwards we went down to the Naval academy visitor center (but didn't see the campus since it was pouring rain). I wanted to get Julia the sailor hat because it's so cute, but she wanted a toy bear and we weren't about to get her two things. You'd think she was spoiled or something. So she she got an other teddy bear for her growing and much loved collection. Then we got dinner at Chick and Ruths Delly and picked up some fudge at the candy store for snacking on during conference today.

P.S. I lost my dinner after writing this post and in the middle of proof reading, so excuse any typos that I may have missed. I thought I might be able to stay up and finish these posts, but I guess I was wrong. Well, I finished, but not without suffering the consequences. Honestly, I don't remember being sick still with Julia at 16 weeks, is it ever going to end?

Grandpa Sandberg Visits

It's about time I finished this post since my Dad is coming back to visit us again this Wednesday and this is about the last time he visited in early September. He was doing training in PA and came down to see us over Labor Day weekend.

Some of the things we did:

Went to Manassas Battlefield and got a tour of one section of one of the battles (there were two battles fought there)

Visited the Air and Space Museum at Dulles.
Saw the newest memorial in Washington DC, the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Since the dedication was delayed due to Hurricane Irene we got to visit it before it was even dedicated. The design is centered around a quote by MLK "Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope. So here is my dad at the Mountain of Despair.

And you go through the mountain and see the Rock of Hope, with a giant Martin Luther King Jr. on the backside facing the Tidal Basin.

San Antonio and Austin

Also in early September we took a trip out to San Antonio and Austin to visit Robert's brother and his family and go to the BYU game. On Saturday we did all the touristy stuff in San Antonio.

We remembered the Alamo (fully decked out in our BYU shirts. Go Cougars!)

Took a ride on the river at the River Walk. Here Tyler and Julia wait patiently for our turn to get on the boat.

On the boat.

Then that evening the kiddos stayed with a babysitter (probably the longest Julia has ever been with a sitter, but it was wonderful to be able to actually enjoy the game without having to keep a two year old entertained) and we drove up to Austin for the Texas vs BYU game. The stadium was huge! And our seats were in the BYU section at the very top.

It was a little hot before the sun went down so snow cones were definitely in order to keep two pregnant ladies cool. Once the sun went down we could actually enjoy the game.

It was a fun game, but the Cougars just couldn't come through on all their plays and they ended up losing by one point, 17-16. It was pretty sad. I was impressed by the Texas fans though, nobody gave us a hard time for being BYU fans and nobody was rubbing it in our faces that they won. There were even a couple people (I think one might have been a little tipsy though) who thanked us for such a great game. The rest of the weekend we just enjoyed being with family and eating good Tex-Mex and Texas BBQ.