U.S. Capital Building

We had a great time over Thanksgiving with Robert's family. Starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving we went to Philadelphia, New York City, and then came back to Washington D.C. for Thanksgiving and more sightseeing. We saw a lot of cool things and since I'm not really in a rush to post about them all at once, I'll probably just do a few different posts over the next week.

One of the places we saw in D.C. was the U.S. Capital. We got tickets from our Congressional Representative in Claremont and one of his interns showed us around.As long as Julia gets to hang out like she wants she does well sightseeing. It's when we force her to move along and go places she's not interested in that things get hairy.
Tyler and Kevin standing in the crypt room. There is no one really buried there, but it is where the designers of the capital wanted to bury George Washington (he's buried at Mount Vernon).

The fresco on the ceiling in the Rotunda, The Apotheosis of Washington, depicting Washington becoming a god surrounded by Liberty, Victory, and the thirteen maidens representing the thirteen colonies.

A life size model of the statue on top of the capital, the Statue of Freedom. It was really cool to see the inside of the capital. We went inside the House Chambers and kind of felt like I had been there before since it's such a recognizable room.

National Arboretum

Looking at our past posts I think it's safe to say that over the next two years anyone who reads our blog should have a good idea of what they want to see in D.C. area from reading about our experiences. So, your welcome future D.C. visitors. We're doing all the research for you. =)

Saturday we visited the National Arboretum in Washington D.C. We figured it was a good time to visit a place dedicated to trees when all the leaves are changing color. I think we will have to go back in the spring when all the flowers are in bloom as well. Also, the place is quite large (446 acres) and with Julia wanting to walk most of the time we didn't get to see it all.

The National Capitol Columns, they were the columns on the front of the Capitol building until the 1950s when the Capitol Building was expanded. They were installed at the Arboretum in the 1980s.

Bonsai trees, so cute and mini.

Julia giving hugs.

National Grove of State Trees.

They are suppose to have the state tree of every state, but some states have a substitute tree that will actually grow in this climate. Here is me with Utah's Blue Spruce and Robert with Idaho's Western White Pine.

Correcting a Missed Bloggertunity

Over the summer we went on an great bike ride, but unfortunately forgot to take our camera or phones (which incidentally led to us getting a little lost and making it such a great long bike ride). Saturday we went for another nice long ride, not in the same area (this time along the Mount Vernon trail through Alexandria) but we did remember the camera. So this is what the last post would have looked like...

Julia hanging out in the trailer. It was a little cool so we had the rain cover on to keep the wind off her.
Stopping for a break.
Julia and I with the Potomac in the background (and the teeny tiny capital bldg.)

Happy Halloween!

Julia and I were pirates for Halloween, Arrr! (Robert refused to dress up) On Thursday we went to Robert's work and went trick-or-treating around his office. At first Julia was a bit confused, but she got the hang of things after a couple desks- Take one colorful candy from the bucket at the desk and put it in my pumpkin bucket. What a fun game! Little does she know that the colorful candy is actually edible and yummy (we'll save that lesson for another day). Robert and I can still keep her entertained for hours by letting her take candy out of the big bowl at our house and putting it in her bucket and then back into the bowl.
She thought it all was such a big adventure. The office was like a giant maze to her as we maneuvered through the cubicles and at the end there was a pizza party and pumpkin decorating.
Right after the work party we went to our ward Halloween party. We got stuck in traffic getting out of D.C. (wow, just, wow. It took us half an hour to go four blocks) so we got there for just the trunk-or-treating. I also convinced Julia to put on her pirate hat for the trunk-or-treat.

I had thrown all the Halloween decorations from home that we didn't put up this year into the back of our car and told Robert to put them up. He managed to put something together in the ten minutes before the kids came streaming out of the church and we ended up getting third place in the decorating contest. (This is him taking it all down afterwards)

It's Finally Here!

Ever since we moved here everyone has been telling us the summers here are hot and muggy, but the fall is beautiful. We've had a few trees change colors, but this week I've noticed a big change. Most of the trees have finally changed colors, and it is beautiful. I love that wherever you go here there are a million trees everywhere.

American Indian Museum

Last weekend Robert's brother Kevin and his wife Ellen came down for a visit. On Saturday they watched Julia while Robert and I went to the temple and then we went into D.C. Robert and I went to check out the National Museum of the American Indian. This may be my favorite Smithsonian because it's all about the indigenous cultures of North and South America (with an emphasis on Native American tribes in the U.S.), and they do special performances! We will definitely be going back for some of the other events they have and to try out the native food at the cafe. The day we went they were doing a celebration of Bolivian music and dance. Julia had fun dancing along. Her new word for the weekend was "dance" and now when she hears music playing she will say "dance" and dance along.

Frying Pan Farm

Today our ward's playgroup went out to visit Frying Pan Farm. Julia loved it of course. The first thing she saw when we got there were a bunch of cows and she got really excited and started mooing because it's the first time she has seen a cow since she learned the cow says moo (she also thinks the cow says baa and the sheep says moo and baa).

I had a hard time convincing her to leave the cows and move on to see the sheep. Then I had a hard time convincing her to leave the sheep to see the pigs, and so on. It was just a small farm for kids but we stayed for two hours while Julia got acquainted with all the farm animals.

And While We Were On the Farm...

this is what Robert was doing. He was in NYC for the day for a business meeting. What a difference from what we did today!

Julia's Fashion Sense

Uh-oh, bare midriffs are a no-no Julia. We should pull your shirt down to cover your tummy.
Oh wait, we can't because you're sporting the new upside down onsie look. It's like a cowl neck onies.
Julia's quickly becoming the epitome of a squirmy toddler and getting her dressed in the morning has become quite a challenge. This morning in my haste to get the onsie on I failed to notice it was on upside down until her daddy managed to catch her.