Washington DC

It seems fitting that the first picture in my montage of pictures is Ryan and his snowman! Being an Arizona kid, he doesn't get much snow in his life, and being in Washington, there were a couple of inches, he and my kind, sweet, patient mom went out and built a snowman with him. I watched from the balcony or launched major snowballs at Ryan while they did it. . .as a mom of boys, I have learned to strategically place myself when I do things like that ;)

Ryan and I took the opportunity over MLK day to go to Washington DC to visit my parents who are serving in the Washington DC temple until there Visas come in to go and serve in Spain. . .We LOVED it!!! Ryan is never the child who gets to decide what he wants to do for entire days. . .he got to here, and with almost everything free to see, who cared what we did?!
On Saturday, he decided he wanted to see the National Zoo. They have a few pandas on loan from China, so we got to see some!

On Sunday night, after church and dinner, we went down to DC and saw the mall all lit up, I particulaly loved the Lincoln monument and the Jefferson Monument... So amazing! Thank goodness for a TomTom in the car, we could get pretty much anywhere we wanted. . .only once did we wonder if the tomtom was on drugs ;)

On Monday, we went and saw the Smithsonian American History museum and Ryan and my dad went to the Natural History Museum. My mom and I went and saw the First Lady section with all of the beautiful inaugural gowns and learned about the life in the white house. We came to a display America at War and called my dad and Ryan over from the Natural History museum. . .Ryan thought it was so interesting to learn about the different wars. . . he spent probably an hour in the area just reading different things. . . so VERY interesting! Theres was a lot more to see in the America History museum. . .but alas, we ran out of time!

That afternoon, we went and saw the Washington monument. Amazing! I can't believe how tall those monuments are. . .so awe inspiring too!

This was our first sight when we got off the subway! On Friday we were so excited to be in DC and see these amazing sites that we only see on tv!

 

 

We went and toured the Capital and also saw the air and space museum. Ryan got a little irritated that some things weren't what he thought they should be and was surprised to learn that this model of the man on the moon was one of the I think 12 ships that were identical to the Apollo orbiter -- he just thought it was fake. The thing he remembers about the space museum? He tells everyone that the astronauts where diapers and it takes three hours to put on their space suits!

 

Grandpa and Ryan at the National Zoo. . .

 

Thanks mom and dad for letting us come visit! I loved getting to go into the Washington DC temple, I wish I had had more time there. . .but it was so fun to see everything there and I can't wait to go back!