Mr. & Mrs. Smith...

Well, I am FINALLY taking the time to update my blog. Where does the time go-seriously?

Corbin, Averee, Bailey, & Adelyn in front of a fountain in a park where we stopped for a rest

Last week we got to go out to Virginia to see the Smiths. What a trip! It was so great to see them. They had only been gone for a couple month-but we sure missed them. Averee was especially excited to see Bailey. It was a great trip-where I realized a lot of things are either bigger or smaller than I thought...

Such silly girls

One day before we left Averee asked me what language they speak where Bailey lives? :0) I had been trying to explain that Bailey now lives even further away than Grandma Funk. It was pretty funny-then she said that she can speak five languages so she just needed to know which one to use. She thinks that since she can say 'hello' in French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, & of course English -that she can speak those languages. Such a funny girl!

We decided to leave Owen home with some friends in the ward who have a little boy the same age. Thanks again Fishers! I just couldn't imagine dealing with Owen on the airplane & all the sight seeing. The girls were super excited to fly for the first time. They did really great. Luckily the plane had tv's in the headrests so they could watch cartoons the whole time. We flew into Baltimore since it was cheaper than flying into Washington DC. Then we drove to Kenny & Christan's house. Thank goodness for GPS-the roads out there are crazy! How did people get anywhere before GPS? Anyway-it took us awhile to get there since we hit rush hour. We finally got there late thursday nite. It was great to see each other & it felt just like old times. The kids immediately got right down to business-playing!

It is gorgeous out there-so many trees! No mountains though-you can see forever. Christan's home is cute & perfect for having guests-we had the downstairs all to ourselves. I highly recommend a visit! :0)

This is about as close as we were going to get to the White House

Friday morning we headed to DC. The parking there is pretty crazy-there is no parking by the sights. You have to park blocks away in a parking garage ($20 a day!) then walk to the sights. We hit the National Archives first & that was pretty cool. None of my pics turned out though since it is pretty dark in there (to protect the documents) & they don't let you use flash photography (also to protect the documents). It was pretty cool to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, & the Bill of Rights. The papers are huge-much bigger than I realized.

Then we headed to the National Museum of Natural History-they kids had a great time looking at all the animals, dinosaurs, & bugs. I have to admit that T-Rex was quite a bit smaller than I thought he would be but the elephant was twice as big as I thought it would be...weird.

Averee was excited to see this Triceratops skull-it is her favorite dinosaur

Next we went to the Washington Monument. Way taller than I thought it would be! We planned to go inside but didn't realize you have to buy a ticket & by the time we got there they were sold out for the day. Bummer! But we got some cool pics anyway...

Then we headed down to the Lincoln Monument-I was really excited to see this. We walked in and you could just feel the reverence in that place. I got the chills. On both walls they have engraved some of his famous speeches- including of course the Gettysburg Address. The statue itself was huge-again it was probably twice the size I thought it would be. Crazy! It was so cool-definitely a highlight of the trip...

It was so crowded that we couldn't get a pic by ourselves-oh well!

Saturday we went out to Mount Vernon, which was George Washington's estate. This place is enormous! So many cool things to see-you could spend all day there. Just to think of all the history in a place like that is overwhelming. We didn't actually go in the mansion cuz we had the kids and 2 strollers, not to mention the line was forever long! But they had a miniature of it in the visitor center-so that worked. The coolest part was the tomb where he & Martha are buried. It is a very quite & reverent area of the estate. It is open & you can look right in a see their tombs. Washington's has a huge eagle crest carved in it-it was beautiful! What a cool thing to see! They still keep some of the farm going-just for the tourists. The kids got a kick out of this very tame rooster...

Here we are posing with George & Martha & their grand kids

In front of the Mansion

This rooster was a little too tame!

Sunday we went to church with the Smiths & yup-the church is the same wherever you go :0) Their sacrament meeting was just as noisy as ours. he he he. Then we wanted to go to the Zoo in DC, but since everyone else had the same idea & there was NO parking-we decided to head to the beach instead. The kids loved it-they collected shells & even held a Horseshoe crab...yuck!

Love that look on Corbin's face!

Monday it was time to head home. Bummer! But first we headed down to see the lake behind their house. It was gorgeous-the leaves had a started to turn. What a view!

The trip went way too fast. So much to see-so little time! Thanks again Christan-we had a great time & it was so good to see you guys & just hang out like old times! Tell Kenny thanks for being such a patient tour guide. I think he probably got tired of all my questions! I guess even though you guys have only lived there a few months I still expect Kenny to be an expert on the surrounding area. :0) The kids had a great time too & Averee keeps asking when we get to see Bailey again? Hopefully soon...miss you guys already!