Family Trip Day 6

**This post has so many pictures!!**

Day six was such a crazy busy and super fun day. We went to Washington D.C. It was seriously so much fun. We rode the metro (which was refreshing, because it was so clean) to the city and started right by the Capitol building. I never knew this, but the city was designed so that many of the streets point to The Capitol.

One cool thing about D.C. is all the museums they have. Another cool thing is, they are almost all free!

We went to the National Museum of the American Indian. I love just about anything to do with Native Americans. I love to see how they lived, and imagine what their life was like. We sped through, but we saw some really cool things.

Our next stop was the Air and Space Museum. We got to see many types of artifact from airplanes and space craft. Some of it is a copy of the original, and some of it is original. This place was HUGE! They have airplanes hanging from the ceiling! While we were in the museum, we stopped for lunch at McDonald's. Again, it was HUGE! It was the biggest McDonald's I have ever seen. You first ordered you food and paid for it, then took the receipt to another counter to collect your food! There were several hundred people there eating. Tyler and I wondered how much that one McDonald's makes each day.

 

We walked through the Sculpture Garden on our way to the Natural History Museum

Right outside the Natural History Museum. Petrified Wood, 200 Million years old.

They had everything you could thing of in this museum. Just when we though we had seen it all, we realized there was another wing or something that we had missed.

 

The Hope Diamond

The last museum we went to was the American History Museum. Both of our kids were asleep at this point!

We saw dresses worn by the First Ladies. They were all very classy looking pieces.

Dishes from different presidents in the White House

This was the last thing we got to see before the museum closed.

After leaving the museums, we walked and walked to different monuments.

The Washington Memorial. I guess you used to be able to go inside. On August 23, 2011, there was an earthquake in Virginia that caused damage to the memorial and now they don't allow people to go in.

The World War II Memorial

The Korean War Memorial

You can't see this one very well, but we were at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It is a wall filled with 58,195 names from those who died or were unaccounted for during the war. Mace is standing next to the wall and you can see the Washington Memorial in the back ground.

The last place we stopped was the Lincoln Memorial. As I rode the elevator up, I found out that the other couple riding with me was from Midvale, UT. Cool to be around people from Utah, even if just for a few minutes. They were kind enough to take our picture!

We were there as the sun was setting, so we got some cool shots!

Our kids, we love them!

 

The back of the White House. The front was blocked off, due to David Cameron- the Prime Minister of England- being in town

The Metro

We tried for a long time to find a place to eat after the sun had set. Everything closes so early!

Tyler and I had a blast seeing everything in D.C. We already want to go back and spend more time in each of the museums. There were also tons of people running. I think I would like to jog in that city! One thing we thought was pretty cool, was how clean the city is. We hardly saw any trash!

Family Trip Day 5

Day five of our trip started out with another drive. We drove to Pennsylvania and got directions to go to Amish Country.

Of course we had to stop by this sign for a picture.

The scenery was really pretty.

After our drive through Amish Country, we headed toward Baltimore to see Tyler's cousin and his cute wife.  Cruz was a stinker on the way there, so I sat in the back seat and tried my best to entertain him.

Sleepy little Mace :)

Once in Baltimore, we got some pizza and headed to a park to eat. We ate crab pizza, which Tyler and I thought was pretty good.

I am sad this is the only picture of us. Jenna had a baby only 5 days after after we saw them. Sad we missed that, too.

Day five was nice. It was low key, but really fun. We were able to relax a bit for the busiest day ahead! 

Family Trip Day 4

We drove to Philadelphia on the forth day of our trip. Philadelphia is such a cool place! So much history. I really wish we could have spent more time there.

There was a lot of information about slavery. It is kind of crazy to think that people, who so badly fought for freedom, forced other people to be slaves for them. I am glad that they talk about slavery as part of our history, but it did have a gloomy feel to it.

Mace was hiding from us, while we walked through the slavery section.

The Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

This is the assembly hall and the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. It was so cool imagining what it would have looked like to see everyone gathered around a piece of paper, that is so important to our country!

This is the actual chair that George Washington sat in.

The courtroom

 

One of my new favorite things. Can't believe I had lived so long without ever trying one of these! YUM!

After eating, we tried to go to a few more places, but parking is crazy. We drove and drove and drove, looking for a spot. Then, Mace started crying (Cruz was already crying) because he had, had an accident in his pants. So, right before we went crazy, we spotted a Whole Foods, hoping to find a parking spot there. Luckily we did. Tyler got Mace cleaned up, while I fed Cruz. It was late enough at this point, that we decided (for our sanity) to just go to our hotel. It was a nice place. We shared a room with Brad and Liz.

Day four was really fun. We spend a bit of time driving, so we didn't have as much time to see the sights. It was nice to be somewhere that wasn't as busy as New York. I think the kids enjoyed having more space, too. There is a grassy area across the street from Independence Hall. We enjoyed playing on the grass and relaxing! Next time we are in Philly, I would like to go to the Masonic Temple, Ben Franklin's house and several other historical spots (and eat a couple Philly cheese steaks!)

An afternoon skiing

Winter is almost gone. Spring is almost here. The weather has been really nice the last few days. We decided to head up to Alta and do a little back country skiing with the boys. We stayed on the road almost the whole time. It didn't last long, but we had a fun time!

Emotions of a Two Year Old and a Cute Baby!

Mace.

So cute. So fun. So two years old.

Last week, we were talking about tantrums of a two year old. I thought we were over the hump because Mace had been acting so good lately. This always happens, just when I think I am on top of things, my children prove me wrong.

This was the night after we got back from our trip. We had Cooper and Lucy sleep at out house the day we got back, so Mace was still in need of a lot of sleep. Two things I have learned about two year olds, is that their emotions can change in an instant and sleep is REALLY important to keeping them happy. Mace was pretty happy before I took this video. Then, Tyler remembered that he needed to go to the store to buy bread. Mace totally freaked out. I felt bad for him, but he was being so ridiculous that I grabbed the camera. He cried for about a half hour- totally out of the norm for him. This clip shows Mace at his worst! And the best part is that within a few minutes of him calming down, he and I were best friends. He went to sleep very easily that night! (And slept for 12 hours!)

This second video was last night. Cruz had been jumping in the jumper and Mace decided he wanted a turn. He tried to get in by himself and it was just too funny not to grab the camera! Love his laugh!

Cruz.

So cute. So fun. So happy!

The (usually) calm and happy Cruzer! He really is such a sweet little baby.