Off to Virginia and Washington DC!

I know this post is along time coming but at least it's here...which is more then I can say for my son and daughter in law who haven't blogged anything for months hint, hint...On the 18th of October we boarded a plan in Salt Lake and flew to Regan National Air Port in Washington DC to visit Jeramy, Rebecca and the kids. The kids were so excited they called us weeks in advance to see if we were packed and ready to make the trip. That helped to make us even more excited! I never look forward to the ritual we have to go through at the air port. Les and I have to take our heart burn meds before we go because a case of anxiety always set in before we get settled in the plane and take off. Then it starts up again when we arrive, pick up the car and start out in traffic trying to navigate our way in a strange place. Thank goodness for GPS systems. What a relief to hear..."Arriving at destination," and realize that we've made it in one piece and we didn't get lost. (unlike other trips pre GPS systems). I was a little disappointed that this trip wasn't in the spring and at Cherry Blossom time but Autumn time with the beautiful colored leafs is second best!!! We arrived on Saturday, what a beautiful home Jeramy and Rebecca have. And they definitely rolled out the red carpet for us it was like staying in a five star hotel. We had a beautiful room downstairs and had our own bathroom. On Sunday morning we woke up and got ready for church. It was the kids Primary program. We had been to Keagan, Jake and Lily's for years so it was neat to be able to see Isaac, Jaron, and Hayden say their parts and sing their little hearts out. Brynlee just graduated into Young Women's the month before. That evening we drove into Washington DC to go to the DC Temple and got a little taste of the DC traffic. You see your life flash before you eyes literally every time you enter the freeways there. Bec and I were following Les and Jermay and the little boys in our rental car, Rebecca told me my son is a terrible driver and just as she is telling me this we see Jeramy swerve off the side of the road and a car almost hit them and swerve back on again. He called and said, "did you just see that?" Rebecca said, "Yes you almost hitting that car?" He said, "no that car came over three lanes and just about hit us, I had to swerve off the road to avoid getting hit." Les said he was so afraid Jeramy was going to roll the van and the little boys in the back would be hurt. So glad we don't live there!!! It's so amazing, your driving down the crazy freeway and come around a bend and staring you right in the face is the Washington DC temple. I can't take credit for this picture a lady at the visitors center gave us one. It was taken by a visitor with his Cel phone, CEL PHONE! can you believe it. It's better then a lot of pic's I've taken with my camera. He saw it and had to stop and find out what this beautiful building was. Pretty amazing sight isn't it!

Here is the family in front of the Temple. Papa and Hayden went cas for comfort:-) Sorry this picture isn't the best but it was at night. The next day it was off to Mount Vernon to visit the home of our 1st President George Washington.

Here is Brynlee with the sculpture of George, Martha and their two grand children. What a great man Washington was. And when you hear about his life, you know that the Lord preserved him and sent him to earth at that time to lead and guide our country to freedom. He never had any children of his own. He meet Martha who was a widow with two children and became enamored with her from the 1st time they meet. This is the view from the front of the home. It is sets on a large amount of acreage as most of the homes in the South were, it would have been a beautiful home in it's day as it is still is at this time.
This would have been the view of Washington and his guests as they sat on the porch in the rear of the home and discussed politics and the events of the day as they gazed out at the Potomac. The covered walk ways are attached to the house provided shade as the guest would walk about the grounds much like an Arbor or Pergola and get a load of those beautiful Autumn leafs peaking through!!! This is a another view from the rear of the house so you can see where the guests would sit on the porch after a hearty meal. In George Washington's day when ever anyone traveled because there were no hotels and homes were few and far between the Washington's had house guests on a daily basis who would stop to spend the night and for a meal as well. I don't think President and Mrs Bush or the Obama's would appreciate us just dropping by and asking for a place to stay and a meal do you?!?;-)
This is one of the wax figures of Washington at Valley Forge in the museum.

Washington being sworn in as the first President of the United States. The next day we were up bright and early and off to the White House. You are not allowed to take a camera in the White House, no pictures are allowed. All along the walls as you first walk in are photos of the late Presidents and current President and their families which was very interesting to see, also dignitaries who visited them in the White House. Each of the more recent 1st ladies had rooms and large portrait of them hanging on the walls. There were fresh flowers, beautiful bouquet's through out the White House, one of the guards told us that there is a florist in the white house that provide fresh flowers daily. In the large dining area Les asked if the President actually dined in this room. The guard told us yes, they dine there when there are dignitaries all the time in fact the night before they had a large group of people there. We were told that Jackie Kennedy had change the decor in this room, originally the walls were covered with beautiful wood. Jackie had the wood painted white and all the light fixtures and trim gold leafed. We toured the main floor, the President and his family live on the second floor. After we toured the white house we went to the State Capital. You go through security to enter all these buildings. The capital is another very impressive building. Jeramy, Rebecca and Les in front of the Nations Capital. The ceiling in the Capital building. There is so much to take in at the capital, sculptors, paintings, it's such a beautiful place. Each state has sculptures they have donated to the capital. One of Utah's statue is of Brigham Young. Our guide told us that the President Obama can not enter the state capital unless he is invited by congress. That was something I did not know.

Washington is such a fascinating place you could spend week even months there before you could see everything there is to see. One of the highlights of our trip (and I had to be coaxed into doing it) was taking a segway tour of the Washington Mall. When I first got on the segway I was white knuckling it and I didn't feel very secure. Les on the other hand jump on his and took off like a kid on a new bike. He was wild and free on that thing! I wish I would have taken a video of him he was hilarious and he had so much fun. I was expecting Jeramy to be the wild and crazy one:)
Here we are in front of the White House, don't we look fashionable in our helmets!
Les and I with the Washington Monument in the back ground.

The Vietnam Monument. This was very sobering because I had a neighbor and good friend Frank Nelson who was killed during the Vietnam War. We were able to find Franks name on the wall.


Here's having a bad hair day after removing the lovely helmet. Les and I in front of the Lincoln Memorial. I had wanted to see this beautiful monument as long as I can remember. This is also where Martin Luther King stood and gave his "I have a dream" speech. There is so much history here. You can feel the spirit of our founding fathers and other great men and leaders all around you if you have the time to just stop and contemplate. I'm so glad were were with Jer and Bec because Les and I would have been up a creek if we would have come here on our own. It was great having our own personal tour guides! After the tour on our way back to the segway rental I gave Jeramy and Rebecca a laugh!!! I was riding behind Les with about 4 other people. We came to a cross walk and the light was red so we could go Jer, Bec, the tour guide and half of the group went across the street but Les decided he would be a nice guy and stop and let a car who wanted to turn right go ahead of the rest of us. He stopped and I came to an abrupt stop behind him a long with the rest of the group. For some reason I just started to get off my segway which is a no no. I took one foot off but the segway thought I wanted to keep going because my other foot was still on...within seconds I could see my life flash before my eyes seeing me and my segway out in the middle of the road with all the traffic. Thank goodness there was a pool in front of me so...me and my segway did a little pole dance while the terrified tour guide shouted,"I'm coming!!!! As my segway and I did the pole dance Les was oblivious to what had happened and happily sailed across the street asking,"where's Judy?" Isn't that just like a man! The next day it was off to Arlington Cemetery to the grave of the unknown soldier.

It was raining the day we went to Arlington which added to the somber mood you felt upon entering the cemetery and seeing the rows upon rows of head stones of the men and women who gave their lives for our freedom. We arrived just in time for the changing of the guards which was so amazing to watch. These young man take this job very seriously, from their impeccable uniforms to their stoic attitude you can tell they deem it an honor to watch over the grave of their unknown comrade. It was a very patriotic experience. Upon the tomb of the unknown soldier it reads " Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God." It's a very sobering sight!The photo above the soldiers is of the view of Washington from Arlington. We also saw the graves of the Kennedy's there. There are so many other places we saw like the Holocaust Museum, the Smithsonian Museum, the Aircraft Museum and there were so many more pictures we took and things we did that I can't put them all in this blog but we really did enjoy ourselves and recommend the trip to all of you. Thanks Jeramy, Rebecca, Brynlee, Isaac, Jaron, and Hayden for being our tour guides and making our stay at your home so wonderful. Isaac was a little tease and put faux spiders in the bathroom to scare Nana. We love you guys and wish we didn't live so far away.