Thursday, October 29, 2009

How Can I Be

I was so excited when I found out that this song was on Youtube. A missionary in our ward sings it and I just love it. I only have to listen to it about two more times and I'll have it memorized!

So, enjoy!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

DC Wrap-up - The Temple

We wanted to take a day to go to the Temple, so we rented a car (the temple is NOT easy to get to using public transportation) and drove up to Kensington, MD to the Temple. (Sometimes I think it's funny that the temples are almost never in the cities that they are named for...Seattle Temple is in Bellevue, Portland is in Lake Oswego, etc, etc. I guess no one would know where the Lake Oswego Temple was...)









These next three pictures deserve an explanation. We just got a great little tripod to use with our camera, so we wanted to take a real picture in front of the temple. Unfortunately, Brent forgot to change the wait time between pictures and he had it set to take three pictures in a row, so this what we got...

Not quite there!

Almost!

There we go! Great picture! :)

We stayed in Baltimore that night so we could catch our super early flight to Denver, where the plane was delayed about 1 hour. But we did get home, eventually, safe and sound. It was a LONG day, but a good trip!

DC Wrap-Up - Almost Done!

I know that it's been FOREVER since we got home, but this is kind of my journal, so I'm going to finish up the DC posts. I only have two more days of pictures, I promise!

Our last Smithsonian Museum was the Museum of American History. I was really excited for this museum since I knew that the First Lady's dresses, the real Star Spangled Banner that was flying when Key wrote that song, and the ruby slippers were there. Unfortunately, they are remodeling it, so that was about all that was there, but it was still fun!


You know anything Disney related, I'll love!


Brent was so excited about this lunch box that he actually posed for the picture without complaining. He says it's just like the one he had when he was little.


This is Laura Bush's ball gown. It took me a little while to figure out why I liked it so much...then I realized that it was completely modest! Not to mention red and sparkly! I wore a red dress on our first date. And if we had a song, which we don't because Brent thinks they're dumb, it would be "Lady in Red."


This is the actual costume from Return of the Jedi. Here's a funny story that doesn't relate at all to anything. The other day, Court and the boys were here. Aaron is just starting to really talk. He picked up a C3PO pez dispenser and said, "R2D2." Close enough! Too cute!


This poster cracks me up! That's not what I look like when I'm canning!


President Carter's wife's gown. (I should really be better at history.)


I just saw Julie and Julia in Boise so this meant a little more to me.



Mary Todd Lincoln sure had a tiny waist!


This is the hat that Lincoln was wearing the night he was shot.


These are Apollo Anton Ohno's skates that he won the gold medal in Salt Lake with. We're going to the Vancouver Games and tried to get tickets to speed skating, but they were very hard to get. Only hockey and curling for us. It will still be fun!


This may not be cool for most people, but it was kind of cool for us. This is a display about the Manhattan Project, which is where scientists developed the atomic bomb. And Brent's grandpa worked on it. Kind of interesting to see history that you've heard the stories from the actual people who were there.


I've never really liked the Wizard of Oz, but Wicked is awesome! It said that the original shoes were gray, but since it was in color, they wanted a color that would go well with the yellow brick road.


Here's President Taft's wife's gown.


Martha Washington's gown. Amazing that they've kept it so long!

You couldn't take pictures of the "Star Spangled Banner" Flag, but just imagine a really big, really old and tattered flag. Don't get me wrong, it was really cool to see, but ... it was really big and really old.

Since the museum is remodeling, not all of the areas were open, so we got done earlier than we were planning. We decided that since it was the last full day we had in DC that we would walk down the National Mall again. Got a good picture of the Washington Monument...



It was a good day.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

DC Wrap-up - More Museums

The next day was a day of museums. Our first stop was the Ford's Theater. They just re-did the museum in the basement, so it is definitely a place you should go. Then they take you upstairs to the theater its self. Here is the box where Lincoln was shot.

Then you go across the street to tour the Peterson House where he died. It takes about 3 seconds to tour, but I guess you can say you were in the building where Lincoln died, but if you don't have time to see it, you aren't missing much.

Then we went to the National Archives.



We got to see the actual Constitution.

And the Declaration of Independence. Neither of which were very easy to see because the ink had faded so much. But it was interesting to be able to see what you could see.

There was a special exhibit at the Archives where they were showing big things. This is Shaq's shoe that he gave to the first President Bush. It is 17 inches long. I thought I had big feet.

One of the coolest things at the Archives were the actual plans for the lunar lander. Still amazing how they got people to the moon using slide rules and hand drawn plans.

Then off to the National Art and Portrait Gallery. Here are a few of the highlights from that museum.

Can you figure out what this says?

Yep, that's Joseph Smith.



And the best part about all the Smithsonian Museums is that they are free!

DC Wrap-up - The Extra Day

We called this our extra day because originally we were planning on touring the White House, but since it is NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE to get tickets to tour the White House - in our Post 9/11 world - we had an extra day to do what we wanted.

When we were at the Capitol, the tour guide was saying how cool it was to watch the House in session, so we thought we would do that on our extra day.

Our first stop was to the Natural History museum to go to the butterfly enclosure for free. This way Brent could see it too.

This is a moon moth. Isn't that neat looking?

Then we went back to the Capitol, went through the security, turned in anything that had a battery (cell phone, camera), went through more security, then we saw this...

(This is just a picture of a picture, since I had to turn in my camera.) Yep, that's right, the room was COMPLETELY empty. And it was around 11a. Hmmm... Then we heard someone say that they were going to convene at 12:30p. Ok. So, we went to lunch and then came back at 12:30 and there was someone making a speech about health care to a COMPLETELY EMPTY ROOM. There was not another person in a seat. He spoke to himself, and I guess us, for about 10 minutes. After he sat down, this man got up and said that the speaker of the house had given him the authority to declare a recess until 2 pm. Man, I'm so glad that we went through 3 lines of security for this! It was kind of depressing.

Then we went to the Naval Museum.

We were the only ones in the museum, so Brent got to play with things all he wanted.

Outside of the museum was the USS Barry. It's a destroyer, I think. (Sorry Brent...I don't remember.)


All in all, it was a somewhat disappointing day, but we were still on vacation, so it was way better than a normal day.

Monday, October 19, 2009

DC Wrap-up - Three Branches of Government

Well, we've been home for two weeks now and I'm now getting around to finishing talking about our DC trip. Doesn't that just sound like me? You can say yes, it's ok. So, I have a bunch of pictures and I'll just explain them. Fewer words, more impact.

First we went on a tour of the three branches of government.

That's the Washington Monument behind him.


The US Botanical Gardens is right by the Capitol. Woho! This is a bromeliad.


My dad says that butterflies and bees sell pictures. Who would like to buy this one?










We got to take a tour of the Capitol, and this is what the dome looks like from the inside.




After our tour, and a little lunch, we went over to the Library of Congress. Also one of those places where you can't take a lot of pictures, but I did get a few.




And here is the outside of the building.


And here we are at the VERY CENTER of Washington, DC. This point is directly below the dome of the Capitol.


This is the old Senate Chamber in the Capitol.


We stopped at the Supreme Court building, but we got there right in the middle of two lectures and really didn't feel like waiting, so it was a short visit.


Then we walked past the White House. We didn't see the President, but I'm sure next time.


Then to prove that we really were there...





What a fun day!