We Finished!

We finished reading The Book of Mormon this month so we went to the temple to celebrate. It was a beautiful peaceful day.

True love that lasts forever is the best thing in the world.
Here are the kids by one of the east doors. They are so adorable.
Although I didn't exactly commission this photograph I figure it is a good belly shot and hopefully there won't be many more.
We decided to let Donald have some driving experience on the outer loop of the Beltway; just so long as I'm not driving! The traffic was horrible on the way to the temple and on the way back. How do people live here!? Thankfully Dan had thought ahead and got a movie from redbox for the kids.

Monumental Saturday

Today we toured monuments and memorials in DC.

After riding the Metro in (which is always one of the highlights), we started at the Washington Monument. That end of the mall was very windy, so we didn't do too much there other than look at it as we walked by.

The next stop was the World War II memorial. It was built since the last time either Sarah or I (this is one of my few blog entries) had been there, so it was fun to see something new. There were posts all around a pool, and each of the posts had the name of a state or other possession of the United States. Adrian was amazed at how many states there were, and that the soldiers had protected them all during the war.

Sarah wasn't feeling too well by then, so she rested on a bench while the kids went around and had their pictures taken by their birth states. We had a lot of states to visit.

We had to remember to get Virginia for little baby Jared (at least that's what we're calling him now).

After the WWII monument, we walked to the Vietnam memorial. We didn't take any pictures, but the kids were impressed with it. We looked at the reference books and found out that there are Blodgett and Weir names on the wall, but we didn't look for them. We did see one pane that had the names Charles Frank and Daniel David (four different first names).

From there we went to the Lincoln Memorial. Sarah just finished a book about Gettysburg, and Rebecca is learning about the Civil War in school, so it was an interesting site to see. The three oldest kids each took time to read the Gettysburg address that was engraved on the wall, even without us saying anything. They liked sitting on the edge of the building and looking out over the reflecting pool. Unfortunately, it was so windy that the pool was really choppy.

As we left the memorial, Rebecca found a penny. The girls thought it was pretty lucky to find one there since it had Lincoln on one side and the memorial building on the other.

From there we retraced our steps back to the Metro and came home. It was a hard day for the littlest kids and Sarah, but everyone thought it was worth it to see those famous sites and remember parts of our history.

Memory Lane

We transferred all our old files onto our new computer so I had to take a little trip down memory lane. This is our 2 year old Charlie. He's still this cute.

Birthday Boy

This week we celebrated Dan's birthday. He didn't get home until 9 pm on his birthday but we decided it was worth it to keep the kids up on a school night just to see Daddy open his presents. An extra special surprise was having our brother-in-law, Scott, stop by to visit. He also brought the birthday cake to our little party! It was an ice cream cake from Maggie Moo's and it was so yummy.

The Capitol

This week Rebecca's been studying the history of DC so every night we made her tell us something about the Capitol Building. It's been fun. I am definitely NOT smarter than a 5th grader. On Saturday we took a trip into DC to tour the Capitol Building. It was really neat. Here we are with our admission stickers on.

To begin the tour there's a really nice movie with information about how our legislative branch was formed and how it works along with some U.S. history. It was very informative and nice to sit down for part of the tour. Also, it made me cry. It's not just because I'm pregnant. I feel blessed to live in the USA. I'm also thankful for the men and women that have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice so much for our freedom. Then we went up into the rotunda. Here's Shari learning a lot and probably craning her neck to see all the beautiful artwork around the inside of the dome.
We were glad Dan got a picture with the Utah statue in the room next to the rotunda. There were a lot of beautiful statues from every state. It was impressive.
Thomas was Rebecca's little pal. She loved it. Meanwhile, Adrian took Thomas' place in the Harper's double stroller. You're a good soul, Nolan, to push that big kid around.
The outside of the Capitol Building is so beautiful. I wish we could capture the details and how impressive it is in one picture. Instead you get to look at our cute faces.
Here is a picture by Adrian. He was bugged that we were blocking the front of the building. I am pretty large these days.
This picture was taken by Charlie. I guess they're representing our MIGHTY nation.

Spring Break

Spring break is always over too quickly. We had lots of fun doing things right around here. The week started out really hot so we had to get out early in the morning to enjoy the lovely outdoors. We explored different parks in the area every morning and I would rest every afternoon. It was lots of fun. I didn't take pictures of every fun park we went to, but I took some yesterday. We went to Curtis Park which is really beautiful and includes a golf course so Dan went to the driving range while the kids ran wild. It has finally cooled off so we stayed for 3 hours.

Donald's favorite thing is pushing around his stroller. As soon as we got to the park he started pushing his stroller everywhere he went. I was thinking maybe I won't need a double stroller when I have this baby because Donald can push him everywhere. It might be slow going, though.

This picture if priceless. Rebecca and Charlie getting along well enough to have their picture taken together! It didn't last too long but it was wonderful at the moment.
This is my favorite picture of the day. I don't know what it is about Adrian looking through his hand binoculars into the distance that makes me laugh. He's so adorable.

A Lot of Easter Pictures

We were so lucky to have the Harper's with us for Easter weekend. On Saturday we dyed Easter eggs and it was quite a party. I had to include this picture even though I look awful, because Grace looks so adorable!!

Donald actually kept kissing his egg but we couldn't get a picture with the timing just right. He loved dying his one little red easter egg and then I talked him into watching Elmo because it was too much work cleaning up after him.
Here is just an example of our Easter Bunny's superior egg hiding skills. They loved their easter egg hunt Sunday morning and by the end their baskets were filled with all sorts of good things.
It was wonderful to spend the day watching conference and playing with Harper cousins but after it was over we really needed some outside time. Here is Dan letting Donald get some of his wiggles out by jumping off the roof. Hopefully he never wants to try it on his own.
The girls got a really fun friendship bracelet kit. They made bracelets during conference. I'm so glad they enjoy doing it. I sure loved it when I was their age.
I am trying to capture the spring blossoms in this picture. Our entire street is lined with these beautiful tall trees covered in pink and white blossoms. It is quite lovely, although it took us some time to get used to the smell.
Easter evening we had to say goodbye to our Harper cousins. It was sad but we hope we get to see them again soon while they're out this way.


Shari struck a pose for me with our beautiful spring tulips. She's so super sweet.