Gettysburg and Washington DC!

P.S. This post contains a lot of pictures! (Most of these are all right from the camera to the computer, so sorry if they are shadowy..)




























Onto Washington DC-

This was the mouth of a REAL shark!!

Ren's favorite part of the parade.

The "ahh" faces.

(Hyrum, Utah?)

Happy 4th of July!

Part of the parade

Air and Space Museum

The Korean Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam wall memorial

"Fords Theater"

The white house from the front

The back of the white house

Sorry it has been so long since my last blog post! We made an impromptu trip to Washington DC over the 4th of July weekend! Along the way, we stopped in Gettysburg and were lucky enough to see the re-enactment getting ready to take place! It was only for the 4th of July weekend and we just so happened to stop during that time! It was pretty cool. After driving by all the memorials and getting some yummy local peaches, we headed onto Washington DC and spent the rest of Sat, Sunday and Monday there exploring! We were seriously so pooped everyday from so much walking and from all the crowds! It was so crazy and people were everywhere. We tried to go into a couple of museums, but found it almost impossible to maneuver a stroller with so many people everywhere. It was still a fun trip, but I think next time, we won't go over a holiday weekend. :)
We also got to see the 4th of July parade there, that we soon realized was a HUGE deal. People were all staking out their spots, like usual, to get a good look at the action. We found a good spot that let me sit down with the kids, letting them still see the parade. After staking our spot out with other families around us for a while, the parade started and suddenly, 3 Oriental people and an elderly Indian woman and man jumped in front of all of us. I was seriously so baffled and mad that they would be so incredibly pushy and push their way in front of everyone, including the kids who then couldn't see. I was so mad and should probably just forget it, but I couldn't believe how rude these people were. So, we all tried to see the parade about 2 inches from the pushy people's heads, all the while getting rammed with the Indian woman's chair that she was squeezing into the space next to me. It was all pretty funny, actually.
And, to end the trip on a good note, we didn't get caught in any traffic coming back!! Yeah!

Statue of Liberty visit!

Last Saturday, we paid a visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! It was the first time we had been able to climb to the crown and experience all the different levels of the Statue of Liberty. It was really beautiful being that close to such an amazing symbol of our country. We also spent some time on Ellis island, where they were having a huge ceremony honoring Ethnic diversity. On our ferry there, we were lucky to join a happy group of Italian musicians, & some beautiful Indian dancers, which I was more than thrilled to snap a couple pictures of! If you would like to see more pictures from our trip, check out my photo blog here.

In the crown!

The stairway down

Her face from the inside

The tablet

Looking out the window

Liberty State Park, in NJ where we left from

Statue of Liberty's hair from the inside

The original torch

Italian Musician

Gabe with the Italian musicians

Ellis Island

Happy Easter!

Fallen roses, originally uploaded by Casey McDaniel.

Just some beautiful flowers growing on the tree outside my window.

Little Easter girls!

Piper, originally uploaded by Casey McDaniel.

Sweet tulip, originally uploaded by Casey McDaniel.

Easter chica's, originally uploaded by Casey McDaniel.

A little trip to Virgina!

It was fun watching the little cubs play with their Dad's tail.

Sousan and Lauren with the kiddos!

We decided to pack up the kids last week and head to Purcellville, Virgina with some of our good friends, Lauren & Maddox! Luckily, the kids were a dream on the way down and didn't even cry, which was incredible! We loved hanging out with Lauren's family and driving to Washington DC, to visit the Smithsonian Zoo. Purcellville, Virgina is absolutely beautiful. I could see myself living there for a long time, if we ever got the chance to. I loved how spacious the homes were and could only imagine how green and vibrant everything would have been in the summer! We will definitely have to go back sometime. Thanks Sweeny family for sharing your home with us! We loved every minute of it!