Leaving Virginia

When we were heading home from our adventures yesterday, we saw these massive flamingos in a yard.  One is by the mailbox and slightly taller than the mailbox (not shown here) and the other above was taller than a two-story house practically.  You can see a house off to the left and a fence below the trees behind it.  Crazy big.

Nice picture of the monument that Ben took on the way to the Capitol building.

After the Capitol we went to see the White House.  You couldn't get anywhere near it with all of the roads blocked off.  After some time, we decided to get on the road.  We already had a 3 hour delay from our van over-heating on the highway.  We sat for a bit and let it cool down and then we drove with the windows down and the heat on to find a mechanic.  The mechanic dealt with European cars but he order the part for me and got us back on the road.

Due to our timing, it took 2 hours to get out of the DC area.  Of course, there was a lot of construction along the way and we were delayed even more.  It wasn't too bad though.  Perhaps it would have been worse traffic wise if we hadn't had issues with the van.

Virginia

We visited with some friends of our from New Mexico that now live in Virginia.  It was wonderful to see them again and hard to believe it has been 3 years.  We decided to visit some places that we went to when we lived here last.  Ben remembers these places (with the exception of the Robert E Lee house, which I don't think we went to before) and Becca may remember some as well but the twins were too young.

We started off the morning by going to Arlington National Cemetery.  That turned out to be an adventure.  My GPS guided us to the ground keeper's entrance, which happened to be open and he let us go on through.  Some day if you want to hear how we almost got a ticket from the MPs, I'll fill you in.

We went to see the "Eternal Flame" where John F. Kennedy, his wife and two of their children are burried.

We watched the changing of the guards at "The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier".

We went to the Robert E. Lee house.  The furniture was removed from the house and they are doing repairs from the earthquake they had here.

We stopped by my favorite the Marine Corps War Memorial  (also called the Iwo Jima Memorial).

We went to the Jefferson Memorial.

The Korean War Memorial.  I didn't know this, but they used 1,000 images from the archives of soldiers to put on the walls of the memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial.

The Vietnam Veterans War Memorial, which has 58,195 names on it.  

Every place we went to today had an incredible amount of people.  I don't know if it is busier because it is the end of the school year and they are doing field trips, or perhaps, because Monday was Memorial Day and this is the week to do such an activity.  Whatever the reason, it was crowded.

This house pictured is a 5 bedroom house right next door to our favorite couple.  It just so happens it is for sale and the kids would love to live here.  It is a nice area.  It has been nice to be around trees that aren't palm trees, even if it is only for a couple of days.

Tomorrow we will go to a couple of places and then continue on with our journey.

Flour Baby

We are on our last 2 weeks of school.  We finished the concerts a couple of weeks ago.  Life continues to bustle on with the kids having people over, going to friend's homes, or meeting friends for dinner, movies, shopping, dances, or just to hang out together. 

This little guy above reminds me of a jelly bean but he is a 5 lb. bag of flour that Ben had to lug around for a week.  I liked that it was more realistic weight-wise to a newborn than an egg is.  He could have it "babysat"  for up to 3 hours a day.  He participated at school only.  At home, I'm not sure where the blue baby ended up.  Most likely on Ben's floor.  He did have it out once to watch the Celtics game with him.  Nothing like some bonding time. :)  He did manage to get a few pictures of it at school with another baby, eating onion rings, etc. for the report that was due today.

Ben and I are looking forward to the end of Seminary.  We are all looking forward to the end of school.  We can't wait for break for our summer plans to begin.  It is going to be an awesome summer!