DC Adventures

Friday was the last day at the hotel for us.

Ryan had to be to his conference at 6am, and so it was up to me to get us packed up and checked out on time. Which wasn't hard considering the whole family ended getting up with Ryan at 5:30am.

º-º

So tired...but, I got the girls up and in their swim suits and went for a quick swim that morning and then got them dressed, bags all packed up and lugged out to the car (which was tricky because the baggage carts were all being used... and I probably carried things I shouldn't have... but I did it!). 

We headed to a McDonalds around the corner to wait for Ryan to be done with his conference and then decided that Ryan needed to do something fun on this trip (since the only fun thing he did with us was go to McDonalds for ice cream Thursday evening). So we decided to be crazy and head to the National Mall in DC.

Honestly, I wasn't too excited at first. I was just dreading the drive to Columbia, MD, in rush hour to visit some friends. 

But it was perfect. The drive into DC was beautiful AND we found a spot in a FREE 3-hour parking spot, just one smithsonian over from the Natural History Smithsonian (the one we wanted to take the girls to). So we walked over and got to explore the outside exhibit of the National Art Gallery.

We even had some older lady run up and scold me for not being in the family picture...

So yeah, family picture!

After she handed me my camera back she told me that I should be more careful because she could have run off with our camera. Thanks lady.

Here is Sarah picking the nose of a triceratops.

(this is for G'ma Lisa)

Here is Ry & Abby in the entrance of the Smithsonian.

It was crowded, and Abby kept wanting to run away from us, but we had so much fun exploring the exhibits. We probably only walked throw two or three of them, but we didn't care. The girls were having fun looking at all of the interesting things (like dung beetles, giant spiders, bones, dinosaurs and the Hope Diamond). 

After three hours we decided it was time to go and headed to our good friends the Cramer's.

(They lived by us in Pittsburgh for two years)

They were kind enough to let us come crash at their house Friday night and watch our kids so Ryan and I could go to the temple Saturday morning (so grateful!!!)

Sarah and Abby had so much fun playing with their friends Cody & Kylee. 

In fact, just yesterday Sarah told me that she had a dream about a giant scary spider... and that Cody moved back to Pittsburgh so she could play with him!!
It was a great way to finish up our little getaway. 

Thanks Tiffany and Steve for feeding us, watching our kiddos and giving us a bed for the night.

You're the best!