Everyday Life

While Mitch and Cari were here we also made a quick trip to Fort McHenry.  We made it right about closing time.  We got there just in time to retire the 15 star flag that had flown over the fort for the day and raise the traditional 50 star flag to fly at night.  The battle won against the British here at Fort McHenry was the inspiration to the writing of The Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key.

The Johnson's decided on a quick trip out to see us the beginning of December.  We only had a couple of days so we hit the city running.

 The Udvar-Hazy flight museum is an annex to the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum.  It is home of the shuttle Discovery and numerous other cool aircraft.  Side note: this is also the museum that part of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was filmed, which they have that scene playing on a tv in the museum :)

 Arlington Cemetery waiting for the changing of the guards.

 A quick Donny O. sighting

 The national Christmas tree

 It may appear that we were lost, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case ;)

 We had to stop off at Georgetown Cupcake so Mitch and Cari could get some cupcakes to take home to their kids.  Might as well get some for ourselves right?  They are SO GOOD, just in case anyone was wondering.

We had some amazing chili dogs at Ben's Chili Bowl in Downtown D.C.

Seriously, this doesn't even document our entire weekend we spent with them.  We had so much fun with them, ate way too much food, and can't wait to do it again.

They explained to the children how to plant and harvest tobacco which I thought was a little weird, but then again I don't live in Idaho anymore.

 This is the old William Brown house which is the original that was built in the mid 1700's.

 Gavin's group all dressed up

learning how to make rope

 This picture cracks me up.  I don't know if she is showing her intense fierceness or if she is just yawning :)

 They both got a trophy but she was the only one willing to get a picture.

 I love how they somehow ended up with the same uniform :)

Fall soccer has just come to an end (ok, it's actually been a couple of weeks but I am a little behind with the blogging).  The kids both enjoyed playing, and it was fun to see them both improve as the season progressed.

So we have learned that Halloween is THE HOLIDAY here.  Who knew??  We just hit up our road and got some pretty good loot (ghiradelli chocolates, bags of chips, pamphlets to find Jesus, etc).  

It turns out that I may have been the lamest neighbor here based on Halloween decorations :(  We did run to Target to find some last minute decor, but only scored the last stretchy spider web to throw over our little bushes out front.  (FAIL)  People set up fire pits and roast s'mores while they pass out candy.  Some even set up tables with crockpots of food and cider bars in their yards.  We had no idea it was going to be such a party.  Next year . . . we will be better prepared!! :)

 Kearslee's dreams came true - she finally got to ride a real horse!  She LOVES horses and has a dozen pretend horses that she rides around the house.  She can tell us all of their names, what they look like, and what skills they have.  She is such a funny girl.

 Gavin got to ride the donkey which took off on a little jog with him.  He took it like a true Idahoan cowboy :)

After the pumpkin patch we had our ward trunk-or-treat and chili cook off.  Cade didn't win the apron so we will be prepping and perfecting the recipe for next year hahaha!  Gavin is Jango Fett (some star wars dude I don't know of) and of course Kears is a princess (who wouldn't let me fix her hair after her soccer game).