Maryland and DC Week!

This was just a fantastic week! On Monday Jake and I knew we were heading to Maryland the next day so we went out to eat because we had been trying to eat all of our groceries! For some reason Bajios stopped making shrimp burritos. Jake wanted one really bad he paid the price for two meals to get his shrimp chimicanga! I am not going to lie.....it truly was worth it! The taste was fabouls! Just looking at this picture is making want one right now. I am drooling. Ok on to the next picture!

For lunch we got personal pan pizzas at Pizza Hut at the airport. Oh these are the best! The crust is amazing!

After a short flight we had a layover in Phoenix! We wanted to stay the night their so bad! Someday! Well, we were hungry again so we got chili cheese frys and corn-dog bites! They were delicious! Then we had a long flight to the Baltimore airport! We got to watch "Babys Day Out" and "Land of the Lost" on the pad. That was fun! It is amazing how clear the movie picture is! Then we arrived at the airport at 12 am.  Dad (Jakes Dad) came to pick us up! Jakes mom couldn't sleep and was up when we got home! It was fun to see them! Then off to bed to wake up bright and early so Jake could get to down town DC for work in time!

Mom(Susan) was so sweet to me and took me out for two days! Today, Wednesday we started off after a metro ride into DC to the Arlington National Cemetery. It was really neat to see. It really puts into perspective how many people have sacrificed and severed so we can live where do today and have the freedoms we enjoy.

The graves went on for miles and miles. The tour guide said that in 14 years it is predicted the cemetery will be full. He said on average they have 30 funerals a day. That is one huge cemetery.

This is where the Kennedy's are buried and the Eternal Flame that never goes out.

It was chilly out! I was glad I brought a big warm coat!

There are only two wooden crosses in the cemetery and those are both for the Kennedy brothers.

We got to watch the changing of the guards. I guess every hour they change guards and always have someone watching the tomb of the unknown solider rain or shine. Every day, every holiday, always. Pretty crazy. It was fun to watch. I guess the men that do the changing of the guard all have to be between 5"10 and 6"2 and waist size 29. Now with new health laws I am guessing...waist size must be in proportion to height. But they still have to wear a waist belt two sizes two small so they have great posture. Maybe I should try that....I feel that would make two odd fat rolls though.... 

We even got to see two ceremonies for displaying reefs for the tomb. That was neat. When we saw the guard talking to the kids that got to do the festivities he laughed. Supposably that is a rare sight. After one of the guards yelled at us for talking...I believe it!

After Arlington Cemetery, mom and I went to the Spy Museum. It was really cool. Now that I have been through official U.S. spy training,.....beware. We were not allowed to take pictures in the building so this is the only one we got! We were climbing through an air duct to spy on citizens. This was a fun museum. It made me nervous about having a blog public.

After the Spy Museum we went next door to the American Art Museum. I had a blast walking around talking to mom. She is so much fun to be around and a ball of energy! We also got yummy ice cream cones before we met up with Jake on the Metro to go home.

When we got home, dad had dinner burritos all ready for us with all the toppings perfectly cut. It was cute. Then we had yummy angel food cake and headed for bed to catch up on some sleep. Sadly I got restless and played the night away on the Nintendo. That is always a fun way to try and get tired! Usually doest work, but it is fun!

Thursday Mom and I got to go to Mount Vernon which was George Washington's Home.

George was kind enough to let me join in the family picture.

His house was on a ton of land that was surrounded by kitchens, a house for laundry, a paint storage unit, animal stables, storage for carriages ext.... and it had the most beautiful view on the back of the house facing the Potomac River. Him being quite the business man he was with his awesome farming skills thought it would be nice to live on a river and be able to export his goods to others. Smart thinker. 

This was the dinning room and my favorite room of the house. I want my walls this color in my house! They also had a really cool bright apple green room. The beds in all the rooms were super tiny. I think people were just really small back then?

This is where meat was hung and kept fresh?

Paint storage! I guess back in the day the colors of your walls told how rich you were.  I just want bright walls to make life more exciting.

Georges sweet ride. They said this is one of many of his. That would be kind of fun to ride in one of these...on a nice paved road.

This sheep was giving himself a back rub on the fence. He is a smart one.

Babies.

Cool black sheep.

I liked how George was really thoughtful and put benches around his home for guests to sit at. 

George on the right, wife on the left. Family in the black part in the back. That is originally where George was until someone made him and his wife these lovely coffins. Marble? Most of his whole family was buried here with him on their estate.

Very large tomb.

Did you know George Washington had slaves? He originally had around 50 but after him and his wife got married, they built on to their house, had more things to take care of and had I think 316 slaves. Pretty crazy. In his will when he died he granted all his slaves their freedom. He had a slave burial ground for some of them.

After a fun house tour, Mom and I ate in a cute restaurant that had colonial type food. We saw fried green tomatoes on the list and we knew we had to try these! Ever since I saw the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" I have always wanted to try some! Oh and let me tell you...they were fabouls! I loved the green tomatoes so much I really think I could eat them everyday! They had amazing chunky red tomato sauce with mozzarella cheese and herbs and spices on them. They were fantastic!

For my meal I got a Colonial Turkey Pie. It was like a pot pie filling with a hard biscuit on top.

Peanut soup was something Sue had been wanting to try for some time. It tasted like pure peanuts with tons of peanuts in it. Defiantly worth a try!

After a yummy lunch, there was a cool history of George museum we looked around. We even got to see his dentures. I never realized peoples teeth were so bad back in the day. Maybe that is why people do not smile in old pictures? Anyways, people would make dentures out of wood, metal, hippopotamus ivory....George only had one tooth left towards the end of his life and so he had a pair of dentures with one hole in them for his one tooth. Pretty neat. I am now more grateful for dentists and toothbrushes.

Also while at the museum we learned that George Washington was out at a battle and did not sign the Declaration of Independence. I was surprised by that one. It was fun to learn about George and what a great person he was and all he did for our country.

When we got home Mom started to make dinner and I got to make cupcakes! Growing up Sue would make these Easter Basket Cupcakes, so I got to join in and make some to!

After a great dinner and cupcakes, we all watched Tangled. That movie is so great. I may have fallen asleep towards the beginning.......I will have to watch it again.

Friday morning we got to go to the Washington DC Temple. It was so beautiful! We even got to do a session! It was fun spending time with my new fam!

So you may be thinking? I have not seen any pictures of Tuna this entire trip? Yes he has been here the whole time! He has just been loving playing Pokemon, so he has been in my bag play Nintendo everyday. Today he did not want to miss coming out of the bag and seeing the Cherry Blossoms. This is Tuna looking really excited for what he is about to see!

Large snail shell.

Walking down to the title basin. Lots of cherry blossoms to line all the edges of the water. The Japanese originally brought these trees over and planted them here. Thank you Japan :) They are beautiful!

Our happy family.

We were loving seeing all the pretty flowers, except that we were all a bit freezing with the chilly wind blowing. Usually the blossoms are pink, but for some reason they were really white. That is on my to do list to find out why, now that after visiting the Spy Museum I am an official detective/spy.

Waiting in line to get some yummy food! And warm hot chocolate!

I love popcorn! This was great popcorn to!

It was fun walking around. Now time to head to George Town!

Here we are on our way walking to dinner to meet up with some of Jakes parents friends. We got to do a little shopping before and did some damage. We got a really cute candelabra though!

This is where we got to eat and look at the water through a window because it was to chilly to sit outside!! It was fun!

Sue, Mitca, Vonya, Kim, Jake, Kelsey! We got to enjoy a great dinner all together! 

Jakes family had told me a few times about Blues Alley and how it was so much fun! It was! It is an old jazz place that you sit at small tables and get to hear some fun music. We got to hear a fun guitarist. He had a few weird songs, but I guess with some artists..it happens. We got to eat yummy chocolate cake to!

This was a great end to the evening. One thing I am grateful for after this trip is free parking. 

When we got home, we realized we were leaving the next day and it was time to pack. While we packed up our bags, Tuna made a thank you card. He spent alot of time on it. I think it turned out really great. I am still so proud of him.

Friday morning we had a special meal with Scrapple. Scrapple is an Amish meat made up of pork items. It was fun to try.  I like the traditional sausage or bacon best though. It was fun to try and I would recommend trying it! Dad did a good job of frying it up.

After a great breakfast, packing up the car we head to Baltimore for the day before we flew home. We got to go to the National Aquarium. This was the cool entrance. 

We first started off by going to the Dolphin Show. It was fun, but more informative. I want to swim with a dolphin someday. We even got a yummy pretzel to eat while watching.

After you could watch the dolphins below. They were cute and kept circling the tank, but it was hard to capture a picture of them.

They had many themed exhibits which were neat. These are some jellyfish.

Alot of the aquarium was in levels and had lots of area to see many kinds of animals.

We thought the turtles would love a place like this. Maybe someday! I am excited to see them when I get home!

Can you find the hiding fish?

Sea Horse!

Cool crab.

Eel.

Sea creature eating a cucumber. We liked that. He is making sure to get his greens in. I need to follow his example.

View of the large tank from above.  They had a cute 3 legged sea turtle in here. He was huge. I was glad he had friends and is still alive. 

This is called a big side headed turtle.

Shark attack!

In the Australian exhibit. Jakes parents were really excited about this one because they used to live there. 

It was neat to look out of the aquarium and see lots of neat things going on. So much to see in Baltimore. At the aquarium we even saw a fun Imax movie 4d. It had the part on Planet Earth when the great white shark jumps out of the water and eats the seal. On that part something poked you in your back like a shark bite. It was awesome! It sure scared me!

There were such cool exhibits. 

A cute pig nose turtle.

Snake neck turtle. 

After a fun time at the aquarium we went off to have some lunch. Panera Bread had fantastic sandwiches. I would like to eat there again. My sandwich was on a really yummy tomato basil bread. Yum!

A trip to DC is not complete without a Ritas! It really is happiness

It started to rain, and rain really hard when we got our Ritas so we ran for some shelter! 

Oh delicious thick, rich custard!

Now it is raining quite hard. Time to make a trip back to the car! My jacket was like wet dog. ha ha Sadly this will probably be the last time we will come to visit Jakes parents in Maryland because they are moving! Now time for some new times in their new place to come! Then Jake and I had quite the adventure at the airport. We were flying Southwest and it happened to be the day of looking over the planes and doing some inspections. We were grateful we even got to get home that day! It would of been fun to stay and play longer but Jake needed to get back to work! We were also grateful for our safety. After a layover in warm Las Vegas, we got on our plane to head home.

When we got home it got so snowy and blizzardy. We were so glad the plane was even able to land. Blessed day.

The snow was super flakey and wet. It was kinda cool. Today was full of all kinds of weather. That was fun! It was dumping snow the whole time driving home. We drove all the way from Salt Lake going 25 miles on the freeway, with little visibility. I felt so blessed to get home. The next morning on the news there were lots of accidents on the freeway from all the snow. I feel so watched over.

We made it home! Time to go to bed to watch some General Conference in the morning! Wahoo! Thanks mom and dad for a great trip! It was a blast!