Mom & Sam Come For a Visit

We have been SUPER lucky to get visitors while we’ve lived on the east coast. First my mom and Livi, followed by Kyle’s parents and this time, my mom came out with Sammy for her spring break. Kyle’s parents are coming again for his graduation in May. We are lucky ducks. We had a TON of time together and I will never get sick of taking people around the Capital. It is so much fun and there is so much to see and do! Plus, Sammy and I both got DSLR cameras for Christmas so we captured some pretty good pictures.




And, they were both able to meet Boo Radley who was not shy.

Sadly, I couldn’t personally take them on a tour of the U.S. Capital Building since I don’t work for Hatch anymore but I had a friend take us through and it's always a treat to be in that house of history.

Next we went to Kyle and I’s all time favorite pizza spot, We the Pizza. We ran into the missionaries and my mom ran over there so fast to say hi and give them money (she knows what it’s like…she has three kids out on missions right now!)

I had to go back into work for a little bit so Sam and my mom went to the U.S. Botanical Center and I met back up with them at my favorite, the Air and Space Museum. We saw a LIVE shuttle takeoff with NASA. I was dying. We even walked on the moon a bit and Sam touched a piece of the moon. 

I told them to make a Boo Radley face and this is what happened. 

Honestly, no matter what we were doing, I was laughing. It’s so good to have them around!

I knew while they were here that I wanted to get them up in the Washington Monument since it opened not too long ago. The only trick was that you have to go stand in line to reserve your ticket for that day in the morning at 8:00 a.m.! Mom and Sam were still getting used to the time change so Kyle and I drove out and I stood in line. This would have been nothing except that weekend was one of the windiest and coldest weekends in a long time. By the time I got up to the window, my fingers could barely move. It was funny to come home and wake them up with my cold hands. 

Once we were all ready,  Kyle came along and we visited the Newseum which is now my absolute favorite museum in D.C. It has all things ‘news’ and being a journalism major, I loved all the artifacts and information they have in there. When you first walk up they display the front page of every state for that day. They have an actual piece of the Berlin Wall and it was so interesting to read about that time. Kyle was also great to have there since he loves history and can answer all my questions. At one point, we found Kyle in a little kiosk watching documentaries and I fell in love with him more. The Newseum has a huge screen when you first walk in that shows the big news events of the day. It happened to be one of the final games of March Madness and we were laughing that all the people paid to get into a museum and ended up watching the game on the big screen. In their defense, it was near the end and a close score.

I didn’t think beforehand and had scheduled our Washington Monument tour right when we were in the middle of the Newseum. We rushed over there especially since it was so cold and had to again wait in line to go up inside. They happened to have a kite festival right by the monument that day and that ended up being AMAZING.

While we were waiting we decided to take some pictures. Kyle and I got ready and smiled and then a huge gust of wind came by and almost took off Kyle’s hat. Once we got inside it was better and they have a neat waiting area before you take the elevator to the top.  It was so worth the cold and the wait to get the view of D.C. from up high.

Once we had seen what we wanted to, we caught the elevator ride down which was probably my favorite part. As they built the monument, each state put in a stone to be represented. When they used to have stairs, you could take your time and look at all of them. Now since there are elevators, they slow down and turn on the lights so you can still see them. I got this awesome shot of my mom looking like a little kid since she was bending down.

We were starving by the time we got back and took them to Steak and Shake, which hit the spot.

We ran back to the Newseum to catch a pretty interesting 4D movie. We finished up the day at the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum. On our way out we found the cutest squirrel hauling a big apple up the tree.

The next day was Sunday and after church, we decided to take them up to the Great Falls.

I have the prettiest mom and sister.

The next morning, Mom and Sam got out and saw some more sightseeing in while I went to work for the day. After work we went to Ted’s Bulletin, a fun diner I had heard about and wanted to try. It was decorated in a 1930’s/40’s style and the food was amazing. They are known for their homemade pop tarts and we made sure to get a blueberry and cherry blossom one.

We finished up their last day with a visit to Arlington Cemetery, the Holocaust museum and Mount Vernon. The cherry blossoms were just starting to bloom. They missed them by one week!

Mom, thank you for taking ANOTHER trip out to see me and Sam, thanks for bringing your camera and motivating me to take more artistic shots! Love you guys! Thanks for the best weekend ever!