Proud to be an American!

This past week, Kirk and I went on an amazing trip to Washington, D.C., partly for our 12 year anniversary (WOW!), partly because Kirk was already in Maryland for work, so why not have his company pay for half of our vacation, and partly because I've hardly ever been east of Utah, (yes- I know Utah is not considered by most to be east, but I haven't traveled that way enough to know any other states on that side of the continent).

To journal this vacation, and to celebrate our 12 years of bliss, here are 12 things we saw and did on our trip:
1. We toured the Library of Congress. I was amazed at the beautiful painting and sculpting that were all done by U.S. citizens.
2. As we approached the Library of Congress for our tour, it was totally blocked off with security people all around with guns and whatnot guarding the stairs up to it. We were a little scared and asked the guards what was going on, but they would only tell us that it was closed for an "event". We went 20 feet down the street and asked the policemen and they casually told us that the King and Queen of Jordan were in town, so that's what all the hoopla was for. In this picture you can see the motorcade, and I think the King of Jordan is mooning us all out the window - look real hard.

3. The Supreme Court Building, where people were protesting most of the time when we went by. What a great country we live in that we have the freedom of speech, even if it's dumb.

4. The Washington Monument. Washington D.C. is known for it's beautiful cherry blossoms this time of year, and according to the locals, we missed it by about a week. Dang!

5. Lincoln Memorial with a ton of duck poo all around the ground.

6. We visited the Museum of Natural History, which is AMAZING! Way better than a zoo, because all the animals are way close to you, and even posed how you would like to see them. Here the lions are attacking a buffalo - what's cooler than that? We kept thinking - our kids would love this.

7. We also took a tour of the U.S. Capitol. It was very informative, and made me so thankful for our forefathers and their trust in God and thought for the future.

8. Us in the freezing rain! I was colder there than I've been for a long time - I kept thinking it should start snowing, it was so cold!

9. Arlington Cemetery was sobering, and made me grateful for all of those that have fought for our country, so I can live in a place with freedoms that I usually take for granted.

10. Here is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They always have a soldier guarding the tomb, and we were there for the changing of the guard.

11. Us in front of Sen. John McCain's office, where we went to start one of our tours. We hung out there with John's office staff and even got a autographed picture and business card. Wow!

12. Here's the happy couple of 12 wonderful years being scared for our lives on the subway. Don't we look scared? Actually the subway system was amazingly clean and not nearly as dark, smelly and scary as the Chicago subway system.

There you have it! What a fun trip! Don't you wish that we had only been married for 3 or 4 years so you wouldn't have had to suffer through 12 long posts?! Good times!